It all started with a 34-hour train ride consisting of smelly squat toilets, snoring Chinese men, bunk beds, a variety of scenery outside the window, and hours of Chinese conversations.
After nearly 2 days on the train, we finally arrived in the city Xia Men (厦门) which is in Fujian province and is a costal city in southeastern China. We spent our first night exploring our hotel's surrounding neighborhood, eating Korean food, having a well-deserved shower and sleeping on a soft soft bed.
The next morning we woke up and were greeted with warm, sunny weather- something Beijing was lacking. We stepped off the bus into a bustling fish/vegetable market. I've been to many, many markets throughout Southeast Asia, but this was something very different. Right in front of my eyes I watched locals yank the feathers off live birds and then crack their necks. Nevertheless the bowls of shark, eels, frogs, stingray, crabs, rabbits, ducks etc, gave me many photo opportunities.
After another long, 4-hour bus ride, we arrived in the village of Chu Xi. What first struck me were the immense amounts of dried persimmons along the roadside. The next thing that struck me, was the huge, circular, coliseum-like buildings called 土楼 (tulou), which literally means 'soil building' (http://gallery.photo.net/photo/6716646-lg.jpg). These spectacular buildings were going to be our homes for the next two days. I don't really know how to describe where I was, but just imagine a place where chickens are running wild, water buffalos are walking through the rice paddies, cherry blossoms and banana trees are scattered along the landscape, temperatures are warm and everything is very tranquil.
The next day we went to the local Middle School to teach P.E and English. Little boys and girls came up to me and made me sign my name on their school t-shirts and school books. This went on for at least 40 minutes, and by the end, I think every student had Anthea or my Chinese name 赵逸, written on their belongings. Later that day, we returned to our tulous and listened to a talk given by the village president. After that, my friend Lili and I wandered around the village, talking to locals. One hospitable family invited us inside their house, and we spent the afternoon sipping tea, snacking off warm sweet potatoes, and interviewing the old, wrinkly man with a cigarette constantly in his hand.
The next few days are a little blurred because I was sick most of the time. What I remember though is a lot of rain, a ferry ride to an island, an island we could not explore because of the rain, and a night spent sneezing in the hotel.
We left the island the next day, spent a day in a museum and finally boarded yet another train. The following morning, we arrived in 武夷山 (wuyishan), a small tea village in Fujian province. We stayed with host families there, and I fell in love with the little boy. We spent the day quizzing each other on English and Chinese words, joining in with the sisters' game of jump rope and drinking lots and lots of tea! That day, we also hiked through the tea groves.
For dinner, I was the only person who took the risk to eat the chicken feet. VERY unwise, and I was left sick for the next 3 days. Note to self: don't eat chicken feet.
After wuyishan, we were on the road again, but this time heading to a popular city called SuZhou. The train ride the following night was a nightmare; two Chinese men, who had each devoured an entire bottle of whiskey, snored the entire night. By entire night, I mean that I slept one hour at the most. So, feeling very tired at 6am, the embroidery factory and the handicraft centre were a little painful.
We traveled again, this time to the "Venice of china". Canals and red Chinese lanterns outlined this little town. Sadly the town had a power cut, so we could not stay the night, and we headed back to SuZhou. The next few days were spent exploring SuZhou, and then a train ride back to Beijing.
Home sweet home.
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