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I should have written about this since the end of January.
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My friends and I (we were ten in all) went to Xiamen (Xiamen 厦门,located in the southern part of Fujian province) for a few days at the end of January. We had gone to Hongqiao airport very early but still, we nearly missed the plane. There were too many people queuing up to check in. It was so chaotic, so badly organized. My friends and I ran all the way to the boarding gate and made it in time. phew. Fortunately, I was wearing trainers instead of my usual boots and I had a backpack instead of a small suitcase as hand luggage. Spring Airlines is horrible but then again, I was not surprised. After all, Spring Airlines is Shanghai’s first low-cost(budget) private airline and it was launched only last year in July. We were only given bottled mineral water. No meals on the flight.

We reached Xiamen after about two hours. It was such a sunny day. The weather was perfect. (compared to Shanghai!!)

Gancho, James and me at the airport

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After those few days spent in Guangzhou, I learned that tea drinking is a big thing over there.
Native Guangzhou people are known in China for their love for tea. Drinking tea is like a symbol of their everyday life and it has to be in teahouses. Drinking tea at home simply doesn’t count.
It’s not surprising that the number of teahouses in Guangzhou is the largest in China.

On my first morning in Guangzhou, Rosemary’s cousin said: ‘Let’s have tea’. I thought that she meant let’s drink tea in her house but she went to change and put on her shoes. Rosemary and I did the same and followed her out. She took us to a teahouse near her place.

There were many people there, having tea and eating dimsum. It was more like some kind of social occasion. Rosemary’s cousin said that the Cantonese call it yam cha which literally means to drink tea. However, it also includes the dim sum. From what I understood, drinking tea without having dim sum is not yam cha. Dim sum are savoury little snacks, usually steamed, deep fried, or boiled.
More definitions of dim sum here.

Rosemary and I didn’t know what to order so we asked her cousin to do it.

The waitress filled our tea cups and then took the order.

The food didn’t take long to arrive and Rosemary’s cousin told us to dig in. I didn’t eat immediately. I took out my camera and took pics. Rosemary’s cousin seemed amused by that.

I’m not very adventurous when it comes to food so I was a bit wary when I saw the waitress bring the chicken feet. I tentatively took a bite and it was surprisingly good. Okay let’s dig in.

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As mentioned in my previous entry , I had stayed in Guangzhou for 3 days during my hols.
It was my first time travelling to another city in mainland China. The departure hall for inland flights was a bit different from that for international flights. I can’t really describe it but still, I remember that the departure hall for international flights was way nicer.

Departure hall for inland flights:

I thought that we’d be having dinner on the plane but unfortunately we only got drinks and these:

I guess it was because we boarded the plane at 8 p.m and most of those chinese people already had dinner. I keep forgetting that in China they usually have dinner at about 5:30 p.m.
I’m used to having dinner at about 8 p.m. That was in Mauritius. In Shanghai, I usually have dinner as from 7 p.m . 5:30 p.m is too early for me.

Tired and hungry when I reached Guangzhou, I didn’t bother taking pics of the new airport.
It sure looked lovely at night.

I’ve been back to Shanghai since almost two weeks now. I’ve had so much to do that I didn’t blog at all.

I’ve had lovely hols but by the 10th, I felt like I’ve had enough and I wanted to return to Shanghai.
I had already bought my return plane ticket for the 16th and it would be troublesome to change. I was counting the days until I could finally return to Shanghai. Still, I did my best to enjoy the 6 days left and on the whole,I had a great time.

My eagerness to get back surprised me. There was nothing wrong with my relatives. We get along really well and I’m glad that I’ve finally met them. I just felt like I missed Shanghai, my university and the new life that I’ve gotten used to. I guess that I’ve gotten so used to seeing certain places, certain things and certain people everyday that not being able to see them for almost a month was hard. Now I realise how much I love my life in Shanghai.

I spent 3 days in Guangzhou and then stayed in Meizhou (Meixian /Moyen) until the 15th Feb morning . I reached Shenzhen in the afternoon and left for Shanghai the next afternoon.
I took a few pics in Guangzhou and Meizhou but practically none in Shenzhen.
I didn’t really like Shenzhen. The only memory I’ll have of Shenzhen is that I saw Banana splits on the menu in one of the restaurants but when I tried to order one, I was told that they didn’t make Banana splits anymore. It’s been years since I last ate a Banana split. I want one! I wonder if I can get it in Shanghai.

More updates about my trip soon. Need to resize those pics first.

Photos taken at the airport in Shenzhen.

There were a lot of people at the airport. I heard on the news that the Chinese people had to get back to work the next day (17th Feb) after their one week off work for the Chinese New Year. That explains the great number of people at the airport. I heard that it was even worse at the train stations.

The only problem I had during my trip was my luggage. I left Shanghai with a small blue suitcase and returned with much more.

That’s Rosemary looking after all our luggage. The small sports bag on the left and the big blue suitcase underneath the backpack are hers. The 4 remaining pieces of luggage are mine. I sure did a lot of shopping. My back and arms were sore when I reached the dormitory.

I’m glad to be back here.
The only thing I complain about here is the cold weather. It’s already Spring but still so cold. Hopefully, after a few more weeks it will be warmer.