Lam Hai in Zhoushan, Xiamen

Has anybody gone to Lam Hai? I believe it is commonly referred to here as the trip itself although I understand it actually pertains to the name of the place. If you hear it from your chinoy friends, it is one of the traditional sort of pilgrimage trips taken to a province in Xiamen to honor Kwa Li Ma. Not to be taken out of context, but in my pursuit to bridge two cultures, I believe it is their likeness of Mama Mary. Buddhist pray to her for guidance and strength, and also address their heartfelt wishes and aspirations to her in the hopes of them being granted. So on a three-day weekend we flew to Xiamen to start our visit.

Day 1: We arrived in Xiamen, China.

You arrive first at Xiamen, which is a coastal city of China in the Fujian province. My friend says that a lot has changed since he last visited about 10 years ago. From a rural province, it has now grown into a very cosmopolitan city beside the coast. Most of the chinese settlers in the Philippines were residents of Fujian province, so it is not surprising to see infrastructures being built by Robinsons and SM abound. They even have their own SM Xiamen! Believe me, it looks just like a miniature of the old SM Megamall in Ortigas, even the floors inside.

First look at Xiamen

SM Xiamen

Inside: looks familiar?

We stopped to eat at this restaurant. Apparently the chef/owner won the Iron Chef challenge, or something to that effect. Cool!

After a quick lunch, we then headed to our first itinerary - Nanputuo, a temple beside Xiamen University. Quick glance over to the university facade on the right hand side, now this is what you call campus grounds! And I thought La Salle was awe-inspiring already..not that I'm raising my own flag or anything. Still, can you imagine taking up your 4-year course here. You might find me studying on the lawn, picnic style instead of staying inside the air-conditioned classrooms.

On the other side is an equally scenic temple, the Nanputuo temple is a busy Buddhist temple with colorful archways and beautiful gardens. I admit that I am not much of a temple goer, but this temple has a traditional yet manicured appeal that would delight both your tourist and artistic senses.

We headed to our hotel in the city, the Harbour Millennium. Aside from being huge, this hotel is also a stone's throw away from Xiamen's famous walking street, Zhongshan Lu.

our hotel lobby

Zhongshan Lu

Did I mention that this is a shopping street? Must've forgot.. =)

This is where most of Xiamen's teens and young folk congregate over dozens of fast food joints and milk tea places. Food stalls abound, and one favorite discovery of ours was a shawarma style gyro stall where the shaved roast beef is put in a fluffier pita pocket with lettuce and seasoned with a taiwanese-porkchop style seasoning which ranges from mild to tears-in-your eyes spicy! Too bad we didn't get to take a picture of that. We had to manage our time wisely since we needed to wake up early the following day. It takes another plane ride to get to Zhoushan prefecture, where we will take a ferry to Mt. Putuo which is on an island.

Day 2:

It was almost lunchtime when we arrived and after checking in we headed to the restaurant where we will be having our meal. Mt. Putuo prides itself with its vegetetarian dishes and you get to try this during the duration of your stay. For me, this is an opportunity to get out of the box and try something different. Who knows, I might be able to go vegan someday.

The eggplant in sweet soy is my favorite. The dishes are really good! They don't even seem vegetarian, just like vegetable main dishes excellently prepared. Not bad at all, and here I was expecting to have a hard time eating only vegetables with me being a confirmed carnivore. As long as that eggplant dish is around and plenty of rice, i'm good! Afterwards, we proceeded to go around the island.

There are three main temples located in the island: Puji, Fayu and Huiji temples. Puji is the main temple. It is quite huge, and has its own statue of Guanyin inside (name pertaining to Kwa Li Ma according to the temple's website). We will be going to Puji temple the most. In our tour around the island, we went to the biggest outdoor Guanyin image. It is a sight to see, a towering bronze image on one of the highest points of the island.

The island is filled with its devotees going around and you would be amazed at the sheer number of visitors flocking here. We visited the cave where Guanyin or Kwa Li Ma was supposed to have made an apparition. Well you can only look at the cave from a viewing deck across, and from there one can stare at the cave's entrance and try to see if Kwa Li Ma will show herself to you.

Day 3:

Our third day began at exactly 2am in the morning. We all lined up outside Puji temple where it was freezing cold, probably below 15 degrees celsius during early dawn. Lining up is serious business here, since the temple doors open at exactly 4am and hundreds of people will grab personal kneelers and hustle for floor space inside the temple nearest the front. People who cannot fit inside will not be allowed inside the temple while the monk's ceremony commence. It was a very solemn experience with most, if not all of the island's monks present, continuously chanting for roughly two hours which will get you in a sort of trance.

Afterwards it was time for breakfast then we headed back to the ferry port, back to the airport and back to Xiamen. After a couple of hours given to traipse around the city, we hopped back into the plane and went back to Manila.