I was mainly coming to see Gulangyu (鼓浪嶼), a small island close to Xiamen also known as Piano Island, where I had booked a room at the hostel there. Once off the boat, I was greeted by travel agents at Xiamen Port.
They arranged for a taxi to take me to my Gulangyu for 50 RMB, which I did not try to bargain because I was a bit tired at that point. On the way, the taxi driver actually was more like another travel agent sales rep. He tried to sell me on a tour of Gulangyu for 37 RMB, which I was interested because it seemed relatively inexpensive, and I have yet to try touring with a travel agency (a fellow lone traveler I had met in Hangzhou had done so on occasions and had enjoyable experiences). He asked me how long I was staying, and when I told him I was planning on leaving tomorrow, he reminded me of the fact that the famous Fujian Tulou (福建土樓), a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was not too far away, and probably worth a visit. However, when asked, he said the Tulou tour is around 320 RMB, far more than the Gulangyu tour. But since the site was a few hours away by car, it seemed relatively less accessible... it's possible it is worth the price. Anyhow, as the driver dropped me off, he gave me his business card, asking me to call if I was interested.
As I got out of his car, I realized I had no idea where I was. Wasn't he supposed to take me to Gulangyu, but Gulangyu was an island. I soon discovered that the only way there is via a boat, and he had dropped me off at the pier. I would have to find the hotel on the island myself once across I made it across.
After making it across to the island, I found my hostel, which wasn't as difficult as I thought. After checking in, I checked with the front desk on how much they charged for tours to Tulou - 350 RMB. Having one point of reference, I decided to call up the driver and see if I could negotiate lower. After a couple discussions, I managed to drop the price from 320 RMB to 300 RMB, then to 280 RMB. We would meet the next day at the hotel across from the pier that he dropped me off at around 8am.
And so the next day, I arrived at the hotel on time, getting picked up by a van with about 10 other travelers. The drive was slightly over two hours, and though I tried to sleep, it was close to impossible when I realized our crazy driver didn't mind risking death if it meant we could arrive half an hour sooner:
He passed pretty much every single car we managed to see in front of us, often swerving right in front of incoming traffic! He even passed the police car in front of us who was also driving at a ridiculous speed and passing cars himself:
Yup, another near death experience... Anyhow, we finally got to where the Tulou UNESCO Heritage Site was, happy to be able to exit the car alive. The site is situated in a quiet, peaceful looking village.
Our group got a guide to take our group around. She wasn't very good, and was less than enthusiastic, but she did explain that tulous are round, residential structures built a couple hundred years ago. Extended families would live in them, and as the family grew, the tulou could be expanded outward so that the new families can live in the same building. The outer wall of the tulou is especially thick to protect the residents from potential bandits.
A couple more shots of the tulous:
We got to go inside a couple of them, where locals were hawking mostly touristy goods, though there were some interesting local specialties such as the baked persimmons. A lady was also selling homemade ai-yu drink (愛玉), which was surprising since I had never seen them really sold outside of Taiwan. After I tasted it, I advised her to try adding some lemon to it to accentuate the flavor, as the Taiwanese do.
Speaking of the Taiwanese, I met a couple of them on the trip as well - a mother and son touring together. They were fairly well traveled, and advised me to avoid tour groups to well-connected places like the cities, though they may be helpful in some cases, such as in visiting more remote locations.
Anyhow, the tour went on for a few hours, and then we headed to lunch. At lunch, a topic of conversation came up about how much we each paid for the trip. I soon realized that the majority of those in the tour group, all mainlander locals, only paid a fraction of my fare - 29 RMB! When she asked how much I paid, the mother from Taiwan spoke up for me, and said that we paid for a package, and it was not easy to separate out the costs for separate tours.
After lunch, the driver asked me to pay up. Still feeling rather slighted, I gave him the 280 RMB I had negotiated with the driver from the other day. After he counted the money, he asked for 20 RMB more - apparently he thought we had agreed to 300. I told him that we had negotiated 280 in the end, and also that it shouldn't matter that much anyways since he is ripping me off by charging me 10x the price of everyone else. Looking a little red-faced, he smiled guiltily and backed off.
We headed back after lunch, and after two dangerous hours weaving thru traffic, we were in Xiamen. 280 RMB down the drain, all for risking my life in the car for 4 hours, and going on a mediocre tour for 3 hours. I suppose the only thing the 280 RMB was worth was this lesson about getting ripped off. After all, the only true way to learn about getting ripped off is to get firsthand experience of it. Just think of it as an investment, a learning experience. Don't get mad, just talk to people, figure out what happened, and learn from it. Besides, you can't really learn anything by trying to avoid any spending, and you'll have to spend money in China eventually. Next time I'll know better.
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