Melanie Fischer

Volleyball season officially ended and Morton was asked to practice and play a friendly tournament on the highschool varsity ping-pong team. The competition was pretty tough, but Morton held his own – pretty good for an 8th grader playing mostly among seniors!

I was invited on a tour of the American Embassy art collection. The first tour they’ve given in over three years. The work was a beautiful collection of mostly contemporary art with some old photographs of foreign diplomates – some from well over a century ago.

Two weeks ago the kids had off from school Thursday and Friday. Trying to squeeze in as much traveling as possibly while Celia’s in China, I planned a trip. I warned the kids that we would have to carry our bags all day – so carry very little. Dan could bring other things the next day. Of course, at 5:30 in the morning, with departure in 30 minutes, I’m still talking Morton down from his three bags. In addition, to be consistent in the way I plan trips – I was still making reservations and decisions as we were heading to the airport. We flew off early Thursday morning (Celia had a party Wednesday evening) to Xiamen. Xiamen is a coastal town in the south east of China with about 3.5 million people. A lot of foreign ocean trade went through Xiamen. Downtown Xiamen is an island and another smaller island off of Xiamen, Gulangyu, is where the foreigners set up their headquarters. The kids and I flew in and jumped into a taxi to the old downtown area which has a walking street with the curvey hutong streets surrounding it. We wandered around, bought our obligatory refrigerator magnet, found a hole in the wall restaurant to buy a pretty good lunch, and then caught the ferry to Gulangyu.

Two blocks away from the ferry we lost the tours which were following their flag holding guides and found lovely quiet hutong streets and an ocean side promenade.

Large banyan trees grew along the roads and over old walls. Large old European estates in various states of repair and disrepair lined many of the interior streets.

After much wandering we found the large old estate we were staying at. Entering into the estate walls we walked into a blissfully calm environment, set up for tea service in front and a lovely garden in back. A small room next to where we checked in held the most beautiful traditional Chinese dresses I’d ever seen. There were no tags, and I assumed they were out of my price range, but I asked if they were for sale. They were for rent. Visitor rent the dresses and have themselves photographed in the gardens and in the beautiful old buildings of the estate. I have found this is a very common thing to do in China. Many of the famous sites (the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, for example) are surrounded by stores that rent time period costumes and photographers who will photograph you as you tour the sites.

That evening we headed to lovely seafood restaurant and ordered all their vegetarian dishes ( and one delicious bing (pancake) dish that included a tiny bit of seafood – sorry Celia!).

Around five years ago we were sailing up the Spanish coast and one of the towns we stopped in had these places were tourists were putting their feet into water and tiny fish were nibbling on them. We thought it was very strange, but Celia and I have discussed it a number of times since then, so when we saw the same type of place across the street from the restaurant, we figured we had to try it – so after dinner we went in. No amount of coaxing could get Morton even in the door. First they gave a painful foot/lower leg massage. Then they cupped the souls of our feet – putting a flame in the rubber cup and then getting it to suction to our feet. For whatever reason the cups wouldn’t stick to Celia’s feet. Finally we put our feet into the fish filled water. We laughed hysterically. It was so strange. I’m not sure if it did anything for our feet – but it was definitely an experience.

Once our feet were lovely from being nibbled on, we went looking for desert. We got these cute treats that are basically batter poured into egg shapes and then cute faces burned onto them to look at us while we ate them.

The next morning we had a lovely Chinese breakfast at the hotel before wandering back to the ferry to meet Dan at the airport.

After picking Dan up at the airport, we headed to see some Tulous. Tulous are beautiful old family compounds that were built as fortresses out of clay- the most lovely were built as circles. Each family with in the extended family would have their kitchen on the ground flood, storage directly above and sleeping room above that. The middle of the compound is outdoor space and sometimes as the extended family grew an additional circle or two were built inside the original circular building. Traditionally the bathroom was outside the compound, but more recently families have been adding bathroom facilities. Pretty crazy and amazing! Unfortunately most of the younger generations are leaving their family tulous for more convenient locations and/or more modern facilities and they just return to see family for the Chinese New Year holiday. Apparently during, I believe the 1970s, the U.S satellites saw these buildings and thought they were Nuclear reactors!

Late that afternoon we did a hike up the hills behind the tiny town of Zhangzhou. The air and the view were so lovely – and as a tea drinker – a little embarrassing how little I knew about how tea is grown. At least here, they are grown on bushes cut short into low rectangles.

That night we stayed in a beautiful smaller rectangular Tulou. As most of the family had moved out of the Tulou, one remaining couple, whose kids are grown, was running it as an inn.

The next day, Dan and I woke early to take a pathetic but also glorious (air and scenery were fantastic!) run up the hill the town was nestled in. The door to the Tulou was impressive and more of a feat to open than we are used to.

After a run and a quick shower we had a lovely simple breakfast and then headed out to see a few more Tulous and tiny towns. We saw what is apparently the largest Tulou (sadly I forget the number of people it houses).

Then we walked to a beautiful Tulou which sadly now only houses animals. I’m thinking it would be a fantastic artists’ retreat!

We stopped in the same town with the largest Tulou and the animal housing tulou at a tiny hotel and had a coffee.

Before leaving the Tulou area we visited a few more Tulous – including one that had two circles inside the outer circle. It was a shame to loose the yard in the middle, but it was a pretty amazing structure.

We then had our driver take us to a town an hour north up the coast from Xiamen called Quanzhou, home to around 7 million people. It is considered the start of the Sea Silk Road. Quanzhou is considered a third tier city – so foreign tourists don’t really go there but a friend, Dong, was taking her daughter, Autumn, there to check it out for the weekend and encouraged us to meet her there. Dong had heard that being a third tier city, Quanzhou was able to avoid having much of their old neighborhoods knocked down for high-rises that most of the big cities have experienced. I spent a lot of time trying to book ourselves into the hotel Dong and Autumn were staying at and was told that they don’t take foreigners but eventually I was able to get Dan’s assistant to get us two rooms. The hotel was in the old hutong area – so excessable only by foot – getting there through a maze of walking streets. It was lovely.

The main attraction in Quanzhou is Kaiyuan temple. After settling into the hotel we headed out to see it. Walking there we walked through what must be the most major tourist street. It was crazy crowded!

We stopped along the root to get a roof top view from a building that had a fancy bake shop inside.

Kaiyuan Temple has twin tours. They are are made out of stone and are incredibly beautiful (one can be seen behind the lady with her pastry). I had never seen one that looked like this.

We then ran back to the hotel and met up with Dong and Autumn to have dinner. Walking to dinner Celia and Dan stumbled upon this dog that was dyed to look like a panda. Pretty crazy!

The next day after breakfast at the hotel, we head out with Dong and Autumn to see some old beautiful temples.

The first temple was Confucian where we have been told people come to pray for good grades. Dong showed us how to do it, we lit incense and then made our wishes. I’m not sure my kids cared very much.

It was very interesting seeing how the walls of the temple were built, between the bricks were areas of mud based, or sand based cement. Any architects out there can explain why?

We then went to an old mosque. There were the old walls and then a newer mosque sitting next to it.

Outside the mosque we decided to try a cup of sugar cane juice that this woman was making. It was good – though a little too sweet to finish.

Then we headed to one last temple. I believe it was buddhist (I need Dong to confirm). The building was over the top ornate but it was so crazy crowded we couldn’t bear it.

After lunch we wandered the hutong streets some more and went back to see the towers again as the girls had missed it the first time around. The boys took a Morton detour and apparently found a place to shoot a bow and arrow.

Then we said, “Goodbye” to Dong and Autumn before heading to the airport back to Beijing.

When we got back to Beijing Celia was very excited to see Milo.

Since we got back:

I went on a lovely tour of this art area in Beijing that was designed and built by Aiweiwei and now houses very high end art businesses. A friend of a friend, Hugh, has a business making rugs. He gave a few friend and I a tour of his business, served us lovely tea and then showed us an art gallery and two incredibly upscale furniture businesses. It was pretty amazing.

In addition, Celia has started playing soccer on her highschool team – a gutsy thing to start senior year. We are proud of her – though I have not accomplished taking a decent picture of her playing.

Last weekend we celebrated Purim. Morton – by going away camping with the Boyscouts all weekend. Celia, Dan, and I went to Ted and Roberta, who are long time Beijing weiguaren (foreigners). Ted is a writer and rewrote the Purim story as a Western and then we read and acted out the story. It was a riot. Celia played the mayor of the town (who replaced the king in the original story). She was fantastic. I had my etch-a-sketch in case I needed a quick draw. (Anita and I made it years ago).

And one last picture special for Celia that she just came home and had me shoot:

We hope to hear from you all! Although we are having great adventures, we miss you!

Xo