The tradition included sounding a bugle to signal ships setting off and performing a lion dance.
After nightfall, the beach was still busy with a campfire party featuring music and culinary delights.
Continuing the leisure ambience, a beach music party held over the weekend offered a feast for the eyes and ears, as different styles of music, ranging from ballads and folk songs to popular melodies and rock, met different tastes.
In addition, an amateur five-player soccer tournament on the beach and on grass pitches gave sport fans another cause for revelry.
Gastronomic delights are an indispensable part of any carnival. As a coastal city, Xiamen boasts a wealth of seafood.
Jiangyoushui is a common cooking method in Xiamen that uses soy sauce and water to process fresh seafood. It formed a highlight of the oceanic carnival.
A huge pot catering for 1,000 diners was prepared on Friday, with a variety of jiangyoushui seafood shared among locals and tourists.
The celebrations took place not only on the beach, but also in the air.
An annual international kite festival attracted top players from China and abroad, as well as thousands of spectators.
This year, the top players included a team from Dalian, Liaoning province, which has won awards at an international stunt kite championship in France, and an internationally acclaimed team from Thailand.
The Guanyin Mountain coach resort served as the venue of the carnival. The resort receives more than 6 million visits every year on average. This year, total visitors topped 8 million.
China has decided to extend its visa waiver policy to ordinary passport holders from Canada and the United Kingdom starting from Feb 17.
Forty-one new port-of-entry duty-free shops have been established nationwide, with Xiamen Xiang'an International Airport, Xiamen Wutong Passenger Wharf, and Xiamen International Cruise Center included on the list.
