We're Xiamen

A statue of a warrior welcomes those who enter the harbor.

Street side fried foods - your order please?
Fresh seafood from a basket, or bucket. Squirmingly fresh!
One of the nooks and crannies of the old part of the city.
An evening wet market.
Fried chicken feet at this stall.

The riverfront (not as beautiful as the seashore).
The gardens of the Nanputo Temple.
Buddhist Monks reflecting on the day.
Another one of those fun translations. Basically they don't want people to release their fish and turtles there.
Madam Wu Yi ready to take on the big multi nationals.

A standing ovation for her years of service to business in China.
A small band entertaining dinner guests.
The garish lobby of my hotel.
A busy morning market.
She only sells the bottom halves of the chickens (as far as I know).

Street scene - modern dude passes the traditional street sweeper.
Great selection of veggies, meats and Eastern treats.
The dumplings are ready to be cooked.
Mmmmmmmm snakes.......
A very old, yet still inhabited home.

Another old meets new.
WW II era police motorcycle still in service.

A few weeks ago I made my first visit to the Chinese coastal island city of Xiamen. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiamen) Xiamen, with a population of about 1.5 million, is considered a rather small city by China standards. It is a pretty place on the Taiwan Strait with nice coastal recreation area complete with beaches, paths, parks, outdoor art and restaurants. There are nice hotels and a few interesting attractions as well as a few large universities. The terrain is hilly and rocky and there are several smaller islands in view from the coastal parks. I was there for a business conference for multi national companies that was a subset of a big trade and industry fair at the huge Xiamen convention center. (http://www.xicec.com/english/hzjj/zgjj.htm)

I spent some time at the conference and also got a chance to walk around the older part of the city, where the real people live.

On the meeting front I got to sit at the head table of an industry/ government meeting chaired by the Vice Premier of China, Madam Wu Yi. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Yi) Madame Yi may look like a nice little old lady but she is a very intelligent and savvy world leader. She has been very prominent in helping China to achieve it's recent success as an economic powerhouse and one that is open to investment by businesses from all over the world. she was just ranked the 2nd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/11/biz-07women_Wu-Yi_2CR9.html (Kraft CEO was number 9 and my friend the President of the Philippines number 4). I was impressed and extremely pleased to be able to watch her interact with some real big business barons from huge global companies like Mitel Steel, Sony, Maersk, GM, Volkwagon, Yum and many more. I also attended a big banquet hosted by the young, energetic up and coming politico who is currently the Vice Mayor of Beijing. An intimate gathering of about 1000 people.

the real interesting part of the trip for me was just walking around the city. Like most cities in Asia there are building going up everywhere. New office buildings and housing. Ximen is no different. there were dozens of new buildings as well as dozens more in various stages of construction. There is a huge apartment complex near the convention center that consists of about 8 huge buildings, all very modern and trendy looking. These complexes would fit in nicely in San Diego or Miami.

The old part of town has many narrow, hilly winding roads with interesting alleys, shophouses and market places. Everywhere in the older areas there were people walking and riding bikes along with vendors selling fresh fish, clothes, vegetables, dried provisions and more. there were also many small restaurants, food stalls and shops. Each little street was a treasure trove of sights and sounds.

One of the most well known sites in the Nanputo Temple. Nanputo is a very old Buddhist temple and monastary with bautiful buildings and grounds built at the foot of the mountains. the ponds in front of the buildings were full of fish, turtles and beautiful lotus leaves and flowers. I could have easily sat there and reflected for hours. http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/fujian/xiamen/nanputuo.htm

I was not really able to sample the street food for fear of upsetting my delicate stomach but I did eat at a really good seafood place. Upon entering the foyer of the restaurant there are about 20 big aquariums and also tubs of water. The tanks and tubs held live fish, eels, shellfish, rays and other edible sea life. We picked out the various items we wanted to eat, the waiter wrote up a ticket, a guy pulled the live animals out of the tanks and we were shown to our table. Within minutes we were served a few warm up courses and some of the local brew- Shark beer. Soon we were eating the shellfish, whole fish and eels that had been swimming along happy and oblivious only minutes earlier. The food was really good and all of the preparations and sauces were very tasty and the vegetables fresh as well.

While walking around the next morning I saw many interesting sites - a girl skinning live snakes, a man making and cooking dumplings on a huge outdoor cooker, kids playing in the alleys and an old man singing songs in the Fukkian dialect. As I headed to the airport I was thinking that I might have to come back to Xiamen again soon.