The level structure of 134 Xe was studied with the inelastic neutron scattering reaction followed by γ-ray detection. A number of level lifetimes were determined for the first time with the Doppler-shift attenuation method and the low-lying excited states were characterized. From this new spectroscopic information, the third excited state, a 0 + level which had only been observed in a previous inelastic neutron scattering study, was verified. Reduced transition probabilities were calculated; comparisons were drawn with a vibrational description of the nucleus and found lacking. The 3 − octupole phonon has been confirmed, and the complete negative-parity multiplet resulting from the ν(1h 11/2 2d 3/2 ) configuration has also been tentatively identified for the first time in the N = 80 isotones.