Maybe you will also fall in love with Shu Ting’s Xiamen

Article/Feng Ge Laughs at Confucius

Watch the egrets flying and enjoy the harmony between heaven and man - Xiamen, with its pleasant climate and the concept of "the city is on the sea, and the sea is in the city" The characteristic scenery and elegant and clean environment have attracted a large number of egrets to live there, hence the name Heron Island.

I first visited this place with my parents when I was three years old, and then I went to Nanputuo Temple to worship Buddha every year. Shu Ting, a local female poet of the Misty School who rose to fame in her early years with her song "To the Oak", her words exuding the breath of life and passion made me long for the poetic way of living in her writings when I was a student.

So it is no surprise that I have been working and living here for more than ten years after graduation, and then settled down here. Naturally, I regard this place as my second hometown and regard myself as half Xiamen.

Shu Ting's home on Gulangyu Island, a red house that is almost a century old, has now become a tourist attraction that tourists with a literary youth complex are keen to visit. This can be regarded as a sweet distress. I never dared to disturb the poet, but the bougainvillea under Sunlight Rock, the big banyan tree in the corner, and the beach that looked like it was full of white roses after the early tide became the most beautiful sight of my hometown in my heart.

A while ago, "Extreme Challenge Season 2" aired a program recorded in Xiamen. Celebrities such as Sun Honglei and Huang Lei dressed up in disguise and interacted with unsuspecting street citizens under hidden cameras. This led to the emergence of It was a scene that made the audience very heart-warming and even moved to tears. Especially the scene where the old man collecting empty bottles played by Sun Honglei pretended to fall at the bus stop, and many people rushed to help him. I believe that audiences across the country silently praised it with me.

As a city with more foreign residents than locals, the native Xiamen people have almost no xenophobia, but open their warm arms to welcome everyone who comes here. Shu Ting has examples to support this in her work "My Xiamen", "Xiamen people are not xenophobic, and sometimes act too much. They are willing to let their Hokkien dialect shrink, and even the aunt who sells vegetables speaks half-baked Mandarin. There is no language barrier for new immigrants and they are like a duck in water."

They are also comfortable and happy. In the streets and alleys here, you will see Xiamen people often setting up a small tea table at the door, with all the tea sets and tea sets. After a few leisurely drinks, it feels like time has slowed down. Someone passed by and said enthusiastically "Come and drink tea", and the friendly conversation started naturally.

In fact, the personality charm of "Xiamen Lang" can also be seen in Shu Ting. As a well-known poet, she said that her greatest luck is "being a seaside person, in her dear hometown of Xiamen." She is definitely not a woman who only cares about dancing and writing. She is a pragmatic housewife who has been carrying a vegetable basket to the fish market to grab fresh seafood and wash her hands and make soup for her family for decades. She rarely appears in public. Occasionally attending poetry-related events, he always appears in an extremely low-key manner.

Despite her great reputation, she has always been indifferent to her authenticity and made the fireworks in the world poetic and picturesque. No wonder Xi Murong said, "Shu Ting and Gulangyu are a perfect combination." Shu Ting, who had many opportunities to move overseas, stayed in her old house, which was prone to water and power outages when a typhoon came. What she could never let go of was her identity as a "Xiamen Lang", and what she revealed was a true and pure character. of local sentiment.

It seems that every place has its own special bowl of noodles, so Sha Cha Noodles should be the number one noodle in Xiamen. The rich, salty, spicy, and abundant auxiliary ingredients of the sand tea noodles are enough to satisfy the stomachs of old Xiamen people, but the tongues of some foreign friends cannot tolerate it. It may be that the taste of sand tea spread from Nanyang is a little more individual. Even so, the famous Wutang Shacha Noodles in Manludao still has long queues every day, and it still only opens for half a day before closing every day. It is full of hermit style.

However, I don’t even have the patience to wait in line for a bowl of noodles, and I don’t recommend going to the overcrowded Huang Zehe on Zhongshan Road or the fish ball shop on Gulangyu Longtou Road where you can’t tell the difference between genuine and fake. With well-informed locals, go to Wu Zaitian across the street or the eight cities where food is gathered, and eat all kinds of authentic flavors at your leisure, such as peanut soup, bamboo shoot jelly, oyster omelette, green onion barley...a variety of authentic and good ingredients.

Of course, there are also delicacies that can be taken away, especially the pie from Ajizai’s House. It is also an old bakery that has been queuing for decades and has handmade mung bean pie with an ancient taste. It has won the hearts of the people. If you go later, you will be slow and you will have to leave with regrets.

In fact, it is still relatively difficult to truly understand the taste of a city and the true meaning behind it after a superficial trip. As Shu Ting joked in her writing, "Gulangyu Island is crowded with tourists every day, and the dishes prepared in the restaurants are all for one-time consumption. They are rough and fast, and the prices are questionable. They cannot represent the flavor of Xiamen."

What's more, Xiamen people have many narcissistic ways of eating food that foreign friends find incredible, such as eating mango and lychee with dipping sauce, which is quite weird; and the "seafood soy sauce water" recipe is just A simple soy sauce can actually create the addictive delicacy of Hong Kong seafood.

Therefore, whether the Ludao food is really "delicious" depends on doing more homework before setting off, following less trends during the journey, trying to slow down the pace, and keeping pace with the people of Xiamen, and then go into detail. Savor the mixed flavors of Shu Ting's "after being away for two or three days, I almost cried when I smelled the aroma of wild small fish braised in soy sauce water."

Personally, I prefer Xiamen in May and June. Phoenix flowers are in full swing all over the city, and they are incredibly beautiful under the green trees. This season is suitable for a visit to Xiamen University. It was here that Mr. Lu Xun completed "Morning Blossoms Plucked at Dusk" and his affectionate "Book of Two Places" with Xu Guangping. Today, young students under a red flower tree by Furong Lake , the interesting graffiti works in Furong Tunnel are still 360 degrees of beauty with no blind spots. It is said that a few years ago, Queen Faye Wong gave up an acceptance letter from the Department of Biology of Xiamen University. I feel really sorry for her.

The night view of Xiamen is very beautiful, especially when your late flight is about to board the heron, remember to lower your eyes and take a look. It is like a bright pearl that suddenly jumps into your eyes in the dark night, flowing light The overflowing color, with the brightness of thousands of lights, makes your heart suddenly become quiet.

In Shu Ting’s impression, Gulangyu Island used to be very quiet. Except for the occasional tinkling of pianos coming from the alleys, there were students sketching silently with drawing boards on their backs. But as the number of tourists increased day by day, the island gradually became noisy and greasy, which gave her, the loyal "Xiamen Lang", a desire to escape. So she had to appeal everywhere as a National People's Congress representative, a poet and an islander, hoping to restore the island to its original appearance as much as possible.

Many voices like hers have attracted attention. Nowadays, it is indeed more difficult for foreign tourists to go to Gulangyu Island. You need to be patient enough to wait for a ferry ticket or make an appointment in advance. If you can't wait, you have to Passed by. This move will inevitably make people who are in a hurry have some regrets, but it is also a kind of care for the pearl on the sea.

In fact, traveling in Xiamen does not require too much effort, because of the long-standing scenic spots on the island, such as Gulangyu Island, Huandao Road, Nanputuo, Xiamen University, etc., as well as the fresh literary and artistic petty bourgeoisie atmosphere that has become a tourist destination in recent years. The rising stars Zengcuo'an, Shapowei, Yuandang Lakeside Coffee Street, etc. are all concentrated in the Lao Siming District not far from Zhongshan Road. A day's tour is enough.

But if you are a thoughtful person, then the style of the old arcade alone will make people daydream endlessly, not to mention the international architectural complex on Gulangyu Island. In addition, there are many well-known attractions outside Xiamen Island such as Tan Kah Kee’s Former Residence, Jimei School Village, etc. It will take some time to visit them all.

Therefore, if time permits, it is better to find a hotel with a good reputation or a unique B&B to stay, so that you may make more surprising discoveries. For example, it turns out that the seaside at night is no longer crowded with people during the day, and only the dialogue between waves and rocks, and the entanglement of sea breeze and sea water are left, and there are thousands of different styles.

In this way, you may have more leisure time to explore this land where Shu Ting cannot tolerate others saying "no".

Then, maybe you, like me, will fall in love with Shu Ting’s Xiamen.