RBSC / NOCSP - Xiamen: 8/19/07

The last few blog messages don't suggest it, but next to our research work, we also have other occupations.

And here in China, where people eat everything (dead or alive), food is a very important part of it. Last saturday for example, Martin, Tony & Wang-fe (who are responsable for the fluent working at the club) took us to a sjiek restaurant to taste some local delicacies. After we had promissed to taste everything they ordered, de waitresses putted more than 15 dishes on the table, among other things chicken feet, cow's stomach, pig's blood and some things they 'couldn't translate'. But we have to admit it was delicious (except for the cow's stomach)!

In the pictures: a few dishes - Tony demonstrating how to slurp soup out of a pasta ball - Martin, Barbara, Wang-Fe, Tony & Mathieu

Monday we discovered the other side of the luxury-spectre, when Johnson (our very reliable translator) invited us to try the Sichuan kitchen. It's known through China for it's spicy recepies, which means (wat al iets wil zeggen) something since all chinese food is already quite highly seasoned. We didn't expect a very tasty meal when we looked around: a filthy terrace in the suburbs, a small kitchen (once and a while on fire) and fish brains all over the place (they were beaten to death with a stick just next to us). But Johnson (being very reliable) didn't disappointed us. Again: absolutely delicious.

In the meanwhile, we may officially call ourselves survivers of THE typhoon Sepat. On friday, everybody all over Xiamen was nervously preparing for the big storm, the government sent every two hours messages with the strenght and the distance of Sepat, and we...had really no idea. We were glad to have a few days off again, untill we received a note that we probably wouldn't be allowed to leave the hotel that weekend. But the heavy rain and very strong wind on Saturday and Sunday (the foreplay according to our coaches), couldn't convince us from the danger of this typhoon. Afterwards we heard that a few hours before it would hit Xiamen, Sepat changed direction and costed the lives of 34 people in other parts of Fujian...

Worth mentioning about last week was the long expected visit of Vicky Song ("If you have a problem: call Vicky"), and even more the discovery of a british pub in downtown Xiamen. A beer, a grumpy interior, fish and chips on the menu, led zeppelin & arctic monkeys out of the speakers and a snooker table (not to mention a lost Dutchman): pleasantly surprising.

Wednesday, the long expected visit of Thomas Annick was cancelled, because of his flight delay he only made it to Xiamen airport, so Vicky ended up alone with Wang-Fe, Martin & bosses (and Harisson, photogenic as always: see picture).

Excuse us, due to the fatigue of the writers, is a continuation of this week's exhausting & exciting adventures to be found on this blog by tomorrow, together with a selection of the finest sailing pictures, so we'll hope to welcome you back!

Barbara & Mathieu

China is one of the biggest construction sites in the world. In the top ten of most rich chinese, there are eight real estate agents.
Ten years ago, a building with more than 15 floors was an exception in Xiamen. Nowadays,the city has to offer 3 million inhabitants a home, and skyscrapers arise like mushrooms.

Enormous realisitions are based on manpower mostly, thousands of workers live in bleu and white sheds next to the construction sites. They are often poor farmers, who come to the city for a season, to earn a living. When we travel by bus from the countryside to the city centre, we see how te edge of the modern city is expanding. The paltry, busy houses and appartments, are a few kilometres further abandonned, the bulldozers announce the comming changes. Then the new buldings, often still wrapped in cloths. No residential districts, because private houses are now forbidden by the government, and you only find a them at the beach. In the very centre, the impressive skyscrapers, like the golden sherraton hotel. There isn't much left from the ages of history the city has. The few inhabited tempels, honoured by the monks, are often touristic, others fell into desrepair. The pictures below give an impression.