xiamen at last

xiamen is an island off the coast of mainland china, sandwiched between china and taiwan. apparently there is a building moratorium against high buildings due the closeness to taiwan and the tension between the two nations. taiwan is still considered "the renegade province" by the chinese. xiamen pronounced "sha-men" is a toursit destination and has several famous temples.

out hotel room looks out onto some traditional chinese apartment buildings with lots of laundry hanging. we can also see the pool from our room, which we will be swimming in a little later. the hotel is being "refreshed" so the sounds of construction sound like some sort of primal drum beat. we have been promised this will stop by bedtime. there is construction happening at a fast pace all over china, xiamen is no exception. as we walked around today we saw many cranes, lots of bamboo scaffolding, and piles of rubble, with new construction of steel and glass looming over .

it feels good to be back here in china. the moment i stepped off the plane and smelled the humid air, memories came flooding back. warm evenings walking the streets with ruby in the sling, eating scallion pancakes on the street in bejing, trying to communicate without knowing a word of madarin. i look forward to my time getting to see a little of hazels places. tomorrow we leave at 830 am for the day to see yunxiao and zhangzhou. who knows what the day will bring, an adventure or two i am certain.