Back from Quanzhou

(Entrance to the Cai Ancestral Family housing area that we got to tour!)


Long time no see! After this past weekend spending a mandatory overnight field trip in Quanzhou, these past two weeks have been full of catching up to my class work! I have had little time for relaxation, though it seems like there is always just too much to do here!


Quanzhou is in the Fujian Province (which is the same province of Xiamen, the city I am living in). There are 22 provinces in China – they are not the same as our states in America, though! China’s provinces are more like Canada’s provinces and Canada has 10 provinces . Every province in China has a large city and a claim to fame, but they do not have province capitals like we have state capitals. Because all of China answers to the political capital of Beijing, there is really only one capital of China. Beijing is considered to be the political and cultural center of all of China, though Shanghai is the economical center and base of most international businesses. Beijing also hosted the 2008 Olympics this past summer!


In Quanzhou, there were a lot of Muslim influences as there were tombs in Arabic, a mosque, and many other religious things all over the place. We stayed in a very nice hotel but our tour guide was not very good at reading our moods, and the trip sort of ended in rebellion. It was still a learning experience, though! We got to see some of the older, unaltered parts of China as well as visit several museums and tourist sites.


(Muslim tombs in China! All of the gravestones had both traditional Chinese as well as Arabic)


(Famous temple in Fujian province!)