Serious Travel Article 20: Xiamen Botanical Gardens

After the filth and broken glass of Xiaodeng Island, Fujian, Coco and I, with Parents-in-law in tow struggled back towards civilization. This meant busing it to Xiamen.

For those of you that don't know about Xiamen (formerly Amoy), it's a bizarre anomaly, just off the south east coast of China. Situated on a not so small, round island is a city unique in China. It's nice. I've visited dozens of Chinese cities and not enjoyed being in any of them. Most are overcrowded, polluted, busy Beijing/Sim City crammed with expensive cars and people glued to screens. (Just like you right now!). Xiamen conversely of more like if all the great things about China made a little baby with Australia. It's on a green happy island surrounded by wide golden beaches, it's clean, hot, busy in an enjoyable way rather than overwhelming, it's dotted with parks, mountains, forests and green spaces. Mango juice runs like flowing water and the Republic of China (Taiwan's Jinmen) is only a stones throw away. It also has black swans and red dirt.

Black Swans in Xiamen

Sitting in the mountains overlooking Xiamen University and Xiamen's South East shore Xiamen Botanical Gardens is one of Xiamen's prime tourist attractions.  Coco asked the hostel receptionist how to get there and recieved the following reply.

"How is it possible you don't know how to get there? Are you stupid or what?"

Being only our second day in Xiamen it was hardly Coco's fault she didn't know where the bus stop was. I guess in her job as a hostel receptionist, our lady didn't run into many tourists. I repeated the question in my strict lecturer tone (only ever used on arseholes) and got a straight answer. 

The bus sped along the scenic coast road and up into the forested hills, twisting and turning along the wilderness highway. It wasn't long before it felt like you were no longer in a city but a tropical jungle. After around 7 minutes and 16.3 seconds of driving through the forest, we were dumped, alone, outside the East Gate of the Botanical Gardens.  My parents in law discovered, to their horror that the gardens were not free! It cost 40rmb for entry! Less for students and pensioners but still! After much argument, they decided it was too expensive and would rather waste the day by sitting on the hotel bed and watching TV. Not for the first time on the trip. You can lead a horse to water.....

The footbridge just outside the east gate of Xiamen Botanical Gardens

I got in with my Swansea University student card (still valid thanks to a missing expiry date), Coco performed a similar trick and we were on our way. Once we were through the east gate, we found out that the park itself was still an hours walk away. It was hot and sweaty. We'd come to tropical Xiamen in the middle of summer against all wisdom. The journey was steep and exhausting, but worth it because we were treated to a hike through the forest, overlooking some of Xiamen's most stunning stretches of coastline. Our path crossed gorges, went past lakes, was crossed by spiders webs and perched itself at the edge of cliffs. By the time we reached the beginning of the Botanical Gardens, we were knackered.

Coco Wang checking out the view on the way to Xiamen Botanical Gardens from the East Gate

I come from west London, and I've spent many a school trip and odd afternoon at Kew Gardens but I've also been pretty bored there. Xiamen Botanical Gardens isn't like Kew, it's better. It's bigger for one point, at least it feels bigger, the whole thing is snuggled in between the hills, it's a hike from one location to the next, it feels like your trecking through the green Aussie bush. We skipped the war exhibit and headed straight for the desert zone. We got lost on the way, and found ourselves walking through a zigzagging tunnel of foliage.

When we did find the desert zone, it was a vast wasteland of cacti, with a huge glasshouse at its far edge. It was filled with interesting desert flora, and even had a plastic camel which you could take your photo with if you could elbow your way past the crowd of excited tourists.

The desert zone of the Xiamen Botanical Gardens, as shown here by Coco Wang

Behind the glass house was a steep slope leading up. My kind of path. I rushed to the top, scrambling over rock faces to find myself alone at the top of one of Dongping Mountain's many peaks with a 360 degree panoramic view of Xiamen City. It's worth a trip to Xiamen Botanical Gardens just to climb the mountain behind the desert zone.

The city of Xiamen from Dongping Mountain

On the way to the tropical area we got lost again but this time found an unused, high pressure hose near a little Taoist grotto. We put all our electronics in a plastic bag and squirted ourselves silly. At the bottom of the hill was a working Buddhist monastery. It was well past lunchtime and I was hungry, many of the monks at the monastery were eating in a canteen area, I rushed over to buy some food, but I was told it was for the monks only. Feeling embarrassed, I bought some ice creams from the tourist kiosk and shared them with Coco. We toured the magnificent monastery, overlooking the city ice creams in hand before trying once more to find the rainforest zone.

Hundreds of Buddhist statues outside the monastery 

On the way back up the hill we once more refreshed ourselves with the high pressure hose, but this time received some discerning looks from passers by. The tropical zone was in a small valley with a river running down the center, dammed as it cascaded down causing pools to form on each level up. In the pools were stepping stones crisscrossing the water. Water Lillie's covered much of the surface, and one came up right next to the stepping stone path. It was half complete, unlike all the other perfect circles. It was as if it has been torn apart. Just then a lady stopped at the half Lilly pad, squatted down, tore off a little bit and wandered on. I guess that was why. Didn't their mother ever tell them "don't do that, there wouldn't be any _____ left if everyone did that!"

Stepping Stones in Xiamen Botanical Garden's Tropical Zone

Judging by Coco's mum who used the Yellow River as a giant dump on our visit there, I guess many mums would encourage that sort of mindless, selfish, short sighted, destructive, uncivilized behavior. In fact the Chinese government has been spending huge amounts of money and advertising space trying to promote the "civilized society", and going by a growing minority of my university students, its working. They seem disgusted when one of their classmates blows their nose on the classroom floor.

When I saw a kid killing all the animals and destroying all the foliage with his parents looking on and laughing, in the tropical zone, we decided to call it a day, but not before I loudly shouted "Disgusting Kidd" in English at the offenders. They clearly understood and stopped him immediately.

We walked down to the lake at the foot of the gardens and posed with Deng Xiaoping's tree. By then, Coco and I had been walking all morning and through the hottest part of the afternoon, covering a distance of over 10km (to give you an idea of just how big Xiamen Botanical Gardens really is). Even though there was so much more we hadn't seen, we left the gardens to put are feet up in a McDonald's on Zhongshan Lu. (Don't worry we didn't buy anything, in China, McDonald's and KFC's are used frequently as public resting areas).

Sammy Corfield standing next to Deng Xiaoping's tree in Xiamen Botanical Gardens. Yes, I know I just referred to myself in 3rd person, it's for Google related reasons okay!

The Xiamen Botanical Gardens is a treasure on an already magical island. Visiting wont make you miss for 40rmb. It's better than slobbing out in a hotel room, watching Jeremy Clarkson on top gear. (What my parents in law were watching when we got back).