Taste of DOWNTOWN.

Xiamen University is about a 6-minute bus ride away from downtown Xiamen. Downtown Xiamen is one of my favorite places in the city. Here’s a short video of downtown at night using the wonderfully low quality Blogspot video.

Why downtown is great:

1. My favorite Taiwanese food vendor is found in a back alley. A local had to show me.

2. There are tons of people. After studying at a coffee shop downtown named Deep Coffee, I met two Thai sisters who own the place and I’m helping them learn English while they teach me and a friend Chinese. (They deserve a separate blog post which is soon to come)

3. Shops are everywhere. From super high end with Mustangs inside to the hole-in-the-wall restaurant or knock-off brand clothing lines.

4. Downtown at night is BRIGHT.

5. Exploring random streets makes me feel adventurous.

6. Xidi Coffee Street – high-class/socialite Chinese! (It also deserves a separate blog post)

The ease of getting to and from downtown makes the experience all the more satisfying. To get around town (and even to class sometimes), I bought a Xiamen bus card.

This baby is the traveler’s bread & butter. And that super awesome salmon-colored 100 yuan bill?! Not worth much actually.

So yeah, a quick scan is all it takes because it functions as a debit card. It’s cheaper for bus cardholders (0.80 yuan instead of 1.00 yuan)! The amount I use the thing, though, I’ll have to add some money soon for sure.

I’ve learned to read some of the bus destinations on the front of the buses so as to make sure I’m going to the right place. I look for Xiada, the shorthand for Xiamen University, and specifically the Chinese character for "da" because it looks like a man stretching his arms out. It has a falling tone and means "big". In this case, "da" is short for "daxue", or "big study", or "university". Yep, something just clicked, eh. Chinese is beautifully practical.

PUBLIC TRANSITTING LIKE A BEAST IN CHINA,

Kev