Enjoy Amoy-First Steps in Xiamen

2 min read

“Boredom is always counter-revolutionary.Always.”

Guy Debord，French philosopher

1988-Escape from Xiamen Xidmen was so boring in the early 1990s that we escaped every chance we could to Hong Kong，or even to neighboring Zhangzhou，which though a backwater town had better shopping than Xiamen.（On one excursion to Zhangzhou we bought two cases of excellent strawberry jam from Shanghai，which we rationed so carefully that they lasted us 3 years.We had no choice.Products were not marketed but distributed，and you might never see them on the shelves again）.

By 1993 we had island fever，so we bought our van，Toyota，and began exploring China.After traveling around Fujian and neighboring provinces，in 1994 we drove 40，000 km to Tibet and back via Mongolia and the Gobi Desert.And the more we traveled the more we came to appreciate our home province of Fujian-especially Xiamen.And over the years Xiamen has changed so dramatically that we no longer seek escape from Xidmen but to Xiamen.

China’s#1 Destination！Chinese New Year，2011，Xiamen was China’s#1 destination；Beijing was#2.Xiamen is now such a treat that Sue and I sometimes pretend we’re on vacation right here in Amoy and spend a weekend enjoying local international restaurants（Greek，Turkish，Italian，Texan），and exploring the hilllanes of Gulangyu Islet，the former Int’1 Settlement.We love Xiamen’s dozens of parks，or cycling the beautiful island ring road，which now has granite sculpturesinstead of granite tank traps，and facilities for windsurfing，sailing，sunning and swimming.And our 6 km.Xiamen Boardwalk is one of the best on the planet.

Xiamen theaters show the latest films in both 3D and IMAX.We have several PGA class golf courses（one designed by Greg Norman），bowling alleys，museums and libraries，a water park，one of China’s best marine aquariums，and a Taiwan Folk Village.Weare also one of China’s few cities to have our own Philharmonic Orchestras，and weekly performances of both homegrown and foreign talent.

I’ve given up counting how Xiamen malls.We have Germany’s Metro（Maidelong），France’s Carrefour（Jialefu），and Wal-Mart Supercenters（Woerma）even across the street from each other.

Today，there is no longer any excuse for suffering counterrevolutionary boredom in Xiamen.