Zhongshan Lu: [Attraction] This is the main shopping street of Xiamen. It consists mostly of designer clothing stores and sporting goods. It's not like the shopping areas of Shanghai & Beijing where you can find small souvenirs and gift items. The side streets are filled with DVD shops, restaurants and food stands.
Huasheng Tang Dian: [Restaurant] Located at the end of Zhongshan, My Mother's uncles made a point to stop by here for a peanut soup (huang ze he) snack as they were our tour guides. This is a specialty of the Xiamen area. It was also served after dinner at the Peony Wanpeng Restaurant.
Garden Show Park: [Attraction] This is the home of the 2007 Garden EXPO and is made up of 98 different gardens. We spent about 2 hours here and saw 5 gardens. They were some of the most artistically arranged gardens I've seen, but I can't imagine anyone sticking around for all 98!
Gulang Yu: [Attraction] The original home island of my paternal grandmother, Gulang Yu is now a tourist attraction made up of historic buildings and shops. Tour guides can be picked up right after the ferry drop-off. They start at 40 RMB, but can be bargained down to 10 RMB. Our group of 10 took about a 4-hour tour, so we just paid her the full 40 RMB anyway. It didn't even tranlate to much in USD ($5.40), but 40 RMB can go a long way in China.
Yuan Xiang Kou: [Restaurant] Our first stop on Gulang Yu was this small restaurant that specialized in fishball soup. I was a little reluctant at first because I didn't feel it wa exotic enough to try out and none of us were really hungry, but the tour guide convinced us to try a little. I'm glad she did because it was a the best fishball soup I've ever had. It tasted like real fish meat as opposed to the processed stuff we're used to in the US.
No comments:
Post a Comment