Last Updated on: 14th March 2025, 05:14 pm
Calling all lovers of real tea! Join me on a 5-day hosted tour to Xiamen, Fujian in China or DIY your own tour with my itinerary below!
This year’s Xiamen spring 2025 Tea Fair is on during the Easter break, from the 18th of April to the 21st of April. Although tea fairs are also held in other cities, Xiamen tea expo is unique because Xiamen is in Fujian province, a province known for producing and exporting tea, and home to the Fujian Tulou buildings, so you can visit both and more in one long weekend.
Xiamen is a nine and a half hour direct flight from Sydney and Melbourne, four and a half hours from Kuala Lumpur, 15 hours and 5 minutes from Los Angeles, 10 hours and 50 minutes direct flight from Amsterdam, and 11 hours and 40 minutes direct flight from Paris. If you are from one of the above countries or other countries which China has temporarily given 30-day visa-free entry to, this is the perfect long weekend holiday! If you are already in Xiamen teaching English or as an expat, then you shouldn’t miss this free event. Find out more below.
About Xiamen:
Xiamen is a tropical coastal city in China near Taiwan. For a densely populated country like China where those who can afford to holiday are from metropolitan concrete and glass jungles, Xiamen is a popular domestic beach, tropical and warm climate, nature holiday destination where one can see the ocean, walk on beaches and see palm trees and blue skies (when there’s no fog). Climate-wise, Hainan, another warm climate tropical island province, and Xiamen, are to China what California and Florida are to the US. Compared to other places in China, Xiamen might not offer the same ancient and cultural attractions and appeal, but still has some fun things to do. Xiamen has its own international airport (Gaoqi International Airport, IATA Code XMN) and is the departure point for visits to the Fujian Tulou cluster village. It also has a lot of Min Nan (a sub-ethnic category of Han Chinese), linguistic, cultural and food influence. If you go on a tour with a local born and bred Min Nan Chinese guide, they can teach you some Min Nan words. One of my favourite Min Nan foods that I tried there was 米浆 (Mǐ Jiāng), a thick rice milk flavoured with nothing but the pure and original fragrance of the rice used to make it. It is a luscious, smooth drink served warm. It was readily available in insulated jugs for customers to self serve in a restuarant I went to, much like how some restaurants have self serve water.
Fujian province is a major producer of tea, and Xiamen has access to sea and air ports, making it an ideal place for growers to export tea and tea lovers to start their journey to discover tea. Xiamen is an island across the strait from Taiwan (As a coastal city, fog is common in Xiamen. On a clear day, you can see Taiwan from Xiamen with a pair of binoculars) with a tropical climate and is home to many local specialty snacks and tropical fruits.
List of cities with direct flights to Xiamen (Gaoqi International Airport XMN) with Xiamen Airlines and flight time
| City | Flight time |
| Kuala Lumpur | 4 hours 30 minutes |
| Melbourne | 9 hours 30 minutes |
| Sydney | 9 hours 30 minutes |
| Amsterdam | 10 hours 50 minutes |
| Paris | 11 hours 40 minutes |
| Los Angeles | 15 hours and 5 minutes |
I am hoping to host a mini-group tour to the 2025 Spring Xiamen Tea fair in Xiamen, China, where I will be your host, personal translator, and photographer. Read on to learn about tea, what the tea fair consists of, and how you can join me on this trip to Xiamen to see the massive expo, sample real teas, see the Fujian Tulou buildings, and more!
Introduction to Tea
Tea is an ancient beverage discovered, and still drunk, in China.
“Cha Dao”, or “The way of Tea” is regularly translated in English to “Tea ceremony”. A lot of meaning is lost in this translation, as “dao” means “the way of” or “philosophy” or “ideology” and it is so much more than a simple demonstration of brewing and pouring tea. Tea culture consists of much more than just the beverage itself, it is a philosophy, and a mindset with over a thousand years of history, and a way to train a person to be patient, soothing, gentl, and is a form of meditation. “Tea culture master” was formally recognised in 1999 in China as one of 1,800 official industries. Tea culture covers everything from the water used for brewing the tea, the science and methods for brewing the tea, teapots and teaware, to the art, fashion, literature, architecture, dance and more, that is influenced by tea.
What is real tea?
The tea leaf
High quality tea starts with the leaf. To identify high quality tea, tea masters inspect the tea leaves, through sight and smell of healthy, whole tea leaves, which, after drying and processing, are carefully packed by various methods to preserve the whole, intact leaf in its entirety. This is why real tea masters in China buy tea in person because they must look at and investigate the tea leaves and smell its fragrance to determine if it is good or not, and all tea shops, no matter how small, will let you taste the tea before buying (something that does not happen with supermarket tea-bag teas you get in Western countries).
Various methods have been invented to prevent damage to the leaves. For example, some leaves are individually hand rolled into tight little balls, others are packed tightly into bricks or cakes and wrapped in paper or shrink-wrapped in plastic. Broken tea leaves are the leftover fragments and powder made during production, and an inferior waste product that is then packed in tea bags and typically offered in cheap hotels as complimentary in-room drinks. You will be hard pressed to find teabag teas in a tea shop in China. (This is different to whole, high quality tea leaves that are sometimes mixed with dried fruit or flowers and sold in shops as a tea beverage.)
Hence, teabag and powder teas are not considered real tea in China.
Tea growing regions
China has 4 main regions consisting of 16 provinces and areas that produce tea. Fujian is the main one. The exact flavour of tea is heavily dependent on the exact climate it is grown in, so each area produces slightly different tea types.
Types of tea in China
To be called tea, the leaf must be from the Cellia sinensis plant. Technically, dried fruit or herbs steeped in hot water is not tea, merely an infusion. Since all tea comes from the same plant, what makes them different? The answer is the type of leaf that is used (the detail goes down to whether the leaves are the first young sprouts from the first bud, or from the next off shoot) and how they are processed, such as if it is roasted, fermented, or partially fermented.
Everyone is familiar with the various types of tea, such as green tea, black tea, etc. In China, there are so many more varieties, including wulong (wū lóng 乌龙, romanised as “oolong” which, quite frankly sounds like initial consonant deletion disorder), pu er (普尔 pǔ ěr), red tea (红茶 hóng chá), yellow tea (黄茶 huáng chá), and more. (Note that Chinese “Black” tea (黑茶 hēi chá) is not the same as the concept of “black” tea outside of China). Within each category are many, many more specific types. There are 10 broad categories of tea in China. Some of the famous specific varieties in each category include Iron Goddess (铁观音, Tiě Guān Yīn) which is a wulong tea, Bì Luó Chūn (碧螺春, a green tea), Zhèng Shān Xiǎo Zhǒng or romanised as Lapsong Sou Chong or similar (正山小种, a red tea), and Lóng Jǐng (龙井, literally translated as Dragon Well, a green tea). Within the Dragon Well tea variety itself, only the ones grown in the West Lake (西湖, Xī Hú) area can be called Xī Hú Lóng Jǐng (西湖龙井) (West Lake Dragon Well) and is more expensive than regular Long Jing. As a side note, West Lake is the where the famous Legend of the White Snake takes place.
Green tea is not fermented, some are sun dried, some are heat-roasted. Red tea is fermented (called “black tea” outside of China) and Black tea is heavily fermented. So as you can see, asking for “green tea” in a restaurant in China is a somewhat non-sensical question like saying you want red wine, without saying what kind of red wine you want.
Tea as gifts
Tea has collection value like wine, and tea collectors collect tea. Depending on the tea, the older it is, the more valuable it is because once the tea from that harvest or year is drunk, there are no more; this is why a portion of each harvest is stored and not for immediate sale. Tea and tea ware are considered as classy valuable gifts in China and there are dedicated designers who come up with the most aesthetically pleasing and suitable packaging to maintain freshness.
Tea beverages (chá yǐn) as opposed to actual tea (chá) are fun or novelty products that are flavoured or a mix of tea, for example, “bubble tea” is a beverage made of tea and flavoured with fruit flavoured sugar syrup. It mostly has taste and fun appeal to mostly young people and serves a popular casual and fun beverage, but not considered to be real tea by tea connoisseurs.
What ISN’T traditional tea?
Milk tea is not a traditional drink in China; in Hong Kong it was introduced by the British (where tea was introduced from China). The act of putting cold milk into tea in the first place has part of its origins in China: before tea was introduced to Britain, water was drunk cold, which incidentally lead to many deaths caused by water borne diseases. When tea was introduced to Britain, two specific things were also introduced: the first being the act of boiling water before consumption (and thereby also killing water borne diseases) to brew the tea, and second, serving the hot tea in purpose-made tea ware, ie porcelain. It is no coincidence that porcelain is also called “china” (lowercase C) in English. Fine tea ware is delicate and thin, without serving the tea properly, hot water can shock the cups and cause them to crack, so the British started adding cold milk to the tea to lower its temperature to avoid them from cracking. This practice is not done in China as the cups are tempered by a wash with hot water before serving, which both cleans and warms the cup. Also, for some reason, it seems only fermented (black) tea made it to England, and so there isn’t a real tea culture in England where people appreciate the natural clean and sweet taste of green tea, something you need to try to understand. As another side note, although butter is added to Tibetan tea, which is a true tea as it is made from pu er tea, it is added for calorie supplementation purposes and to prevent chapped lips, which is common in and caused by the harsh climate in Tibet which incidentally, gives the locals their characteristic appearance.
Real tea is thus brewed in a careful process from real, whole tea leaves from the aptly named Camellia sinensis, and to appreciate good tea, one must go to China.
About the Xiamen Tea exhibition/fair
There are several tea-producing provinces in China and Fujian province is a major one. There are multiple tea fairs that run in China each year, Xiamen is one of them.
Each year, Xiamen (the capital city of Fujian), hosts a tea fair over several days in spring and autumn, where tea growers from all around the country, tea ware producers, and more, come to exhibit their products. As tea is harvested in spring and autumn, this is the best chance to get the newest and freshest tea of the harvest. The Xiamen exhibition runs between April 18-21st inclusive and has hundreds of exhibits covering 63,000m2. Visitors can be dazzled by the wide range of teas and the significant differences between them, the beautiful tea wares, and more. The fair is held in the Xiamen International Conference and Exhibition Center and entry is free to visitors (registration is free but required)!
Tea lovers can see the large wide variety of tea available in person, look at the colour, shape, and quality of the tea leaves in person, smell them, taste them, talk to the growers about them, and buy direct from the growers. There is also a variety of tea wares to see, from traditional hand made clay wares celebrated for its art and skillful production, to modern porcelain ones, valued for its purity and clarity.
Check out the video of a previous Xiamen Tea Fair I took, below, showing a small sample of plain tea leaves. Apologies for the shaky footage.
What’s on at the Xiamen Tea exhibition/fair
This year’s Xiamen tea fair showcases:
Tea: hundreds of varieties of green, red, wulong (aka romanised as oolong), white, black, yellow, pu er tea. Try them all and watch tea brewing demonstrations.
Tea wares: clay, glass, bamboo, stone, ceramics and more
Tea drinks/beverages: These are beverages based on tea, such as with added flavouring syrups or dried fruit
Tea food: Snacks and food to accompany tea or made with tea
Packaging: Packing the tea well is imortant for protection and visual appeal. Tea art and packaging is an entire industry with experts of their own. Packaging not only protects the tea but is also an important platform for showcasing Chinese culture and artistry. There are many designs and materials on display at the expo.
Join me on a 5-day hosted trip to Xiamen
Pending demand, I would like to host a mini-group (3 participants) trip to Xiamen, China, to visit the 2025 Xiamen spring tea exhibition held from April 18th to 21st, plus other sightseeing activities including a visit to the UNESCO world heritge listed Tulou village and a day trip to Kinmen island, a Taiwanese island 10km away, details below. I will be your photographer, translator and accompany and guide you around the area and on all day trips and meal times to decode menus and information. For those of you who want to do this trip yourself, check out my itinerary below and download my one-page guide at the end of the article.
What you will be doing:
(Itinerary is subject to change). The trip includes 4 nights accommodation and 4 days of activities ending on the afternoon of the 21st of April. Skip to the very bottom to see how you can DIY this itinerary.
Day 1, April 17th:
Arrive in Xiamen, check in to the accommodation. The closest airport is Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport (IATA code XMN). Accommodation and a group dinner/get together/ice breaker is included tonight (depending on when everyone’s flights arrive).
Day 2, April 18th: Visit the Tea fair
After breakfast, visit the 2025 Xiamen Spring Tea Fair at the Xiamen International Conference and Exhibition Center with myself as your English speaking companion. Try all the teas available, talk to the tea growers, browse the tea wares, buy some tea, see beautiful paper products, and other modern tea related products and services. You may even see clay artists making their wares on site. Estimated time: A few hours to the whole day, depending on your interest. Dinner/Free time. Suggested activities: stroll in a night market (Zeng Cuo An) or Zhong Shan Pedestrian street as practical as per actual situation. It is recommended to visit to the Xiamen Tea Fair on the first day while everything is in-stock, and the pace is relaxed to get over travel fatigue.
Day 3, April 19th: Full out-of-town day Trip to UNESCO World Heritage Tulou Village
Get up early (around 6:30-7am) and depart for the countryside of Fujian to see the UNESCO World Heritage Tulou buildings and the Yunshuiyao village. Transport will be by private vehicle with a local guide and driver and me as your translator. From the village, you can see tea mountains in the distance. Price of local lunch included. Return to Xiamen city in the evening around 6 or 7pm. Dinner/free time.
Recommendation: This can be done on the 3rd or 4th day but not the 5th day to ensure returning back to Xiamen in time for departure flights in the evening.
Day 4, April 20th: Out-of-town Day trip to Kinmen Island (Taiwan) and the Shanhou Folk Culture Village
Travel by ferry from Xiamen Wutong port (China mainland) to Kimen island (one of Taiwan’s island). Kinmen is 10km away from Xiamen and can be reached by ferry in around half an hour. Note: Visa to enter Taiwan and re-entry to mainland China is required if applicable to your passport. See the “very important must read” information below. Visit the Shanhou Folk Culture Village by private rental taxi. Price of local lunch included. Tip: Try a Taiwanese street snack food, oyster omelette. Visit other places of interest. Return to Xiamen via ferry in the afternoon. Dinner/Free time.
Note: Due to fog, some ferries between Xiamen and Kinmen can be cancelled. For this reason, the exact day this trip may take place on might change depending on the actual situation at the time.
Day 5, April 21st: Flexible leisure day
Check out of accommodation in the morning. Luggage can be stored at accommodation.
For practical reasons, out of town day trips will not occur on this day as it is the final day of the tour and the exact return time to Xiamen city is never guarranteed, and buffer time is needed for travelling to the airport and other onwards travel. The trip ends at the end of the day in the late afternoon/early evening around 5 to 7pm.
Possible activities today include the following or open to suggestions:
- The Xiamen Botanical garden (basically a park with a small entry fee, has a hilly footpath, leisurely half day or a few hours)
- South (Nan) Putuo Buddhist temple (a Buddhist temple with free entry, leisurely half day or a few hours. The temple is on a mountain and has some stairs with wide, smooth stone balustrades (may not be suitable for grasping, see photo below), temple grounds are paved)
- Gulangyu island (a car-free island with American and British style buildings left over from British/European colonisation, requires a whole day and trip by ferry (ticket extra) from Xiamen and pre-booked tickets and around ￥50 Chinse yuan per person for the optional electric hop on hop off golf cart transportation)
- Another trip to the tea expo
- Local markets, eg Zeng Cuo An markets, or Zhongshan Rd pedestrian shopping strip
- Xiamen cable car ride (extra cost of ￥80 per adult)
- Visit Xiamen University
Accommodation:
Accommodation will be either in a homestay style apartment or bedroom, or a minimum 3 star hotel or similar. Rooms may be shared between two people of the same gender, single supplement extra. In-room wifi, bottled water, linen and toiletries will be available.
*Very important things to note – MUST READ
- This trip will formally visit China as well as Taiwan (Kinmen island). You must have the right passport or visa to visit both places as well as re-entry to China, ie a visa for China that gives you multiple entry, since the tour starts in “China”, then there will be a visit to one of Taiwan’s islands, and then returning to “China” . Some passports have visa-free entry for both eg Australia, the Netherlands, France, Malaysia. Check the Chinese consulate pages for your country to make sure or use the visa checker at the bottom right hand side of this page.
- For practical, comfort, and cost effective reasons, the group is limited to exactly 3 people (plus myself = 4), this is because for ease of movement and best experience for all, local transportation will be taxi, and ordinary taxis seat a maximum of 4 passengers (5 including the driver). A smaller group means greater flexibilty and longer time at each location. The tour will only go ahead if exactly 3 people sign up.
- The itinerary and accommodation is subject to change due to various factors and prices will change accordingly, which may require supplementation in Xiamen, eg trip to Gulangyu island or cable car ride.
- If you intend to buy tea: Your home country may have specific rules about importing loose leaf tea, such as allowing or not allowing it, or requiring it to be commercially packaged. I have no affiliation with any of the tea exhibitors, nor with the exhibition centre. Neither myself nor the exhibition centre has any say in how individual exhibitors sell or package their tea, so it is possible that the tea might not be packaged to your home country’s biosecurity requirements, (eg some might package them in resealable zip lock bags, which do not meet certain biosecurity packaging requirements). Additionally, it is possible that exhibitors might not accept or hold any cash for change cashless payments is quite common in China nowadays and has been for some time. For this issue, it is easier to have exact change, or you can sign up to Alipay and link your non-Chinese bank card such as a debit card and use that in China, although this is slightly fiddly. These two things put together means you may or may not be able to buy products at the tea expo, however, you can always buy products in tea shops outside the expo. It is your responsibility to know what you can and cannot bring back to your home country.
- You must have travel insurance. You are responsible for your own travel insurance.
- Health. If you have a medical condition such as diabetes, asthma or allergies, you must notify me beforehand so I can alert you of allergens or seek the help you require, should the need arise. A fridge is available at the accommodation for any medications. Please note that food markets may contain various allergens. Xiamen is an island surrounded by the ocean, and many restaurants serve or specialise in fresh and salt water products.
- Physical Fitness requirements and accessibility: Low physical fitness and may have some accessibility issues depending on your level of need. This will be a leisurely slow paced trip with roome for flexibility with a small group of people. You don’t need a high level of physical fitness as long as you can walk independently. Within Xiamen, transport will taxi for efficient and speedy transport of the group or public transport if practical. For day trips, a private vehicle will be available. Walking will be indoors on flat ground at the exhibition centre (walk as much or as little as you want, seating is available, return to hotel at any time), outdoors on paved streets (mostly flat) during sightseeing within the city (will be leisurely paced), some slopes, uneven ground and steps on paved, unpaved dirt or grassy paths and stone stairs in temples and villages (during day trips or sightseeing trips to the countryside). Check out this article for an idea. The temple is on a mountain and has some stairs with wide, smooth stone balustrades (all ancient Chinese temples, grand buildings and palaces use this type of balustrade and may not be suitable for grasping, see photo above. If you have a disability, let me know and I will advise if the tour is suitable for you. Additionally, I have some walking restrictions myself, so the pace will not be very fast nor consist of strenuous activities.
Inclusions:
• 4 nights accommodation (17th to 20th of April 2025 inclusive) in a comfortable, clean minimum 3 star hotel or apartment with Wifi, linen, bottled water, and toiletries (shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, body wash as a minimum).
• All out-of-town day-trip transportations in a private, comfortable modern vehicle, local guide, entry fees, local Chinese lunch on out-of-town day trips days. Please note that Western palate food options and dining conditions in the countryside in the Tulou Village can be limited, but will be safe and authentic.
• Breakfast on out-of-town day-trip days (Packed breakfast such as ready-to-eat food from a supermarket)
• Return ferry ticket between Xiamen and Kinmen
• Local transportation (private taxi) within Xiamen during the day trip
• Me as your guide and translator
• Me as your photographer, plus all 24mp digital photos to take home (all photos on this site are taken by me unless otherwise specified, You can also see some examples of portrait shots taken outside a studio in a real world environment here)
• Registration for the tea fair
• Optional Pre-travel live online meeting session for any questions (1:1 or in a group)
Indicative pricing: $1,420 AUD per person, single supplement extra. That is $284 per day for all of the above!
Not included:
• Transport to and from Xiamen, China
• Applicable visa fees (check if you need a visa to go to China and Taiwan at the bottom right corner of this page)
• Airport transfers
• Souvenirs, personal purchases
• Food eg meals, snacks and drinks not mentioned – Cost of dinners can be split or each pay for their own meal. Breakfast that is not mentioned is not included in some homestay style accommodations but cheaply available.
• Travel insurance
• Local sim card
Other notes:
Age requirements: You must be over 18 at the time of travel or you can come with a parent/guardian.
Breakfast might not be available at the accommodation but there are plenty of eateries around to get food. I am happy to provide some shelf stable breakfast items from supermakets (eg canned congee, long life milk, bread) for early departure day trips.
Why are meals not included?
Often, regardless of the country, tours that include meals take the tourists to pre-designated restaurants or dining halls and serve food from pre-designated menus. A lot of the time, these are low quality food halls and restaurants targeted at tourists, locals may not ever dine there, and have high turn over rates. They are in business to feed as many tourists as possible in the shortest amount of time as possible with simple food, and not there to provide delicious and authentic meals and visitors have little choice with what they can eat.
This might not be as good an experience as finding a local restaurant organically. By not including meals, visitors aren’t bound to one dining place and can choose where and what to eat with local recommendations, and you’ll still have the ability to split costs among your group members.
Cancellations:
Cancellation requests up to and before March 31st GMT +11 will receive a 100% refund. If you cancel after March 31, 10% of the total price is retained, the rest is returned to you.
If the tour isn’t going ahead for any reason including not meeting enough participants, you will be notified by April 4th at the latest and your deposit will be fully refunded. You should get travel insurance and cover for flights and cancelled tours for the best chance of getting a full refund from your insurer.
Why you should join this tour:
Let’s face it, every tour company today claims their tours of 12-20 people are “small” group tours. That’s almost the size of an entire class, essentially nullifying the meaning of true “small” group tours. Besides, in a large group, people naturally branch off into smaller groups of two to four.
A small tour with just 4 people is a lot more intimate and makes getting around faster and more efficient. This also means you can stay at each location for a longer time since there is less time needed for briefing and de-briefing, waiting and head counts. A larger guide-to-traveller ratio also means each traveller has a greater opportunity to get personal attention from the guide for any questions or problems they have. You’ll also have better photo opportunities, and a more flexible schedule from individual travellers.
Additionally, a visit to the Tulou village with a private car on Tripadvisor costs per person around $229 USD, which is more than the price per day of this tour after currency conversion, where you’ll get the same visit and more. I enjoy putting together carefully researched and crafted itineraries so you will get an interesting place of accommodation.
Sounds exciting?
Contact me with any enquiries here and to express your interest. Pay a minimum 20% deposit fully refundable until March 31st GMT +11 (last day to cancel).
Want to DIY this tour yourself?
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Printer friendly Xiamen Tea Fair + Sightseeing Itinerary DIY Tour Guide
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