Blogs from Zhangzhou City, Fujian, China, Asia

Going south on a bicycle is like a lesson in time travel. If we stay still for too long it gets closer to winter. Every day we move south, it gets a little warmer. The harvest become a little less ripe, and animals and insects a little more lively. The days become longer and the nights become shorter as we descend our way towards the equator. So we spent our days amongst the many many Tulous of the Fujian province. Then temperature dropped and it got too cold for our sweatshirts and jacket/vest things. At 10degrees we decided to book it. But to where? The easiest way would be to double back into Zhangzhou, but really, I don't care for that kind of thing. Going back? Never. It doesn't matter that to the west were mountains, ... read more

We got woken up this morning in the campsite by , ' 'The Back Street Boys' belting out. Now there's a positive start to the day... Lol We had noodles for breakfast before clearing up the site. Then we were taken in the minibus back down the mountain to the hostel to get showered and changed ready for the bike ride. We all got fitted up for bikes and helmets before setting off down the mountain. The Liu's have been amazing! They have been so well organised for every minute that we have been with them. We had a bus at the front with endless supplies of water, cyclists in the middle with Khalid always at the back..... With me.... Then at the very back was the support bus. I loved it! I was a bit ... read more

Today I got up more positive than I felt last night! I did my colour on my hat, got rid of the white roots! Did my washing, as we are here for two days, and got showered. Then Khalid burst my happy bubble by telling me that we were not staying again, which meant that I have a bag full of wet washing! Aw well, We set of in minibuses to look around the round houses. Yichang Earth Building is the oldest round house in Nanjing County. These old houses are quite impressive, and i like the whole community living idea. Although people still actually live there, it is spoilt by pure tourism, but you can't blame them. bought so much! I am now the proud owner of a Chinese tea set, various teas, and a ... read more

Of all my China adventures this short trip to Fujian Province to visit the Tulous proved to be one of the best yet. My good friend David Zeng helped with all the logistics and we both flew into Xiamen to begin our journey. We left from Xiamen by bus and 3 hours later stopped in Longyan for the night. Longyan is a city of 1 million located in the southwest part of Fujian Province. We arranged a driver to pick us up the next morning and take us deep into the mountains another 2 hours to our first stop, Hongkeng Villiage. Set amongst rice, tea and tobacco fields the tulou are earthen houses. Several stories high, they are built along an inward-looking, circular or square floor plan as housing for up to 800 people each. They ... read more