Xiamen – Part 3: Gulang Island

I never had a chance to write this weekend, and I regret it but also know that it couldn’t be helped.  We had to pack up the rest of our Christmas presents and bring them down to the post office so that they make it to Canada in time for the Holidays.  This may seem simple: buy presents, pack them up, and ship!  But in China, nothing is simple.  It takes hours sometimes to find even the most basic things.  When everything is unfamiliar (from language to brand names), finding the ‘right stuff’ can be difficult.

We purchased a lot of our Christmas shopping in Guilin, while we were on holidays.  So it might seem like all we had to do was stick it all in boxes and ship it off to Canada.  But customs can be quite difficult…so if they decide to open our box up, everything might end up a mess when it arrives.  I experienced this in Xiamen, so this time I labeled everything as best as I could, so that our friends and family on the receiving end know whose gift is whose.  I also included a letter with each box detailing which item was for which person as a back up.

Then, we had to go to the post office and ask for boxes and wrapping materials (in Chinese).  Of course, this should have also been simple, but the women there sold us boxes that were too small for their labels, so in the end, we had to pack everything up twice (as well as buy a second round of boxes).  Oh China!

Then, of course, there’s the long list of items that cannot be shipped anymore.  Although we were careful with our purchases, knowing that they’d have to be sent via China Post, several items were removed from our boxes, leaving certain family members and friends with half-gifts.  Some things in particular were especially confusing.  Milk products aren’t allowed to be shipped.  We were told this rather abruptly today, however, we have no idea which of the gifts we were sending contained milk!  They didn’t take the item out.  They left it in and scolded us instead.  It is all terribly confusing.

But have no fear, we will manage to ship the rest of them before too long.  Tonight, I’m taking a break from that stress so that I can finish writing about our last 2 days in Xiamen!  I bet you thought I’d never get around to it, eh??

We only had 3 days to enjoy in Amoy city, so we had to spend them wisely.  We woke up early on Friday October 3rd and checked out at the hostel.  We weren’t too terribly sad to go, as the hostel wasn’t the greatest we’d stayed in.  It’s only redeeming quality was the excellent bartender who was both friendly and nearly fluent in English.

Our first stop was Nanpu Tuo or “The South Temple”.  The location of this temple goes back 2000 years, and it has been called Nanputuo since the 1600s, when it was rebuilt.  It received another facelift since I’d seen it last, and it now has even more elaborate wood structures and its old stone statues have been replaced by newer ones.

 

Our next adventure in Xiamen was an overnight stay on Gulang Island.  I’ve already written about the insane experience getting there, so I’ll keep this post short (er) by leaving that info out.  (You can read about it in my post: Chinese National Day).  Once we arrived at our hostel, and checked into our room, we set off to wander the island.  What I was most looking forward to showing Dave, was the view of Xiamen Island from Gulang.  At night, the buildings are all lit up and it’s absolutely beautiful.

As our stomach’s began to grumble, we made our way into the island’s center, where there are shops and food vendors waiting to be explored.  I had my heart set on some fresh Xiamen Seafood, so we spent some time looking for just the right place.

We spent the rest of the evening drinking beer, journaling and relaxing after a hot day in the sun.  We did get adventurous at one point and tried to find some wine to enjoy out on the terrace.  We did find some wine, but it was a tad difficult to enjoy.  I love many things about China: the food, the beer, the people….But I do not enjoy Chinese wine!!  We called it quits at around 1am and jumped in the most comfortable bed we’d slept in since we arrived here in Mid August (a western style bed is a HUGE selling point for any hotel in the Orient!!)

The following morning, we set out to explore the island some more, but with 80,000 people in such a small space, it was a bit rough to get anywhere.  We did manage to enjoy some very good skewered potato as well as some steam dumplings and other treats as we walked the paths and squeezed through the crowds

Eventually, we began to feel the effects of the sun, so we set off down a shaded path that was mostly empty.  The lack of tourists lead us to believe that there wouldn’t be much to see, but I can say that the time we spent in that shade was the best I had on our last day in Xiamen.  There is so much interesting architecture on Gulang Island, and it’s all so well kept!  We took our time, taking photos of the beautiful walls and the winding path.  Eventually we found our way into a mini-shopping area, where we discovered a bar with free Wifi.  We spent about an hour in there, trying a Chinese iced cream dessert and chatting with Dave’s brother William on Skype.  This was definitely another highlight of our day!

This quiet path eventually lead us back to our hotel, where our bags were waiting to be taken with us to the airport.  It was time to leave.  But this time, at least I left Xiamen on my own terms.

I can’t say enough times how lucky I felt to visit this hometown of mine.  Part of me has always stayed in Xiamen, and it’s hard to put into words how much this trip meant to me.

Stay tuned!  I’ve got many more stories and pictures to come!!