It was founded in the 1996 league season and their nickname was the "Blue Lions" while they played in the Xiamen Sports Centre Stadium.

On February 23, 1996, Xiamen FC was created to take part in the recently fully professionalised Chinese football league system where they started in the third division.

With their new manager Chi Shangbin coming in and the investment from Lai Changxing the club would start to flourish and go on to win the second tier title at the end of the 1999 league season.

[3] With the introduction of new head coach Gao Hongbo at the beginning of the 2004 league season the club would show consistent promotion ambitions and would eventually go on to win the 2005 division title.

Gao Hongbo would attract the attentions of ambitious club Changchun Yatai and leave the team at the end of the season.