9th December: Xiamen, China

Xiamen is known as the ‘Garden on the Sea’ and even in December, the city is abound with foliage and flowers. We spent today on the small, 2 square kilometre, island of Gulangyu. We were looking forward to wandering its lanes as the island is unique in China by having a ban on cars and bikes. From Xiamen Island, it was a only a very short ferry ride across Xiamen Gang.

As well as the tropical foliage on this fittingly sunny day, the architecture stood out. Gulangyu was another location occupied by various foreign people (including from the UK) after the Opium Wars. Consequently, the architectural style is a mixture of mainly 19^th century European vernaculars. We climbed up on top of a granite outcrop above the lush trees and purple flowers. With today’s winter warmth, and the distant port across the bay, it felt as if it could be southern Italy, or perhaps Brazil.

Lunch was a simple affair of rice, tofu, and mushed cucumbers from a small cafe where the owner kept trying to give us shark. However, it was the dessert we found which was the star. We saw a queue at a little stall and upon investigation discovered it was for homemade mochi (this area was also occupied by Japan and some food influences remain). We took six, which were filled with a dried peanut mixture and then covered in a sweet and dark powder, potentially ground black sesames. Sitting in a hillside park a short while later, we were both taken aback by flavours. Wow! And I didn’t get a reaction to the peanuts which bodes well for southeast Asia.

At the southern tip of the island, we climbed down steep stone steps between the palms and emerged on a lovely little sandy beach. This is incredibly the first beach we’ve been on since Batumi at least 10 weeks ago! The tide was clearly coming in but we had time to wander around the corner and view the city across the bay with the large rounded rocks and golden sands in front. I think we need to go to more beaches!

The ferry ride back was a bit busier as seemingly everyone on the island was leaving at around sunset. Still, we got on the second one and then a bus took us a little way north to an area with a few restaurants. We shared two thin breads filled with stir fried vegetables, some kind of fritters with a spicy sauce, and a big bowl of noodles with various tofu and gluten ‘meats’. It was all quite middling, but also cheap and filling. The walk back through the back streets was very interesting as hip cafés and ice cream places were interspersed between old school DIY shops and people’s front rooms. Everything spilled out into the street and was alive with the buzz of a vibrant community. We passed a sports stadium too which had few hundred people using it in the cool of the early evening for running, sports, tai chi, stretching, or catching up with friends. People had small tables and stools to share tea and perhaps play cards.