Li Wei began his football career with second tier football club Foshan Fosti who was taken over by Xiamen Lanshi in the 1998 league season. At Xiamen he would go on to establish himself as the team's first choice goalkeeper and aid the team to win promotion to the top tier as well as the division title in 1999. His impressive performances was considered good enough to be called up to the Chinese national team in 2000 by the Head coach Bora Milutinović who gave him his debut appearance on March 25, 2000 against Yugoslavia in a 2-0 defeat, this was to be his only international cap
