(24 March - 2 April, 2005)
Chinese New Year:
We had never been to Fujian, a province which, like Guangshou, is the homeland of a large number of overseas Chinese, those of Hakka, or Hokkien, background. In fact a lot of Western tourists don't get to this region, at least on a first trip to China, probably because Xiamen, the most interesting city, as opposed to Fuzhou, the capital, is not on any main railway lines.
I prepared for this trip by exploring Amoy Magic a website dedicated to the region, by Dr Bill Brown, an American who went to teach at Xiamen University in 1988 and has never looked back. My reading led me to focus on two cities - Xiamen, an island city most famous for its smaller island, Gulang Yu, and Quanzhou, an historically significant port, which was the start of the Matritime Silk Road.
Today was a half-day at school, consisting of an Easter assembly, so we managed to get away during the afternoon. As we were not familiar with the Lowu border crossing we decided to take the bus from Wanchai to Huanggang and make our way to the Lowu bus station from there. Border formalities were quick and easy, but it took a few enquiries before we worked out how to get to Lowu, a trip involving rides on two local buses. As soon as we could, we got to the counter to book our bus to Xiamen. There were no more sleeper buses, but we got seats on a normal overnight bus, then left our bags at the left luggage counter to explore the local area. We had heard a lot of bad things about this part of Shenzhen, and sure enough found the Lowu Commercial Centre rather hard to take. It was full of touts wanting to lead us to restaurants, massage parlours or DVD shops, and people trying to get us into their shops to buy copy watches and other dubious items. It was a relief to get out and wander the streets further afield.
There are some reasonable local restaurants around the area, so we had a meal and returned to the station for our 10 pm. bus. The bus was full when it left the main station, but, unbelievably, it stopped at another station outside of town and picked up several more passengers, who were given tiny stools to sit on all along the aisle, a bit of a problem for me, as I generally need to use the aisle to give me enough leg-room. So the trip was not as comfortable as we had expected when we first sat down. However, we were undoubtedly more comfortable than the extra passengers they loaded on. I wonder what they paid for their tickets, and whether this procedure was strictly legal. Perhaps it provides a bit of extra money for the driver and conductor.
We were given a bottle of water each, as we have come to expect. What we didn't expect was a stop for breakfast at 4.30 am. We all helped ourselves to a bowl of rice porridge each and sat at round tables where an array of plates contained the usual things that go into a Chinese breakfast. It was actually quite good if you like that sort of thing, but we would really rather be sleeping at that hour.
We arrived at a reasonable hour of the morning at Xiamen's bus station and walked to Zhongshan Park, as there were a couple of hotels nearby listed in Lonely Planet. No sooner had we reached the park than we saw a group of old folk doing Tai Chi. They happened to be doing just the series of exercises Yoong was interested in practicing, so she insisted on joining them while I went off to search for a hotel. I am very reluctant to accept a room without Yoong's approval because I am sure to overlook some fault that she will instantly be aware of - little things like nasty smells, mouldy ceilings, absence of windows and so on. However I was eager to get settled in somewhere so I left the baggage with her to deal with as she followed the Tai Chi master and went off in search of the Singapore Hotel.
I found what I was looking for near another entrance to the park, where an even larger group of people were doing ballroom dancing, not as unusual a sight as you might think early in the morning in China. The Singapore Hotel was looking a bit dilapidated and there didn't seem to be any sign of life in the rooms. However there was a guard sitting at a table in the lobby so I walked in and asked "Hotel?"
"Open!" he replied.
It didn't really look open, but I pursued the matter further. "Open!" he insisted, and waved me away. Okay, I knew when I wasn't wanted. I left the Singapore Hotel and walked down the road a bit to where I could see a Hong Ya Hotel. This one was not in my Lonely Planet, but then I had a rather old edition. The age of the Lonely Planet doesn't seem to make much difference. Some things change so rapidly that no guidebook would be able to keep up, while others, including transport and accommodation costs, seem to stay the same indefinitely.
The receptionist at this three-star hotel told me (I think) that they only had a room for one night. When I pushed further, she seemed to suggest that a second night was a possibility but would depend on somebody checking out. The first room they showed me was Number 404. It was quite a nice room, but I thought there was no way Yoong would stay in a room ending in four, and I could be in big trouble if I booked it, so I pointed to the number and said "No good." The lady nodded knowingly and showed me another room, which was not so nice as the window was in a kind of recess, leaving the room much darker. They had no more to show me, so I indicated I would think about it and went back to extricate Yoong from her Tai Chi class.
We went to look for the Xinxi Lusho, the first place listed in Lonely Planet, but soon found it was not only "open" but the building apparently no longer existed. We looked at a couple of other places, quite nice but much more expensive than the one I had rejected. One had a buffet lunch advertised for Y38 so we decided we'd go back and try it out later. It was beginning to look like the Hong Ya was the best option unless we went out to Gulang Yu to check the hotels which may or may not be still available there.
Yoong assured me that 404 was actually okay, because four plus four is eight, so I took her there to have a look. As we passed the Singapore Hotel, Yoong insisted on going in to double-check with the guard, who confirmed that the hotel was "open" and therefore not available. This time the Hong Ya showed us three rooms, none as good as 404. "They always show you the worst ones first," Yoong assured me. I reminded her that 404 was the first room they had shown me and I had already rejected it because of the number. We eventually got to examine Room 404, which met with Yoong's approval despite the number, and ended up booking it for three nights. After that, we were informed, the price of Y180 would no longer apply. It would be Y300 (the actual posted list price, as opposed to the posted discount price) and there weren't any rooms available anyway until Saturday, when we have to return to Hong Kong. Apparently there is going to be some big conference in town, involving Malaysia as far as we can work out, and all the hotels will be full. We will need to find a room somewhere for the last night, at whatever price, so that's something we need to work on over the next couple of days. Perhaps we can find something on the island.
After a shower and a rest, we went for lunch at the hotel we had discovered. Good value, with lots of seafood, including prawns and scampi-like creatures on sticks which tasted good but which I found difficult to eat. The locals seemed to put the whole thing in their mouth, chew them up, then spit out the shells and other inedible bits. There were also delicious-looking scallops in their shells. Yoong wouldn't touch them and warned me there had been cases of fatalities recently in China from eating scallops. But I couldn't resist them. In fact, I should have eaten more. They tasted very fresh and unlikely to lead to an agonizing death.
We thought we would go out to Gulang Yu to check accommodation possibilities for the last night, but we didn't make it to the end of Zhongshan Lu, the fascinating street in downtown Xiamen that leads to the ferry. In particular we saw DVD shops. We had already decided we were not going to buy any DVDs until the end of the trip. Why carry them around with us? But it wouldn't hurt to have a quick look, would it? We ended up spending hours searching through the wares of one little store where they were selling for Y5, a very reasonable price. At least we thought so until we went down the road a bit with our load of purchases and found a shop that had a special deal of four for Y10. They did have some we had already bought for double the price, but several more were not the same, and we ended up with another bagful of movies. By the time we had finished our shopping it was getting too late to go to Gulang Yu, so we went back to the hotel through the lovely Zhongshan Park.
Late in the evening the phone rang. Yoong picked it up and said someone was asking for a Mr Masaji. Nobody here by that name, she assured them and put the phone down. I explained to her that "Masaji" was not the name of a person, but an offer of a "massage". This time, when the phone rang again, she tried to explain to the girl that we did not require her services, and left the phone off the hook to ensure we were not disturbed any more. A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Yoong's attempt to refuse a massage had apparently not been understood, and the massage girl herself was waiting at the door to perform her duties. Perhaps "No, we don't want it!" comes out as more ambiguous in Mandarin. Without opening the door, Yoong told her in no uncertain terms that her services were not required, though there could still have been some doubt, given Yoong's limited Mandarin and non-existent Hokkien. The tone of voice probably convinced the girl that she was wasting her time, and she presumably went off to find other customers.
We made it at last to Gulang Yu. The ferry ride across is delightful. There is a very sensible system where the ride to the island is free, but you pay three yuan to get back. Obviously anyone who goes to the island is going to have to come back sometime, unless they plan to live out the rest of their days there, not an unpleasant prospect. If you go upstairs to the top deck, however, someone comes around and collects an extra yuan from each passenger, whichever way you are going.
We found the "Beautiful Island Hotel of Gulangyu", which, according to the Lonely Planet is "bright and clean and has cosy rooms from Y120 (without window) to Y168 (with window)." We could not consider any room without a window to be "bright and clean", but we found the people very welcoming and the prices unchanged in the years since our Lonely Planet came out. Best of all, one of the rooms on the Y120 floor did actually have a window, and would be available the next day. We had a look at it, and decided to move there tomorrow, cutting short our stay at the Hong Ya. The main reason for this, apart from the fantastic location, was that they were able to book a room for us for our return next Friday. There would not even be a price increase. Presumably, once you get below the three-star level, hotels are not affected by big conference groups coming to town.
We decided to take advantage of the good weather and go for a walk around the perimeter of the island, but first we walked up to have a look at a nice new hotel called the Marine Garden Hotel. We were just in time to check out their buffet lunch, a tempting array including steamed fish, prawns, bamboo clams, oysters and other seafood dishes. We couldn't resist. We appeared to be the only customers, so we had no hesitation in sitting at a table set for four. Ten minutes later, people starting streaming in and there were queues for the rapidly diminishing food. It wasn't long before the place filled up, and two ladies asked if they could join us at our table. It was, of course, a big tour group, and they eventually all left at the same time, leaving us as the only customers again. We walked around admiring the view from the hotel garden, then started our stroll around the island. At one point we came upon the Xiamen University of Fine Arts and Design, so we checked with the guard whether we could enter, then wandered around admiring the many copies of famous sculptures that dotted the gardens.
On the way back to our hotel, we explored the side streets off Zhongshan Lu, full of little local restaurants and small shops, quite a contrast to the upmarket boutiques and tourist-oriented shops of Zhongshan Lu itself. One phenomenon which struck us was the number of sex shops around the area. These tend to be tiny places, stocking a limited range of exotic condoms and sex aids, always staffed by a lady. Some are so small they are little more than a passageway between two buildings, the width of a door. They are generally identified by a banner stating "For Adult Only". Presumably it is felt that there is only room for one customer at a time.
We didn't buy up any supplies from the sex shops, but we did end up with another handful of DVDs, from one of the more expensive but better organised shops. Their price was Y10, but we were prepared to pay this for some good music DVDs that we could not find in the cheaper places. In particular, I bought a recording of a Queen concert as I need to learn Bohemian Rhapsody for an upcoming performance of the Hong Kong Welsh Male Voice Choir.
We moved to Gulang Yu early in the morning. Our room was not ready and we were offered one without a window, which we declined, and left our bags to be moved into the room later. We insisted on paying for the next two nights and also for next Friday, to avoid any possibility of being stranded without a room. Before leaving, we asked for some water, and were served with cups of tea. We were also asked what kind of breakfast we wanted the next morning, what time we wanted it and whether we wanted it in our room or the restaurant. This came as a surprise, as there had been no previous mention of breakfast being included. Yoong told them she wanted a Western breakfast and I would have a Chinese one. They seemed to find this quite amusing.
We had planned to go to Xiamen University today and had only come to check into the hotel, so we went back to the ferry and took a bus from the other side direct to the university. It is very easy to get around Xiamen, so long as you can find out which bus goes where you want to go. All buses cost one yuan, and are generally quite comfortable. This one made a spectacular loop over the sea as it approached the southern end of the university. We had a bit of rain as we wandered through the university grounds, but it was still a pleasant walk. In particular the big lake in the middle of the campus is a very scenic spot.
Sure enough the tomato-seller was back in business where we had had last seen him, and we got a big bag of fresh cherry tomatoes for one yuan.
We walked back along Simin Lu, passing Hong Shan Park, which extended up the side of a small mountain. It looked very attractive, but it was getting late, and we've done enough climbing for one day, so we thought we would leave it until our return to Xiamen. Tomorrow will be devoted to further exploration of Gulang Yu.
In the evening we went to a concert at an attractive modern Theatre next to Zhongshan Park. We had looked in there yesterday and found a cleaning lady who assured us there would be something on but was unable to tell us what it was. It turned out to be a Youth Orchestra (all strings) from Lulea in Sweden. We found the man with a bag of tickets and he happily gave us two. There is rarely a charge for these cultural shows, but you do need to get hold of tickets. The Swedish orchestra put on an excellent show, supported by local musical groups. The orchestra would play a couple of pieces, then the front section of the stage would rise up to reveal a group of colourfully dressed Chinese musicians, performing lovely traditional music. The only disappointment was that an item of extracts from Chinese Opera promised on the program disappeared without trace.
After an enjoyable evening's entertainment to finish off a long day, we caught a bus to the ferry and finally moved into our hotel room on Gulang Yu.
The "beautiful" in "Beautiful Island Hotel" obviously refers to the island, not the hotel. The fact that our room has a window certainly makes it nicer than the other rooms on this floor, but it also lets in a lot of insect life, mostly harmless I think. But I did run around for a while swatting various creatures with the hotel's leather-bound welcome booklet. The room could charitably be described as "shabby". The carpet is stained with various substances spilt over the years, and there is some kind of wooden box on the wall that dripped water onto the carpet all last night. Fortunately we were so tired that it didn't really bother us. As for the bathroom, the door is warped and largely rotted away, and there is a bit of a smell from the drains, a common problem in Asian bathrooms.
Also, the shower last night took us a while to master. I followed the English instructions in the welcome booklet and waited half an hour for the water to heat up. Yoong usually sends me in to shower first, to make sure it is all working properly before she gets to it. There seemed to be only one tap, a lever marked with red to indicate it was hot. But when I turned it, only cold water came out. I felt the pipes. There was definitely hot water in there somewhere, but I couldn't access it. Eventually we called for help, and a lady came to our rescue while I stood there wrapped in my towel. The tap marked in red was in fact the cold tap. The hot tap had long ago broken off and it was necessary to use a towel to turn the remaining bit of pipe. It was important to turn the cold tap at the same time, as the water was scorching hot. Once we got the knack of it, the shower was actually very effective, though turning it off was just as difficult as turning it on.
Despite the drawbacks, we like this place more than the more expensive Hong Ya. For a start, they are much more generous with toilet tissues, thermoses of water and with lighting. It is actually bright enough for us to read and write here. The toothpaste tastes better, the television has CCTV9, China's excellent English News and Propaganda channel, and the location is unbeatable. Also, the staff is very friendly, but not so friendly that they make evening phone calls offering "massaji". The only phone call came at 9 am. sharp this morning informing us that our breakfast was ready. We had chosen to forgo the delights of dining in the privacy of our room, and to have our breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Five minutes later we were down in the self-proclained "elegant" restaurant and there it was waiting for us - two poached eggs each, six slices of bread, jam, a big bowl of soy-milk, a bowl of soup noodles (instant) and a couple of those long Chinese doughnuts. We also got one coffee, which must have come with the Western breakfast. We noticed that nobody else seemed to be given breakfast, and wondered whether it was because we were actually staying three nights without asking for a discount on the list price. Y120 seemed reasonable after Y188 at the other hotel, and we were so pleased we could book for April 1 that we hadn't bothered trying to bargain.
We were planning to go to a well-known tourist site, some kind of school outside Xiamen island, but decided to drop in at the Visitor's Centre on the way to the ferry and found ourselves booking a tour of Gulang Yu. The cost was Y80 per head, which was really for entrances. The tour itself was free. Our guide was a young man called Tom, the only English-speaking guide they had, and we realized we would be struggling to understand his English. He had the usual Chinese habit of not paying attention to the ends of words, so "born" came out as "borst" and "soft" as "sonns" as well as the phrase familiar to Hong Kong teachers - "wor' har'" ("work hard"). However, he turned out to be an enthusiastic and passionate guide, who genuinely loves Gulang Yu (understandably so) and his job. He was very knowledgeable about Chinese history and did his best to give us the background to the many historically significant sights
In the afternoon, we visited the Piano Museum, with its very impressive collection of old pianos, all apparently donated by a Chinese collector who migrated to Australia. There was a demonstration of a player piano and a live recital on one of the others. We also visited various scenic parks, including the one with the statue of the war hero, Zheng Jing Long (also known as Koxinga), and what seemed like dozens of historic houses. We covered an enormous amount of territory, without duplicating any of what we saw on our own two days ago.
It was a very full day, and I feel quite exhausted by it. I may be coming down with something. I don't feel like a meal tonight. Yoong went out and found a local restaurant meal, while I stayed at the hotel watching television and catching up with my journal. Yoong says I look very red, so I may have a mild touch of sunstroke, which would explain the way I feel at present. It was sunny this morning, but I did wear a hat and didn't feel I was exposing myself to too much sun.
We are able to leave a bag here until we come back on Friday, which will certainly make things easier in Quanzhou. Most of the weight is the DVDs we've bought, the ones we said we would shop for at the end of the trip.
It was a miserable wet day today, as we took the ferry, then a bus to the long distance bus station. We did not have to wait long for a bus to Quanzhou, though it turned out to be a slow bus, stopping for passengers along the way. No hurry. We weren't going to be able to do much in the rain anyway.
We checked out the hotels near the bus station and settled on the cheapest (and worst) one we've stayed in so far. It was the first one listed in Lonely Planet, the Overseas Chinese Home, or Overseas Travellers Hotel, as it seems to be called now. We negotiated Y250 for three nights for a room on the eighth floor, choosing the one that seemed to have the least mould in the bathroom. There was, however an uncomfortable crack in the toilet seat and the drains were very smelly, a problem solved by keeping the bathroom door shut whenever possible. We could not go far because of the rain, so we checked out the hotel's restaurant for lunch. We had seen a nice-looking fish dish going up in the lift for room service, and, when we asked the girl the cost, she told us it was Y15. So we walked into the rather dingy and noisy restaurant (the noise was from music, not customers) and asked about the possibility of a fresh fish. A young man started showing us some fish that were flopping about in a tank of water, but before we could establish a price, a lady who was obviously his boss ran over and yelled at him for showing us these fish. She told us she would give us a very nice fish, and started netting one out of another tank At that moment the phone rang and she had to leave us with the net, which we pulled out and found that her "very nice fish" was stone dead. Yoong was very angry that the woman thought she could palm off a dead fish on us rather than the ones we had seen which were very much alive. I felt we should just insist on a live fish and negotiate from there, but Yoong was adamant she would not patronise the restaurant. She argued that even if we chose a good fish, they could substitute it in the kitchen. So we walked out in the rain to find somewhere else. We ended up at a little place on Tumen Lu that served various odd dishes in herbal soup. It was unusual, but not really to our taste, and the prices reflected the supposed medical benefits of the food.
We visited a small temple, the Guanyue Miao, in the same street, and also the Qingjing Si, an interesting mosque with enough displays and English explanations posted up that we could spend some time out of the rain.
I did not eat last night, as my stomach was giving me trouble again, but slept early and woke up late this morning.
There is little improvement in the weather. Our main destination for the day was the Kaiyuan Si, a Buddhist temple which is the most significant tourist sight in Quanzhou. On the way we stopped in at a supermarket to get out of the rain and met a Canadian couple who were teaching English in a small town nearby. They had been coming to China on and off since they retired, doing one semester at a time. Not much money in it, but a way to experience Chinese culture, and the job sounded easy enough.
We stopped in at the Quanzhou Hotel, a very impressive new establishment that is quite a contrast to the dump where we are staying. But if we want to stay in a luxury hotel we might as well stay in Hong Kong, where we have everything we need at City Garden. In fact, I found it a bit too sterile and too far removed from the surrounding cultural landscape.
This city's Zhongshan Lu (There seems to be one in every Chinese town) is very upmarket and rather boring, with row on row of clothing shops, but I did find a cobbler outside a shop. My sandals had started to come apart with all the rain, and I was quoted one yuan to have a broken strap fixed. Further inspection showed they needed a major overhaul so I paid the princely sum of Y4 to have them made as good as new. The man took the precaution of checking with Yoong that I understood how much I would have to pay for this privilege.
Just before finding the cobbler I had bought a pair of slip-on shoes at a nearby shop, not so much for wearing on the trip, but because I always have difficulty finding shoes my size, and these would be fine in Hong Kong when my current work shoes wear out. I expected to find some new sandals somewhere and throw out the old ones, but now they have a new lease of life.
Kaiyuan Si was certainly worth a visit, the most striking part being two ancient pagodas on either side of the compound. The temple grounds also contain an impressive Maritime Museum, which houses the remains of a huge wooden ship and several other reminders of Quanzhou's historical importance. The city also used to be known as Zaytun, from which the word ''satin" is derived, and was one of the places visited by Marco Polo.
I am still sick and wanted an early night. Yoong had to go out and eat on her own again. She found a good pull-noodle restaurant and another one that had good dumplings, and ate far more than she should have without me there to share it with her.
After another round-the-clock sleep I woke up this morning refreshed and ready to eat and go sightseeing. We went downstairs for breakfast at one of the two places where Yoong gorged herself last night. Fresh hand-pulled noodles. I had mine fried with pork and vegetables, while Yoong had hers in a beef soup - much like the Vietnamese Pho.
The rain seemed to have stopped for a while. We decided to make the trip to the walled city of Chongwu. There was a direct bus from the bus station, a bit of a bone-shaker and stopping all the way to pick up and set down passengers.
As we approached Chongwu, we saw many many stonemasonry yards crowded with large stone statues - everything from Greek gods and Chinese sages to Mickey Mouse. Similar statues lined the road leading into town.
As soon as we left the bus, a pedicab pulled up and offered to take us to where he assumed we wanted to go for Y5. We had no idea which way to go, and he quickly went down to Y1 each so we agreed. After a very short trip he made us another offer. For Y10 he would take us to a back entrance where he seemed to be suggesting we could get in free. We were a bit non-commital but allowed him to take us there anyway. He took us a short distance further to a closed gate. It was low enough to step over, but we didn't really feel inclined to do anything illegal, so we indicated we would walk back to the main entrance and just paid him Y2, rather than the Y10 he was demanding.
The place turned out to be a large"Stone Art" park between the old city wall and the beach. We paid the entrance fee (Y25 each) and spent a couple of hours wandering around enjoying the scenery and the rather bizarre range of statues. The billboards outside had promised we would "forget to leave", but we managed to do so, then entered the walled city through one of its four gates. The town had a certain charm and we got a lot of stares as this is probably not a place often visited by foreign tourists. Just before the gate on the other side of the city there was a small shop selling tea-ware. Yoong couldn't resist buying a tiny teapot and two sets of four little cups.
We found a restaurant serving fish from a tank at a very reasonable price, then came back by taking a bus to Hui'an, connecting with another back to Quanzhou, actually a faster route, though the bus did not go back to the bus station but took us on a scenic tour around the port before dropping us somewhere near our hotel.
We had found the local Cultural Centre yesterday and established that some kind of show would be on tonight, so we made our way there to see whatever it was. This time we had to wait a while before we could get permission to go in. We were not given tickets but told to go and sit near the front and be prepared to move if someone turned up with tickets for our seats.
When the lights went down, twenty minutes late, a number of people rushed for the front row, so we did the same. Boxes along the front of the stage were labeled "Hebei Yanzho Art Troupe", which may or may not have been what we saw. Whatever it was, it was a most extraordinary show. Apart from a dozen dancing girls who kept coming out and performing in different costumes which seemed to get more and more exotic as the evening went on, all the performers were handicapped in some way. The compere was blind, and initially accompanied by a lady translating his Mandarin into sign language. The first act, after an establishing routine by the dancing girls, was a lady in a wheelchair, who sang a lovely classical-style song. As the evening went on, there were performances by several blind or crippled singers, a one-legged acrobatic dancer, a blind musician who played various small wind instruments including an ocarina and some kind of leaf, and an armless painter who produced a beautiful piece of calligraphy by painting with his mouth.
Yoong thought it was a bit depressing, but it seemed to me a very positive thing that these people were proudly overcoming their disabilities to perform to a very appreciative audience, as opposed to lying in the gutter with a begging bowl, though no doubt there is a lot more money in that.
The final routine from the dancing girls was a wonderful performance of Thai dancing, better than any we have seen in Thailand itself. They were extremely professional and a real pleasure to watch. These cultural shows are really among the highlights of this trip.
For breakfast Yoong took me down to the dumpling restaurant a few doors down from the hotel. We had what seemed like a couple of dozen wontons in soup and steamed dumplings served in a large steamer. But my favourite was a little dish of tasty tofu. When we got to the bus station we found there was no bus available for forty minutes as the earlier ones were booked out. We bought tickets for the next available bus and found this was the more expensive one, which turned out to be little different from the bus we came on except that it took the expressway and so got us back to Xiamen in about an hour. Also, they showed Kung Fu Hustle, worth another look even without the English subtitles (and people walking in front of the screen) of our first viewing on DVD.
As soon as we arrived, we booked our tickets back to Shenzhen for as late as we could tomorrow night. No problem getting sleepers, and, for some unknown reason, buses going from Xiamen to Shenzhen were cheaper than those going in the other direction. What we didn't realize until later was that we had been taken to a totally different bus station, much further than the other from the ferry, and that therefore we would have to get back there tomorrow night to get our sleeper bus.
We left our bags in the left luggage section and made our way to Hong Shan Park, to take advantage of the improved weather. The trip involved a change of buses and it was the fact that the whole trip took about an hour that finally alerted us to the fact that we had arrived at the wrong bus station.
Before entering the park we found a little pull-noodle restaurant. As usual Yoong had wet noodles while I had mine dry, with the soup put in a separate bowl. Mine was actually very similar to spaghetti bolognaise. All it needed was some parmesan cheese. It was very fresh and al dente, and it was fascinating to watch the noodles being hand-made before our eyes. These little restaurants are one of the delights of Fujian. You can eat very well for four or five yuan (though dumpling shops are even cheaper at about Y2 for a big bowl.)
Hong Shan Park is a lovely area covering a mountain slope, with a temple, pagodas, big rocks (holy ones probably), pools, and even a ferris wheel, though it did not appear to be operating. There are good views over Gulang Yu, or would be if the mists subsided. It was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon and the climb was not too strenuous compared to most of the scenic spots around here.
When we got back to the bus station area, we wandered around the local streets before retrieving our bags, trying out various street snacks. The best was a kind of savoury egg and meat concoction, rather like a McMuffin without the muffin. As we were about to head back to the bus station, a gentleman approached us and asked if we spoke English. He turned out to be a local English teacher and indeed spoke very well. He invited us to his house for a talk - a large apartment up five flights of steps. He was teaching at two nearby colleges but also had his own private evening classes. He had lived in Los Angeles and Frankfurt, so it wasn't surprising that his English was so good. His students were starting to arrive after a while so we thanked him and got back to the bus station where we found there were frequent buses making the half hour trip to the ferry for Gulang Yu.
It was a relief to get back to the Beautiful Island Hotel, with its smelly bathroom, a step up from the one in Quanzhou with its very smelly bathroom. You learn to appreciate these distinctions traveling in China. We managed to wash some clothes - not really possible in the other hotels. Hanging them over the carpet didn't bother us as there was already a damp patch from the leak in the room. The rain has come back, heavier than ever.
Our guide, Tom, had told us there is always something on at the Concert Hall on Friday evening at 7.30 pm. so of course we decided to check it out. Braving the rain, we went up the road to the modern theatre and walked in, only to find a show of some kind had already started. It was only after we had quickly found seats near the front of the auditorium that we looked around and noticed that the audience around us were all young girls dressed in colourful costumes. We seemed to be the only ones in the audience not actually involved in the show, which was a mixture of drama, Western classical ballet, Chinese mythology and poetry. The performers ranged from amateurish to excellent, and from tiny tots to young adults. The highlight for us was four delightful little girls who performed the famous dance from Swan Lake. There was also an impressive scene based on "Night on Bald Mountain". It soon become clear that we had walked in on a dress rehearsal, as the directors occasionally yelled at various cast members who missed their cues or dropped microphones. After the show, the man in charge of it all greeted us and explained that they were students of the Xiamen University Performing Arts College. He was rather apologetic about the standard of the show, saying it was not ready yet. We tried to find out when the actual performance would be, but his answer "Tonight at 7.30" was rather mystifying, especially as he said we would be welcome to attend if we were still here. As Yoong said, he would probably go home and realize what a foolish thing he had said.
It's a beautiful sunny day. About time too. Yoong took the opportunity to wash the rest of our clothes as it is easier to dry them here than back in City Garden, where you can't open the windows without filling out lengthy forms in triplicate. After the hotel's weird breakfast of rice porridge, egg, tasteless white buns, soy milk, good grain bread with jam and luke-warm coffee, we went out for a walk, heading off in a new direction.
Everywhere you turn on this island there is something of beauty to see. We visited some colonial buildings including some we had actually seen briefly with Tom. We ended up at an attractive park dedicated to Lin Qiao Zhi, a Gulangyu-born pioneer of gynaecology and obstetrics. Along the edge were stone books with quotes from her writings in Chinese and English and the statues included a newly-delivered baby boy between two giant hands.
The nickname Piano Isle is quite valid. We could hear several pianists in the houses we passed, clearly distinguishable from the piped piano music in the more touristy streets. The only negative is the smell of the drains in the narrow streets, the same smell that finds its way into the hotel bathrooms.
We have now checked out of our Beautiful Island Hotel, leaving with them our bags and various items of wet clothing, which they promised to hang on a clothesline for us. As usual, the streets are full of Chinese day-trippers stocking up on the local sweets and clockwork zebras that walk round in circles. Chinese tourists will buy anything! We have seen very few European tourists though. This is very much a local tourist scene.
I am writing this in the grounds of the Xiamen Museum, yet another stately building with a mildly interesting display of cultural artifacts, more stone art, a couple of organs, including a huge pipe organ, and a "gift room" displaying gifts to Xiamen from countries all over the world. There didn't seem to be anything from Australia, though New Zealand was well represented. Maybe Australia hasn't heard of Xiamen. It's very quiet here. We met a couple of middle-aged local tourists but apart from that we have had the place to ourselves. There was not even much staff around once we got past the ticket-seller.
We had lunch at yet another dumpling place, one of the best so far, and found a little mooncake bakery where we bought up a selection - one of each kind to try. They were quite nice and a fraction of the price one would normally pay for mooncakes, even in China.
We spent an hour or so at the Visitors Centre, a fitting end to our Gulang Yu trip as we watched movies of the places we had seen, and a few we had missed, and viewed the photo displays and computer information.
We had planned to have a meal at Pizza Hut across from Gulang Yu, because of its famous view of the island, but we found out a few hundred other people had the same idea. We were given a number and told it would be at least another hour before we could even go up in the lift. We took our bags over to the quayside to wait and I went for a final walk around Zhongshan Lu while Yoong looked after the bags and fended off the shoe-shine ladies and photographers and beggars and map-sellers and little girls selling flowers, while at the same time enjoying the lit-up views of Gulang Yu across the water. By the time I got back she had decided that the view from Pizza Hut would not be that much different from the current one and that there was always the possibility that Chinese pizzas would be sweet, as the bread tends to be. And there was no guarantee we would be sitting near the window anyway. So we got the bus to the bus station and ate in a local restaurant, where we had pork and mushrooms, stir-fried greens, a delicious tofu dish and plenty of rice for about a fifth of what we would have paid at Pizza Hut.
We are now relaxing at the bus station ready for the sleeper bus to Shenzhen. Despite the rain it's been a very enjoyable trip, but we look forward to returning to the comforts of the City Garden Hotel.