Cos,rm Tsmfp,mrdd (Xiamen Randomness)

Afterward the trip to Nanputuo Temple, I headed back to my hotel, where I met a couple of my roommates, two university students studying various arts (their interests lay in script-writing, directing, design, and photography) from Shanghai visiting. We decided to tour Gulangyu together the next day.

Entrance to one of the exhibits on Gulangyu:



Gulangyu:



European architecture on the island:



View of Xiamen from Gulangyu:



Lianwu fruit (aka wax apple) - I've only seen them in Taiwan before. They have a very interesting and delightful texture: crispy on the outside, and fuzzy like cotton on the inside. These were minature versions of the ones found in Taiwan:



We also visited an aviary on the island:

They had shows with the birds every 1-2 hours in the afternoon:

The birds can dance, guess answers to math problems, and lift weights, as shown below:

One of the tricks involves the birds literally taking money from the spectators!

Another park on Gulangyu:

Gulangyu Beach:

Museum by the beach:



My roommates and I:

After that, I left Gulangyu and headed towards the other pier to catch the boat back to Jinmen. Some final peculiarities on Xiamen:

Snacks are a pleasant surprise. Unlike airlines in the US, instead of serving peanuts, Xiamen Airlines served dried kiwis on the plane:



While on a Xiamen bus, the bus driver stopped to get gas with all the passengers still aboard. Maybe I haven't ridden the bus enough in the US, but I can't recall that ever happening before: