Xiamen, Kinmen - last stops before Taipei

From Huangshan I took a flight to Xiamen, a city at the southern coast of China, close to Taiwan.
This would be my last stop in China.
Furtunately I had been able to find a host via Couchsurfing there, who also seemed to be quite interesting.
After arriving at the airport, I was faced with the decision to take the easy and more expensive way (taxi) or the cheap, adventurous way (bus) - of course I went for the adventure!
...not such a good idea.
It seems the Chinese bus system requires you to know which bus you are supposed to take before arriving at a bus station. There were probably 100 different bus lines, dozens stopping at every stop and there were just no maps, just a list of the buses that are supposed to stop there, which ususally seemed to be incomplete though; and of course everything was only in Chinese -.-
So instead of the expected 30 minutes, it took me over 2 hours to get from the airport to my host. That I had taken the right bus in the wrong direction at first didn't improve matters. But finally I made it at least.
My host Bill was really hospitable and gave me lots of good advice for sights in Xiamen. He was actually from California and was teaching English to Chinese children in Xiamen for 3 years now.
Shortly after, I went for the nearby beach and I have to say it was sooo nice to be at a beach again. I realized that it had actually been about one and a half years since the last time I had been to one back in San Diego. Way too much time!
One funny occasion was when a strangers came to me who seemed to be just interested in meeting a foreigner. He didn't speak any English though so that we communicated by him writing Chinese characters in the sand and then me copying them in my phone for translation and then trying to use my limited Chinese skills to answer. When he left, all the sand around me was full with characters.
For the next day I rented a bike and explored the city a bit more and of course went to the beach again. I also got lots of good and cheap food - mjami! I had also gotten better and better in reading the Chinese menus - usually I used an app of my smartphone that could translate photographs of characters, so that I had to study and translate the menu for a while before I was ready to order - looked probably very weird: Me with my phone taking lots of pictures of menus on a wall and then looking very concentrated at my phone^^

Here some impressions of Xinmen:

my host Bill

Beach!!!

a tunnel to the university with lots of arts

street market

bah seafood! This market smelled actually sooo bad, after walking in about 10 meters, I had to walk back because of the smell! :-/

typical Chinese apartments

After two days in Xinmen, I took a ferry to the nearby Taiwanese island of Kinmen. After arriving and while asking for help for the bus, I met Calvin from Hong Kong. He was also visiting Kinmen for sightseeing and so we decided to get around together. He was really nice and together we rented out bikes to explore the island. I might visit him in Hong Kong in a few month :-)

very rural

As Kinmen was on the Taiwanese forefront to China, there are lots of military facilities and barracks around everwhere

Calvin from Hong Kong

In the early evening I took a flight to Taipei, where I'm now sitting in my dorms room.
So that was it - one month of travelling through Asia is laying behind me. It was quite an amazing time! Overall probably as good as my US exchange - new and new experiences all the time; life beeing so intense.
Not everything was pleasent, but I personally think that life is less about pleasent moments than about personal growing through collecting lots and lots of experiences.

Now some lessons regarding travelling that I've learned:
Firstly, I found that transportation expenses were the largest part of my total expenses and that getting around also takes lots of time and stress. Therefore next time I would probably move around less and stay longer at single places.
Secondly, I would definitely devalue flights as a means of transportation. Even though at first it seems that a one hour flight is so much faster than a 6 hour train ride, if you take into account the additional time (and money) it usually takes to get to an outer city airport (and to get away at the destination); and the additional time you need to be at the airport early often the usually much cheaper train isn't so slow anymore.
Thirdly I feel that you can't put too much effort in the organization regarding transport and getting around. Usually it's possible to save lots of time and money if you find the best way to get around. Also you shouldn't underestimate the importance of your hotels location. A location close to city center compared to a location at the cityring with a 10min walk to the next subway will save you hours of time!
And last, don't forget to take breaks and sometimes maybe even a whole day off. There is no point in processing sights like its work to be done. Sometimes you just need to reload some energy and for this you should also schedule some time at each destination. I found that 2 days of sightseeing and 1 day of resting is a good ratio.

All in all I was lucky that everything worked out quite smoothly -I've to admit that I had been quite paranoid at times that stuff might go well. For example that my suitcase that I sent to Taiwan would get lost, that I would miss airport connections etc. But except my upset stomach in Japan, everything worked out very well.

Some last info about my costs in China:
In total I paid about 770€ during 13 days. This included 2 flights for 250€ together and probably about 100€ more for other travel expenses. Accomodations was in total about 170€. So the rest, about 250€, for food, entrance fees etc.
In total 770€ might sound like a lot, but if you take away the flights, I actually think I got good value for the money - the hotels I stayed in were usually very good, I had massages, took taxis for hour-long trips, ate in restaurants all the time etc.
For my whole trip I had paid about 1700€ (770€ Japan, 200€ Seoul, 740€ China). Lots of money but definitely worth it!

Now I'd like to come to the end of this post with describing some of the best experiences I've had.
One thing that was really, really great was experiencing the incredible hospitality of many people - often friends, but sometimes even strangers.
Also meeting up with numerous old San Diego friends (I think 13 in total) was really great. When I left San Diego last year, I hadn't imagined I would see so many of them so soon!
Because of all this, even though I have been travelling alone, I have rarely really been alone. Meeting Bridget and Ellis on Huangshan and turning from strangers to friends so quickly was also a very special experience.
So far the social part.
Regarding sights and culture I feel, I can't really pick one favorite. It was experiencing this massive width of sights, cultures and landscapes that I enjoyed most. And every single city and sight had something special about it. What I realized though is that I enjoy sights in nature and hiking more than cultural sights or exploring a foreign city.
I am really happy I wrote this blog that preserves many of my memories, so that I can never forget them!
Some experiences I remember most vividly are these:
- after arriving in Tokyo the feeling of finally really being in Asia
- driving the Shinkansen train
- seeing temples and their beautiful gardens in Osaka and afterwards going to an Onsen
- the feeling of Seoul
- experiencing China: the traffic, construction everywhere, huge cities
- eating loads of incredibly cheap delicious Chinese food
- hiking on top of Huangshan

However after all I also feel that one month of travelling has been enough time. I might have preferred to stay one more day in Tokyo and Seoul but by now I am also happy to leave the nomadic life behind and have my private and permanent room again.
Now its time for my new life in Taiwan!