Meanwhile back in Xiamen...

Things changed here in Xiamen while we were away for those 10 days in Xinjiang, it was like coming home to a new city.

We came back to find that the small store on the first floor in the building next to us was gone. I had just bought a case of beer there the week before we left and Tina commented "They're sweet, they'll probably miss you when we're gone." They know that when we come in it's either for a case of Tsingtao or for bottled water. It was a bit shocking to come back and find their entire store completely cleaned out, and to not even tell us just added insult to the injury.

Then we wandered over to pull out some cash, being the big spenders that we are, only to find out that the HSBC branch has lowered its maximum withdrawal amount by 500RMB. Now it's the same as the other banks and this lower withdrawal rate means that the 3USD that we are charged with each time we pull out will now become a larger percentage of our losses. This will add up to dollars worth of beer that I'll have to forgo.

The third change was the most devastating. The special on wine over at Temptations had run its course and ended while we were away. We had been abusing this special as it made the overpriced amount for wine that one pays in China only slightly overpriced, and it was a good wine too. What now will we do? Can't easily switch to beer now that my favorite shop is gone...

Well, it was nice to see that at least one thing hadn't changed -
Nap time remains the same as it always did.