Xiamen is a coastal city. It is located (位于) on the southeast coast of China and is very beautiful. It is known as “the City of International Garden”. It is a famous hometown of overseas Chinese, one of China’s earliest four main special economic zones (地区) and one of “China’s Top Ten Tourist Cities”.

Located on the west coast Taiwan Straits and facing Kinmen Island, Xiamen has unique natural scenery (景色) and achieves a good fame of “city on the sea and sea in the city”. With seawater around the city, it has large sand beach and warm sunshine. Here, islands, rocks, temples, flowers and trees form the beautiful natural views. What’s more, a number of cultural views like Gulangyu, the peaceful South Putuo Temple add color to the beauty of Xiamen. Besides, the city includes customs of Fujian, Taiwan and the hometown of overseas Chinese. What’s more, influenced by the culture of other countries, exotic buildings are also integrated (合并) into the buildings of Xiamen, forming the travel characteristics of Xiamen.

Facing Xiamen across the sea, Gulangyu has beautiful scenery with birds singing and all kinds of flowers giving off smell. It also gathers and keeps buildings of different styles at home and abroad, so it is also called a place of “International Architecture Exhibition”. This island is also the rich land for music that cultivates numbers of music talents and has a large number of pianos, making it known as “The Piano Island” and “The Hometown of Music”. Besides, the road around the island lets visitors enjoy the beauty of blue sea and clear sky as well as appreciate the natural scenery on this island.

There have been many studies that show being in nature is good for your health. Walking in the woods is good for your well-being. Living near trees can help you live longer. But when you go for a walk in the woods, what is it particularly about being in nature or being outdoors that makes you feel good? Is it the sights or smells or sounds? A new study finds it might have something to do with the birds you hear while you have a walk.

Researchers from California Polytechnic State University analyzed how much the natural sounds people hear when they’re outdoors influence well-being. They found that the “chorus (合唱)” of birds singing increased well-being in protected natural areas.

For the study, researchers placed 10 hidden, evenly spaced speakers(扬声器) on two parts of trails(小路) in the Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks in Colorado. They played recorded songs from 11 kinds of birds. The researchers take turns to play the birdsong for a few hours a day for a week, and then turned off the speakers for a week at a time. They interviewed hikers after they passed through the areas with the speakers.

“The main result is that hikers that heard the birdsong responded to questions that showed a higher level of well-being compared to those that did not hear the birdsong,” Biology Professor Clinton Francis, who led the research, says.

Hikers who heard more birdsong on the first part of the trail said they felt better. Those who heard more birdsong on the second part reported that they thought more birds lived along that part of the trail. This feeling of more birds helps make the hikers feel better. “With the chorus, we were able to show that natural sounds have a clear effect on the quality of hikers’ experiences,” says Francis.