XIAMEN

 Xiamen, pronounced shaa-men, is a beach side resort  as well as a university town located along the Chinese coast.    This is definitely a vacation spot, complete with bicycle rentals and a small amusement park on the beach. Although the weather was quite chilly many people were  gathered on the beach. We rented tandem bikes, visited Dr. Tea (a government owned tea store), strolled along the  boardwalk, watched a tai-chi demonstration and enjoyed watching a string of young people dance the Bunny Hop to western music on the local pedestrian mall. 
Tom's note:  Although the above makes Xiamen sound pretty much like a resort town (which it is in part) it is also a big, hustling port with lots of high rise buildings, not as high as those in Shanghai perhaps, but still plenty high.  Lots of traffic, herds of tourist groups (Asian, not Caucasian).  Strange thing:  On this whole cruise so far, we haven't seen another cruise ship since we left Sydney.  Perhaps we will in Hong Kong, where we are now headed.  In Shanghai we did see about five bus loads of Princess  Cruise people, but we didn't  actually see the ship.  Have no idea where it was stashed, but it was probably too big to moor where we were.

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Xiamen is positioning itself as an international marathon capital...these statues run along the boardwalk.

SHANGHAI

We are now in the Taiwan Strait, between Taiwan and mainland China, proceeding south to our next port, Xiamen. Departed Shanghai last evening after two delightful and eventful days there. Just going up the river was exciting for me, seeing the various units of the Chinese navy moored alongside piers and cargo ships being built in the shipyards.

Shanghai was fabulous.  We arrived late afternoon and almost immediately went on a tour that included going to the 88th floor observation deck in Shanghai's second highest building, after dark.  Took a lot of pictures that MA has previously posted.  One was looking straight down 88 floors in the building's interior.  Scary.  MA took a tour the next day to a village touted as China's Venice, and she's posted a bunch of pictures of it.  Another highlight was a ride on the Maglev high speed train that runs from town to the airport and hits 430 km/hr.  That's fast!!
The river runs right through the city, dividing it into the "old" part and the new.  Barge and big ship traffic run on the river constantly, night and day.  And so do excursion boats which, at night, are lighted up garishly.  The  buildings along the "bund"--a very classy promenade at riverside--are lighted at night as are many other buildings.  The bund is apparently a very popular tourist spot--all day long Chinese folks, young and old, are there taking pictures of each other.  It's a great place to people watch.

SHANGHAI PHOTOS

88 FLOORS UP, THIS IS THE VIEW FROM  THE MIDDLE OF THE TOWER THAT LOOKS DOWN INTO THE HYATT LOBBY. CAN YOU BELIEVE TOM TOOK THIS??

VIEWS OF THE CITY ...

THE BUSY RIVER

THE VENICE OF THE FAR EAST:  THE WATER TOWN OF ZHUJIAJIAO, CHINA

 
OUR SHIP AT THE DOCK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY --


WOW, IT WAS FUN!  TRAIN SPEED CLOCKED AT 400 KM/HR ALTHOUGH IT ACTUALLY REACHED 431 BEFORE IT SLOWED DOWN.

BEIJING

Ti an Amin Square

TI AN AMIN SQUARE,  THE FORBIDDEN CITY ( ANCIENT HOME OF CHINESE EMPERORS) AND THE ASTOUNDING WALL OF CHINA

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 THE HOTEL LOBBY WAS NOT ONLY BEAUTIFUL BUT FILLED WITH MUSICIANS WHO WERE PLAYING UPON OUR LATE AFTERNOON ARRIVAL.






THE GREAT WALL PICTURES WERE TAKEN FROM THE OPPOSITE SIDE - FILLED WITH SO MANY CHINESE TOUR GROUPS THAT I JUDGED IT TO BE AN UNSAFE CLIMB TO HIKE TO THE TOP--
AND SUPPOSEDLY WE WERE THERE ON AN UNCROWDED DAY!  SOME STEPS, BESIDES BEING UNEVEN, HAD ABOUT A 15 INCH RISE AND YOU HAD TO LITERALLY  CLIMB ONTO THEM.  THEN THERE WERE DISABLED FOLKS WHO WERE CLUTCHING ON TO THE SIDES OF THE STEP WALL AND MAKING IT DANGEROUS TO PASS THEM BY. THEN, OF COURSE, THERE WERE ALSO THE DARE DEVILS, THE KIDS, WHO RACED AND PUSHED BY.  

COLD WEATHER AND LOTS OF CHINESE TOURISTS PREVAILED --FEW "BIG NOSES" WERE ON TOUR , THAT IS THE  DESCRIPTION GIVEN TO US BY THE CHINESE, REFERRING TO EUROPEANS OR AMERICANS.     



BEIJING STREETS WERE JAMMED WITH CARS -- OUR GUIDE SAID 5000 NEW LICENSE PLATES ARE ISSUED TO NEW DRIVERS EVERY DAY.  THEN..... DRIVERS HAVE EITHER AN EVEN OR ODD NUMBERED PLATE ALLOWING THEM ON THE ROAD ONLY ON ALTERNATE DAYS.  THIS DEFINITELY PROMOTES RIDE SHARING.

OUR CHINESE GUIDE

 

THE PUBLIC RESTROOMS AT THE GREAT WALL AS WELL AS THE RESTROOMS ALONG THE HIGHWAY WERE ALL THE TYPICAL CHINESE TOILET (AS PICTURED), MERELY A HOLE IN THE GROUND

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AT SEA

FORMAL NIGHT OUT

TOM'S FAVORITE PASTIME: WATCHING THE SHIPS AT SEA AND READING THE NY TIMES

OUR HOME WHILE AT SEA

SOUTH KOREA / SEOUL

Brrrr! What a switch in temperatures  --  from tropical to sweater and jacket weather.  Toured the DMZ
 today and could not believe the American accent the guard had  -- he was from Virginia!!  We donned our helmets and went into the tunnel created by the North Koreans and discovered by South Korea in 1978.  Could not take any pictures in the tunnel or of the S. Korean landscape as it was considered a military zone.  Looking into North Korea, you could only see the  barren landscape.  Actually, it is amazing that the 38th parallel is open to visitation  --  needless to say the security was extremely tight..  Lunched on the Korean cabbage "chim chi" and decided that living in S. Korea would truly cause most Americans to shed pounds.  Tomorrow we leave the ship to spend an overnight in Beijing.

TAIWAN / KEELUNG

Huge budda, across from our dock in Taiwan

Keelung, main port in Taiwan

Fireboat reception at  Taiwan

Container ship at Taiwan

                      

Taiwanese destroyer



Taiwan countryside

Walking on rocks in the rain

Here is a hodge-podge of pictures depicting our visit to Taiwan.  We have trouble positioning them the way we want them, so bear with us.We went into the port of Keelung, a very large port teeming with maritime activity.  Keelung is locaed at the north end of Taiwan and is some 30 kilometers from the principal city, Taipei.  One of the ship's excursions went into Taipei, and we should have gone on it--it was dry.  The excursion we chose turned out to be extremely wet.  Rained the whole damn time, and as we ascended  the mountain to the gold mine area, we were enshrouded in mist.  The flora up there was magnificent--cherry trees in blossom, wonderful azeleas, etc. etc., but the rain and mist made decent pictures impossible. And the road up the mountain was a web of switchbacks, very narrow, on the side of a cliff.   Scary, scary.  When we finally got out of the bus, we had what seemed to be hundreds of steps yet to climb, and I (Tom) don't do well on steps but somehow managed with MA's help.  But the temples and mines up there made the trip well worth while.  Here are some shots of it.  The gold nugget (ingot) is supposed to be the largest

Trying to capture  the  gold nugget

Portion of Keelung at night

 in the world, and we believe it.  When we finally went back down, we went to what our guide called "little Shanghai."  Was a very narrow passageway lined with shops of various kinds that seemed to go on forever.   Was jambed with people, and every now and then some jerk would try to drive his motorbike through the throng.  Crazy.   Then we went to the fish market and finally back to the ship, soaking wet and kind of cold. Today we are enroute to Korea--Inchon and Seoul.  The night we left Taiwan the wind was howling and the seas the roughest yet, but today the sea is pretty calm and the sun is out.  But it is chilly and there is some wind, so walking on the "jogging" track is uncomfortable.  The sea--the East China Sea--is loaded with fishing boats.  They look to be about 100 feet long and are obviously built to spend several days at a time at sea. And we see many cargo ships.  Seems there is almost always a tanker, bulk cargo, or contrainer ship heading south, and we occasionally pass one going our way.

In "little Shanghai"