Sleep one night on Gulangyu and watch the day-trippers leave

Between ten and five the island's lanes are shoulder to shoulder. After the last ferries go, several hundred colonial villas, a few hundred residents and you have the place to yourselves, and it is the best evening in the city.

Guesthouses are in old villas, rooms are small, and everything you bring you carry up the hill yourself. Book ahead in October and November, the best weather of the year here.