Xiamen Beach & Zhongshan Lu

Xiamen (Sh ya men)

 Day two was just as eventful! We woke up bright and early again, showered quickly and grabbed some McDonald’s breakfast before we had to pack up our stuff. For the remainder of our trip we were going to be staying at another hostel on the big island of Xiamen (although we wanted to stay at Bayveiw, they were booked for the rest of the trip). We found our way to the ferry and headed back to Xiamen, got in a taxi and found ourselves in the middle of nowhere… literally. The taxi driver swore that he was dropping us off at the address we gave him, but there was not a hostel in sight, just a big lot under construction. You see the problem with the language barrier is that it is difficult for us to exchange important information. Taxi drivers don’t know the English names for locations and we don’t know the Chinese names, so we have to rely on an address or cross street to get us to where we want to go. And when a taxi driver tells us “here” we have to trust that we are in the right place, but it is not always correct – kind of really frustrating sometimes, especially in an unfamiliar place.

Anyway, we called the hostel and we eventually found our way. The second hostel was called the Blue House Inn – it was not as nice as the first, but still nice. The Inn Keeper did not speak a word of English. Luckily there was another young couple from Shanghai that helped us get through check in and into our room. Thankfully, we had a private room at this hostel. It was small; just two twin beds and a TV but a pretty large bathroom. The floor was made of two by fours that were just laid down with large gaps that we could see the dirt ground below (luckily it was warm weather). The bathroom was interesting. One wall was made of bamboo and the shower was just a head hanging off the wall (no stall/curtain), so showering soaked everything in the bathroom.

Enough about the hostel… that day was pretty sunny and warm, so we were finally able to put on swim suits and walk across the street to the beach. There was a little boardwalk that we walked down to the main beach area. Oddly enough, there were several other people on the beach, but we were the only people in less than jeans and long sleeves. Even more strangely, we say at least 100 bride and grooms taking pictures along the beach.

Side Note: let me tell you about the wedding picture shoots. We saw them everywhere we went - all over Gulangyu Island and then all over the beach on Xiamen. For a traditional Chinese wedding, the bride and groom rent very elaborate outfits and have a huge photo session before the wedding. Some of their outfits are similar to traditional bride and groom outfits – white dress and tux – and other outfits look more like a prom fashion photo shoot (but the weird prom dresses that no one really wears). Apparently Xiamen is a huge hot spot for the photo shoots.

Back to the vacation… once we were on the beach, we lay out and got some sun but people were staring at us like we were insane. I mean, seriously, it was like 75 and sunny and we weren’t on the beach in wedding gowns and heels, but we were the crazy ones. People would stop and stare as they walked by and took pictures of us. The funny part was that we were taking pictures of all of the wedding shots and fully clothed people on the beach.

After a couple hours, we decided it was time for a bike ride! You see, we had done our research and the island was awesome for renting a bike and riding around in the mountains and along the ocean. There were bike rentals every ten feet and the best part was that we could rent a two person bike (I know, I know, fabulous)! We planned to get a bike for a couple hours and ride around the see more of the island and the sights. As it turned out, it wasn’t the best of ideas…

I sat in the front of our two-man bike. Sure, it was my first time on a bike since middle school, but how hard could it be? WRONG! It took us a while to really get comfortable on it, but we started riding anyway. It was really hard for us to gain our balance and something must have been wrong with the wheel or something because the steering was off. We were riding down the sidewalk and I would freak out every time another bike would ride toward us (the sidewalks were really narrow) and heaven forbid that a person walk nearby. One time while we were riding, a little old China man walked in front of me and I screamed because I thought I was going to hit him and he screamed and jumped in the bushes because he probably also thought I was going to hit him – that or he was just freaked out that some weird white girl just screamed at him. Courtney and I had to stop the bike because we were laughing so hard there were tears. In fact, I am even laughing out loud sitting in my apartment alone right now remembering the look on that man’s face as he dove into the bushes.

Well the bike ride did not last much longer after that… turns out the island was a little bit bigger than we had anticipated, and even though we rode a couple miles, we never found food or any of the touristy spots we wanted to see. Our hostel was located on one side of the island while everything else was on the other. When we stopped to ask a local person for directions to a park, he laughed at us when we told him that we were going to ride our bike there. By that point our butts were in pain from the bike seats so we gave up and rode the bike back to the beach area to watch the sunset.

Now I am a sucker for a good sunset. I mean, I could sit on the beach and watch the sky change vibrant colors for hours as the sun sets in the horizon, and there is really nothing better than an amazing sunset on the beach of a tropical paradise. The thing about China is that the sun sets are always disappointing. The air is always just so thick and hazy – even when it is a “sunny day”, it is not a clear blue sky, white fluffy clouds kind of sunny day, it is more of a dull blue hazy with a little sunshine. Now I don’t exactly know the science behind the colors of a sunset, but I know that pollution is supposed to make the colors of a sunset more vivid, so I don’t know why China lacks any color, but it is sort of depressing. Sure, the sun did look pretty as it was reflected over the water on the beach, but the sky was still the same dull blue color that it always is. Even at the climax of a sunset, when the sun is about halfway hidden by the horizon (typically when the sky looks the prettiest), that was when the China sun nearly disappeared. It was no longer reflecting light off of the water, but a mere shadow behind a grey haze.

We watched the first half of the sunset from the beach boardwalk, then the last half from a restaurant booth that over looked the beach for our first dinner of the night. Following dinner, we got ready for the evening and headed downtown to the Zhongshan Pedestrian Walk. The interesting thing about China is that many places have a hot spot that they turn into a pedestrian walk in the evening, this way, street food vendors and market shops line the road without worrying about all the traffic. Well Zhongshan turned out to be a huge success and we spent most of the evening walking around, eating, shopping, eating and looked at all of the street food – most of which I am just not brave enough to even try, but it is still interesting, nonetheless.

First, I believe Courtney got a corn dog (I tried a bite of the corn part but it was nothing compared to the corn dogs at Red Robin – they are still the best), then we got some deep friend broccoli and rice cakes with spicy sauce. This may not sound delicious to a carnivore, but in fact it was! Then we found some gelato ice cream (which ended up being a total disappointment). Then I got a Ramen Noodle veggie thing from a street cart. Those carts are my favorite because it is like the Mongolian BBQ of China. All kinds of meats and veggies are laid out on a cart and the chef gives you a little basket and you put whatever you want in the basket. Then they cook it up right there in front of you in the most unsanitary environment (I am sure). Then you choose your sauce, they put it in a to-go container with some chop sticks and done – dinner for only 5 ¥! Can’t beat that! It was delicious though. Then Courtney got some noodle soup with egg and cabbage. Then we ended the evening with sticky fruit and Coco green tea.

After all that, we got back in a taxi and headed back to the hostel, exhausted yet again. Courtney was burnt and miserable. I on the other hand, barely had a tan line. We did spend nearly the entire day in the sun, but Courtney fries and peels, so that was our last day in the sun, unfortunately.