Golden Week = Family Time

Well not exactly - whilst Alex had the week off of school, Brett needed to spend a lot of this week working but we did manage to visit Honshan Park which is only a few blocks from our apartment. Lots and lots of steps suited Alex and Sebastien - not my knee! The park had a couple of air-filled arches at the entrance that seem ubiquitous whenever there is a festival or a store is opening.Permanent flower beds seem few and far between here in China - instead you find beds of temporary flowers and plants still in their pots - oftentimes the pots are taped together to keep a certain shape. This is the case not only in parks but also on the sides of roads and near buildings.There is a temple that you can visit which exhibits traditional construction. Buddhists believe that temples are a sanctuary for animals, and that if they release animals in the grounds of a temple it will bring them good karma. Hence you will find the temple ponds teeming with all kinds of life - frogs, turtles and fish. This was true here too and we spent some time watching the turtles sticking their heads out of the water. In a tropical environment, things rot fast. So there is a proliferation of these outdoor settings made of stone - boy are they heavy though! I was thinking of getting some for our balcony so we could eat dinner at a table instead of just moving our dining table chairs outside each meal - but I'm rethinking it now!I do love the tiled terracotta roofs with the upwards pointing ends to prevent evil spirits gaining entry - plus the roof covered in debris in the background is pretty typical of many buildings here.
Sebastien is still small enough to be carried in the carrier which helped with the steps. In fact the park had many meditative nooks and crannies - Brett took this photo of a water lily pond with the "hairy tree" in the background.
That man-made waterfall at the entrance of the park was very soothing and also ended in a pool that enticed small fishermen. We did venture through the tunnel behind us - it took us through the mountain to a street somewhere in Xiamen. But without our map we were clueless. Brett tried to take us through some private apartment areas but we were turned back by a persistent security guard. Pretty hard to blend in when you're laowai!And Sebastien has a nice rash localised on one arm and hand - it hasn't grown just blistered and crusted over. We aren't sure whether he brushed against something or whether one of the (seemingly) thousands of people who touch and fawn over him has given him something. But otherwise he is fine. We took this photo to document where it was located and to work out whether it was spreading and hence whether it merited another visit to another hospital.

So this post is heavy on the photos - a nice difference to other recent ones!