This morning we woke up to find ourselves almost docked in Xiamen, it was a surprising view, we weren’t really sure what to expect. But we soon found that it was quite a nice city and quite large (approximately 3.5 million people vs. Melbourne’s 4 million). We had chosen the ‘Essence of Xiamen’ tour which departed at 8am. It took quite a while for everyone to get organised, get off the ship and find the correct tour group to join, but eventually we found the correct guide and waited patiently with him until we were ready to depart on our bus.
The tour guide’s English was fair, and we managed to understand each other most of the time. He took us to Nan Pu Tuo Si Temple which was the main stop on the tour. The temple was founded during the Tang Dynasty. There were big statues of Buddha and lots of other impressive statues of different religious figures. We walked around for a while and then met back at the bus.
The next stop was at the site in the picture above. The characters translate to “Peaceful Reunification through One Country, Two Systems”. This statement faces Taiwan and it’s said that on clear days, the sign can be seen from the coast of Taiwan, where there is a similar message from the Taiwanese people back to China. Near this site, there was also a small beach, with a statue of a queen or lady of the sea who looks over all the ships that pass. The locals had also setup some stalls selling various products.
Once we were back on the bus, we were taken to Zhongshan Road for some shopping. We went for a bit of a walk, they had everything along this road – department stores, clothing shops, fast food, restaurants, photographers, souvenirs, tea shops, and anything else you could imagine! We stopped for a quick bite to eat before heading back to the bus and getting back onboard Mariner of the Seas.
This afternoon while walking around the ship, some of the Dreamworks characters were out and about, so we had a photo with Gloria the Hippopotamus and King Julian from Madagascar. Then tonight after dinner, we watched Duck Cameron who is an Australian Magician and Illusionist in the Savoy Theatre onboard. He was amazing, a really interesting show! After the show we headed to bed – we have a big day in Hong Kong tomorrow!
