China, Xiamen: Island Peanut Soup

Our bus from Hong Kong to Xiamen, in the Fujian province of China, was the nicest bus we have travelled on yet in the country. We were given decent sized pillows and there were large duvets (those are the same as "comforters" for the Americans reading this) located in the top storage compartment of the bus; the duvets were cold from the air conditioning and very comfortable when we used them. There were only a few people on the bus, so we kept changing the duvets when they got too warm.

With the bus tickets we had bought, lunch was included, and we also got bottled water when we boarded. We really liked using China Travel Services (CTS) and hoped that we could travel with them again sometime. The bus left Hong Kong's Mong Kok area at 9:30am and we arrived in Xiamen just after 6pm.

The snotlike substance was covered in a tasty peanut powder with other ground spices and sweet flavours mixed in

Upon arriving in Xiamen, we got off the bus outside a gas station in the north part of the island. Yes, Xiamen is an island in China (population 1.3 million), but it is only a short distance away from the China mainland and is connected by a large bridge. The island was settled by Portuguese, British, French and Dutch colonialists, all at different times over the years. Much of the influence from these countries still remains in Xiamen, from the historical period when they all tried unsuccessfully to establish Xiamen as a trading port.

We hailed a taxi in the street and headed to our hostel, the Xiamen International Youth Hostel. It was located near Xiamen University, in a nice part of the island and it took us over half an hour to get there because of heavy rush-hour traffic. The taxi driver didn't know exactly where the hostel was located, even though we had a map and the address in Chinese, but we were luckily only dropped off a few minutes walk away from the place. We had a bit of a hard time asking people where the hostel was, though, as not many people in Xiamen tended to speak English. Immediately, we knew that the luxury of English speakers in Hong Kong was not going to materialise now that we were back in China.

Arriving at dinner time meant that we needed to find some food. We had spent a lot of money on our bus tickets from Hong Kong so we wanted to eat somewhere cheap. The hostel's convenient location near the university meant that there was a great selection of low-priced eating establishments nearby. We settled for a small cafe (we chose the one that looked the cleanest) and ate two huge bowls of steamed pork and vegetable dumplings as well as tasty Chinese hamburgers made with shredded pork. After dinner, we went to a nice cozy coffee shop with free wireless internet and had some ice coffees while writing journal entries.

Sleep was heavily needed that evening, so we both slept in until 2pm. Dan was feeling a bit ill the previous day, so it was good that he got some sleep to hopefully avoid getting sick from being run down. See the next journal entry for Shanghai to hear all about the nice colds that we both ended up catching, making our trip to Shanghai a little less enjoyable that it could have been.

After we woke up late, we didn't have a lot of time, so we decided to head straight to the island Gulang Yu, which was a small island with many colonial buildings, narrow streets, parks, hills and beaches. Walking around the place was really enjoyable as there were no motor vehicles on the island and it was a hot, sunny day.

To get to Gulang Yu, we took the ferry across from Xiamen to the island. The journey across was free but a small fee was required for the return trip back. The ride was only about five or ten minutes, which was great as we did not have much remaining time and daylight, since we slept in so late that morning. Before we boarded the ferry, we tried the hamburgers at the ferry pier and also bubble tea; the "hamburger", funnily enough, ended up being a chicken burger. If you are unsure as to what bubble tea is, you can read our Taipei, Taiwan journal entry to learn about a new favourite Asian drink that we both find quite hard to pass up.

A European feel definitely existed on Gulang Yu and we immediately noticed that the many nice colonial buildings dotted around the narrow lanes, which branched out in all directions. We walked around the island for over an hour, admiring the architecture and speaking with the friendly locals walking in the lanes or tending their shops. During the walk, we came upon a really nice beach, which surprised us even though we were on an island.

There were actually a few beaches located on the far southwestern side of the island; they were very clean and busy with families sitting out in the sun, and children playing in the sand. The beach offered many nice views of the island's hills as well as views out across the sea. We kept hearing a loud noise that sounded like cicadas, either going at it or furiously fighting with each other. The noise ended up coming from these two magnetic smooth stones that tourists had bought and were throwing into the air. As the stones hit they clicked together making the loud insect noise. Speaking of loud noises, when we first arrived on the island, we were very surprised to hear loud air raid sirens blasting. It made us think that perhaps China is preparing more than we think for an invasion from the Taiwanese (we'll ask our Taiwanese friend Vivian for her opinion).

The staff at our hostel in Xiamen had given us a magazine when we checked in, with many things to see and do on Gulang Yu island. One of these things was to try one of the rice glue dumplings at Ye's Rice Glue Dumplings streetside stand. The snotlike substance was covered in a tasty peanut powder with other ground spices and sweet flavours mixed in, and was similar to a dessert we tried with Vivian in Hualien City, Taiwan. Across from Ye's stand, we were invited into a tea shop to try some Oolong tea. The tea was so good that we bought some vacuum-packed fresh leaves, and we can't wait to reminisce over our Asian travels whilst enjoying the tea in Arkansas this summer.

Behind Ye's dumpling stand, there was a small cafe called Babycat Cafe, also mentioned in the magazine we had been given. There, we ordered Hong Kong ice milk teas and bought some small pies from the friendly girls working - green tea, coconut, meat (pork) and red bean pies made a good breakfast the next morning. At Babycat, we played for a long time with the "star" of the cafe, a plump and fluffy white cat. We also took advantage of the free internet access there and checked some emails whilst enjoying the drinks.

As we headed to the ferry pier, we stopped to eat some flat bread from a shop located on one of the island's many small lanes. The bread had a lot of flavour and reminded us of an Indian bread - we loved it. We made a last dash to look for a postcard (Dan collects these, has been buying them from every place we have visited - Kyle collects one of each coin from every country he visits, so that is what he tends to look for), and then boarded the ferry, not before buying another bubble tea, though!

It was evening and we saw great views of Gulang Yu and Xiamen, both lit up very well at night. Xiamen had many large buildings with bright neon lights adorning the sides and tops, while Gulang Yu had colonial structures dotted around the island, all lit with a nice pale yellow or soft white light. When we exited the ferry, we caught a taxi back to the hostel; the taxis were cheap and reliable in Xiamen, only costing about 50p, or 90 cents.

Back in our area of town, we went for a meal at a local Chinese chain restaurant that was really busy; we figured it must have been good with so many people inside the place. We had a lot of trouble ordering food there, even with our trusty Mandarin phrasebook and a picture menu. At one point, we were asking the waiter to bring us out exactly what our neighbours were eating - we even pointed directly to a dish that they had - and the waiter brought out a huge plate of duck! For your information, the dish we pointed to was fried banana, and looked nothing at all like a duck.

The food we had was good but we ended up eating way too much, because the waiter kept bringing us dishes. We think that once he figured out what type of food and meat we wanted, he just took a gamble and brought out lots to eat. It was all very funny and, since then, we have improved our Chinese food ordering techniques tenfold.

The cafes in the university area were so nice that we decided to try out another one after dinner, to write some more journal entries. The cafe that evening was equally as cozy as the previous night's cafe, and we ended up staying until they closed, at midnight. Since we slept in so late that day, it was hard to get to sleep at a decent time, but we both managed in the end and woke up the next morning at a much better time.

The next morning, having filled up on the pies from Babycat Cafe, we headed to Nanputuo Temple to see what all the fuss was about; it was actually only five minutes away from our hostel, so we opted to see it even though we were both "templed out" by this point in our trip. The coolest thing about the temple was the many turtles swimming in a large pond outside the temple gate, all clamouring for the dry spot on floating pieces of wood. We quickly left the temple, once we realised there would be nothing new for us to see there.

Both of us were due haircuts, as the last time either of us had gotten a haircut was in Chiang Mai, Thailand (7 countries ago, if you count Macau and Hong Kong as "countries"). Hopefully, the more recent photos of us don't look too naff with our overdue trims, and that the photos of us taken after the haircuts make us look as dazzling as you all know us to be. For a mere 35 RMB each (£2.30, or $4), we were treated like stars with long head, shoulder, back, arm and finger massages, in addition to the shampoos and haircuts. The staff even cleaned our ears with cotton buds (those are the same as Q-tips for the Americans reading this), which was a rather strange experience, since neither of us had had another person cleaning our ears since we were babies!

Shorn and relaxed, we caught another cheap taxi to the Zhongshan Road area of Xiamen, which is a long shopping street with many restaurants. Traffic on the street was blocked so that pedestrians could safely walk along the road. On this road, we purchased many more dodgy DVDs from a DVD store - we really hope that we don't get arrested coming back through US Customs - and then headed to Huang Zehe Peanut Soup Shop for lunch. Our Xiamen magazine listed many unique food items that tourists love to try when they come to Xiamen. Since we didn't want to try anything gross, we opted for the peanut soup, which sounded great.

There was no disappointment with the peanut soup. It was simple, sweet and warm, with soft peanuts floating in the broth. In addition to the soup, we had curried tofu on a stick - SO good - and a spicy noodle curry dish with tofu, chicken and liver. Everything was delicious in that one, except the liver, which we took out. the shop didn't sell drinks so we complemented the delicious meals with a couple of ice cold drinks from across the street (thank you, KFC).

The flight we had booked to Shanghai didn't leave until later in the evening, and when we returned to Xiamen International Youth Hostel, we had a couple of hours to spare before leaving for the airport. We watched one of the DVDs we bought, "Bee Season", with a Chinese girl who was staying in the hostel, too. The film was good but it had a somewhat intelligent vibe to it that all three of us just didn't get. We are going to test Kyle's sister on the film when we give it to her this summer during our time in Arkansas - Kelli will probably understand it and should be able to explain what the heck the ending was about.

Both of us found it hard to believe that we would be in Shanghai later that evening. The ultra modern city was high on our list of cities to visit and we were happy to have hopped into a taxi bound for the airport. Xiamen was a great stop on the way to Shanghai, but we really just wanted to get to China's most modern (and largest) city at that point.