Street music

I heard some music drifting down the cobbled street, and found a singer, about 7 or 8 elderly musicians, and an even older audience sitting by an old stone gateway. They were performing and listening to Chinese opera (not my favourite, but, if you steel yourself to the high notes, still enjoyable) while drinking tea, chatting and gossiping. The locals insisted I sit and join them, offering me tea, and we held a very fragmented conversation; 'where are you from', 'when did you come to Zhangzhou', 'are you a teacher', 'that women over there is 80'. And that is about as far as my Chinese will take me!

Tulou

Up in the mountains, a couple of hours drive from home, are the defensive earth buildings constructed by the Hakka people. Each time we visit the different tulou clusters I find myself mesmerised; they are fascinating. One building was constructed only about 50 years ago but others are 300 years old. They can house up to a 100 people, and their poultry, and are, for the moment, still inhabited.

Tulou clusters in Dadi Village, Xiandu Town, Hua'an and Tian Luo Keng, or 'Snail Pit', village, Nanjing

Modernisation

As fast as we can explore the old part of Zhangzhou it is being demolished for modernisation.

Tea and dumplings

A favourite place for tea and vegetarian dim sum is Lock Cha Teashop. Mr Ip's passion for tea and tea culture pervades all aspects of this charming and calming refuge in Hong Kong.

'Oil sticks'

Set up in a lane, not far from a school, were a couple preparing and deep frying dough sticks. The long ones are savoury and often dunked in rice porridge, while the short ones are slightly sweet and a good mid afternoon snack.

Pandas, and other animals

It has taken three trips to Fuzhou (the capital of Fujian Province) to get to 'Panda World', but finally we made it.






This 5 year old panda was being put through her paces as 'Miss Panda World 2008'. A keeper was coaxing her in and out of various poses with carrots, bamboo and 'panda cake', while another staff member took photos. Perfect, as all the other pandas just lay around digesting bamboo!

In comparison the red pandas were positively manic, and pretty cute!





The monkeys we saw later that day, wild in a National Park, were mischievously intent on getting peanuts from the visitors, sold to them by the opportunistic locals - a symbiotic relationship!