Yachts sit quietly in the Wuyuan Bay in Xiamen (LIU XING)

Lin Cheng'en is the general manager of Shanghai-based R&R Capital. Although he frequently travels around the world, there's one city that always tops his favorites list—Xiamen. Located at the southeast coast of China and known colloquially in China as the Sea Garden City, Xiamen is a tourist haven in Fujian Province famous for its attractive seascape.

"I fell in love with Xiamen the first time I saw it. In 2010, I was invited to give a lecture at Xiamen University and my fondness for the city has been on the rise ever since. I love its long-standing and illustrious culture, its afternoon sunshine and the feeling of being surrounded by the sea," Lin said.

"Every year, I come to Xiamen at least twice for business trips. Despite the fact that I have been to many cities around the world, Xiamen always gives me a feeling of warmth, leisure and tranquility," Lin said.

Sharing the same latitude as Miami in the United States, Xiamen is known as one of the most beautiful seaside resort cities in China. With its clean environment and picturesque natural landscape, it is no wonder that this sub-tropical paradise is dubbed "the garden on the sea."

A popular destination

The tourism industry in Xiamen has experienced sustained and stable development over the past decade. The number of tourist arrivals in Xiamen saw a sharp increase from 10 million in 2002 to 46 million in 2013.

Last year, a total of 46.64 million domestic and foreign travelers visited Xiamen, up 13 percent year on year. The city raked in 62 billion yuan ($10.13 billion) in tourism revenue, up 15 percent year on year, according to data from the city government.

Statistics from Ctrip.com and Qunar.com, two leading online travel agents in China, also showed that Xiamen was China's third hottest travel destination during the New Year holiday in 2013, second only to Hong Kong and Sanya, Hainan Province.

Xiamen has always been one of the most popular travel spots in the country, thanks to the amazing coastal scenery, beach cuisine, exotic architecture, yearlong spring-like climate and its proximity to Taiwan.

Xiamen is surrounded by the sea, broad beach and genial sunshine. Perched along its shoreline are thousands of egrets, forming the unique natural landscape and granting it a rival nickname—the Egret City.

Zheng Xiaolin is a journalist in Zaozhuang, Shandong Province. She and her husband spent their honeymoon in Xiamen.

"In Xiamen, I lost myself to the beautiful flowers, sea breeze and the sound of the waves. Besides its natural beauty, I love its delicious food and hot springs," Zheng said.

The Xiamen Municipal Government attaches great importance to the development of the tourism industry by powering ahead with its blueprint to become a top tourist city.

As one of the city's pillar industries, tourism in Xiamen is still on a roll. With a total investment of 21 billion yuan ($3.43 billion), the city has unveiled five major tourism projects for this year, including: the Dongdu Cruise Home Port Complex, the Cross-Straits Longshan Cultural and Creative Industrial Park, Minnan Old Town, the Chengyi Science and Technology Museum and the Cross-Straits Travel Service Center.

In addition to further pushing forward the "5A national tourism city" project, the city will also speed up the construction of tourist facilities and further develop local entertainment and leisure products.

The city government has also invested heavily in the introduction of talented people in the tourism industry.

On February 25, Xiamen issued measures to attract high-level talent to the local tourism industry, involving hundreds of thousands of yuan in funds, with the goal of hiring 200 high-caliber tourism professionals by 2020.

High-level recruits—such as senior management in the hotel industry and passenger liner industry—could earn about 500,000 yuan ($81,250) in salary and living allowance a year following three years of working in Xiamen. And so-called "leading entrepreneurial talents" could earn as much as 1.5 million yuan ($243,902). The measures also concern the tourism equipment manufacturing and domestic tourism e-business talents.

Xiamen has also vigorously carried out an international strategy to boost its tourism industry. In order to attract more tourists from North America, the city has joined hands with research centers in the United States to conduct market research, which has helped Xiamen better identify its competitive advantages and create a new marketing pattern for international tourism.