On the morning we were getting ready to leave Xiamen for other points on Fujian’s map, my Wife and Younger Daughter (age 2) weren’t quite ready to head out yet, so I took our Elder Daughter (age 4) across the street to wander around the Marco Polo hotel for awhile.

We had a great time walking up and down the grand staircases, exploring big dark empty “Cinderella ballrooms,” as she thought they looked like, and just checking out the scene.

At one point we ended up near a back entrance off the beaten path and found a scene where she asked to have her picture taken. Being as how she’s sometimes camera-shy, this was a pleasant surprise.

She was four when this picture was taken, and since has just turned five, but I’m going to leave a message for her here in case she someday finds this entry and has a question or two.

Dear Elder Daughter,

I’m calling you “Elder Daughter” here not because I’m trying to sound all Confucian or anything, but because your mother and I don’t like the idea of putting your name on the Web. Even though it’s a darn cool name.

Thank you for asking to have your picture taken that day at the Marco Polo in Xiamen. The way you asked, so thoughtfully and politely, was one of the sweetest things I’d ever seen and heard.

I have to apologize, though. I’m the one who helped you get dressed that morning–your mother was sleeping late–and so I’m to blame for putting striped Big Bird-like stockings and purple tennis shoes together with your beautiful dark flower dress and red coat. But see, they were all in the “clean clothes” suitcase that morning, and they all fit, and for Daddies like me, that’s the same as, “Hey, perfect match!”

Don’t worry, though. You were still picture perfect. And thank you again for all your smiles and giggles. That was a great morning.

Love,

Dad

Some quintessential Xiamen-related bedtime reading:

China’s Industrial Reform and Open-Door Policy 1980-1997: A Case Study from Xiamen (Ashgate Studies on the Economic Reform of China)

This is Uncle Ted in front of the house…This is Uncle Ted at the back of the house…And this is Uncle Ted at the side of the house….

This is the back of the house, with Uncle Ted coming round the side to the front…And this is the Cultural Revolution hiding behind the coal shed….

M’kay, just to tip this blog’s mundaneometer a tad bit further to the right, here are some pictures of the apartment, or flat, or condo, or whatever you want to call it, that we stayed at while in Xiamen. (Just a stone’s throw from the Marco Polo hotel, for those of you who have any notion of the layout of Xiamen.)

The place belongs to one of my Wife’s cousins–it’s sort of their “Weekend Home,” though they’ve been thinking of renting it out.

The partially-covered front balcony:

This is Uncle Ted behind the front door:

One side of the living room:

The other side of the living room, with the home office through the window:

The dining room (modeled by our girls and their dogs having breakfast)–and the darndest thing about that goldfish in the bowl in the center of the table: We asked my Wife’s cousin if we should feed the fish while we were there, and she looked at us like we were nuts. There’s a sprig of some plant, a vine, in the bowl, and the fish apparently nibbles at the plant and in return provides the nutrients to keep it growing. It had been living that way, one fish, one plant, no water changes, for nearly a year. Make me feel silly for the filters and food and water treatment drops we’ve spent for our goldfish:

The kitchen:

There is also a nice hall bathroom and two bedrooms, but I somehow ended up with no great pictures of those.

In case you need more Xiamen apartment video tours, this fellow has one too.

And if you seriously think you might like to get into the real estate game in Xiamen (or anywhere in China, really), better buy this first–or make sure your legal adviser has a dog-eared copy on his or her bookshelf:

Another “Bigfoot Spotted!” video clip taken with my little Nikon Coolpix 2200 (which eats batteries alive; new store-brand and off-brand batteries and Chinese-brand batteries won’t even power it up–minor consolation is that I got it free as a prize in a drawing at my chiropractor’s office, I guess).

You read a lot about the real estate booms and busts in Shanghai and Beijing (on alternate days, depending on what you read), but from what we learned, Xiamen is perhaps a better place to throw some cash into real estate investments if you’re so inclined.

It’s one of China’s top livable cities, and unless some great Hong Kong-style land reclamation project ensues, land remains scarce: Xiamen is an island “garden” city.

If “apartment in China” still brings to your mind visions of cramped five-story concrete blocks with walls decorated only by cheap Chinese New Year calendars, this clip might begin to help squash that notion. Notice the tennis courts and gardens down below and other high-rise towers on the plot. And in the post following this one, I’ll take you inside an apartment (privately-owned; “condo,” I guess) in Xiamen as well.

But for now, click to watch: