On Sunday Oct. 28 we took the train up to Fuzhou, a city about 2 1/5 hours north of Xiamen by train. It was a fun day, but a long one. We left for the train station at 7:15 and arrived in Fuzhou around 10:45. We had Yimi, Stuart, Molly, Tanner (a visitor from Clearfield) and Daniel and myself for our little adventure.
We spent some time on a shopping street that had 9 alleys or side streets that went crossed it. The alleys were about 300-800 years old. Now having said that, they didn't look that old. But we explored a couple and it was quite interesting. We had a lunch of dumplings on this street and then wandered some more.
Then we bussed/walked to a small island that was much less impressive than the guide book. After that we headed for dinner. Dinner was good old fashioned Chinese food. I'm going to miss that!
It was a fun day.
Pictures:
On the train.
Yimi.
Confused at something Daniel was showing them.
The country side - the rice fields.
Those gray arches in the center are actually entrances to family burial grounds. The cremation remains are kept in a crypt.
Weird food.
Getting on the bus.
On the old street.
Small incense holder.
The ceiling.
Looking out from the roof of the temple at the taller apartment buildings.
Tanner ringing the gong-like bell bowl. It sounded very cool.
Popular because I'm a westerner.
Talking with other tourists.
My fortune. It pretty much says "chill out, wait for things to happen, enjoy things as they are." Good advice.
The awesome little cabinet where the fortunes are kept.
Yimi and Molly. Two of our besties from Xiamen.
Daniel at lunch. They were shuijia - dumplings. They were pretty good.
Stuart (Yimi's boyfriend) on one of the very old alleys.
Molly telling Daniel about what we were seeing.
One of the locks.
The cornice.
One of the alleys.
Carved Jade. The way they are each connected means the entire thing was carved from one piece of jade with no breaks.
He was laying out this clay that is then baked hard, lacquered, and the then the shape is covered in gold gilt.
Wood carving.
The tiny little island with European buildings.
The view from dinner. Those older buildings are hundreds of years old.
Molly at one of the door ways.
It was a fun trip and we enjoyed spending extra time with some of our best friends from Xiamen.
I believe that bowl is used to harmonize your chakras. It acts like a tuning fork for the human soul. A complete collection is 7, one for each chakra to ensure total harmonization.
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