Sunday morning, instead of sleeping late the Check-IT group is on their way to the The National Geological Park – Volcanic Island, our first trip together outside Xiamen. In the bus we are greeted by our lovely tour guide.

After a two hour bus drive (with one stop) we arrived at the old castle in Zhao jiabao, a place that is also visited by local tourist and for a moment it seems that we had a far more interesting attraction with us. Some of the local tourist started making pictures of the Dutch students. Pushing one of our blond Dutch students forward, some of the Chinese girls where very happy to pose with him.

Exploring the surroundings teached us more about the history of the old castle and provided us more background on Chinese culture and belief systems. In one courtyard there was a low wall, it’s believed that jumping over it with your left leg first would lead to a successful career. Jumping with the right leg first would make you rich and jumping with both will give you both.

Next stop was the Volcano Island. Here we had lunch in the Mandarin Garden and enjoyed the scenery, with the help of the very nice weather. What really surprised me was that the landscape of the island looked like it was designed. But even then we could make a lot of pictures. After a couple of hours on the island, we headed back to Xiamen.

It was a long but beautiful day with great weather.