Our Trip to China last week...Part 1

We had the opportunity to go and see where it is we will be living, the neighborhood, the office space, etc. We also had to get a medical exam as the last piece of our Visa Z process. That was interesting.

Travel Day - SLC to San Francisco (2 hrs) then San Francisco to Hong Kong (14.5 hrs.) then a 2 hr delay in our flight from Hong Kong to Xiamen (1 hr.) We got to the hotel at 12:30 am after traveling for 31 hrs. Long day. This is the 747 double decker we flew on. I've  never been on one before. It's only nice if you are the one upstairs. It was a pretty good flight.

  

This was my only problem.  I have a condition where my blood has a tendency to clot. So I wear compression socks to force circulation and an aspirin for blood thinner. Here are my feet after 16 hours in the compression socks.

Two of those lines are from the shoes I walked in for a while. We were really tired when we finally got to Xiamen. We slept really well.

Our first day there I was able to tour Xiamen with the wife of another Lifetime employee who lived there for 10 years. We went to the markets and saw the apartment. It's a really nice apartment and a really nice area. I only took a few pictures that day. Mostly playing with my camera. It was good day. 

On our second day there I toured Xiamen again. We went to the campus of Xiamen University, where I will be attending the Chinese class that I enrolled in. Here are a couple of pictures of the campus. I am still figuring out my camera and it was an overcast day, thus the blue hue to it all. 

It's a beautiful campus.

Right next to the Campus is a famous Buddhist Temple on the island of Xiamen. We were able to see the temple and walk the mountain behind it. There are boulders up the side of the mountain and in the boulders have been carved steps to climb the mountain. There are a few temples up the mountain. We only hiked up to the second one. Sometime Daniel and I will hike all the way up and down the backside where there is a botanical garden.

This is one of the entry gates to the Temple grounds.

 Inside the courtyard there are two towers with holes at seven levels. You throw coins into the holes and the higher the hole you can get a coin into the more luck you will have. I got a coin in first try in the 4th one up. Sweet. Luck in China!

 This is the main temple from behind and up the hill a bit.

 These are some of the steps up the mountain.

 These are some the steps behind the second temple up.

 This is another of the temples in the area.

Xiamen is so beautiful. I am so excited to live there. We walked the water front and through some of the parks. I will have opportunities to take some beautiful pictures while we are living there.

Tomorrow I will post about our third day -the factory and Pearl Island and our day in Hong Kong.