No Mao-Tai head this morning, in fact it seemed to give me a good sleep! Went to more lectures today and saw an excellent history of Atomic Absorption Spectrometry by Ian Shuttler, and some other very good talks. We continued to ration the supply of journals on the exhibition stand to try to make them last till the afternoon poster session, but much of the time the table was bare. Another aircraft-style lunch, but this one was more enjoyable than yesterday. Passed on the canned coffee.

In the evening we took members from Lab on a Chip, The Analyst and PCCP editorial boards and some guests to the VIP restaurant at the Powerlong Hotel where we are staying. It was an excellent meal: we had some cold, sliced whelks without a hint of vinegar (so I was delighted!) and some lovely prawns, and a very nice beef with strips of well-cooked mushroom stalks about 8cm long, very savory! I think the meal was better quality than last nights, but Chunxiao thought otherwise! The style of food in Xiamen is different from Beijing. I wasn’t anticipating that, but it is noticeable.

After dinner we raced back to the Xiamen People’s Hall for a cultural night. We missed the first performance (Pink Egret by the Xiamen Little Egret Folk Dance Troupe) but managed to see all the rest:

Programme

Merry Lantern Festival, Quanzhou Stringed Puppet Troupe
Han Ya Xi Shui (Joyful Swimming Ducks), Zither trio from Xiamen University
Middle-Autumn Moon, Xiamen Little Egret Folk Dance Troupe
Unspoken Love, Quanzhou Nanyin Music Troupe (ancient south China music)
Si ai Huan Ge (Happy World), Licheng Sitrict Quanzhou Operatic Troupe
Za Shua (Vaudeville), Jinjiang Puppet Troupe
Paper-Cutting Girls, Xiamen Little Egret Folk Dance Troupe

The Paper-Cutting Girls unveiled a special plaque for the CSIXXXV meeting, which was very well received!

The Si Han Huan Ge was very unusual, it was a huge troupe of energetic dancers, acting the discovery of the silk road by Marco Polo. He gets a look in towards the end, sword drawn. There were bare-chested men beating their breasts, acrobats, hareem dancers… The highlight of the cultural events was the Middle-Autumn moon dance, in silhouette in front of a large back-lit moon. The solo dancer was superb, with movements from fish, bats and other wildlife and she was very supple! Video linked below.

Today is the Middle Autumn Moon Festival, and this is well celebrated in Xiamen. There’s pounding party music outside my bedroom at the moment from a party. The parties are to celebrate the largest full moon of the year and moon cakes are eaten. Chunxiao ordered some moon cakes  for us to end out meal earlier in the evening: they were lovely.