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We've returned to Xiamen to visit friends and see some familiar sights from our adventure here last year.
TRANSPORTATION TRIVIA
An inexpensive and convenient way of getting around Xiamen is to use taxis. We collect and carry business cards of our hotel/apartment, certain restaurants, people we know etc. to communicate our destination to the drivers.
The rules of the road are another matter. Canadian drivers might see these road warriors as bad drivers - lane changes are made at whim, vehicles drift to cut off others, near misses with bicycles, motorbikes and hapless pedestrians are frequent and parking is an exercise in creativity - however the skill to manoevour these city streets is admirable!
Crossing major streets requires a plan (at least for tourists). Crosswalks marked by lines or lights indicate a possible place to make your way over but are not necessarily safe. Watchful eyes and quick reactions are still needed. I tend to huddle in with experienced locals and move when they move. John has a Kamekazi style, darting forward, sidestepping and stopping like PACMAN or FROGGER.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Because we are fortunate to have John's English
students to select restaurants and decipher menus for us, we have had some great food in some interesting places. Our friend, R, took us out for lunch at one of these.
There are two branches of "The Revolutionary Restaurant" where one can be served by waitstaff dressed in the gear of Mao's PLA (Khakis, haversacks, red scarf...). Political cartoons are drawn on the walls with lengthy writings giving moral advice. The ceilings are covered with newspapers of the 1970's. The small side room in which we ate was made to look like a crude Ministry of Domestic Affairs from the 1930's Revolutionary Soviet.
The lunch consisting of four dishes was quite delicious and included the following;
a flavourful cabbage and noodle soup with large pork bones, a cold plate of slivered vegetables and transparant ribbon noodles dressed with a spicy satay sauce, breaded pork slices in a sticky caramel sauce and lastly some small beef dumplings. The quantity was better suited to 5 people instead of our 3 and the total cost was about 70RMB ($10 CDN).
We were the only "foreign friends" in the restaurant and John garnered quite a few stares as
he took several pictures of the cartooned walls. A sign of the times was when a restaurant employee spoke with our host, R, to clarify the purpose of our picture taking. Apparantly, they were worried that we were stealing their ideas and were planning on starting our own cheap, knock-off revolutionary restaurant!!!!
More news, next blog...Pictures forthcoming!
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Tom & Sue
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Lunch..
Didn't we have that luch at "Woodstock?".... In Law enforcement, we always taught people when crossing a roadway the following... "Look both ways, close your eyes, run like hell, and scream like you've never screamed before...." Look after yuselves guy, have fun and be safe.. Love Tom and Sue