Stress in Xiamen

Right now I'm back home in Qingdao (it really is home now!) with a proper keyboard I can update you on adventures had post Guangzhou:)

I caught a night train from Guangzhou to Xiamen. Xiamen, formerly known as Amoy (roughly the word for the city in the local dialect), is another one of the Bits We Used To Own as well as one of China's "second tier" of cities that is developing rapidly. I think it is being used as a base to increase Taiwan-mainland trade as well and you can get a ferry to an island run by the Republic. I however needed to catch a ferry to Gulang Isle as this was where my hostel was. I'd decided to stay on the isle as it is known as the "pretty" bit of Xiamen as this was where the foreigners were based all those years ago.

However this was more easily said then done. I arrived in Xiamen fairly tired after not much sleep on the train. I am starting to lose my enthusiasm for night trains. Then I bought a map of the city and in the grey dawn tried to get a bus to the ferry terminal. The map lady was very helpful and gave me detailed instructions which would have been very useful if I had understood. As it was I ended up walking around in a large circle to get to the bus stop as I hadn't realised I was standing pretty close and thus chose the wrong way to go to look for it. This pattern was continued in Xiamen as everytime I tried to go somewhere I would fail miserably and end up miles away in the wrong direction. In fact I just failed all the time in Xiamen. My Chinese had deserted me. When I checked in at my hostel I asked for the wireless password and the girl replied "jevfgiavfb" and I, flummoxed, asked her to repeat it. She laughed out loud because, as it turned out, she'd said the numbers 1-9 but so fast I had not understood but she then thought I couldn't count to 9 so her and her male friend thus decided I couldn't speak Chinese which destroyed my confidence. It was also rather agonising to watch them desperately trying to speak English and not being able to but refusing to use Chinese despite asking them to.

And it was raining.

And when I was lugging all my stuff around Gulang Isle trying to find my hostel, I dropped my scarf in the way of two Chinese lads. Instead of picking it up and giving it to the girl who was obviously carrying too much stuff to bend down easily, they just stepped around it. I spent the next 10 minutes fuming that an English lad would have picked it up and Chinese people are so rude...

I decided to get out of Xiamen the next day.

Which proved tricky. I had not realised it but that Saturday was when all the students go back to university and when a lot of migrants go back to work too. As I found out later there were 7 million people using the trains that day. Which was a record for China. So when I caught the ferry back to the mainland and then the bus back to the train station and queued for ages I discovered that there were no trains for days- not even business of standing. My plan had been to catch one of the new super fast trains to Shanghai and then catch the even faster one to Nanjing but I couldn't face 3 more days alone in rainy, grey Xiamen so I inquired about buses. They were cheap but at 30 hours, I couldn't face that either. You see in my mind Shanghai was right next to Xiamen but this is China so while it is right next to Xiamen, that still means 800km.

I scuttled home and looked up flights. They were £110 to Nanjing. This was more than I expected but I suppose the airlines know when the trains will be full... I spent about 5 minutes agonising over this and then I thought about 30 hours on a bus and I bought the flight. Then I felt rather guilty about spending £50 more than intended. So I wasn't in a good mood.

But then China displayed it's amazing ability to plunge me into dark depression one minute and then drag me out into sunny contentment the next. Two student age Chinese made friends with me and we went to dinner together. One was a girl from Guangzhou who was traveling by herself. She hadn't told her mother she was traveling because she was worried her mother wouldn't let her but then her mother found out anyway... Parallels. We had some seafood for dinner than I manfully ate even though I dislike swimmy things but I felt I had to eat as the island had lots of fresh seafood around.

Gulang is also famous for its piano collection and music school so we went to a piano recital given by some of the students. The teacher went first and played very well but then came the little kids, who got progressively smaller. One of them was designated Announcer and took this job very seriously, marching to the front of the stage with an intense look of concentration before delivering her speech in a determined manner. Then another child would appear and march to the front of the stage, bow, and march to the piano before setting to work disembowling Fur Elise. One child forgot to bow first and was halfway to the piano before remembering and abruptly changing direction to bow. I found the whole thing very entertaining.

Xiamen continued to gain points the next day when, after getting up early to explore the island before leaving, it began to rain lightly. By English standards it was nothing and it was my own fault for forgetting my cap but then two Chinese men, who both had umbrellas, came over and tried to give me one of them. I protested but it's rude to refuse a gift so I eventually accepted, red-faced, and they wandered off sharing their remaining umbrella. Rather touching, no? There is hope for chivalry in China after all!

Although technically you shoudn't give an umbrella in China because it's rude or something. The word for umbrella sounds like go away or something so you can't give them as presents. But I wasn't offended:P

I loitered in "China's biggest Starbucks" (not that big. Took me ages to find too) before trying to get a bus to the airport. I again failed (bus I wanted sped past my stop and I was running out of time) and ended up catching a taxi instead. Xiamen continued refusing to let me go when my flight was delayed but eventually I was in the air and away...

So Xiamen and I did not get on very well in the end. Which is a shame as I think it is actually quite a nice city and our problems were really my fault. I'm sure it would look nicer in the sun too.