Heading to Xiamen

S and I decided to spend an extra day in Hangzhou. It is a beautiful city that has the tremendous West Lake in the center. It is quite a sight and we spent the whole day walking around it yesterday. Today, we spent many hours looking through the guide book and figuring out what the next two months will look like. We had originally planned to head to rural towns just south of Hangzhou and take 3 days to get down to the southern coast but today we made the radical decision decision to change our plans and to just head straight down. We were warned this afternoon that finding a train would be impossible, as October 1st marks the 60th anniversary of Communist China and begins the national 7-day holiday. Luckily enough, tomorrow morning we will get on a 22- hour train to Xiamen in Fujian province. We have plenty of reading material, a deck of cards and intend to head to Carrefour tonight to stock up on water, noodles, fruit, bread and peanut butter. I am very excited for this train ride experience although I am sure there will be points of boredom. We plan to stay in Xiamen for a day, visit the roundhouses in rural Yongding county, then make our way to Guangzhou, Hong Kong, then Macau. As we are traveling during the busiest vacation time of the year, our plans might be subject to change but we are willing to roll with it. If this evening is any indication, it will take about an hour of research to find a hotel within our price range. Looking forward to the challenge!

Suzhou and Hangzhou