As expected, Chinese girls don't swim in the beach. Even though the boys wear the " brazilian speedo" and enjoy long hours bathing in the salty water, the girls tend to get just the toes wet, and generally don't wear swimsuit in public. For teenagers, beach turns into a place to get along and the hours are spent under the shade (as I normally do).
I found the beach near our place particularly sad. The building that suppose to be a water park looks abandoned, stained and the color was fading in the painting. The restaurant had nobody inside, adding a little bit more flavor to a already depressing atmosphere. Maybe it is just my western way to look at it.
[I am not saying, in this case, that I find our way to make things better. Not at all. In the Brazilian Northeast- where I am from- the loud music and the crowded space is suffocating, and even worse with millions of sellers harassing the people and trying to sell you from bikini (!) to melted cheese. Even when I miss the beach-food I grew up eating, the loud terrible music that is played everywhere just make me nauseous.Brazilian people CANT deal with silence. In the Northeast coast, people HAVE to have music playing in the highest volume ever imagined. ]
So, beach in Xiamen didn't work. Disappointed, We ended up taking a bus to have a look in town. The bus (751) was chosen randomly, just for the sake of the trip. We stopped at a "communist" restaurant, where old posters and Mao's pictures were hanging in the walls. Good choice: the food was good, cheap and came quite fast.
The rest of the day was just lazy, downloading movies and searching for a place to stay in Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
*
Today we are going again to Gulang Yu and to a open market close by the pier. The other guests in our guesthouse said the market was worthy.
We are expecting the island to be outrageously crowded. It's Saturday, after all.
:)
