xiamen (sha-men) is silly!

for the May holiday, tim and i decided that we were going to take a trip together. we had thrown out many ideas such as Hong Kong & Macau, Chengdu, Xi'an, etc... we really wanted to go somewhere warm with a beach and i remember a fellow CIEE china friend's blog about Xiamen. so, we did our research and decided it was the place to go. it was also tons cheaper than our other options. the beach sounded fabulous to us and who doesnt wanna be a beach bum?

well, the weather decided to not be in our favor and we arrived on friday night to rain, smog and high humidity. we were still ready to have a good time and go with the flow. we were still on vacation and ready for adventure.

we woke up on saturday morning pretty early and headed out to China's largest Starbucks! we then decided to just walk around the city, and down zhongshan lu which is a pedestrian street right by the water.

i did not know this until i returned to shanghai and was talking to my chinese teacher in my 3 room, jane, that xiamen is known for it's really cheap shopping. she is absolutely right! they had some great street shopping outside and i bought 2 dresses, a skirt and a pair of tennis shoes for less than 200 kuai (approximately $30 USD!). i was so excited! i also got some great fruit tang hu lu. it's fruit with hard sugar coating.

 i am definitely going to miss that stuff back in the states. we saw some really random things, like
1. naked wedding pictures (seriously)
2. corn in a cup vendors
3. crazy food streets (with puppies in a cage... i don't even wanna think about that. i am scarred for life)
4. too much seafood!

5. a store called "Playboy" but was actually a bedding store.

after the walking street and getting some pizza, we visited the Nanputuo Temple next to Xiamen University. As we are getting in our cab, i tell the driver where we want to go and show him a picture on the map... he shakes his head and says "bu hao" meaning "bad". we weren't sure why until we got there and realized it was really crowded, beginning to rain, and we were the only white people there. we don't know if that's what he meant, but we decided to make that why :)

we made the best of it and walked around for awhile. there are these pagodas that you are supposed to toss coins into for good luck. the higher place you make it in, the more luck i assume. so, we emptied out all our jiaos (like dimes in the US) and began throwing. we were quite the spectacle. the only white people. a small girl. a tall guy. and we were dressed "like America" we kept saying. haha we were both wearing red, white and navy. i found it super hilarious!
at one point, this lady picks up tim's coin off the ground, stares at him, and then throws it in the first try! it was so funny and we couldnt quit laughing. we also were asked to have our pictures taken with a few people. it became a game eventually, seeing how many asked us personally.
tim is over 6ft tall so, he obviously won most of the time.

that night we went to a really fun place and had pizza (again), drinks and listened a really crazy band called d'extreme band. they played songs from britney spears, shania twain, 50 cent, metallica... crazy.

the next day we ventured out to this island called Gu Lang Yu.

we boarded a ferry to get over there and tim's head was touching the ceiling the whole time :)

we walked around the island and saw some really pretty things and even visited an aviary! bad thing about the aviary... tim got pooped on. his arm. it was funny, but really gross. at this point we had been walking around in the humidity for quite awhile so we decided to just leave the island. easier said then done. it was beginning to rain and basically everyone decided it was time to leave too! we were stuck in a stampede of chinese people for about 30 minutes. it was pushing, shoving, cutting, all out battle to get these ferry tickets! it was awful.

then we had to line up again to get on the ferry. all the umbrellas were hitting tim in the face and he had to wear my sunglasses to protect his eyes. he always says "i live in tiny town". haha poor guy, but it's true, he does.

we took it easy the rest of the trip and headed back to shanghai monday night.
xiamen was very very different from shanghai! i was glad to experience another chinese city and do some exploring :)