Xiamen

With business finished in Macau, it was time to head back to China.  I reversed my tracks made earlier in the week by taking the ferry from Macau to Shenzhen airport, where I met up with Jason again.  The one hour flight on Xiamen Airways passed uneventfully, and it was only a relatively short taxi ride from Xiamen airport to our hotel.

I had not realised until I got here that Xiamen is in fact an island, connected to the mainland by a causeway, so in that respect some similarities with Hong Kong and Macau.  The similarities do not end there.  In spite of a lot of new high rise buildings in the downtown area, there is still much older colonial style architecture to be seen down by the waterfront, even though Xiamen was not, as far as I know, a trading colony in the same way as was Macau or Hong Kong.

The first day was spent taking in some of the sights in Xiamen, including a visit to the Overseas Chinese Museum in the morning, and a walk round the splendid Wanshi Botanical Gardens in the afternoon.   In between, there was time for a leisurely lunch at a seafood restaurant by the seafront.   It was notable that the omnipresent smog that hangs over much of southern China was absent from Xiamen.  Not sure whether this is usually the case or we were just lucky.  Anyway, it makes the whole sightseeing process that much more pleasant.  In fact, I was quite impressed by Xiamen overall. With its relatively laid back vibe and air of neat organisation, it was an interesting contrast to other mainland China cities that I have visited.

Tomorrow the plan is to take a ferry around nearby Gulangyu Island.