Beach in Xiamen

Statue in Xiamen

Xiamen skyline...

Can you find the pizza hut? I've been there twice, completely different from pizza hut in America.

Narrow...

...alley.

Maybe...

...not such an easy and simple life on Gulangyu...me thinks I spot a bunker...and you know what those are for! (Or 'were' for, hopefully)

Losing hotel?

Interestingly named hotel on Gulangyu.

Colorful little boat...

...near Gulangyu Island.

Spent the day in Xiamen

My friend and I had coffee and a bagel in a cafe, went shopping for books, took a walk on the beach, ate pizza at pizza hut, and walked down Zhongshan road. School starts Monday. I am very sad.

Beach in Xiamen

Same area as my last post on the beach in Xiamen, but different time of day/year.

I got my first "fuck you"

I was walking around Gulang Yu Island in Xiamen with a friend and a group of 3 middle school boys walked past us. When they were about 15 feet behind us one of them turned around and said "fuck you" in our direction. It was quite funny, and we both had a good laugh.

It's back to 10 a day

I don't know what I was complaining about, it's not like I have a busy schedule right now. So it's back up to a minimum of 10 characters a day. I bought some English books in Xiamen the other day, one of which cost 99rmb. Can you say rip off...only good thing about the trip is I now know where all the bus stations are and my Chinese is good enough to get me there and back.

Chinese language

I'm only up to 120 characters so far. I've been slacking big time. I'm going to have to cut it down to 5 characters per day for now because these bad boys just don't stick in my head the way I want them too. But, 5 characters per day is about 1800 in one year so that's not too bad.

Today, it's off to Xiamen for some shopping and site seeing. The vacation has begun, all two months of it.

Reflection

Reflection at Nanputuo Temple in Xiamen.

An advertisement in Xiamen

Starting a new business

This man is starting a business in Xiamen. He is burning fake paper money outside his new store for good luck.




Good luck on your new business!

A personal update about my life

So what have I been doing lately? Well, I met a new friend in Xiamen and she introduced me to a bunch of her friends, including her best friend Alice. She is Chinese but currently lives in Singapore while coming to Xiamen for business about once a month. You should look at the cost of living and immigration requirements to live there to get a ballpark figure about the kind of money she has. Needless to say she is a very successful business woman. This weekend I saw her again and she introduced me to a bunch of her business partners. We're talking about filthy, disgustingly rich people. These business partners of hers just recently bought a three-story villa for their new business. They also asked her to pay them 1 million yuan to join as a partner of the company. Thats about oh $140,000. She told them she doesn't have that much money.

It's really amazing what you can get yourself into being a foreigner in Asia. As far as Alice and myself, I'm not sure how long our friendship will last. To be honest I'm not too fond of her personality, and shes constantly traveling. Most annoyingly I had to explain to her that I don't like being shown off like a prize trophy, I had enough of that in Korea. I also explained how poor I am and how careful I am about who I pick for my friends. So I have a feeling this won't last too long.

But, damn it, you only live ONCE. You can never rewind your life, and you'll never have another one so be damn sure to follow all your dreams before your time is up.

I'll keep you up to date....maybe

Xiamen beach

Xiamen is the Jewel of China. I know where I will be spending my weekends. It's about one and a half hours away from my home.