Xiamen

5th March 2014. Xiamen (pronounced Shay-men)  is what Richard Nixon called the “Oriental Hawaii” and means “door to the house”. Personally I think Tricky Dicky needed glasses although Xiamen is a clean modern holiday centre for the Chinese. The annual mean temperature of 21’C and high rainfall means that the flowers and the Phoenix Trees makes it a pretty garden city and to that end they were busy planting palm trees everywhere we went.

The Dragon in the picture is one of a pair that usually sit outside a public building or a temple. You can tell its a girl, because under her left foot is her cub, while under his right foot would be a ball or a world.

History now. Yes Xiamen, and Gulangyu Island were opened as treaty ports after the first Opium Wars in 1842, but the Portuguese, Dutch and British had been trading here since the 16th century….end of history lesson.  Whatever, Xiamen is now in one of China’s “special economic zones” and foreign tourists are now being encouraged to visit.

So, having trouped off the ship through the new “International Cruise Terminal” and with our toilet paper and hand-cleanser in our bags, (see previous blog entry) we boarded our buses and set off to see the Tzu Chi Palace.

And that’s where it all went wrong….unfortunately it was our guides first ever trip and although she tried hard and was very sweet, it was like me being a guide for a bunch of French tourist for the day; hopeless. Even her microphone and personal amplifier did not work!!

When we arrived, the ancient Tzu Chi Palace was still being built – sorry renovated.

Even Also it was crowded with tourists, seeing what, I never did fully understand, but one could walk up the stone stairs to the top of the hill and down again.

They sort of thing a lot here. Anyway, during the hour of free time we had here we looked around the busy market stalls.

Never mind, all aboard the bus and on to the second, and much more interesting stop. Nanputuo Temple.

This Buddhist temple, also still being re-built, meanders peacefully up the hill through walkways cut through the rock to little spaces by ponds overlooking the city below. Although being knee deep in tourists from around China and also students from the University below, it manages to exude a certain calmness despite the monks in their saffron robes amplifying their monotone prayers so that its sounds like a large swam of angry wasps.

We never got to Hulisham Fort or onto Gulangyu Island to see the 200 plus piano’s in the Piano Museum or even to the Oriental Golf Club, which I didn’t find out until today, which is one China’s best golf courses…….Next Time.