Showing off Xiamen Part 2

Friday morning began with a trip to the secondhand market, which once a week features dealers from all over Fujian who come in to sell their goods, mostly small items. Grandma Mary and Aunt Mary both embraced the bargain-hunting with enthusiasm, although I was called upon to do the actual negotiating..somehow the price drops faster when they discover that you speak (even a modest amount of) Chinese...

Afterwards we recovered in a nearby tea house, where Michael did the honors serving the tea.


Saturday was the day we had saved for the temple next door -- Nanputuo, which we have seen a number of times of course, but we were ready to enjoy its picturesque views and cultural enlightenment. Sophia and Helen demonstrated the proper technique of rubbing the dragon's foot for luck...

I finally had the chance to capture a frog sitting on a lily pad -- a long awaited moment since I first spotted one last fall in the lotus pond. Most of the good photos are Mary's however...here is the lotus pond and pagoda..


With close up of the details of the Bodhisattva on the pagoda...

Unfortunately the rain really picked up as we went along -- did keep the crowds down, however. And the highpoint was meeting up again with our friend the monk, who took to Sophia at our first visit. Whenever we see him, he always makes a little time to talk, and this time he welcomed our visitors to the temple and gave them some charms carved in a dragon shape.




After the temple Helen was feeling under the weather and ended up with a 24 hour stomach bug that Sophia had had earlier in the week. So a smaller group set out in the rain across the courtyard to the restaurant next door. Since they have no English menu, we have avoided it, but this night was a test of my Chinese, and we ended up successfully ordering soup, broccoli, jiaozi (dumplings) pork neck and a big fish. Above you see the usual way Sophia and I interact in a restaurant -- lately she is rejecting high chairs (so rarely available anyway) and sits on my lap demanding to be fed by me --definitely the Chinese way.

Aunt Mary left on Sunday morning :( and we headed to church on Gulanyu, getting the chance to introduce Michael's mom to our church friends and the staff. As we were getting ready to leave the island, we happened across a parade, complete with dragon dancers, drums, and parading temple gods on portable altars. I had left my camera behind, but saw my friend Julia there who has promised to get us some photos of hers-- it was quite exciting, and the first time we have really seen a religious/cultural display like this in Xiamen. Grandma must be bringing us luck. Later in the day that luck continued when we went to the "top of Xiamen" Pizza Hut and were first told it was a 1 hour wait, and then 5 minutes later sitting at a table with a great view of the harbor with our pepperoni pizzas - so Grandma got to experience the classy place Pizza Hut is in China.


There it is on the 24th floor of a waterfront tower...the views were OK, bu nothing compared to tonight, when we continued our eating out every night fiesta, by going with our friend Roger to his favorite place -- a patio dim sum restaurant at the Harborview Hotel.

With good company, Gulanyu by night as our scenery and dozens of tasty made to order dim sum on our table -- we had a really delightful time.

Helen tops off dinner with some of our fruit sculpture dessert.

We were just sorry that Mary had already left for the US -- just the kind of place she would love...we heard she has arrived safely but is waiting for her checked luggage to show up -- prayers to the patron saint of lost bags (is it St. Anthony or someone else?) are needed, because that bag is full of treasures!

We have three more days to enjoy having Grandma in our midst, planning some more quiet times so we can all rest up a bit after all this fun.