More images of Xiamen

The accounting conference concluded on Thursday and I didn't depart Xiamen until Saturday morning, which left Friday for another day of exploring the local area. The organizers of the conference had kindly organized a tourist excursion for interested conference participants, but since the itinerary was to go to Gulong Island for the day (which I had visited on my own a few days earlier), I decided to skip the organized activities and spend the day in the city on my own.

My first destination - Nanputuo Temple, a buddhist temple located near the campus of the university in Xiamen. I was told that this is a well-known temple that is considered a major tourist attraction in the region. I didn't quite know what to expect, but what I found was a peaceful and beautiful place.

The temple grounds were covered with the temple buildings (more shots below) as well as lots of grassy areas and lily ponds and manicured gardens. Families were enjoying a beautiful (hot!) day at the temple, and I loved watching the little children chasing the birds on the grass next to the temple entrance.The entrance to the temple is below. Outside of the temple were special areas for worshippers to light incense sticks, place them in designated areas, and pray to the buddha statues on display. As a foreigner unfamiliar with this religion I didn't quite understand what was involved with a visit to the temple, but I felt comfortable observing as an outsider.

Below is the main courtyard of the temple. I enjoyed watching this group of visitors as they were bouncing coins off the ground trying to get them into the holes in the tall statue pictured below. I don't know if this was a religious activity or just a game.

After spending a few hours at the temple I decided to walk back towards the direction of my hotel. There were several reasons behind this idea: 1) Even though I had the name of my hotel written in Chinese characters on a piece of paper, I found that communicating with locals outside of the hotel so difficult that I didn't feel like dealing with the hassle of hiring a taxi, 2) I wanted to get a better feel for the atmosphere of the city, 3) I wanted to burn more calories to walk off the large breakfast that I had enjoyed at the hotel that morning, 4) the distance was only about 3 miles and therefore was easily walkable, and 5) I wanted to enjoy the cleanliness of the bathroom in my hotel room before exploring the rest of the city (note: I haven't yet discussed the public bathrooms in China yet, but let's just say that the option of using the one in my hotel made walking the extra distance worth it in a certain sense).

The walk from the temple to the hotel was interesting and gave me a different feel for the city besides the one that I had previously observed from the air-conditioned busses that transported us from the hotel to the conference venue every day. I found the contrast between the modern apartment building hi-rises and the more run-down apartment buildings to be striking. Below is what appears to be a more run-down type of building, with shops in the first floors below. Laundry was hanging out on nearly every balcony, which I image is just a lifestyle factor of living in China. The women below are walking with parasols, which was a common sight as the locals used them to keep the direct sun away.

But below is the juxtaposition of the modern-looking apartment building in the back with the more run down place in the front. These buildings seemingly co-existed adjacent to each other throughout the city. Also, notice how this guy is walking on the side of the road. In some places there were sidewalks, but in others I just walked on the side of the road next to a bustling street.

After cooling off in my hotel for 15 minutes and using the restroom, I grabbed another bottle of water and ventured out again for a few more hours of exploring the city. I came across this street fair, where vendors of all types were cooking food and serving them to the masses of people lining one of the main tourist streets. I didn't sample any of the street food, as I was unsure of the sanitation and because the intense heat had largely suppressed my appetite.

Below is a sanitation worker. Poor guy - he had to ride his bicycle to collect trash bags from each vendor in the hot weather.

Many items for sale in the local shops had images of cartoon characters that are familiar to Americans. I purchased souvenirs for Amelia and John with Angry Birds on them. These Sponge Bob shoes made me smile and I immediately thought that Amelia and John would like them.

Pastries lined up in a shop window. Most of the chinese pastries that I sampled were more savory than sweet.

After tiring of the window-shopping on the crowded pedestrian street, I walked along the harbor one last time before calling it a day. The wide boulevard and park areas along the water made this one of the prettiest areas of Xiamen.

There were dozens of small grouops of older men playing Chinese board games in the park.

Overall this was a fun day of exploring the city. I enjoyed seeing different areas of Xiamen, had fun exploring a Wal-Mart in China along with dozens of local shops, baked in the sun and sweated like crazy, and walked miles and miles. I returned to my room late in the afternoon, very tired and content. I then spent a couple of hours packing my bags, I finished up some work I had to do, and then enjoyed some refreshing Tsing Tao (purchased from a local street vendor while out in town earlier that day) before going to dinner.