Thursday, April 2, 2009

Aw, nuts....

Somewhere about 6-8 months ago, we don't exactly know when, we started seeing a bunch of new vendors on the streets of Xiamen.
Nut vendors, guys on bikes that will hang out by the bigger bus stations and the entrance to the bashi market that we go to. There's actually a lot of them, we presume them to be Uighurs, one of China's many ethnic groups - these being from the Northwest part of the country up near Kazakhstan.
A crowd gathered when we decided to buy some walnuts last weekend, apparently they don't see foreigners buying nuts too often. Actually we don't usually see anybody buying from them, but they always travel in groups - we saw 4 of them when we stopped and made our purchase.
We think he overcharged us, as these ended up tasting like the stale old walnuts that we can get back in Canada and the States....

2 comments:

geneandlaura said...

Hello, Mark and Tina...not sure how else to contact you, so I hope the comment field is okay. My family and I are 90% sure we'll be heading to Xiamen this August for an expat assignment. Any chance we could be in communication with you before and during our time there? We're looking at visiting to apartment-hunt in the near future and could bring you deodorant (haha) or other stuff, if you want!! thanks, Laura (gl.halsey@sbcglobal.net)

Anonymous said...

I love these pics! Sorry the nuts weren't so hot… I remember the nut and raisin sellers from when I visited you two the last time. Since then, I've been hearing a lot about northern Chinese men who have been detained in Gitmo under false pretences. I am soo ignorant it's pathetic, but when I picture these poor men that have been detained for 5 years with no way out, I picture that they are similar to the gentlemen selling raisins and walnuts in Xiamen. What has our world come to?