Friendliest City in China!

The one thing Mark and I will miss when we return, is how friendly the people are in Xiamen. Last week, I was coming home from Metro, carrying a heavy box full of groceries, as they no longer offer shopping bags, even if wanted to fork out a whopping 3 kuai. Didn't get the memo. I digress. I was leaving the taxi, attempting to carry this box, that was almost falling apart because the cardboard boxes here are very thin, and look like they could disintegrate at any moment. Back to the story, okay, so the young security guard offers to help me, and carries my box of groceries, to our apartment complex. Though he was explaining to me that it wasn't heavy, I saw the beads of sweat over his eyebrows, and I retrieved the box as I now only had to get in the elevator and to our apartment.

As I was standing in the elevator, a middle aged women who works here, wanted to help me with my groceries, and told her politely in Chinese I'm fine, just hit our floor. She pushes the button, and then turns around and grabs the box of groceries. Why? I have no idea, thinking she probably wanted to take a look and see what exactly laowai's eat.

Why, am I mentioning this? Last year Xiamen won the award for being the "Friendliest City in China", by a Beijing based company called Horizonkey.com.

You won't get any arguments coming from me.