Xiamen Blanket Bingo, Shangrao Surprise

Last weekend was Labour Day in China. It was also the first day of Glorious Expo, so clearly I had to get OUT of Shanghai. 人山人海 was about to become 观光客山观光客海。So, Bryce, Nick and I decided to go to Xiamen. Transportation shenanigans abounded, and we wound up going to 4 cities for the goal of one!

To get to Xiamen cheaply, we went with an Elong deal that routed us through Wuhan. With a 20 hour layover. Being the positive people we are, we embraced this opportunity to check out another city. Wuhan was really polluted and everyone had trouble breathing. I was disappointed when we couldn't see across the East Lake for the classic Wuhan photo, and amused when we were told to go check out the Wuhan Bund (which is "JUST LIKE the one in your Shanghai hometown!") - I think it would have been too hazy to see. However, Wuhan DID have delicious street food - homefries(!), deep fried bananas, tire cookies, fish (shaped - not flavored) cookies, chou doufu. Also, our hostel was pretty adorable and I would recommend it.

This photo:


Should have looked like this:


Although the smog made this view of the East Lake look quite pretty:


The Yellow Goose Pagoda:


Delicious yummies:


The next morning we went to the airport for our 11 AM, FRIDAY morning flight (according to the internet booking). However, we were informed that the flight was actually 11 AM, THURSDAY (according to the paper receipt which we did not closely examine, apparently). Hilarity did not ensue, but we made it to Xiamen on the 1:30.

Xiamen had clean air, blue skies, greenery, and 75 degree temperatures. It was love at first sight when we exited the airport. We waited in the longest cab queue in the world and headed to the island to meet our Couchsurfing hosts at Xiamen University. Lydia and Biju are amazing people, and their apartment not only has disco lighting and fake-view window shades, but also amazing views of Gulangyu. This was easily the classiest couchsurfing I've ever had. We spent the evening touring their neighborhood, making sure they knew spicy Chinese food actually existed, and hanging out on the expat bar street. We also attempted to go to the Pirate Ship Bar (not sure what it's actually called, but it's a pirate ship parked in a Carrefour parking lot!!) for KTV, but turns out it was prostitute night, so that was a bust. (But, if you're interested, the ladies only start at 200 kuai - a bargain!).

View from my room at Lydia and Biju's:


The Pirate Ship:


Saturday we went to Gulangyu. Gulangyu is an island located off the coast off the coast of Xiamen. It's car free and bike free, so it's incredibly un-China like in it's quiet. You might hear piano music though, Gulangyu has more pianos per capita than anywhere else in the world (one in every 5 homes). After the Treaty of Nanking, the island became the foreigner settlement for the port of Xiamen (then called Amoy), and the architecture serves as a reminder. Today the foreigners are gone and many of the colonial mansions are empty and covered with ivy. But about half of them are still in good condition and serve has homes still, or adorable restaurants or shops. The whole island had a romantic, bohemian feel, and I really enjoyed walking around the streets. Oh, and of course there are beaches.






Saturday night we met up with some of Lydia and Biju's friends and went to Pizza followed by dancing at Key Club. The club had a Filipino cover band (can anyone explain to me why it's Philippines and Filipino? Shouldn't one be Filipines or Philippino?) The band was AMAZING, and we had a great time.

These two things happened:




Sunday we toured Xiamen University and went to the beach. The university earns it's reputation as the most beautiful in China. The beach we went to had a very exciting bridge, an awkward foreigner doing capoeria, and a series of computer mouse sculptures. With things like that, you have to realize that not only did someone conceptualize 6 giant concrete mice double clicking the ocean, but someone in municipal government was like "using the beach as a giant figurative mousepad?! EXCELLENT idea!" and found the funding for it.

Bridge:


Beach:


Mice:


This guy sold VERY fresh goat milk out of the back of his van.



Then we had a really stressful trip (no cabs, anywhere) to the train station to catch our train to Wuyishan. Backing up a bit: since we're super cheap, we decided to fly one way to Xiamen (slash mistakenly Wuhan) and then take the train back to Shanghai. However, it being a holiday weekend, and us being in Hong Kong when tickets went on sale, tickets to Shanghai were not exactly in abundance. So, we got a ticket to Wuyishan, which is half way. And then I pulled out a map and started pointing at cities within a two hundred miles of Wuyishan until we found one where we could get the last 3 4th class train tickets from. Joy.

Wuyishan was beautiful. I highly recommend going. It's annoying to have to pay to do the "hiking" (since hiking in China is always paved trails), but I suppose in the States you have to pay to enter state parks and such, too. The scenery is worth it though. I've traveled a lot of China, but this was my first time seeing forests that were similar to where I've lived and hiked in the States, so that was pretty exciting for me.

Gorges:



Pavilion we hiked to:


We hiked a few gorges (and one creepy silver mine), and then our cab driver took us to a tea factory for a tea tasting. In China, tea tasting works like wine tasting in the states. It's all free, and then they hope you buy some. The place he took us to was nice - they gave us a quick tour of how they prepare the leaves after harvest, and performed a pretty simple tea ceremony. The hostess also explained the merits of each tea. I'm glad we made this stop, and that the cab driver insisted on it. I knew Wuyishan had mountains and gorges and the like, but I didn't realize until we arrived that the whole place was covered in beautiful terraced tea fields.




We didn't spend the night in Wuyishan, but instead took the night bus to Shangrao in order to catch our morning train to Shanghai (like I said, travel shenanigans). Shangrao isn't exactly a place I've heard of before. Most Chinese who I asked before our trip knew of it, and vaguely where it was, but not much else. Appropriately, the woman who sold us our bus tickets was very concerned about why I would want to go to Shangrao, and kept asking if she could sell me a connecting ticket. Our expectations were not high for this small hamlet of about 7 million.

The bus ride was 3 bumpy hours, but the scenery was consistently pretty great. Shangrao itself looked like any other Chinese city. Wide boulevards, communist concrete architecture. We checked into the nicest truck stop I've ever been in, and then asked a cab driver to take us to a bar. We fully expected a sketch KTV place, but little did we know, Shangrao has a pretty bumping nightlife! Seriously. This was the most amazing shock of the trip.




Tuesday was incredibly uneventful, as we just sat on an uncomfortable train for 8 hours. My knees really hate hard seats. Big props to my friends who have done that for longer than 24 hours in the past.

Now I'm back to regular life. Angie Chang is in town for the expo, so I was super excited to see her this past weekend! My soccer team suffered our first loss today to the over-dramatic Brazilian team. And Kyla comes on the 17th! Big time excitement!

~L