Well, I'm back and sorry for taking so long with checking in here and penning my latest happenings. Life has been quite busy for me since last I wrote.
K, for the October 1 Holidays I went to Xiamen, Fujian Province. October 1 is China's National Day and this year they celebrated their 61st birthday. Normally all get 3 days official holidays for this, but we end up with 7 days off from teaching, but do have to make up 2 classes when we return, which is a small price to pay.
I left for Xiamen on Thursday, 30 September, as I don't have any classes on a Friday, so I was hoping to beat the crowd, well most of them anyway. I almost succeeded in this.
I pre-booked a hotel and when I arrived I was to find the room was not what I requested and after some time trying to sort things out and not getting anywhere with the management, I left and went to another hotel and of which turned out to be much better. Some things are meant to happen.....
One of my old students, from Nanchang days met me for breakfast and after this we went shopping. I was lead to Zhongshan Lu and this place was crowded and I swear every city in China has a shopping road of this name. Later we ventured to another shopping area and where I also managed to find the items I was looking for, late afternoon.
Next day we decided to go to GuLangYu Island, but found the ferry was packed with tourists and decided against this and aimed to go there another morning, but much earlier so we can beat the crowds. In lieu of this we hunted down somewhere to eat lunch and decided to do the tourist bus trip around the island, of which I did enjoy. This bus follows the coast and takes about 2 hours to complete and the weather was perfect.
On Sunday morning we arrived at the ferry for the island bright and early to find everyone else had the same idea as us. People were jammed packed on the ferry, including us and off we went. Once arriving on this island we tried to find the Aquarium without much luck. We walked quite a distance, asking people where this place was and still couldn't find it. It was after we decided to give up on this that we came across it and the line was from here to eternity! We then headed in search of somewhere quite for lunch and came across a nice little cafe which also had a rocking chair in the yard and I took the liberty of testing it out for the next 3 hours :-) It's not often one finds one of these chairs in China. After lunch, more and more people were turning up, so we decided to leave and I noticed another wharf which looked quite empty and headed for it. The other one had people lined up waiting to get the ferry back, so I think I made a good choice. With the ferry to GuLangYu, it is free going to the island, but on the way back, one needs to pay 8 yuan, very handy indeed as most places here in China charge a small fortune to enter and exit places.
On my last day in Xiamen I went to the Botanical Gardens and it was very pleasant indeed. The first area we visited was the Tropical Garden and here there were a lot of different Orchids growing from the trees and further up were some different Water Lily's leaves and of which fascinated me. Next we came across the Desert Garden, but didn't enter this as I am not a Cactus admirer, only when they are in full bloom. All the street lights in the gardens were operated by Solar power, which was nice to see for a change.
After walking some distance and beginning to feel a tad bit warm, thirsty etc we came across a restaurant and opted for an ice cream instead. This place had the best ice cream freezer I have ever come across since being here - the ice creams were solid! Boy, it sure did taste and feel good going down. On our way towards the exit, we also came across a new temple and I just fell in love with the craftsmanship here, the wood work was amazing. Then we found smiling Rocks, but I only managed to find one, onwards through Little Shangri-la, the Rose Garden, where there were only a few, through the Palm Garden and finally the main gate. All of this took us about 4 hours and we still didn't see everything, next time i will need to go earlier in the morning and find some more hidden treasures.
My next trip will be to Haikou, the capital city of Hainan, so, stay tuned.....
