A wonderful place called Xiamen- part 2

      I might as well finish this thing. The missing pictures can come later on as extra blog posts. So, we rode a boat to the lovely island of gulangyu. Upon arriving we found that every place you go has a different ticket you need to buy. Whoopee! We did go to a few places, and this blog post is going to show those places we visited. One interesting fact about gulangyu is that it was a settlement for foreigners in the past, and that's probably why you'll see a great big church right in the middle of the island. It was closed to tourists, so we didn't go inside. One place we did visit on the island was 日光岩(riguangyan, daylight rock), which is a great big rocky cliff that you can climb and see the whole island from.

that is sunlight rock in the background

here is that big church from the outside

      Another place we visited on gulangyu was a bird garden. We saw many different kinds of flowers and birds, and we even went to see a bird show. I really enjoyed going to that place, and the bird show was very funny and cute. I really loved the nature and atmosphere of gulangyu. There was so much life all around me, fruit growing on trees, birds all around, huge palm trees. It was really great to walk around, and, at some point, we really were just walking around taking everything in. 

The last place we went was the gulangyu aquarium, aka 海底世界, underwater world. It was a great way to finish a fine day of walking around this big beautiful island. Regardless, I always enjoy looking at fish. One really interesting thing they had was the bones of a sperm whale, and they showed a video of how they got the bones from a dead whale that washed up on the shore (not sure if it was in Xiamen or not, the video was in Chinese).Another thing I might have mentioned before is that China loves their tanks. I can see tanks going down the road on a convoy in the middle of busy Hangzhou, but I can also see tanks in the fish tanks. In China they even have tanks for their fish! I love it, and I think it was a really great and creative way to celebrate the military parade. I'll leave you with these pictures, and then I'm off to sleep. Three blogs in one day isn't too bad for me!

Suxiaotang is amazing candy which they give free samples of all over the island. Every time we saw one of those shops, I grabbed one of those free samples. It was great, because at the end when we were about to leave, one of the guys actually gave me a whole piece of the candy. I was so happy.

my lovely delicious suxiaotang

my friend Judy must come to visit this cafe sometime! haha

See you next time for Xiamen day three, when we go to an old military fort, the beach, and exploring around Xiamen University.