Trip to Xiamen

The company kickoff meeting was held in Xiamen. So I attended the meeting.

The following are some notes from the trip.

The Voyage to Xiamen

This is the first time I realized that Xiamen is a small island - I didn’t noticed it in my last trip there. The Xiamen Island definitely looks like a garden on the sea.

Credit: Xiamen Map

The distantages to travel by air is, the ignorance of the geographical relationships between the cities and the land. I didn’t realize it when I went by air. Regarding travel, if time and whether permit, I prefer to go by bike (I did before for my Taihu Lake trip) or even by foot (within the city), so the sense of the distance and directions is more clear. If I can drive (I am learning driving now), driving may also be a good choice. To take on a car driven by others will confuse me a lot, actually.

There are many flights to Xiamen everyday. Besides MU (Eastern Airlines) and FM (Shanghai Airlines), Xiamen Airlines offer most of the flights between Shanghai and Xiamen. Based in Xiamen, the MF (Xiamen Airlines) is a new airline and I never flew with them before. We were hosted in Jin Yan Hotel, an hotel setup by the Xiamen Airlines. It is interesting that airlines even operate hotels.

I read on this websiteabout the ship M.V. Min Nam operating between Xiamen and Hongkong. I am very interested in it. I maybe will choose a route other than Xiamen to Hong Kong - maybe from Shanghai to Qingdao or Singapore….

The City

People in Xiamen is nice and all the services people were most gracious and hospitable. It may because of the beautiful scene and the comfort whether where they grow up. This is my second trip to Xiamen so I didn’t visit places like Gulang Yu for the second time.

Bicycle Friendly City

Xiamen is clear and clean, as island in the sea. The most impressive characteristic of Xiamen is, however, the bicycle friendly city. Most of the city in China are lack of the care for common residents in the city. We can see the inconvienience and unconsiderate for passengers, for buses…

In Xiamen, it is the first place I see to have special bicycle lane. It is built within the pedestrian. See the picture below. The red road is specially designed for bicycles, like a red carpet. The left side of the road is for walkers. As the effort to give more roads to cars, the original bicycle lane are marked as veichal lane. I think it is an innovative and good design.

© Jian Shuo Wang

Xiamen International Exhibition and Conference Center

My meeting was hosted in the XIECC. It is a very nice place for large scale meetings. In my oppion, it is even better than the Shanghai International Exhibition Center. The center has very nice view, with sea shores just near by.

© Jian Shuo Wang

The nearby Yue Hua Hotel.

© Jian Shuo Wang

Xiamen at Night

The night of the exhibition center. It was very nice time for me to seat on the grass before the center and face the wind from the sea.

© Jian Shuo Wang

© Jian Shuo Wang

Below: If you are curious, this picture is taken by myself - the person on the picture. I held the camera toward myself and clicked on the shutter button. The lights were from the exhibition center, the building behind me.

This effect is attributed to the scene mode of my Sony P8. It offers portrait and scene at night mode. In this mode, the camera first flash to lighten the foregroud portrait and then open the shutter for about 1 second to allow enough exposure for the scene at the background. At this time, I just moved the camera to produce the lines of the lights.

© Jian Shuo Wang

© Jian Shuo Wang

© Jian Shuo Wang

Below: Class and steel are widely used in the airport, conference centers and other buildings in Xiamen.

© Jian Shuo Wang