Very near our home lies a high hill with a weather station perched atop. We'd heard that it offered a nice little hike and a great view but had not tried it ourselves until a beautiful Sunday in late January. (I refused to consider a hike during the very hot months of August, September and even part of October and then forgot about it during the more temperate months that followed!). This is the main entrance to the hiking path--we could tell that there were other entrances for both pedestrians and cars but are unsure of their beginning points. I suppose this place has a name, but we don't know what it is!
Oops, my head was not supposed to be in this picture--notice the round, white thing peeking over the treetops. That is the top of the weather tower.
This is the back side of the "mountain," looking out toward the shipping yards and across the water to the mainland. Even on this nice, sunny day only the closest buildings were in clear view as the distant haze shrouded the far-lying locals. But we know that our hometown tends to be gray for pretty much all of January and February, so we didn't complain!
About half way up the climb the tower loomed large. We had to walk in the road since the path only covered part of the distance, but not many cars came up this way. Many people we saw were wearing winter coats but I was down to my sleeveless shell by this point! The general population seems to focus more on the calendar than the actual weather when deciding on wardrobe choices...I could not disagree more!
We reached the plaza at the foot of the tower. Pretty anticlimactic as we couldn't find out much about the weather station itself, but maybe a reader of Chinese characters would have been able to appreciate it more.
See the smog? I would've called this a clear day before seeing this view. Xiamen is considered to be one of the cleaner cities in China, thanks to the proximity to the ocean (I guess?). I've heard that one can actually taste the air in Beijing and Shanghai and it's not pleasant, so we are certainly glad to not have that situation here, but we have noticed lately that we are congested all the time. We assume this is a physical reaction to the air quality or possibly our allergies flaring up. Either way, it is unpleasant but not unbearable.
Another close-up shot. Our daughters like to say that this is a giant golf ball and golf tee set up. I wish I knew more about this thing...
Gotta love signs like this...I know we have funny signs in the US too, but I couldn't resist.
This is apparently a tea cafe of some sort. There was a little stand that sold small, packaged snacks and tea (served in Xiamen-style sets made up of a tray with a receptacle underneath to catch the spillings, a small pot with a wire mesh insert to hold the tea leaves, tweezers to hold the little cups while sterilizing the cup edges in a cup of hot tea and a number of shot-glass sized tea cups). We don't really know how to order tea and all the tables were taken so we didn't spend much time here. Even though this is right in our neighborhood and people tell us that we live in the "foreigner" area, we were the only non-Asians to be found. It was a nice day and a nice walk that I might try a few more times before the heat begins to blast us again...
Very near our home lies a high hill with a weather station perched atop. We'd heard that it offered a nice little hike and a great view but had not tried it ourselves until a beautiful Sunday in late January. (I refused to consider a hike during the very hot months of August, September and even part of October and then forgot about it during the more temperate months that followed!). This is the main entrance to the hiking path--we could tell that there were other entrances for both pedestrians and cars but are unsure of their beginning points. I suppose this place has a name, but we don't know what it is!
Oops, my head was not supposed to be in this picture--notice the round, white thing peeking over the treetops. That is the top of the weather tower.
This is the back side of the "mountain," looking out toward the shipping yards and across the water to the mainland. Even on this nice, sunny day only the closest buildings were in clear view as the distant haze shrouded the far-lying locals. But we know that our hometown tends to be gray for pretty much all of January and February, so we didn't complain!
About half way up the climb the tower loomed large. We had to walk in the road since the path only covered part of the distance, but not many cars came up this way. Many people we saw were wearing winter coats but I was down to my sleeveless shell by this point! The general population seems to focus more on the calendar than the actual weather when deciding on wardrobe choices...I could not disagree more!
We reached the plaza at the foot of the tower. Pretty anticlimactic as we couldn't find out much about the weather station itself, but maybe a reader of Chinese characters would have been able to appreciate it more.
See the smog? I would've called this a clear day before seeing this view. Xiamen is considered to be one of the cleaner cities in China, thanks to the proximity to the ocean (I guess?). I've heard that one can actually taste the air in Beijing and Shanghai and it's not pleasant, so we are certainly glad to not have that situation here, but we have noticed lately that we are congested all the time. We assume this is a physical reaction to the air quality or possibly our allergies flaring up. Either way, it is unpleasant but not unbearable.
Another close-up shot. Our daughters like to say that this is a giant golf ball and golf tee set up. I wish I knew more about this thing...
Gotta love signs like this...I know we have funny signs in the US too, but I couldn't resist.
This is apparently a tea cafe of some sort. There was a little stand that sold small, packaged snacks and tea (served in Xiamen-style sets made up of a tray with a receptacle underneath to catch the spillings, a small pot with a wire mesh insert to hold the tea leaves, tweezers to hold the little cups while sterilizing the cup edges in a cup of hot tea and a number of shot-glass sized tea cups). We don't really know how to order tea and all the tables were taken so we didn't spend much time here. Even though this is right in our neighborhood and people tell us that we live in the "foreigner" area, we were the only non-Asians to be found. It was a nice day and a nice walk that I might try a few more times before the heat begins to blast us again...
Did you not go up into the ball?
ReplyDeleteAnd was that a slight against us, since we walked up there in the middle of August when it was too hot and humid for that walk? We got to the top 15 minutes after the tower closed and then never made it back up there.