I've never been to XIam but I have travelled to Shenzhen before. They have a good beach and some nice nearby shopping places. Also it's close to HongKong so you can catch the shuttle bus and go on a ride to Hong Kong. it's Fun!

Xiamen and that part of Fujian are some of China's most precious and undervalued jewels.  Xiamen is a great city -- cleaner than others and far more green than others -- with a long history of being open to the world.  There are wonderful little charming islands in the bay with many old colonial mansions, manor houses, etc., from the days when Xiamen was a British concession.

The weather is very, very temperate and the locals are quite friendly.  A little bit outside of Xiamen upcoast are very nice beaches and inland there are places where you can do whitewater rafting.

It's a rather laidback kind of place, perhaps what Vietnam might have been like with some good economic planning -- but don't kid yourself the locals are very, very savvy businesspeople.  If you are thinking of taking a job there, make sure that you have all the i's dotted and the t's crossed so to speak and that you look very carefully.

Also because of it's popularity with foreign expats, Xiamen is a seller's market, so to speak, and not a buyer's market.  There are far more expats looking for jobs in Xiamen than there are jobs.  Thus, wages are not as high as they are in Guangzhou (where demand comparatively speaking is more balanced) and far less than in Shenzhen.

I could spend my entire life in Xiamen and be quite content but destiny willed otherwise.