Shishi

Shishi (石狮 Chio̍h-sai in Minnan, Shíshī in Mandarin) is a small city in Fujian, located between Xiamen and Quanzhou. The main industries are clothing factories and stone quarries.

Understand
Famous for its casual wear industry, the downtown indeed looks like an open-space factory. The Arabic language seems very present in the area, a sign of the vitality of the economic partnerships or maybe also a trace of the ancient Silk Road which had Quanzhou as a major terminus.

Get in
Busses from either Xiamen or Quanzhou to the other pass through Shishi. Administratively, Shishi is part of Quanzhou Prefecture but it is actually closer to Xiamen.

Get around
Buses are pretty erratic and there's almost no taxis, they don't use counter anyway so just use one of the thousand motorcycle drivers at each corner. Don't hesitate to negotiate the price (&yen;6-8 for a downtown trip).

See
The three main public parks don't have anything special and the overall atmosphere is grim, possibly due to the suburban factories and the crazy and very honky traffic. But the small downtown streets have such an authentic flavor, mixing the different markets to genuinely old temples. Do get lost in the urban maze, and the direction staring people are taking will indicate you the way to go.

Outside of the city are several towers on the way to the Golden Beach which is never very crowded except during national holidays.

Buy
Quite a lot of high-grade stone is available, though it is nearly all in warehouses out toward the edge of town, so shopping will be inconvenient unless you have a car. The vendors are set up more for wholesale than retail trade &mdash; they ship truckloads all over China and container lots overseas &mdash; though some have smaller items like bowls or vases available for purchase.

Nearly all do stone-cutting on the premises and will be happy to slice off a piece that is the right size for a tabletop or countertop, but they likely will not do the polishing and finishing. Beware that stone is really heavy so transport may be a problem.