Since my mom is here for a visit, we decided to do something new and FINALLY visit the Hakka “tulou” Round Houses in Yongding - about a 3 hour drive from Xiamen. We have been talking about taking this trip for ages, but never really knew how we would do it…would we take the children?… would we spend the night?…so will all these decision to make, we just never bothered. (One can also call this being lazy.) Anyways, as you can see, we managed to pull ourselves together and booked a day trip with Apple travel that included a private van, driver, and English speaking tour guide which was just GREAT! Many “tulou” clusters are now under protection by UNESCO as they are getting rarer with less young Hakka wanting to live there, so we were soo excited to get going on our first field trip into the Fujian Province.

Some history: The Hakkas’ who settled in Fujian province many hundred years ago developed unique architectural buildings called “tulou”, literally meaning “earthen structures”. Because they were latecomers to the area, The Hakkas set up homes in often undesirable mountainous regions and were subject to attack from bandits and marauders, which is why their dwellings were designed as a fortress and apartment buildings in one.

Some “tulou” trivia: Out of the 20,000 “tulou” in China, this is the largest. It measures 87m across, and houses around 350 member of the Lin Clan. IN-credible!

This particular “tulou” was our favorite as it was the most authentic in terms of use. Our really enthusiastic guide Juan (he chose a Spanish name) figured that we would really appreciate the “real-ness” of it and he was totally right. We saw coffins hanging under one of the roofs for their elderly…buckets with pee outside the bedrooms…etc.

More Info: The structures typically had only one entrance-way and no windows at ground level. Each floor served a different function - the first hosts a well and livestock, the second is for food storage and the third and higher floors contain living spaces. A round house like this will typically be home to an entire clan  - that have lived here for generations and generations…

Not all tulou were round in shape - these here are square.

What do you think she uses?…colgate? crest? or salt?

This is the littlest tulou…it has dreams of grandeur but is no where near as impressive as the large ones.

Sorry for my blogging silence but because of all these celebration and our traveling to Manila, I just haven’t found the time to post anything. Also, my beloved 5 year old i-mac crapped out on me, so I got a new little netbook (Lenovo Ideapad, or laptop-toy as I call it) for Christmas that I didn’t really know how to use (I’ve never used windows in my life), so I’ve waited until now for David to install the Mac operating system to it – and can I just say how TOTALLY AWESOME IT IS!! I now call it my Mactop-toy and it ROCKS!! It so totally pays to have a geek for a husband! =) Anyways, to just update you on January, here are some photos:

New Years Eve was a relatively quiet affair spent at the beach with just the family, and lots of sparklers and other kiddie friendly noise-makers. For us, it was the perfect way to usher in the new year.

Introducing: My MACTOP-TOY!! It’s a little LENOVO IDEAPAD and i recommend it to anyone with small fingers like me. Oh, I also drink greenjuice (almost) everyday now…it’s part of my new years resolution!

Our Xiamenite friends, the Knipfelbergs, introduced us to this beautiful little mountain hike in Zhangzhou (a 20 minute ferry ride away) which we definitely must return to someday. While walking through this peaceful place I swear I almost forgot I was here in China. It’s so nice that Xiamen has so much nature to offer - we really look forward to these little weekend trips.

Addie and I had planned this visit months and months ago, and it felt like their arrival would never come! They came for a whole week and Addie and I had a wonderful time loafing around Xiamen while the kids joined my boys at their school for 4 days.

Rollerblading: their new Sunday activity at Haiwan Park. They are still a little wobbly on their knees, but they still try futzing around on the half-pipes which is cute to watch.

For Chinese New Year, we flew back to Manila but decided to drive north-bound to the Province of La Union where there is quite a popular surfcamp called San Juan Surf Resort run by one of the Philippines top surfers Luke Landrigan. We had an amazing time and swear to go back. THe crappy thing is that it was still a 6 hour (midnight) drive for all of 300km. Oh well, it was still worth it!

Update: As of a few days ago, my i-mac works again!! ZOOEE-MAMA!! Have I bragged about my husbands geekiness yet?!

More photos coming soon!

Dave and I just got back this morning from a really short impromptu weekend trip to Hong Kong. It was so completely unexpected, but that’s what made it soo cool. Timmy was in town for the week as well, and it was his being there that actually spurred on my desire to rush onto a plane and just make a weekend of it with him as well as to see other old friends. It was a mad rush to organize someone to mind the kids, pack the suitcases and book the tickets in a span of 3 hours, but once all that was done, we allowed ourselves to just be excited for this little get-away. As cool as Xiamen is, one just needs to get out after a while and breathe some big city air I guess.

We left on Saturday, at 745pm on Dragon Air, and arrived in Central around 2 hours later. The flight takes exactly an hour, and then it takes another our to grab your luggage and take the shuttle into the city. Such efficiency - it was awesome! HK really isn’t far and just perfect for a quick escape. The best part for me was that Hong Kong was having a MAJOR pre-xmas sale, making shopping quite reasonable. I did most of my shopping alone, while Tim and Dave doing their own thing, which was a good move on my part, because they surely would have kept reminding me that a 50% off deal didn’t mean I was allowed to purchase more…and more, and MORE! I got to knock myself out at IKEA, H&M (which was a zoo and I got out of there really fast!) as well as other silly little places that Dave said I was like “Olga in Aldi”…Sadly, I have to admit that it was true…even being at City Super was such a treat!…it had everything I wanted, PLUS it didn’t smell Chinese! Any of you that live in China will certainly be able to relate. I’m not being mean by saying this, but it’s just really nice to be surrounded by western food grocery that has an oriental food section, rather than the other way around for a change. I won’t tell you what I bought because you’ll either laugh or cry…depends where you’re from.