Somewhere in . .. Xiamen, China

We are now in the real China, after having made a short stopover at Hong Kong. Hong Kong was very distinct to Macau, certainly a lot less older european architecture, as the British architectural legacy seems to have been less marked than that of the Portuguese in Macau, but such a huge hub of activity! We walked around the streets of Hong Kong for the two days, visiting strange markets of goldfish (a street filled with goldfish shops), and exotic pet birds, both of which are treasured in most Hong Kong homes, and went through the business district to look at the huge skyscrapers and to find among them remnants of the "old", more chinese Hong Kong. But what really marvelled us was the "Light Show" where the entire Hong Kong skyscraper skyline coordinates itself into a wonderful dance of synchronised colour schemes and music, just over the water!

On we flew (cheaply, flights in China are priced according to distances mostly and usually have pretty good prices) to Xiamen, our first destination in China proper. Xiamen is an old port city given concession to the European countries following the first Opium Wars, and retains some of the charm from that age, particularly in the island ahead of us of Gulang Yu in which no cars or motorbikes are allowed, a welcome respite from the polluted air and sound that is so pervasive elsewhere. But Xiamen has also presented us with a different China - a bustling, modern one, with clean wide pavements, greenery, well ordered and with very old charming budhist temples where many come to worship, next to immense, impressive skyscrapers (Xiamen is by Chinese standards a relatively smaller city, with only 1.2 million people).
Even if one feels the weight of a high density population, with so many people on the street and a chaotic traffic, Xiamen feels like a relaxed place to stroll around.


And furthermore we are lucky to be hosted by John, a danish expat who has very kindly welcomes us into his beautiful home, where we have the cosiness of a lovely place to stay in a great location, and more importantly a chance to meet (and seriously party with) a lot of people living here and who give us a wonderful insight into life in China - today we are going for lunch with the entire office workers (for of course some lovely Chinese food)!! All in all, a great start to our Chinese trip! We leave Xiamen for Hangzhou, near Shanghai, tomorrow morning, for our next stage... more news to follow then!