Last Thursday (October 29th 2015) we went on a trip to the GULONG Sauce Cultural Center and the Topstar Light & Shadow Museum. I believe this was the first time a Check-IT group went here, so we were the first to explore these places.
After the bus had picked up the Chinese students at the Xiamen University dormitories, we, the Dutch students, were picked up at our apartments. We started driving around 09:00 in the morning. The trip took a while, because we had to drive to the mainland. On the way there we saw something typical for China, dozens of big buildings being built at the same time, making the city still grow fast.
When we arrived at the GULONG Sauce Cultural Center the first thing we saw was a big field filled with some kind of barrels with (what seemed like) hats on it. Luckily enough, we had a guide who could explain to us in English the whole progress of soy sauce making (there was soy in the barrels).
Once we were inside the building, there was a lot of information about soy sauce and we had a good time together with the Chinese students. At the end we could even try different kinds of food, some delicious, some also really spicy! After we finished the tour we had lunch at the same building, and we got a typical Chinese meal containing rice, meat and vegetables.
After luncheon we had a small break in which we navigated our way through a maze outside, and laughed about ourselves and each other in some funny mirrors. At 12:40 we were expected to be ready for the bus, which then took us to the Light and Shadow museum.
Our visit at the Topstar Light & Shadow Museum started with a walk through a building that had a lot of pictures of the old Xiamen city. There were plenty of photographs from places about 100 years ago with a recent photo next to them, so you could see the difference. It was impressive to see how much Xiamen has changed in this timespan.
After that we went inside the museum, which showed a lot about the history of electric light. There where a lot of special attractions about light and electricity, for example lights that turn on when you shine light on it. We had fun at the attractions with the Chinese students too. When we walked through the whole museum, most people bought something to drink, and after a short rest we went outside to take a group photo and go home.
In the end, it was a good day filled with culture and joy!
Gerdinand — 11/1/2015