Magdalena's Home Town

Today we visited Hilda's mother, Magdalena's home town, which is about an hour and a half from Xiamen. It is called Shízhèn, which translates to "stone town". And indeed, the large majority of buildings are made out of stone. In the late 1930's/early 1940's, Magdalena came from the Philippines to visit her grandmother in Shizen, but ended up stranded due to the Japanese war with China and World War II. She spent ten years in Shízhèn (and Jimei, where she attended a residential high school).

Our first stop was Magdalena's elementary school. It was a beautiful old stone building. We were all surprised to find that it is currently a T-shirt factory.

Although Magdalena knew the way from her school to her home, with all the new construction, we had to ask directions several times. We drove down narrow stone streets, lined with stone houses. The stone houses used a variety of construction techniques and styles. After a couple of wrong turns, we eventually found our way.

Magdalena's Uncle (actually a cousin) and his family welcomed us with warm open arms. Almost immediately, coffee, tea, and snacks appeared. The exterior walls of the building as well as the walls in the courtyards were covered in informally-painted Chinese characters. I could not get much of an explanation, other than hopes and prayers. It was a huge complex with many rooms rented out. When Magdalena lived here, she slept with her grandmother, in her grandmother's bed. The room currently stores the original furniture, which looked like it belonged in a museum. Ignore the dust; nobody has lived in this room for many, many years. A photo of Magdalena's parents and all her brothers and sisters hangs on the wall. The photo was taken in the Philippines, during the time that Magdalena lived in this house, so she is not in the picture. Calliope was emphatic that Magdalena's father did not look Chinese.

My curiosity led me up onto the roof. There was some nice stonework. From the roof, I could see the wiring that brought electricity to all of the nearby buildings. I could also see everybody's water tanks. They all looked brand new. Without exception. Perhaps the result of a government program to reduce disease caused by contaminated drinking water. One looked like a brilliant space ship.

Our next stop was the local Buddhist temple on the beach. Although a very old temple, it had been renovated recently and the details were gorgeous!

It was lunchtime, which means that Chinese people would expect to eat lunch. We foreigners, though, are a wee bit unpredictable. The rocks along the shore at the far end of the beach were beckoning. Calliope, Hilda's nephew Anton, and I opted for some rock scrambling. The rocks were geologically interesting and colorful as far as rocks go. Okay all you rock hounds out there, what are we looking at here? There were some deteriorating boats up on shore. Some were in better condition than others. But they were all equally accessible.

Wanshi Botanical Gardens

Today is the start of the three day Dragon Boat holiday. Since students get Thursday and Friday off, they are expected to return to classes on Sunday. What one hand giveth, the other hand taketh away. For my holiday, I decided to walk the entire Wanshi Botanical Garden. I found one statistic stating that the Garden covers 2.27 square kilometers with over 5,300 kinds of tropical and subtropical plants, many found nowhere else on earth. I didn't convince anyone else to join me. I went in no particular order and I had no map. I spent six hours winding my way through one themed garden after another - truly exquisite.

I somehow managed to miss the front gate and walked in here. Nearby were some trash cans. On the streets of Xiamen, there are always two trash cans - one for trash and one for recyclables. Kudos to Xiamen! But here at the Wanshi Botanical Garden, the trash cans are disguised as tree stumps.

My first day in Xiamen, I noticed that I recognized all the plants I saw, because almost all of them grow within a half mile radius of my house in Florida. The fruits they serve up in fruit smoothies are the same ones I grow. But there are a few differences. I haven't seen any sea grapes here. The roots of banyans don't destroy everything in their vicinity. And there are far more plantings and varieties of bamboo. Wanshi Gardens provided some lovely areas of bamboo. I was surprised by the look of the bamboo leaf litter. It lends more of a geometric feel than pine straw or fallen oak leaves.

There was a large temple in the garden with lots of Buddhas. And in another area, I spied a dancing Buddha with sunglasses made of stone.

I climbed up a hill and up a rock to get a nice view. So, here is a view of me taking in a view of the park.

One of the highlights of the garden were the cactus displays and specimen plants.

Somebody is practicing arborsculpture with ficus plants. Arborsculpture is the art of creating a useful and/or beautiful object by grafting tree trunks and branches to themselves. Some folks are growing furniture. Others are more ambitious and are trying to grow a house. I am experimenting with arborsculpture at home. I am using guava plants and I have not been successful to date, but I am intrigued by the prospect of growing a lattice wall or a chair.

The true beauty of the gardens were the unexpected surprises as I turned each corner. I rounded a rock to see a spectacular lake covered in lotus plants and blossoms. I climbed a set of stone stairs and on the other side was a view of downtown Xiamen. I walked through a doorway and came face to face with a tree full or flowering orchids and ficus roots growing around the trunk from sky to dirt. Another name for the Garden is the 10,000 Rock Botanical Garden. Between the rocks and the beautifully landscaped stone trails, each turn provided some unpredictable visual gem.

Luxury Hot Springs Park

Calliope's friend, Liz, is here visiting for a week. I have sequestered myself in the living room, but can't seem to keep from constantly going to fetch one thing or another and barging in on them. The humidity here is quite high and our bathroom is now getting a good water workout. We have discovered that our toilet paper has amazing absorptive capacity. Without any spills, all eight rolls of toilet paper are saturated. We have come to realize that wet toilet paper is of limited use. Additionally, dried, wet toilet paper becomes brittle and holds its shape quite well. Perhaps we will have a sculpture contest. Needless to say, I blame none of this on Liz. The timing of the discovery of the wet toilet paper just happened to overlap with her visit.

Liz is an energetic shopper. Calliope has been drawn in to the local shopping scene as well. A couple of days ago, the two of them went for a massage. Today, they went hunting for a movie theatre. In the end, the three of us spent the afternoon and evening at Riyuegu Hot Springs Resort. Alas, they would let us enter the hot springs with only a bathing suit and a towel, so I have no pictures, but here's one of Liz and Calliope back at school.

Many things in Xiamen are as expensive as back home. But, as in many developing countries, certain luxuries that are exorbitantly expensive back home are affordable here. Many foreigners hire someone to clean their house, eat out at fancy restaurants, and enjoy massages. Admittedly, I don't usually take advantage of such things, but my classmate, Lisabeth, told me that the Riyuegu Hot Springs has a special pool full of fish that nibble at your skin. Who could resist that? We decided to go in the late afternoon and evening for three excellent reasons - to avoid sun exposure, to enjoy whatever exuberant night lighting might have been devised, and to enjoy the heat of the water as the day cooled into night.

The resort sits on many, many, handsomely landscaped acres. Each grouping of pools has a theme. From herbs to flowers to tea to alcoholic beverages, we found a greater variety of pools than I could have imagined. There must have been at least thirty or forty different pools - rose, lemongrass, ginger, peppermint, pineapple, lavender, beer, rice wine, green tea, you name it.

Eventually, the three of us waded into the fish spa. Indeed, as you sat there very still, the small fish would approach you one by one, until there were tens of fish nibbling the skin on your feet and legs. That is, unless you were me. I sat there with HUNDREDS of fish nibbling away at me. Large portions of my body were entirely obscured by clusters of fish. As a group, they moved up my body nibbling their way from my feet to my shoulders. I assume they got some nourishment from my dead skin. I have no idea why they preferred me, but they even liked my bathing suit!

Liz and Calliope left the fishes to get massages. They lay across granite slabs that were heated by the hot spring water, as muscular young men kneeded away their stress. They returned very happy.

As it got dark, there were fewer and fewer bathers around, until we were only sharing the place with the employees. Go ahead - call me spoiled.