Arrival in Xiamen

I left Kunming on Sunday morning after Shuting treated Chianna and me to lunch. Several of us had arranged to leave for the airport together, which we did indeed do in two groups a little after twelve. As luck would have it, this was the first time that my ride to (and for that matter from) the airport did not take me down Yi Er Yi road. Instead, we headed up towards the Cuihu area, passing by a church that I had visited on my very first weekend in Kunming. That day, I spotted the church across Cuihu Lake and, feeling all sentimental about the time I had spent singing in churches these past few years, found my way to the entrance and sat in the pews for a good few minutes with misty eyes.

Shuting, Chianna, and I at the restaurant

I exchanged farewells with the last few people on my program, among them Fafa (previously on “Cheer up, Captain, buy a flower off a poor girl” and “A Frenzied Farewell to Kunming”) and Elizabeth (“A Note on Guitars” and “A Frenzied Farewell to Kunming”).

As the plane neared its destination, I could see the sea. Ships, skyscrapers, a bustling city: This was Xiamen. I was stopping by for a few days to see Kelly, one of my oldest friends at Yale. She and her mum very kindly drove all the way to the island from the mainland suburbs to pick me up – I was assured that public transport was either non-existent or a nightmare. That evening, I was introduced to Kelly’s paternal grandparents, who live with her parents in a very elegant apartment in a relatively new part of town.

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