Guest Blog #3 - Mark's Parents

Good Morning.

Today Mark decided to take us to the Xiamen Botanical Gardens after we had lunch. We left his place at 11:00 just as the power went out. We had walked down 4 floors before they blinked back on. Remember he lives on the 20th floor which is actually 17. We waited for one of the elevators to come down and the lights blinked off again. Nope, we do not need to be stuck on the elevator. We walked the rest of the way down. The power was still off.

We had lunch and then took a cab to the Gardens. Admittance was 40 RMB each to get in. The first part was a reservoir that was about one quarter full. We took a picture of the only bird we saw. Oh, there were some pretty neat trees. How about these roots over solid rock?

The rest of the Gardens was a hike up the rocks to view Chinese Characters carved into the rocks. We hiked up and up and up. Mark informed us that he had never been up to this section. What a hike. I think they should name it Xiamen Rock Montain. The trail read Serenity or something. I guess he thinks he had to warm us up for climbing the Great Wall.

How do you like the warning sign? No, there were not very many handrails. We think we got to the top around 2:30. What a view. It was overcast but hot. We were above the tallest skyscrapers. Then we started back down. Oh yea, we chose to go a different way down.

We arrived at the Cactus and Succulent Zone glass green house. Ah, what luck, there was a road that came up to here, which we elected to walk down. Oh the legs were starting to complain.

We finally got back down and took a cab back. The bedroom clock showed that the power came back on about 3:00. I guess climbing a mountain sure was more fun that being stuck in an elevator for 4 hours.

Oh, Mark says that symbol that I am pointing to is the symbol for water. Mark made for an excellent host, so we took a picture of him when he captured us.