Blogs from Xiamen, Fujian, China, Asia - page 2

Hi All, Really diificult to get a bed here but luckily the last hostel i called had room. Xiamen is a port city on the south western coast of China. It is another part of China that was forcibly opened up by the Treaty of Nanjing after the Opium wars. The buildings have a western look to them. I went to the Nanputuo temple first and this is where i discovered the masses of bus tour groups. This city is overrun with tourists. After I had visited I was going to visit the university campus until I saw the huge queue to get in, so I gave up and went to a vegetarian restaurant for lunch. After delicious fake fish and sizzling mushrooms I walked back towards Zhongshan lu. Away from the maddening crowds the city ... read more

Geo: 24.4783, 118.17Not going to rate this adventure as one of my "favs" in China but maybe the weather was responsible for a dampened enthusiasm. The visibility at some times during the day was down to 20 metres ....so Xiamen and the surrounding landscape zoomed by shrouded in a perpetual fog of mystery.We left the Days Inn at 8.30 am under an umbrella in heavy rain and returned to Xiamen at 5.15 pm under an umbrella shrouded in mist and rain. Our goal was to reach the mountains of south western Fujian to see the cluster of tulous which is the home of the Hakka.Some of these round, oval and square structures were built in the 12th century and they stand as a distinctive fortress in the region. Built over four or five storeys high with ... read more

Wednesday, 15th January 2014 Gulangyu, a traffic-free island off the coast of Xiamen is arguably one of the city's top tourist draws. It helped that access to the ferry terminal from our hotel was through a comfortable walk along Zhongshan Road Pedestrian Mall. Once on the island, touts offering every imaginable walking tours possible were determined to grab a share of the tourist dollars. This was absolutely unnecessary with a Google Earth print out map and a pair of good walking shoes. With the exception of Zheng Cheng Gong Memorial Hall where views of the island could be had, most of the other tourist sites required some sort of admission fees. The island was littered with many quaint cafes and B&B establishments converted out of old colonial buildings. They provided good rest stops after an afternoon ... read more

Geo: 24.4798, 118.082I only went to XiaMen to use it as a base to visit the Tulou (see previous entry) and I was not planning to spend any time here. Well, the good thing when you travel with no schedule is that you are very flexible and can adapt. So I spend about three days here (1.5 days before and after the Tulou) and I really enjoyed it. I could have probably spent one more day.Part 1: Sunday is a good day to visit a city because it is bustling with life. I like cities at the week-end. I went to NanPuTuo temple. The temple itself is nice but you can't see into the halls because there is too many tourists. That's a pity. But you can climb the mountain/hill behind it and get a good ... read more

Xiamen is itself techinically an island, connected to mainland China by a four separate bridges, though as a huge, built-up city it doesn't feel like one. Just off Xiamen (a 5 minute ferry journey on a very packed ferry), however, is Gulangu, a much smaller island where traffic is not permitted, that really does feel like a holiday island. It used to be a colonial base, so there is a lot of European architecture and cobbled streets, very pretty and charming and quite upmarket with lots of small boutique shops (chocolate and tea shops are the most popular) and expensive restaurants and hotels. It also has a small beach and various look-out points where you can view Xiamen's skyscrapers. I spent a day wandering the streets, though again the weather was awful (Apparently I have been ... read more