Xiamen visit

For our annual Christmas outing we went these holidays to Xiamen. This is a city in the southern part of China. It is also the city where L. studied a number of years ago. He had not been back in almost 5 years. Xiamen was quite (a positive) surprise to me. Lots of things to do and lots of things to see. Xiamen is an island and has therefore lots of beaches. There was a very nice boardwalk along the east coast of island over a distance of more than 10 kilometer. A very nice 3 hour walk, for which I had more enthousiasm than L.

There is another small island, Gulang Yu, a short boat ride from Xiamen itself. This is the "Schiermonnikoog" of China. No cars and as many tourists as on a busy summer day on Schiermonnikoog. In the 1920's rich traders and industrialists build very nice and large villa's on the island. These are now slowly being renovated and sold for very large amounts of money.

The picture looks very idyllic but the truth was quite different. As almost everywhere else in China which has some touristic potential you will find large groups of organized tourists who follow their guide. The guide usually carries a flag on a stick and if you are unlucky a megaphone. The standard rule is that the group should keep moving so they do not bother you for a long time. Unfortunately there are a lot of groups.

If you would stay on the small island till after 6 pm. you would probably find it very quiet. But, we did not have the patience for that.