A glorious trip to Xiamen and GuLAngYu

We had a fantastic time on the island of Xiamen - in the south of China, fairly close to Hong Kong, we loved the warm breezes and sunshine, and being in a relaxed, tropical place.

 Downtown (pedestrianized!!!) Xiamen - bright lights, crowds and lots of interesting restaurants. Because it's close to Taiwan, there is a strong Taiwanese influence in the food and attitudes

 In Xiamen, there is a very famous canteen style restaurant - you buy tokens at a little booth, and then jostle your way to the front to make your food choice - dumplings, steamed buns and the famous peanut soup. Andy, peanut lover, had to try this famous soup ... but was little disappointed - quite sweet with bits of egg in it ... preferred the dumplings and buns - but a fun experience.

 Along the boardwalk by Xiamen beach - behind Evan is an fort built by the Germans.

We stayed on the larger, citified island of Xiamen but visited another island close by. Called GuLangYu, it is a car free tiny island that is pretty much devoted to tourism (Chinese - very few Westerners) - in it's previous life, the island was very popular with expats, who in the earlier half of the 20th Century built colonial mansions

We caught a free-for-all ferry there and back - it was OK - here is Evan looking ready to deal with the crowds!

 The island is a beautiful mixture of China and crumbling colonial mansions ... a fabulous place to wander and relax

 Evan stikes a pose along the waterfront of GuLangYu

 Some colorful GuLangYu boats with the island of Xiamen in the background

Another day we took a local tour (all in Chinese - no Westerners and definitely no English spoken (we felt brave!) to the interior of Fujian province to the land of Hakka people - famous for their round building (tulou = earth (tu) lou (stories/floors)) - an ancient style of apartment buildings built in a circle with one entrance - each family member had an apartment inside. These are very large buildings, and unique to the Hakka - some are now UNESCO sites - we got to visit several on the tour, as well as some local villages

 Fantastic to be off the beaten track and to see an area of China that is not on the tourist trail so much - though we were looked at a bit by the locals and even had our picture taken posing with one!

A tulou entrance - this one from one dating back to the 1300s - fantastic!

 Inside a tulou - the ground floors are for kitchens, next floor for storage, and then bedrooms - Hakka families still live in these buildings, and although basic, seem fairly comfortable.

In one of the villages, we visited an old, unusual 'Buddhist' temple - complete with lots of Chinese gods - this old artwork was on one of the doors and outside were several 'dragon poles' ... not sure what for but we know they are unusual - but our Chinese didn't extend to understanding Why!

Another picuresque village scene - quite a different side of China to the crowded, fast paced cities like Shanghai and Beijing.

 So we had a great time in Xiamen.

Now, we are getting ready to leave China with only 3 more weeks of work, and then another 2 weeks to relax and travel. We have plans for one more trip - to the famous HuangShan (Yellow Mountain) and back to one of our favorite places, Hangzhou.



New Year Update

Well just a brief update - we have been laying a little low over the holiday season (which is a little celebrated here) while we have been preparing to move on. Christmas Day was a typical day here, but we did have the day off -so lunch at Marks and Spencers! and some BBC TV via the internet! New Year's Day - we went on a long walk by the sea and along the Huangpo River and evening fireworks. No recent travels since the last post.

Since then we have given notice on the apartment and pur jobs, and will be leaving China at the beginning of March - we finish our contracts mid February, but because of various delays with money, etc (China ...) we are staying a couple more weeks on a tourist visa - some holiday time in China.

In the meantime, we have some leave to take - so in a week and a half we fly to Southern China for a few days - to spend some time on two warm islands - Xiamen and Gulang Yu - both very pretty and WARM - Shanghai is cold and damp and a bit snowy!

While we have been looking forward to leaving China and having some new adventures now we are definitely going we both feel sad and .... well maybe w'll come back again in the future - though not to Shanghai - to be truthful, although Shanghai is a crazy, busy metropolis we have actually pefered to quiter,more historical cities like Xian, Beijing and Nanjing to the all-out energy of Shanghai. Also, Andy especially has been really into learning Chinese - fairly fluent now including some basic reading and writing (typing)! Zen me yang?!!

Happy New Year. More to follow after our Xiamen/Gulang Yu trip.