I am excited to announce that from April 3-7, I will be visiting FuJian Province. April 7 is the Chinese Qingming Festival, or Tomb-Sweeping Day. This public holiday is a time to pay respect to those who have died. Because of my flexible class schedule, I decided it was time to take a trip. A group of seven of us will depart from Shanghai on Thursday at 6:30 am. We will arrive in the capitol of FuJian, Fuzhou, around 1:00 pm. The high speed rail will take a little over 6 hours, but will probably be packed. We will explore Fuzhou for the day, stay at a hostel, and then head to Xiamen on Friday.
Fuzhou is a watered down version of Shanghai, so we decided to spend a majority of our trip in Xiamen. We will leave from Fuzhou around 11:00 am and arrive in Xiamen in the early afternoon. We will be standing for the entirety of this rail ride. The next few days will be filled with hiking, beaches, and beautiful weather. Two other friends will join us on Saturday. We will stay in Xiamen until early Monday afternoon. Then we will catch a 17 hour bus from Xiamen to Shanghai. Yes, 17 hours on a bus. When in China!
Some of the things I hope to do in Xiamen: climb to the top stair of Ciji Palace of QingJiao, visit Zheng Chenggong Training Field Ruins and Xiamen Botanical Gardens, relax in Haiwan Park, walk through Jimei Turtle Park, hike Xiamen Wulao Mountain and Wuyuanwan Wetland park, and visit Xiamen Dragon Boat Pong in the evening. But then, I only have three days- so we shall see!
I will make sure to take plenty of photos and share as soon as I am able! In the future, I will have to bear in mind that more people creates greater difficulty in planning. Fortunately, the folks I’m traveling with are wonderful and easy to work with. I am thrilled to be spending this long weekend with so many friends, and excited to see what FuJian has to offer! 
Farr East Adventures 
Dear Ashley,
Enjoy your trip to Xiamen. I was there for a month in 1987; teaching Chinese professors International Finance for the World Bank at Xiamen University. I am certain Xiamen has changed quite a bit. but I did many of the things you are planning to do, but not all, as “foreign guests” were not allowed to go above a certain elevation on the mountains. Also, for some reason we could not have a map. It’s a beautiful place, well worth the 17 hour bus ride. I will be interested in seeing pictures of the various sites if you post them. 27 years ago the best food was at the Liujiang Hotel, right by the ferry landing. Best wishes for a safe journey and successful semester.
Randy Folks
IB Faculty
Professor Folks:
Thank you for taking such an interest in my travels this semester! I have posted about my recent trip, and I hope you will have a moment to check out my experiences. Xiamen University was absolutely gorgeous and I’m sorry I did not spend more time exploring while I was there! We didn’t seem to run into any issues with exploring the mountains, but perhaps we did not go far enough. It was a wonderful experience, and I am so glad to have gone!
Best,
Ashley