Xiamen University

A day without photos – it was a strange day too! Had an extra hour in bed because our first appointment was at 10.30 at Xiamen University,to speak with the students. In the taxi on the way there we realised that, with our main presentation at 3pm, we didn’t all need to spend the day at the University, so Sarah and I headed back to the hotel to do some work, whilst Vikki and Chunxiao gave a presentation to the students.

At 3pm, we all met up together and spent three hours in discussion/presentations with the faculty before they took us out for dinner to the university restaurant. We had a great meal in very relaxed and fun company: had my first jellyfish of the trip, and a lovely green soup made of some sort of chestnut with seafood.

In the evening Chunxiao led us around a night market and was good enough to haggle for me to buy a quite ugly, but memorable, mug based on a lotus root. It will remind me of the lotus root kebabs that Vikki and I ate in Chengdu.

We ended the evening in the golf bar, with a little astro-turf putting range, writing out trip report in front of a noisy ferny cliff, with water cascading down it. We were the only customers.

November 12, 2008. China.