Hakka Earth Towers Day Trip
Day number 5 of our trip and we were up bright and early, ready and raring for the day ahead. First on the agenda was a two hour coach trip to Hakka where are excellent tour guide Cathy tried her best to alleviate the boredom, chipping in with some âfun factsâ and local insight along the way, for instance did you know the English word for tea actually comes from a local Xiamen phrase? I know I didnât. But that wasnât all, two and a half hours later we arrived in the small rural town of Shuyang just outside the towers where we were treated to some local tea and a hearty meal courtesy of our truly accommodating hosts. Feeling refreshed we departed from Shuyang, a lovely place but with definite room for improvement in the toilet department, a solid 4/5.
Moving on to the main event of the day, the earth tower visit which began with a long winding coach journey through the hills and countryside of Nanjing where we viewed the towers from several vantage points. After many a photo we moved onto one of the towers itself, home to around 700 people these places really are remarkable , with market stalls inside and out being indicative of a healthy tourist trade.
And as if we hadnât already had enough culture we then walked through a beautiful little village with the main attraction being the quaint local temple. Exhausted we were then whisked away by our coach back to Xiamen, left to reflect on a truly enjoyable day out.
Michael Spink
