Chinese National Day holiday

In my last post I mentioned the holiday but didn't say what we actually did on the day itself! As we've been given a week off for this holiday (from Tuesday until Tuesday), my friend Izzy and I thought that it would be a bit of a shame if we didn't go away for at least part of it. Izzy's brought a China Lonely Planet book with her, reminding me of a family who have a sizeable collection of these guidebooks although I had so much to think about before I came that I didn't think to bring the China one with me, so looked up what it recommended to do within Fujian province as we didn't want to go far seeing as scholarship money hasn't yet come through and I've applied for my residence permit meaning I'm temporarily without a passport! I needn't have worried as other people I know managed to buy train tickets using their student card instead so maybe it looks and acts as a passport within China! The best idea seemed to be to go to Yongding county, about 3 hours further inland from Xiamen. We met up with our two friends who had agreed to travel with us at the main university campus where they're based and booked our bus tickets (more about this on the next post detailing our trip!).

Afterwards we decided to head down to the beach as it was a nice sunny day (not unusual for Xiamen) but were greeted by loads of Chinese tourists! Xiamen is very much a tourist city with its beaches, pre-mentioned sunny weather, one of the most beautiful university campuses in China/the World, the stunning Nanputuo temple and Gulangyu island, so many Chinese tourists have flocked here to spend the holiday. The buses are packed, there's loads of traffic and there are huge queues of tourists at the university gates and it's difficult to find a seat in the most popular canteen. 

View of Baicheng beach from the bridge over the road, packed with tourists!

There were lots of hoopla games like this where you could win roses, soft toys etc. as well as people selling buckets and spades, flip flops, more roses, drinks, snacks... I'd never seen the beach like that!

 As we were walking along a Chinese girl came up to us and asked if she could have a photo with us, not an uncommon thing to happen in China. I wonder what they do with the photos? She then presented Sam with a rose and told him he was very handsome.

Here's Sam with his gift and two Chinese admirers

We spotted a hole and Robin, being the drama queen he is, wanted to pretend he'd fallen in and got stuck

 

Going for a little paddle in the sea

Even Mickey Mouse was enjoying the day with his Crocs!

These guys found a good way to keep the sun off them (in China it's beautiful to be pale rather than tanned. Chinese women often walk around with umbrellas/parasols to keep the sun off them and use skin whitening treatments)

The wooden walkway had been damaged, presumably by the typhoon, but people were climbing up there anyway

Baicheng beach

 We ended up finding some rocks to sit on and relax until it got dark and was time to get some food. I actually quite liked seeing all the tourists on the beach, there was a lot more going on than usual. Might wait until after the holiday to go back there again though.

More Chinese tourists

Typhoon damage