beautiful – Travel and Living in China…

Xiamen living

I have been really busy the past few months, but now I’m back at it. Lot of changes going on with me right now. We opened a new business in Xiamen, so now I’m bedding down in this beautiful city.

If you read my last post on Xiamen, I was really impressed with visiting here a few years back. I mentioned that I would also consider this a pace to live outside Kunming.

So now I have been here for 2 months. So far it just keeps getting better and better everyday! Xiamen Island is quite the pace to see no doubt. To sum it up, Xiamen is like a mini Shanghai. All the “western” amenities are available in this small coastal city.

The first look at this place and you see a squeaky clean city. People take great care to dispose of rubbish. There are trash cans everywhere. Funny how that works! Xiamen has a huge tourist business which they go to great ends to accommodate. There is much to do and see all over this area. You can google further to see these details.

I want to talk about the “western comfort” factor living here. Many people speak English, like Shanghai. I think besides the tourism reason, Xiamen has a noticeably higher educated population. Probably due to it’s famous university located here. Also there is a large amount of affluent people here. I mean big money seems the norm. It is not uncommon to see BMW’s, Benz, Bently, Lamborghini, Ferrari’s, and all manner of exotic new cars all around. Many driven by 20-25 year olds. People dress in the latest fashions and with all the high end name brand shops around, it’s no wonder. There are excellent western restaurants, bars, cafes everywhere. It is very nice to have delicious western food available to choose from. This is a big contrast to Kunming.

Obviously the cost of living here is more than most places. I would compare it to Shanghai in that regard. Housing in the city runs around 20,000 RMB per sq meter. Twice that of Kunming. I got lucky and found a condo on the famous “Coffee Street” facing the beautiful inner city lake. In fact I walk 50 ft from my front door to the shoreline. In a 2 block walk, I pass over 10 specialty coffee cafes and restaurants. I’m in heaven! A ten minute walk brings me to the ocean waterfront lined with incredible outdoor bars featuring live music and great western fare. The even have fresh draft beer in Xiamen! Nothing like sitting, looking out over the ocean with a cold beer. They even know how to make real thin crust pizza here without the silly fruit and vegetable toppings of typical Chinese places. Basically in Xiamen, I no longer need to make my monthly run to Bangkok to eat some decent food. Don’t get me wrong, Kunming has some great food, but I can’t eat Chinese everyday for Gods sake.

So I bought myself another electric moto to get mobile here. I’ve started exploring and will soon learn this city well. However, unlike Kunming, this place is not set up for 2 wheeled devices. In fact they are outlawed here. Most streets have no bike lanes and you are at the mercy of the typical bad Chinese driver. I have to pay a lot more attention driving around this place. Still this moto I got here is amazing. It has four speeds and does 90 kph! Thats smoking for an electric bike. Since Xiamen is a hilly city, it has the power to navigate everywhere with ease.

Xiamen has a beautiful island just across from downtown. A 5 minute ferry ride puts you to Gulangyu Island. Also know as piano island since every residence there has a piano in it. No cars are allowed on the island, and it is a key tour spot visiting Xiamen. The climate here is tropical. Gets boiling hot in the summer and only cool in the winter. Much the same as Thailand. People told me it does get cold here in the winter, but I don’t believe it. I will have to report back on that one. I can’t imagine it gets cold seeing all the tropical vegetation all over. Looks like a jungle environment to me.

Xian

XIAN

At first glance Xi’an is just a big, industrial, dirty and polluted city. Unfortunately, subsequent glances don’t do much to change this opinion. However, it is a city of historical significance. It should be visited for this fact alone.

During Xian’s 3,100 year development, 13 dynasties such as Western Zhou (11th century BC – 771 BC), Qin (221 BC – 206 BC), Western Han (206 BC – 24 AD) and Tang (618 – 907) placed their capitals here. So far, Xian enjoys equal fame with Athens, Cairo, and Rome as one of the four major ancient civilization capitals. Here you will find the terracotta army of the Qin Dynasty. This guy also built the Great Wall. The old city is completely surrounded by a huge city wall and moat. It is considered to be the best preserved ancient wall in the world. No doubt, it looks almost new and is quite impressive. The Bell and Drum towers are also beautiful and stand a mere 200 meters from each other. There are interesting museums as well to see. Xi’an has a park that is said to have the largest water fountain in the world as well. In the evening they host an outside show here starts 500 dancers on the water fountain. I didn’t get to see the show myself, but it is supposed to be worth a look see.

The specialty food here is the dumplings, which I must say are out of this world. Other than that, nothing special to eat here. Oh, they do have 4 Starbucks here. I would say 2 days here will give you plenty of time to see Xi’an and get out before your lungs explode.

Xiamen

I just returned from a visit to Xiamen. This coastal seaside city has got to be the cleanest city in China. Located on the Southeast coast of China in Fujian Province consisting of Xiamen Island, Gulangyu Island, the north bank area of the Jiulong River and Tong’an County. Rich in history and the first free trade zone in mainland China. Xiamen has been called the Egret Island because of the hundreds of thousands of egrets inhabiting there. This is due to the beautiful natural scenery, the fresh air and the clean environment of the city.

The old and new come together in the city beautifully. You can see the Spanish and Portugal influence in the old sections of the city. Water is everywhere. I huge lake sits in the center of the city with parks and fountains. Everything is clean and well cared for.The local food is delicious and is famous for the fresh fish dishes.

There is a lot to see in and around Xiamen.

A few hours drive outside brings you to the Hakka Earthen Castles which fascinate foreign and Chinese tourists, international architects, and even the Pentagon (Reagan and the CIA thought their spy satellites had revealed hundreds of missile silos). Many earthen houses are round. some are over 1,000 years old, and are so aesthetic they appear to have sprung from the very earth itself. Earthen homes are rammed into shape, layer by layer, using a mix of raw earth, sand, lime, glutinous rice, and brown sugar, and reinforced with ‘bones’ of bamboo and wood. Only upper floors have outer windows, and the massive wooden gates are sheathed in iron.

You can do a tour of this area in a day and should not be missed while visiting Xiamen.