11th December: Xiamen, China

It was our final day in ‘The Gate of China’. I tried to find a haircut in the morning but instead ended up sitting having a coffee after wandering the cool alleyways. Xiamen, especially its backstreets, is one of my favourite places in China. I wish that I wasn’t so exhausted and could’ve done some more street photography here. It would be an awesome place to practice that. Still, we’ve needed the rest and probably still need more. I’m still numb, having eye shakes, and difficulty catching my breath, plus all of the usual warning signs my body gives me when I’m overly fatigued.

In time for lunch, we jumped on a bus to a spot which had a vegan buffet. We’ve not had one since being here (shock!) and I felt like I needed all the energy I could get. It was really good too, with some different flavours to what we’ve been used to elsewhere to complement a selection of our favourite dishes. Food in Xiamen has much more ginger than any other area we’ve been, which is a big plus as far as we’re concerned. I also took a piece of crispy dough, thinking it was plain, only to discover a completely new flavour. Durian! I think I like it but Kaja was less convinced. I’m sure we’ll try it again as we keep heading south.

Back on another couple of buses, we made it to the southern side of Xiamen Island and a lovely long sandy beach. It wasn’t quite as warm as we’d hoped but still pleasant in shorts and a t-shirt sitting on the beach. This is the point at which land governed by the People’s Republic of China (the mainland) and the Republic of China (AKA Taiwan) are closest together. A few kilometres to our southeast were the islands of Greater and Lesser Kinmen and some smaller outcrops, which all ended up under the control of the Nationalists at the end of the civil war as they fled to Taiwan. On one island, Dadan, a slogan aimed at the mainland (and just about visible today) reads “three principles of the people unite China”. This is a reference to a set of Sun Yat-sen ideals as he is a rare character revered by Communists and Nationalists alike.

Many of these islands have become demilitarised and since 2001 there has been a direct passenger ferry route between Kinmen and Xiamen. We were going to do this as a visa exit but decided against this risk in the end as any issues would’ve been expensive to remedy from such an isolated place and involve multiple flights. Instead, we go back to Hong Kong tomorrow.

After a busy bus ride back to town, I finally found somewhere to get my hair cut! The barber washed my hair and massaged my head before and after the trim, something I’ve never had done before. He did a good job of the cut too, once we’d worked out what I wanted – in the end I asked for the same as his, which looked close enough! All of this for 40 Yuan (or £4.40). In the meantime, Kaja replenished our tea supplies with some strawberry and peach oolong.

A few days ago, we’d hunted high and low for a veggie cafe which was supposedly in our block. Well, tonight we happened to see it no more than 10 metres from the hotel! We’ve no idea how we didn’t manage to find it because we must’ve walked past a dozen times. As a final dinner in Xiamen, we went to investigate. They did all kinds of simple, hearty dumpling dishes. We took one stew with cabbage and mushroom and another plate of dry dumplings with a slightly spicy dip. Kaja reckons they could’ve passed as pierogi if eaten with sour cream instead! They were the best dumplings we’ve had in China. If only we’d found it earlier.