Travel Tips

These are small pages of photos to give you an idea of Fujian's diversity. So much to see!
Amoy has very unique architecture, since it was one of China's first five treaty ports, and had consulates from 13 countries.

Xiamen has long beaches beside the beautiful island ring road. Also plenty of museums, temples, churches (Xinjie Church is China's oldest Protestant Church, built in 1848), and activities like golfing, go-karting, visiting parks and aquariums, deng deng.

Xiamen has great food, though some's a bit odd. Locals' favorite is seaworms in jellyfish. My oldest son Shannon has been here too long because he likes the stuff. I can handle it when its doused in wasabi (green Japanese horseradish in a tube--rather like toothpaste with an attitude).
Chinese, who eat anything that does not eat them first, are proof that Adam and Eve were not Chinese. Had Eve been Chinese, she'd have tossed the apple and eaten the snake.

But Nanputuo Temple's vegetarian cuisine is absolutely heavenly.

Gulangyu, formerly an international settlement with 13 consulates (Xiamen was one of 5 treaty ports opened after the 1st Opium war in 1840s), is delightful. Beautiful scenery, awesome old world architecture, and quiet! Motor vehicles and bicycles are forbidden, so hoof it, or you can ride in a litter (so much for the "No litter!" signs).

Amoy has been a Laowai (foreigner--roughly 1/5 of the world's population) bird lover's paradise since the 1850s when famed bird lover and consulate general, Swinhoe, catalogued over 170 birds.
Xiamen's city bird, by the way, is the crane (the construction crane, to be exact).
Amoy birds include: Buzzard (often found by Fujian tollbooths, where drivers pay an arm and a leg), osprey, peregrine falcon, brown hawk owl, great owl, swift, barn swallow (I found that hard to swallow), red-rumped swallow, white-throated kingfisher, pied kingfisher, dusky warbler, several varieties of thrush, long-billed shrike, collared crow (I was surprised this is Amoy's only crow because I eat crow so often), Magpie (Susan Marie's favorite), myna, finch, various egrets, goose, spot-billed duck, albatross, mew gull, loon, dalmatian pelican (101 of them at last count?). And if you see the archzeopteryx, stay off the rice wine because they've been extinct awhile.

Amoy is also known for snakes. Fujian's reticulated pythons get up to 10 meters long! A few years back, a Python in Nan An swallowed a farmer and two kids (not in one sitting). Revenge, I suspect. Chinese love eating snake.

What can I say? More birds...

So much to write about. I've over 10,000 photos of Fujian. I'll add more when I get a chance.
For more info or photos, visit my wife's site AMOYMAGIC.COM
Zaijian for now