Xiamen, China - February 21

15ish, cloudy

We were rocking and rolling for most of the night. I was surprised it didn’t bother me a bit, I noticed it, but it didn’t keep me up. This however, made our arrival in Xiamen a bit late. Because of our late arrival we departed late for our tours. However much I like being off on tour early and back early, this morning on the boat was nice.

Chinese railway workers in Canada

This is the first port where we have to go through face-to-face immigration. Typically the ship takes care of all immigration and we just walk off of the boat. Then we got copies of our passports stamped and these had to be shown every time we left and returned to the ship – sometimes multiply times. Not at all a big deal, but unusual.

The tour started with a short visit to the Chinese Overseas Museum. This museum was very interesting as it depicted Chinese living today and in this past in other parts of the world. As it turns out, Canada’s percentage of Chinese immigrants is high compared to other parts of the world.

Next is a visit to the more than 1000 year old South Putuo Temple. This place is very cool as it has been built where the land quickly turns into rocky hills. Once we see most of the buildings each a bit higher than the last, there are small paths and stairs carved into the rock, so that we can wind our way up the hill. We don’t make it anywhere near the top as our time is limited. Along the way there are small shrines with a TON of small Buddhas that seem to have been placed there by people. It seems as though each of the temples we visit have some common elements and some very different ones. One thing that is unique about this temple is that there are Chinese characters carved and into the rock and then painted. This place is full of people although are group seems to be the only white people here. I get the feeling that Xiamen doesn’t get a lot of Western tourists…we are stared at a bit.

Next we are taken to a tea ceremony where we learn about and taste different tea varieties and the proper way to make tea.

By the time we get back to the boat it is about 8:00. Our original plan was to go out after dinner as we are over-nighting here. Unfortunately that doesn’t work as the Chinese immigration people don’t work between midnight and 6 AM. We’d have to be back before midnight and didn’t think that would work.