We had a week and half off school early in October...tried to plan a trip and, after several misfires and much disappointment, decided to stay in Xiamen and see some of the local sites. The girls are in school all day and Gene works fairly late so they haven't had much chance to see this place. After consulting our handy city guide, we decided to ride the bus to Zhongshan Park. According to the book, most Chinese cities have a park with this name, named after Sun Zhongshan who sought to free China. It is right off a main road and centrally located, but was not too noisy and not too crowded. We were glad to see that it looked quite well maintained as maintenance doesn't always seem to be a priority here. The girls were dwarfed by the giant dragon topiary!
After trying out some of the playgroung equipment and swearing off the rickety-looking carnival rides (and getting many curious looks--I guess not many laowai venture into this park), we noticed a winding canal of sorts. We decided to give it a try and enlisted Liz to attempt to ascertain the price of paddle boat rental. She did a good job with "duo shoa jian si ren?" We think this means, "how much four people?" It was close enough and we paid our $7 for an hour rental.
The four-seated, canopied boat had us facing each other and taking turns at the pedals. There was some learning as to the stearing device, but we figured it out without any major collisions!
Isn't this serene? I doubt that the water is terribly clean, but it wasn't too stinky. Look closely toward the bridge to see a man standing in a long boat...
Here's a closer look. There were several of these guys, spread out along the meandering "stream" who were on clean-up duty. The long pole extending toward the back of his boat is not his oar, it's actually a net support. As he paddled along, the net made a sweep of leaves and other debris and he periodically scooped them into the basket at the other end of the boat. These guys were mostly friendly but one gave us some scowls when we had to attempt a 3-piont turn at an intersection. Oh, well, no one was hurt or got wet! By the way, have I mentioned the unreal balance everyone here seems to have? I see examples of this so often and am constantly amazed. I attribute this skill to the very early exposure to fast-moving vehicles without the benefit of carseats and the like. We daily see ladies riding side-saddle on the backs of bikes and motor-bikes, they are almost never holding onto anything. The ladies also seem to prefer high heels, no matter what the activity. Even a day trip to a mountain in which hundreds of stairs will be climbed is occasion for high heels! Now for the early exposure: it is very common to see said ladies holding very young children on their laps, riding side-saddle, speeding down the road, not holding on. Yikes! Once the kid is old enough, he or she usually gets sandwiched between the driver and passenger. Never in a million years would I do this! Keep your eyes open during the next Olympics for the Chinese gymnasts, divers and any other sport requiring great balance, it's just uncanny!
After all that exertion the girls wanted a treat. Check out the fluffy cotton candy! If I remember correctly, it was less than a dollar each. Of course, cotton candy isn't worth more than one dollar, but it usually costs far more at home. We don't usually see the white variety, but I much prefered it to the color- and flavor-enhanced kind. So artificial. It was also wound around a wooden chopstick of sorts instead of the paper cone.
There was a small display of bonsai trees, by now the girls didn't want to be near each other any more, so they used separate rocks! We have lots of these bougainvillea bushes around here, but they are less spectacular than in Hawaii. Still nice to see colorful plants, though.
Last stop before trekking back to the bus stop was this cute pagoda thing. It was very simple, just used as a resting spot. We climbed up to the second story to see the nice view. There I saw some people eating a large pomelo. This is the largest of the citrus fruits and is native to this area. Local people are very good about eating what's fresh and in seaon (a good lesson for those of us who have grown accustomed to having whatever we want, whenever we want it, thanks to importation. Get it while it's fresh and you'll get the best taste!). So it is pomelo season and friends have told me how great they are but that there is a certain way to eat them. Hmmm. Not sure what to do about that, so I tried to watch what these Chinese college-aged people were doing. Guess I stared too long because they offered me some of their snack! I declined, but it was nice of them to offer. [We eventually tried a pomelo that I bought at the market and then another with our friend, Wendy. More about the day with Wendy later...]
We had a week and half off school early in October...tried to plan a trip and, after several misfires and much disappointment, decided to stay in Xiamen and see some of the local sites. The girls are in school all day and Gene works fairly late so they haven't had much chance to see this place. After consulting our handy city guide, we decided to ride the bus to Zhongshan Park. According to the book, most Chinese cities have a park with this name, named after Sun Zhongshan who sought to free China. It is right off a main road and centrally located, but was not too noisy and not too crowded. We were glad to see that it looked quite well maintained as maintenance doesn't always seem to be a priority here. The girls were dwarfed by the giant dragon topiary!
After trying out some of the playgroung equipment and swearing off the rickety-looking carnival rides (and getting many curious looks--I guess not many laowai venture into this park), we noticed a winding canal of sorts. We decided to give it a try and enlisted Liz to attempt to ascertain the price of paddle boat rental. She did a good job with "duo shoa jian si ren?" We think this means, "how much four people?" It was close enough and we paid our $7 for an hour rental.
The four-seated, canopied boat had us facing each other and taking turns at the pedals. There was some learning as to the stearing device, but we figured it out without any major collisions!
Isn't this serene? I doubt that the water is terribly clean, but it wasn't too stinky. Look closely toward the bridge to see a man standing in a long boat...
Here's a closer look. There were several of these guys, spread out along the meandering "stream" who were on clean-up duty. The long pole extending toward the back of his boat is not his oar, it's actually a net support. As he paddled along, the net made a sweep of leaves and other debris and he periodically scooped them into the basket at the other end of the boat. These guys were mostly friendly but one gave us some scowls when we had to attempt a 3-piont turn at an intersection. Oh, well, no one was hurt or got wet! By the way, have I mentioned the unreal balance everyone here seems to have? I see examples of this so often and am constantly amazed. I attribute this skill to the very early exposure to fast-moving vehicles without the benefit of carseats and the like. We daily see ladies riding side-saddle on the backs of bikes and motor-bikes, they are almost never holding onto anything. The ladies also seem to prefer high heels, no matter what the activity. Even a day trip to a mountain in which hundreds of stairs will be climbed is occasion for high heels! Now for the early exposure: it is very common to see said ladies holding very young children on their laps, riding side-saddle, speeding down the road, not holding on. Yikes! Once the kid is old enough, he or she usually gets sandwiched between the driver and passenger. Never in a million years would I do this! Keep your eyes open during the next Olympics for the Chinese gymnasts, divers and any other sport requiring great balance, it's just uncanny!
After all that exertion the girls wanted a treat. Check out the fluffy cotton candy! If I remember correctly, it was less than a dollar each. Of course, cotton candy isn't worth more than one dollar, but it usually costs far more at home. We don't usually see the white variety, but I much prefered it to the color- and flavor-enhanced kind. So artificial. It was also wound around a wooden chopstick of sorts instead of the paper cone.
There was a small display of bonsai trees, by now the girls didn't want to be near each other any more, so they used separate rocks! We have lots of these bougainvillea bushes around here, but they are less spectacular than in Hawaii. Still nice to see colorful plants, though.
Last stop before trekking back to the bus stop was this cute pagoda thing. It was very simple, just used as a resting spot. We climbed up to the second story to see the nice view. There I saw some people eating a large pomelo. This is the largest of the citrus fruits and is native to this area. Local people are very good about eating what's fresh and in seaon (a good lesson for those of us who have grown accustomed to having whatever we want, whenever we want it, thanks to importation. Get it while it's fresh and you'll get the best taste!). So it is pomelo season and friends have told me how great they are but that there is a certain way to eat them. Hmmm. Not sure what to do about that, so I tried to watch what these Chinese college-aged people were doing. Guess I stared too long because they offered me some of their snack! I declined, but it was nice of them to offer. [We eventually tried a pomelo that I bought at the market and then another with our friend, Wendy. More about the day with Wendy later...]
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