CHINA 2010 WEDNESDAY 15th SEPTEMBER

Nothing exciting happened yesterday worth writing about.
This afternoon Keith went for a trim but I have decided to wait until I see what they do to him before I go. I suggested a hairdressers round the corner from us as it is always busy but when we arrived there was just a pile of rubble inside, and the three ladies behind us were just as shocked so I guessed they were planning a visit to the salon too. Not to worry there are hundreds and down a side street across the road there are at least two. We chose to go in the farthest one as the first one was busy and Keith didn’t want to hang around in the heat. He had asked Mr. Wang, one of his students, to write out ‘50% off and nothing off the sides or back’. “Okay” said the young man – we’ll see! After a shampoo he did as asked and Keith was very pleased, and even more delighted on the price of 15 yuan. I will return tomorrow.
Our next visit was to a travel agent behind the ‘Marco Polo Hotel’ as our guide book said the assistants spoke English and we hadn’t seen any other travel agents. With clear skies again and very hot we walked alongside ‘Yundang Lake’ making a brief stop every now and again for me to get the camera out. The hillside was covered in purple and green and reminded me of the North Yorkshire Moors with its August heather only this landscape was broken by a large rocky hillside. It was so quiet in the park area with just a few fishermen around the lakeside and the fish nowhere near any of them. Once or twice we saw a large fish leap out of the water and make a large splash as it landed. We found ‘Apple Travel’ without any trouble and the assistants did their best to help us. We were looking for information about Fujian Province and ideas for our next visit. They had no leaflets on the Province but plenty about Thailand, including a street map of Chiang Mai, Vietnam and America. The young travel agent brought up their website of various tours designed for 2 people upwards, but we wanted more information about the resorts so we could decide how many nights we would like to stay. In the end we said we would research on the internet and come back during our next visit to Xiamen.
As we walked over the footbridges across the lake where the hot sun had begun to melt the non slip surface I suggested we buy a good guide book of the region. Each step we took we could hear a hiss as the air escaped from the large bubbles making us laugh. It was getting late in the afternoon and the buses would be getting crowded so we decided to look on the internet and if we find anything order it online.
It was lovely walking under the shade of the trees where one or two people were asleep on marble benches. The only sound, apart from me talking, was from the birds but as we approached Hubin XiLu the noise of heavy traffic broke the peace. There was no horns sounding but someone riding a bicycle should really get out the oil can!