Blogs from Gulangyu, Xiamen, Fujian, China, Asia
April 3rd 2011
We had a very serendipitous visit to this unique port in Southern China. Our good friends, John and Jeannie from Pebble Beach have their sailboat in Turkey and have been cruising the Turquoise Coast for a number of years. Now John is thinking of moving his boat to Asia and has been looking into the possibility of basing it in Xiamen. He asked us to check out the area from a sail boater’s point of view. John gave us his contact in Xiamen and after numerous emails, we arranged to spend the day with Hugh. Hugh Morrow is a mid-westerner from LeMars, Iowa who has made a name for himself in the sailing world. Three years ago he crewed aboard a 54’ Chinese junk across the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco—without an engine! This 15,000 mile ... read more
November 29th 2010
We arrived in Xiamen after an incredibly long 21 hour train ride. It seemed like we would never arrive. Once we did arrive, we were shocked by the giant WalMart and McDonalds just outside the train station. We had foolishly expected Xiamen to be a bit of smaller city of approximately 500,000 or so. Uhh... not so, we would guess the population to be closer to 2 million-ish. Gulang Yu is an island off of the coast of Xiamen; it took us about 10 minutes to get there by ferry. Thank goodness we had taken the initiative to get our previous hotel manager to write out the chinese address of this hotel on a piece of paper. This way we were able to show it around when asking for directions, as there was absolutely no way ... read more
July 23rd 2010
On my second day in China I woke up at three o'clock in the morning. This means it's noon back home on Sunday. This typically happens when traveling to the Far East from the Far West. A whole day is obliterated in your calendar although you do gain it back on your way home but you end waking up in the middle of the night because your mind and body can't adjust instantly to the fifteen hour time difference. So you suffer for a couple of days until you get adjusted. So I'm up and wide awake and full of exuberance here in Xiamen, China at three thirty in the morning with absolutely nothing to do. So I grab my little notebook and my blue ink Pilot G-2 pen and I write about the things that ... read more
June 16th 2010
Editorial note: Some of the pictures are sideways. I know that, so you don't need to message me. I also have no idea why photobucket uploaded them that way. What I do know is that the Internet is so slow here it will not let me open the menu in photobucket to rotate them back. I'd suggest either using your imagination or cocking your head to the side. As soon as I get a fast enough connection, I will fix the problem. Since we conquered the mountain a full day ahead of schedule, we decided to take in Gulangyu, which is a small island in the harbor of Xiamen. It's the top tourist attraction around here and all the students were very excited about it, so we were pretty enthusiastic. We started out early in the ... read more
May 22nd 2010
Hi Friends, I'm sitting in Shaoguan enjoying a quiet Saturday, thinking about the wonderful trip I took last February to Xiamen, Fujian Province. Life has been hectic ever since so have just now found time to write it up. During the Spring Festival holiday, I took four of my student friends -- Yuki, Dong Ping, Helen and Mary (affectionately dubbed “the girls” since all unmarried women in China, under the age of 40, prefer “girls” to “women”) -- and spent a week there. Why Xiamen, you may be asking? Because it’s beautiful and historic, and I thought it might be a fun, warm place to go in February. Turned out to be mostly cold and grey, but beautiful, historic and fun it truly is. In a nutshell, this port city of 2.5 million, which sits directly ... read more
December 25th 2009
Well let me start by saying a very merry Christmas to you all from this truly magical little island! Just had a beer on the beach (finally somewhere warm!) going to post quite a few pictures of Piano Island (Gulangyu Island) to give you a true idea of quite how diverse this tiny little island is. On the ferry over you see the usual Chinese massive obsession with neon, they will light anything up, regardless of its insignificance! They love it!! As much fun as it is to photograph, I started to think “oh well here we go again...” and oh how wrong I was! I decided that I would spend a day, as the god named Lonely Planet suggests “just wandering around.” The island is no bigger than Sark, so is the perfect place to ... read more
Blog 10: It's just a few steps...and then there were angels.
Published: July 31st 2009Asia » China » Fujian » Xiamen » Gulangyu
July 31st 2009
Blog 10: It's just a few steps....and then there were angels. Well I'm telling you, it isn't. Not by any stretch of the imagination is it just a few steps. Huang Shan. Or Yellow Mountain if you prefer. FMG. Seven days ago, I undertook to go up Huang Shan. This is what happened... I got up early as you know dear reader, I had 6 hours and 3 buses to catch. Well I was happily on my way on the bus to the mountain armed with the knowledge there were shuttle buses taking you from the town Tankou to the base of the mountian. About half an hour to go, a young girl came and sat with me and started chatting. Turns out she worked in a restaurant come travel agents and advised I should get ... read more
July 28th 2009
On the hard sleeper train to Xiamen we met an extremely friendly Chinese student called Jing Jing. Jing Jing was returning home from Hangzhou after visiting here brother. Even before the train had set off Jing Jing had greeted us and immediately offered us a vacum packed chicken's foot with an oreo biscuit to wash it down. Up until this point we were more than aware of the ready to eat delicacies that were to be found in Chinese mini markets and although we were keen to try new things we hadn't been particularly forthcoming in trying chicken's feet. The particular feet in question were small by comparison but no more appetising to our western palet. We didn't want to be rude by refusing and so did our best to niddle and swallow a few morcels. ... read more
Red lanterns, temples, clam omelets, and Hemmingway
Published: October 6th 2008Asia » China » Fujian » Xiamen » Gulangyu
October 5th 2008
National Day break! What a trip! Our 14 hour train from ride Guangzhou to Xiamen (Fujian) was a blast. The train was packed, and we were all separated because we got our tickets so late. I had to have two women move out of my sweet window seat, and made instant friends with the guy next to me who was a librarian at a science and technology library in Guangzhou. He was a Hakka and told me all about the tulous we were about to go see in Fujian. He got off around midnight, and other random Chinese people squeezed into his chair instantly. I slept and read most of the time until the crowds thinned out so I could go see everyone, who had all made their own friends. Multiple card games and antics pursued, ... read more
