Xiamen

Last weekend, C and I joined some of the company folks on on organized tour to Xiamen. Apparently they do this quite frequently and they usually travel to places that are about 2 hours away by plane. Because we travelled as a large group, we had excellent discount fares for flights and accommodation. We thought that it was a pretty good deal and it gave me an opportunity to meet C's closest colleague and family (read: wife and one child). We traveled via Xiamen air and were actually fed a meal on the plane on the way there- no pretzels or peanuts, but honest to goodness meal. We were met at the airport by our guide for the next few days- a local of Xiamen, she unfortunately did not speak any English, but others did some translation for us. Our 4 start Chinese hotel was right by the water front and very near a maze of backstreets and a very busy pedestrian mall.

We spent part of the first day on the small island right across from hotel. A short ferry ride brought us to the island where there were 1000 vintage homes from the early nineteenth century. However, the island's real significance is as a marker to the great battle that took place between the Chinese on the mainland and those who came from Taiwan. The island of Taiwan was visible in the distance. There is an enormous statue ( he is constructed to withstand a category 10 storm!) to one of the country's great heroes who saved them from the invading Taiwanese. And then there were more contemporary attractions; there was a cable car that transported us from the highest peak to the bird sanctuary (under netting). We ate lunch, included in our tour, and then 5 of us persuaded the guide to take us around a bit more. An hour or two of wandering later, we took the ferry back over to the mainland and went to the campus of Xiamen university, just to have a look around. It was a really nice campus, but the highlight for me had to be the subsidized ice cream; I had the cheapest bar of ice cream yet- about 20 cents! Hours later, we took a cab to a recommended seafood restaurant where we ate and drank beer for roughly 16.00 per person.

The second day had a delayed start and then a two hour bus ride through the Chinese contryside. Fascinating scenery complete with the ubiquitous rice paddy, the sugar cane fields, banana plantations, skinny dogs and fat water buffalo. We also saw lots of brick making kilns, some amazing subsistence living and other stuff too numerous to list. I would have liked to stop to take some photos; there were some really fantastic opportunities to take some photographs of real life in a small town in China. The scent, temperature and moisture level reminded me very much of my time in the Ryuku islands. This of course makes sense when you look at the map, since both are nearly at the same parallel. Our destination was a park that claimed interesting ancient volcanic activity, the proximity to a Taiwanese island (Dingdong island- don't laugh), and the dividing line between two seas (sorry- don't remember which ones!). It was about a three hour walk around this place. We spent some time on the beach, and some of us even dipped out feet in the water (it was lukewarm). Lots of tropical shrubbery, but also may desert plants that we see around Phoenix- like the agave. Once we returned to the hotel, we made plans to meet for dinner. Dinner was yet again seafood since it is the local specialty- delicious inexpensive meal of crab, shrimp and other fish.

On our last day, we found a local two level tour bus and rode for an hour on the top level while looking around at the local sites. Saw some really nice looking beaches and some areas of town that I could not have guessed existed. Our flight home was uneventful. The long queue for a taxi delayed our return home by a half hour, and so we were tired when we arrived at the apartment. Although Xiamen was interesting, we are here for too short a time to return to it; there are many more places that await exploration.