Blogs from Xiamen, Fujian, China, Asia

For my last day in Xiamen, I decided to head to the botanical gardens. There area few entrances, and I decided to head to the main one, which meant I went back through the train tunnel that I'd had a look around the day before. From the tunnel, it was about further 10 minutes walk to the gardens. There were about a million people there. The queues for the ticket office were pretty long, but one seemed to be a lot shorter than the others so I joined that and got my ticket fairly quickly. I headed inside, the botanical gardens are massive and I decided to try and see as much as I can. I took a random path that didn't really lead to anywhere special, but there were some nice views of the city ... read more

I left things rather late in planning for my Chinese New Year holiday. I had very limited options as my passport was at the immigration office, meaning that I could only travel by train. Since it was New Year, most of the trains were fully booked. I had a couple of option head north to Shandong province to visit a couple of places I really wanted to go to there, or head South to Xiamen and the warmer weather. My friends advised !e to head south and I'm glad I headed their advice. I had arrived in Xiamen the previous evening and was so happy that the weather wasn't cold. I woke up to an overcast but warm day and after enjoying breakfast al fresco in the hostel's courtyard, I set off to explore. My map ... read more

After a train trip from the nine twist river to Xiamen, a few nights been there, I reached Baishucun. It is fishing town that is about 30 minutes, by high speed train, northeast of Xiamen. Once I got off the train, passing the usual crowd of people, tuktuk, street vendors, cars and motorbikes, I took a bus heading toward Baishucun village along the coast; on either sides I could see so many fishing boats of the fishermen dragged on the shore. It is a cruddy village but what caught my eye and love of these places is the charming ambiance that I felt while admiring those old boats full of everything, hard to discern, and the people selling the fresh catch of the fishermen, with their unique smile that opens your heart. "My inscrutable Chinese people" ... read more

It was a cool and wet day when we arrived at the Port of Xiamen, China yesterday. We opted to relax on ship until going to an evening performance at a local theater, Magic Min’ nan. It didn’t disappoint in uniqueness and variety. Thoroughly enjoyed the show but the real fun was after it ended. The Chinese tourists also attending wanted to take pictures of and with us. We stayed overnight in this very modern and good sized port town and in the morning left for our bike ride along the coast, followed by a Tai Chi performance/lesson and a tea tasting. Our last stop at a shopping area ,where again, the entertainment was in the Chinese people’s fascination with us. A young woman asked if she could take a picture of her baby in the ... read more

Geo: 24.45, 118.08Today we as per usual, got up and pampered ourselves then headed to get breakfast once again, catching up with people we've met along the way. Quite a few people were going on the same tour as ours so there was lots of buses heading out. Today we are doing The Essence of Xiamem, which takes us to a temple, a beach Buddah ( and I don't mean us on the beach!!) then to a pedestrian shopping mall. Our first stop was at the Temple and the first thing we had to do was to actually cross the road, well that was fun!!! We managed to not be run down by pushbikes, motorbikes, cars, taxis, buses and trucks!! And I forgot all the pedestrians that just barge through anyway!Once we got to the Temple ... read more