Island of Kinmen (Jinmen)

It's been a while. In my last report, I talked about the typhoon 'Meranti', which caused a lot of damage in September 2016.

It looked really terrible and it seemed like it would take forever to get everything back in order. Almost every tree had been uprooted, along with their surrounding structures.

Buildings and cars were also heavily damaged. But even though the typhoon had just passed through the day before, life quickly returned to normal.

There are a lot of people here (officially registered: 2,269,141 residents) who immediately pitched in to clean up the mess.

The cleanup efforts started quickly. Each group was assigned a task. Individuals, company employees, and army personnel all worked together to restore order.

The roads were cleared of fallen trees and branches. Work was done by hand, with brooms, chainsaws, cranes, and excavators. All the cut branches and tree trunks were loaded onto trucks and taken away. As soon as one truck was full, a new one arrived.

All the fallen trees were simply stood back up. In our park, it was done by hand with the help of everyone. The large trees on the street were lifted and secured with the help of a crane.

Things are looking good now. If someone comes to Xiamen now, they won't even notice that there was a typhoon here.

Now we can return to our life here in Xiamen.

At the beginning of October, we took a ferry ride to the island of Kinmen (Jinmen) for three days.

The ride takes about 30 minutes. Then about another 30 minutes by bike to our B&B. The house we are staying in is 100 years old and was built in a 670-year-old village. Our landlord leased this house from the government.

Kinmen (Jinmen) belongs to Taiwan and is an island group located opposite the port city of Xiamen (Amoy).

It consists of the islands of Greater Quemoy (Da Jinmen) and Lesser Quemoy (Xiao Jinmen) and 13 other small islands.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinmen

It is very beautiful here, the weather is good, but unfortunately it is very hilly, which I don't really like. I don't like riding uphill on my bike. :o)

As a welcome gift, we each receive a homemade dumpling to try. These are filled pastry dumplings. We get ones with meat filling,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumpling

We like our guesthouse here in Kinmen (Jinmen). All the rooms are nicely decorated. Breakfast is included. We still have some time before we can check into our room, so we can explore the village a little longer.

Unlike Xiamen, there is almost no traffic here. Kinmen (Jinmen) is a popular destination for cyclists. We ride until 4:00 p.m., then we check into our room.

We are staying on the first floor and have a wonderful view from our rooftop terrace.

The next day, we spend the whole day exploring on our bikes. We visit some sights in Kinmen (Jinmen), including the 'Visitor Center'. There are old airplanes and tanks on display.

On our way, we take a break at a small temple on the mountain. We continue through a village that is located right next to the airport runway. It's a strange feeling when the planes fly so close to us.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Kinmen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinmen

There is a lot to see here. We take a longer break at the beach and enjoy the sun and the sea.

Well, now we have to ride back to our accommodation, otherwise it will get dark before we get there.

Unfortunately, my tire gets flat on the way and we lose some time because we have to find a bike shop. It's not easy when you don't understand the language.

We find a bike shop where it is quickly repaired. The whole thing costs us 150.00 Taiwanese dollars. That's about 4.50 euros.

Now it's already dark when we arrive back at our guesthouse in the evening.

We change our clothes and let our host Brandon drive us to the city to have dinner and maybe have a beer in a pub. There is no bus that could take us there. At least we wouldn't be able to take the bus back later. We don't know our way around here, so we gratefully accept Brandon's offer.

Brandon recommends the Café Pub 'White Lion'. That's where we want to go. On a nice day, we sit outside for quite a while. The landlord recommends a Japanese restaurant. That's where we have dinner.

Later, Brandon picks us up again at a predetermined meeting point with his car.

On the following day, I can definitely feel that I sat on the bike all day yesterday. Everything hurts. That's why I'm glad that it started raining after breakfast. :o)

We are staying in the village today and go for a walk. The rain has stopped now. We walk up a nearby hill until we reach a wooden pavilion after climbing a few steps. From here, you have a good view.

It's time to go, we have to catch our ferry back to Xiamen.

We say goodbye to Brandon and thank him for his hospitality. We really enjoyed it here.

After a 30-minute ferry ride, we have to get back on our bikes.

In Xiamen, we still have about 45 minutes to ride until we get back to our apartment.

On October 14, 2016, my Chinese lessons start at the Mandarin Fun language school. It's strange to not understand a word and learn something completely new. I'm especially excited about learning Chinese characters.

The one and a half hours went by quickly. It was very interesting. Let's see if I can make use of it.

On October 17, 2017, our moving boxes are finally brought to our apartment. We have been waiting for this for a long time.

I will be busy with this for a few days until everything is in its place. But I'm happy that everything is finally here and we can organize our household.

Here in Xiamen, we have spent a lot of time at the 'Bank of China' to open an account, apply for online banking, or find out why a transfer we made didn't arrive.

The recipient's name must be entered exactly as it is written on the registration form. Now we had the problem that somehow a dot was entered between my name. This dot was entered as a Chinese character, so there was no way for us to enter this dot with our German keyboard. The result was that a transfer to me did not arrive because of this dot. So we had to go to the bank and spend about an hour correcting it. Dealing with authorities takes a lot of time and a lot of patience here.

Getting a mobile phone contract, on the other hand, is very easy here and you can change to a different tariff at any time. It's also much cheaper than in our country.

Of course, we also need a bit of culture, so I allow myself to visit the exhibition of 'National Geographic' photos (October 13, 2016) in Xiamen. It's really amazing to see such interesting and unique pictures.

Daniela and I spend several hours in there to look at everything in detail.

Behind our house is a mountain that you can hike up. It's a nice trip for the weekend if you don't want to go far. There are different paths that lead to the summit. It takes about 45 minutes to climb up. From up there, you have a wonderful view if the weather is good. You can see all the way to the beach and the sea.

On October 28, 2016, our balcony windows, which were broken during the typhoon in September, are replaced. We get completely new windows that can be opened.

First, the window frames are installed. The large balcony is first. That takes the whole day. The parts for the small balcony are also being cut to size.

The craftsmen say they will come back in seven days. Somehow, they managed to finish installing the balcony windows. However, you shouldn't look too closely. The work is not done very precisely.

Now we hope that they will withstand the next gusts of wind.

On November 6, 2016, Daniela and I take a trip to the mainland. She got her driver's license here in Xiamen and has her own car. We drive to Haicang to visit the Haicang Temple.

https://www.topchinatravel.com/china-attractions/haicang-temple.htm

http://www.chinatraveldesigner.com/travel-guide/wuwei/attractions/haicang-temple.htm

The ride takes a little over half an hour. Today is the perfect day to visit the temple. Not too hot and no rain.

The Haicang Temple was first built during the Jin Dynasty and has a history of over 1700 years. After its expansion, it became a Tibetan Buddhist temple. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the temple was renovated. It is an important temple on the Silk Road and covers an area of 11,600 square meters in the Hexi Corridor. Because it is surrounded by forests and springs like a hidden oasis in the sea, it is called the 'Haicang Temple', which means 'a temple hidden in the sea'.

In history, it was a very popular destination for traders and tourists. And to this day, there is still a local custom of 'walking around the Haicang Temple on the 15th and 16th days of the Chinese lunar calendar. It is said that bad luck will be scattered'. Today, the entire Haicang Temple has been developed into Haicang Park.

It's really an attractive place with a combination of relics and nature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexi_Corridor

The Hexi Corridor or Gansu Corridor is in Gansu Province in China. It covers an area of about 215,000 square kilometers. As part of the ancient Silk Road in China, it is the most important passageway to Xinjiang and Central Asia.

So we park the car and walk onto the grounds to take a look around. There are many sacred sculptures here. We don't know the meaning of these sculptures.

Around the grounds, the Chinese zodiac signs are depicted on plates. Below them is a fountain with water.

After inspecting the buildings, we hike up the mountain right behind them. We take a short break for a photo with a view.

On the way, we are approached by a group asking if we'd like to take a photo with them. Of course, as a selfie with their phone. We do that too. A heartfelt thank you, and we continue. Selfies with phones are constantly being taken here. There is hardly anyone who doesn't have a phone and a selfie stick with them.

So, we have been busy here for a few hours now. We need to start our way back or it will be dark before we get home.

Unfortunately, I can't go on many trips with Markus because he hardly has any time for that. That's why I'm glad to have met Daniela. The two of us spend a lot of time together and explore the area.