老盧廈門遊記 - 1

"各位女士, 各位先生, 多謝您搭乘廈門航空.....", a recorded announcement played through the intercom in 閩南語. The friendly voice put me at ease as I settled in my seat. My colleagues and I were on our way to Xiamen for a 2 day stay. It only took roughly two hours to fly to Xiamen from Shenzhen, where we had stayed the previous week.

One of our suppliers had arranged for our pick-up at the airport. Upon exiting the airport terminal the feeling of "home" definitely hit me. It wasn't that 99% of the people there were Chinese, it was the familiar 菜市場 noise and traffic chaos that made me feel like home. Funny isn't it?

We were greeted by Tom and Colin, whom we had met the week before. I chit chatted with our hosts and tried to absorb in the surrounding scenery as much as I could. Xiamen ,I have to say this, there isn't anything small about this harbor city.

Massive architectural structures in Xiamen actually remind me much of Los Angeles, also a coastal city. I didn't waste any time snapping away photos. It started to drizzle soon after we arrived at the hotel.

I got a map from the hotel lobby and quickly plotted out my “老盧到此一遊” coordinates. There are two shopping malls on two opposite directions with the hotel in the center. One is a Walmart, which I figured I would visit the next day. While my colleagues stayed in their hotel rooms, I grabbed some cash and my camera and hit the pavement. I headed for 天虹廣場, roughly 2 km away.

Obviously the road signs and store 看板 are in simplified Chinese. I was kind of surprised that I actually didn’t hear more people using 閩南語, whether on the streets or in the stores. I walked past a few street vendors along the way. I could tell that they were from other provinces judging by their accents.

I took the “sky bridge” – 天橋, to the other side of the street. “Look what I’ve found, a KFC!” Colonel Sanders definitely has a good grasp in the Chinese market with his greasy fingers.

天虹廣場 is right next to KFC, it’s actually quite small. I didn’t see anything particularly interesting inside and quickly got out. Right about then my stomach started to beat like a drum, that tiny voice – “feed me” soon turned into a holler. Well, it’s time to tame the beast.

I returned to the street vendors for a second look. As I surveyed the goodies I also pondered on one issue – sanitary. Should I get something from the store or trust the vendors? “Oh, what the heck!”, I decided to try my luck.

“Hey, what’s this?”, Taiwanese sausages? The girl tended the stall was talking on her cell in閩南語, cool! I asked how much each then bought two of them. Check out my loot!

While uploading photos to FB I began my feast. All that walking on foot had made my legs hollow. I was pretty sure I had eaten everything in a record time. I noticed there was a convenient store not far from the hotel, in case I needed a late night snack, you know.

I looked at the small pile of bills on the dresser, they looked like Monopoly money to me. BTW, no stomachache or any discomfort after eating street food!