Nothing much to do in Xiamen - 4th day

Xiamen - last day... phew. We will be so happy to get out tomorrow. Today we venture to the Xiamen Botanical Garden..... nowhere else to go. And the Garden is not worth visiting because it is not impressive in terms of showing the visitors what they have. Basically the infrastructure and the system is outdated in my opinion ....

There is this 烈士记念广场 adjacent to the Botanical Garden

They do their poses at the park

 静

大叶樟树 planted by the late Deng Xiao Peng

I love the cobbled walkway ......

We go to this McDonald's near Jinyan quite a bit

闽南小菜 again for dinner

佛跳墙

The only consolation we have about today is that we are leaving for MZ tomorrow early morning and we look forward to a different city to play in. I think it's safe to say we will not be back to Xiamen in a great hurry. Our opinion? It's a modern city with the usual connectivity but it lacks soul. The people lack public civility, the infrastructure not looked after, the art scene appalling, the environment polluted and dusty, there is virtually zero shopping facilities for the savvy travelers, the food scene is non existent; and the local attractions not exciting. Good bye Xiamen.

Nothing much to do at Xiamen - Day 3

Xiamen on the 3rd day. We are restless and find that we have degenerated into oblivion. We have no mood to go around visiting any other places because we have low tolerance of people who spit on the streets and smoke in air conditioned buildings including restaurants. Not that we are high class people just that we are of different culture. Today we move out of Bestel into Xiamen Airlines Hotel (Jinyan Hotel 金雁酒店）situated on Hubin Nanlu.

Around the hotel is the 鹭江湖。 And 鹭 is the bird of Xiamen city.

We get the run around by the receptionist because she could not get us into a non-smoking room (in a non-smoking floor) with a single bed and in the end we get upgraded into a non-smoking executive floor room.

We go to the 湖滨南路公车站 to buy our coach tickets for Meizhou. We will depart for MZ on 14/4 at 7.30am and the tickets cost us only CNY122 per person. The station is only 5 minutes' walk away from Jinyan. We want to travel by coach so we can see the country side.

We get good recommendation from Jinyan Concierge to eat at 好清香 which is just 10 minutes' walk away. Our order for our 闽南小吃 lunch today 燒肉粽， 韭菜盒， 面线糊， 蟹肉粥， 虾面。 We feel finally that we have found food that agree with us and are prepared and cooked in commercially clean ways. And surprising to us the taste of the food is similar to ones we get in Malaysia.

After a satisfying lunch we go to the 文化中心 and  科技馆 as recommended by the Concierge. The fact that we are going to these places tell a story.... we have no other more interesting places to go! And they are absolutely disappointing places. 

At the 科技馆 there were no visitors apart from us (that tells the true picture) and the guides there did not help us understand what they have on display. And it is only 5 years old!!

The arts center did not even have one piece of art on display. And it smells moldy in the exhibition halls. OMG. Xiamen is well developed in infrastructure (exterior appearance) but these infrastructure is not well maintained and supported. The city seems to want to advance in the big league but it is hampered by 沒有公德心的公民 and a city hall that does not transform itself to meet the challenges of welcoming world citizens to its city.

BAD NEWS and getting smarter

Pink butterfly deleted her account accidentally and as a result her diary is gone. So sad......

In another world.....

I was doing my on-line research last night and chanced upon the possibility that one can fly direct from Taipei to Kinmen (Jinmen) which is an island off Xiamen in Fujian Province, using Mandarin Airlines; and then catch a ferry from Kinmen to enter mainland China (Xiamen).  Many Taiwanese do that since 2008 and apparently it is also allowed for foreigners to do it this way.

I never thought about this route and had already booked TPE-HK and then on to Meizhou and Xiamen by coach/ train. I am dumb founded by this "discovery" and kick myself why I was in the "old world" thinking. This is a shorter route and costs less time and money.

Today I decide to cancel my China Airlines TPE-HK tickets and incur a small penalty loss of TWD1400 (A$45) and I am also prepared to take a loss on the coach tickets I already bought for the HK to Meizhou route of HK$210 (A$25). Instead I am going to rebook Taipei to Xiamen direct using China Airlines. I decide not to go via Kinmen just in case foreigners are somehow not allowed to enter Xiamen from there and then I am stuck in "no man's land". From Xiamen I can trace my route to Meizhou via Dabu or Yongding ( a distance of some 300km to 400 km depending on which way I take) so I can visit the UNESCO world heritage Hakka Fujian Tulou 土楼 sites there. It will be an event by itself.... immersing in one of the great Hakka culture and architectural past.

HAKKA TULOU - YONGDING, FUJIAN, CHINA

现存最古老的土楼——龙安寨。

 

最令人震撼的土楼群——初溪土楼群。

经典土楼最多的土楼群——洪坑土楼群。

最壮观的土楼群——南溪土楼群。

最具侨乡特色的土楼群——中川土楼群。

规模最大的圆楼——承启楼。

楼梯最多、最奇特的土楼——集庆楼。

最像布达拉宫的土楼——奎聚楼。

品位最高的五凤楼——福裕楼。

最富丽堂皇的圆楼——振成楼。

最具书香气的土楼——衍香楼。

最秀丽的土楼——振福楼。

现存年代最久的五凤楼——裕隆楼。

占地面积最大的土楼——永隆昌楼。

最高的土楼——福盛楼。

最大气的土楼——遗经楼。

防御功能最突出的土楼——五实楼。

最富传奇色彩的土楼——环极楼。

直径最大的圆楼——福盛楼。

最华美精致的土楼——永康楼。

最像仙境的土楼群——岩太土楼群。

围数最多的方形楼——绳庆楼。

This new route of travel also makes more sense now because I do not have to land in HK, travel north east to Meizhou, then south east to Xiamen and double back west from Xiamen to HK. I can now land in Xiamen, travel north west to Meizhou and then south west to HK in one shorter, "unified" direction.

The latest update on March 15 is that the refund from China Airlines has been processed. CAL are amazingly efficient and no fuss. I am so glad I chose them for the TPE-HK flight. I can now go ahead and rebook us on CAL for TPE/Xiamen. I am also happy that after one whole day of research I have now booked our hotels for Taipei and Taichung. Yes!

I am also keen on a 4-day train holiday covering Alisan, Kaohsiung, and Hualien 豪華環島遊．阿里山+高雄+花蓮 豐富4天(中部出發) with departure from Taichung and ending our journey in Taipei in time for us to catch our flight to Xiamen the next day. I trust the recommendations from The Man In Seat Sixty One and will use eztravel.com.tw for this special train journey. Quite frankly, wherever possible, I would prefer to use trains and coaches for domestic travels. And in Taiwan and China this is very much possible and the journeys can be enjoyable.