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AmoyMagic--Guide to Xiamen & Fujian
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T¨®ng¡¯¨¡n Lotus Flower Mountain Scenic Area (Li¨¢nhu¨¡ Zh¨¨n H¨°up¨³ C¨±n Á«»¨ÕòºóÆÒ´å About 10km from T¨®ng¡¯¨¡n.
Bus: #7 to Film City, change to 92 bus to H¨°up¨³ Village, then take a lo-cal motorcycle taxi about 2 to 3 km. If you survive, enjoy the ancient trees, ancient temples, and the ¡°Holy Spring¡±¡ªall the things you find on just about any mountain top that has had Chinese for 5,018 years.

T¨®ng¡¯¨¡n Film Studio (Xi¨¤m¨¦n T¨®ng¡¯¨¡n Y¨«ngsh¨¬ Ch¨¦ng ÏÃÃÅͬ°²Ó°ÊÓ³Ç) Over 1,600 acres; includes miniature Ti¨¡n¡¯¨¡nm¨¦n, replica ancient town and temples, a Dinosaur World, children¡¯s park, Hall of Mental Cultivation, Hall of Supreme Harmony (for choirs?), Long Corridor of the Sum-mer Palace, etc. Location: W¨³xi¨£n Town (W¨³xi¨£nzh¨¨n ÎåÏÔÕò) Tel: 7302870 Buses: 67, 79, 106, 617, 618, 621

North Mountain Scenic Area (B¨§ich¨¦n Sh¨¡n ±±³½É½) This 122km2
Area is in W¨³xi¨£nzh¨¨n (ÎåÏÔÕò¾³ÄÚ), about 12km from T¨®ng¡¯¨¡n.
Tel: 7232018 Catch Film City bus at 9:00, 9:15, 9:45, 15:30, 15:50, 16:30
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12 Vauclusian Springs of North Mountain (B¨§ish¨¡n Sh¨ª¨¨r L¨®ngt¨¢n ±±É½Ê®¶þÁú̶) I didn¡¯t know what Vauclusian was either, so I looked it up: ¡°A spring rising up a deep, steeply-inclined, water-filled passage into a small surface pool.¡± Located in W¨³xi¨£n Town (W¨³xi¨£nzh¨¨n ÎåÏÔÕò), near Film Studio, the 12 springs create a picturesque waterfall fully 1km in length. Tel: 7302870 Buses: 67, 79, 106, 617, 618, 621

T¨®ng¡¯¨¡n Plum Mountain Temple (M¨¦ish¨¡n S¨¬ ÷ɽËÂ) Very Scenic.
Add: M¨¦ish¨¡n L¨´, M¨¦ish¨¡n Li¨¢ns¨¬ ÷ɽ·÷ɽÁ«Ë Tel: 7026946

West Mountain Peak Scenic Area (X¨©sh¨¡ny¨¢n J¨«ngq¨± Î÷ɽÑÒ¾°Çø) At 324m above sea level, this is the place to escape to on hot summer days. The peak¡¯s White Cloud Crag Temple (B¨¢iy¨²ny¨¢n Mi¨¤o °×ÔÆÑÒÃí) was built over 1100 years ago. Facing the temple is Purple Cloud Cave (Z¨«y¨³n D¨°ng ×ÏÔƶ´ ). In back are two ¡°Holy Wells¡± said to never lack sweet water. To the left is a M¨ªng Dynasty cliff inscription. In back are 18 trees that represent Buddha¡¯s 18 disciples, the Arhats (Lu¨®h¨¤nÂÞºº).
Address: X¨©nm¨ªn Zh¨¨n Y¨¬l¨¬ C¨±n (ÐÂÃñÕòÒÕÁ¦´å) Ten miles outside of T¨®ng¡¯¨¡n Tel (Mid-Mountain, °ëɽ): 7200516 Tel (Peak ɽ¶¥): 7200776
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Tingxi Reservoir (T¨©ngx¨© Shu¨«k¨´ ͡Ϫˮ¿â) Built 7km N.W. of T¨­ng¡¯¨¡n in June, 1956, the dam is 37m high, 245m long, and 8m thick across the top. The reservoir holds about 48,450,000m3 of water.

Tingxi Kiln Site¡¡(T¨©ngx¨© Y¨¢ozh¨«Í¡ÏªÒ¤Ö·) While building the reservoir in 1956, workers discovered the Tingxi kiln, earthenware, kiln equipment, etc. In the excavated dirt were found bowls, plates, trays, pots, daily utensils, the foundation had kiln bricks. One of the largest of S¨°ng Dynasty kilns, pro-duced the pearlescent porcelain (Zh¨±gu¨¡ngc¨ª Öé¹â´É) popular in Japan. This turned out to be invaluable in researching ancient F¨²ji¨¤n¡¯s economy and foreign trade.

Getting there: from Xi¨¤m¨¦n train station, take a bus to T¨®ng¡¯¨¡n, then take a small bus or taxi to the kiln site 10 km outside of T¨®ng¡¯¨¡n, east of the reservoir.
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Tong¡¯an Butterfly Valley (T¨®ng¡¯¨¡n H¨²di¨¦g¨³ ͬ°²ºûµû¹È)
Locals call butterfly valley ¡°Stone Ship Pit¡± (Sh¨ªchu¨¢n K¨¥ngʯ´¬¿Ó).
Y¨¨ J¨©np¨± (Ò¶½ðÆÌ) who runs an orchard at the base of the mountains, hap-pened upon it while exploring a narrow trail. About 200 meters up the trail a few butterflies flew out of trees. The further he went, the more rugged the trail, and the more butterflies of all colors¡ªblue, green, yellow, white, black, purple. Within a couple hundred meters he saw over 1000 butterflies of at least 10 kinds. The scenery is also exceptional. Mr. Y¨¨ said the valley had 10 connecting waterfalls, and a short walk to the west led to 9 more falls and 22 pools (one of the falls 60m in height). Further into the mountains is an 80m natural stairway.
Location: T¨©ngx¨© Zh¨¨n R¨§ny¨² C¨±n ͡ϪÕòÜóî´´å
Getting there: take bus 618 to T¨®ng¡¯¨¡n, Little West Gate (Xi¨£o X¨©m¨¦n ͬ°²Ð¡Î÷ÃÅ). From there, rent a car or drive (after reading ¡°Darwinian Driving¡±).

T¨®ng¡¯¨¡n¡¯s Little Plain Provincial Forest Park (Xi¨£op¨ªng S¨¥nl¨ªn G¨­ngyu¨¢n Сƺʡ¼¶É­ÁÖ¹«Ô°) 25km north of T¨®ng¨¡n, 45 km north of Xi¨¤m¨¦n, covers about 400,000 acres, includes tourism facilities, aquatic sports facilities, forestry research facilities,
Tel:7053878 Bus: Take D¨¤p¨ªng mini-bus (´óƺÖаÍ), get off at Xi¨£op¨ªng. (СƺվÏÂ).
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Three Hero Islands (Y¨©ngxi¨®ng S¨¡nd¨£o Ó¢ÐÛÈýµº)
Note: ¡°D¨¨ng¡± (áØ) means ¡°path up a mountain¡±)
The¡± 3 Hero Islands¡± of ¡°Big D¨¨ng¡± (D¨¤d¨¨ng ´óáØ), Little D¨¨ng (Xi¨£od¨¨ng СáØ) and Horn Islet (Ji¨£oy¨³ ½ÇÓì), lie only 1.8km from Taiwan-controlled Jinmen Island.

The D¨¤d¨¨ng Island Frontline Broadcast Station (D¨¤d¨¥ng D¨£o Qi¨¢nxi¨¤n Gu¨£ngb¨­ Zh¨¤n ´óáصºÇ°Ï߹㲥վ) is a memorial to the heavy bombardment the ¡°3 Heroes¡± suffered on August 23, 1958. A tour of the underground bomb shelter is sobering. Lights flickers, and loudspeakers blare recordings whistling bombs. Pretty unnerving¡ªespecially when I think that 30 years ago I was on T¨¢iw¨¡n ready to send such bombs. While one can debate about who the good and bad guys are, no one deserves some-thing like this falling on them, and I hope both sides will settle their dis-putes in more peaceful ways.

Do a little shopping in Daideng's Taiwan Commodities Market.  A big-seller is the famous J¨©nm¨¦n cutlery made of recycled bomb casings. But after a couple decades of peace this industry has bombed and J¨©nm¨¦n must now import old bomb casings from Xi¨¤m¨¦n.

Also check out the M¨«nn¨¢n temples devoted to both Buddhism and Taoism. You¡¯d think the worshippers would be Confusionists.
Tel: 7095201 E-mail: ggy@xmeyou.com www.xmeyou.com
Buses: #56 from Harbor (L¨²nd¨´ÂÖ¶É), 620 from Train Station (Hu¨®ch¨¥z-h¨¤n »ð³µÕ¾), 605 from T¨®ng¡¯¨¡n (ͬ°²)
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Jinmen Island ½ðÃŵº    Jinmen Island, at its closest point, lies only 2310 meters from Xiamen. So close, and yet so far, because at present it lies under the control of Taiwan Province. With good binoculars, you can see the soldiers patrolling the coast of the 148 square kilometre island, and when I was in the U.S. Air Force in Taiwan, from 1976-1978, Jinmen was quite a hot spot because it lies right inside of Xiamen bay. Happily, we now have over 50,000 visitors a month taking the Xiamen-Jinmen ferries¡ªbut so far we Laowai aren¡¯t allowed on them.

Jinmen, population 50,000, has a fairly long history (at least by Western standards, though 1600 years is nothing for Chinese). In 803, a Tang Dynasty official, Chen2 Yuan1 (³ÂÔ¨), led 12 families to settle the island. It became part of Fujian Province¡¯s Tong ¡®An county in 935 A.D.. Since the Ming Dynasty, the island has been called Jinmen, meaning ¡°Golden Gate.¡± (If we ever build a bridge we¡¯ll gave our own ¡°Golden Gate Bridge!¡±)

In 1914, Jinmen came under Xiamen¡¯s jurisdiction, and today the people share pretty much the same customs and festivals as those of Minnan, particularly Zhangzhou and Quanzhou. This is not surprising since, by and large, they are relatives. One particularly unique element of Jinmen culture is their worship of lions, which are seen as the guardian angel of the island. Many village entrances have stone lions in armor, or gowns (depending, perhaps, on whether the lion¡¯s getting ready for battle or for bed?).

Centuries ago, Chinese gave Jinmen such names as ¡°Fairyland in the Sea¡± and ¡°Beautiful Haven of Peace.¡± Favorite scenic spots include Taiwu Peak, Yanping Sword, Lying-on-Cloud Hall and Xianying Waterfall. Jinmen also has 18 ancient buildings with the beautiful ornamentation and upturned eaves typical of Minnan (Southern Fujian) architecture.

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