Jack and Yvette Connell, two very experienced lay missioners, live in Xiamen, China, in Fujian Province, where they teach English at Lujiang University. I visited them as Maryknoll's Asia Area Coordinator.

The following are some notes from the trip.

• Travel from Hong Kong to Xiamen is by train or plane or boat. I chose the boat, partly because I had never been on a long overnight voyage on a big ferry. The ticket costs HK$500 to Xiamen and $300 from Xiamen, according to the ticket agent. And when I got out my money, she said the total charge was $867. I guess the extra was a HK departure tax.
• The ship was the M.V. Min Nam, formerly the M.V. Amorique when it was in service with Brittany Ferries, its former owner whose name was prominent inside the ship. Many of the signs were in French, Spanish, and English; and the restaurants and bars were all French named; and photographs of pastoral life in France and Portugal covered the walls of the passageways.
• The crew of the ship were most gracious and hospitable. That surprised me because hospitality and welcoming are not commonly in great supply in HK culture (unless you are arriving at someone's home); and previous experience in China had led me to expect even less on a Chinese-registered vessel. But the crew lined up smartly along the gangplank, helped people maneuver luggage through the passageways, and were attentive to even small concerns of the passengers.
• When I arrived at Room 120 with a cabin attendant, two people were already in it. The attendant, with a "Wait a minute!" in English, disappeared to return shortly and lead me to Room 162 where a Chinese gentleman was already getting settled. He looked a bit unnerved to see a Westerner placed with him, but quickly recovered and started to speak to me...in French! He didn't know much English or Cantonese and I don't know Mandarin and have forgotten most of the French I learned at St. Thomas Seminary in high school and college, but we managed!
• The ship offered a variety of accommodations. Cheapest passage on the boat is in reclining seats in a large lounge area where people travel somewhat like on an airplane except that you can get up and walk around and go out on deck any time. Then there are cabins with six berths, cabins with two berths, cabins with two berths with a bathroom, and then VIP suites. I settled for the two-berth cabin without a bath. If I had known how much time I was going to spend outside on deck, I might have just saved my money and opted for a reclining seat.
• There was something mystical, enchanting, about sailing through the Hong Kong harbor as we began our journey. I can't describe it--and was surprised that I felt it--but have since learned that others have experienced it also. I'm glad I had the opportunity.
• There was a heavy haze as we departed HK waters even though the wind also picked up then. Visibility was limited to less than a kilometer but even with that I was amazed at the amount of water traffic we encountered as we made our way up the coast toward Xiamen. I couldn't see land but ships of all sizes would appear from the mist, slide silently by, and disappear. At night there was more warning of the ships' arrival because their lights gave them away. At one point in the Taiwan Straits, we sailed through the middle of a fishing fleet and I counted 63 fishing vessels around us during our half-hour passage through them.

Xiamen: Port City

A statue of a local hero in Xiamen harbor. Actually he was a Japanese who came to Xiamen and defeated the Dutch, the first time a European adversary had been vanquished.

• The approximately 325-mile voyage to Xiamen took about 18 hours. I was up early because I didn't know exactly when we would arrive and wanted to be ready. From the top deck we had a clear view of the port as we sailed in, and Xiamen gave a favorable first impression. It was busy and bustling, but the waterfront wasn't littered with crumbling factories, decrepit wharfs, or other signs of decay that mar so many waterfronts around the world. Instead many ships moored along the waterfront--including five destroyers and several military landing craft--complemented a view of a city that had preserved its charm.
• Xiamen, with about 500,000 population, is the old city of Amoy, a commercial center in the pre-Communist days when it was a colonial stronghold and home to many foreigners. It is across the Taiwan Straits from Taiwan and so has been a sensitive and strategic site during the years of the standoff between the mainland and the "renegade province," as it is viewed from here. The island of Jimei--previously Quemoy--is just outside the harbor and with Matsu was the focal point of much tension that I can remember when I was a child.
• In mid April, Xiamen made international headlines when the first ship for 48 years to traverse the Straits directly from the Chinese mainland to Taiwan sailed from Xiamen. Probably Xiamen was chosen for this event because it is so close to Taiwan and also because it is a Special Economic Zone.
• Walking around Xiamen was a delight. Chinese people generally don't go out of their way to greet each other, much less foreigners, but they would easily respond to the greetings we offered as went wound our way through the narrow lanes and steep stairways of their neighborhoods. And there was the lack of sophistication and pretense that I've come to expect when visiting the mainland. People are open--indeed much of their lives is lived on the streets and paths around their homes--and daily life is there for everyone to see, a special treat for the foreigners exploring a new and different culture.

  Even a large boat yard near the Connells' home was open to us. We just walked in, waving to the guard as we did, and went around to the various ships--some rather large--beached in the mud or on special cradles for repairs and renovation and painting. OSHA (the US's Occupational Safety and Health Administration) would definitely not approve, but then OSHA would close down most of Asia in five minutes if US law were applied here.

• Xiamen is promoting itself as a tourist destination but has yet to gain momentum in that endeavor. Tourists are seen there, but most are from within China. The city does have a lot to offer, though, especially a view of a coastal city that retains both its charm and its original Chinese character now mixed with some foreign influence. It has the amenities, too, that many modern tourists demand, such as a Holiday Inn and five McDonald's and a Pizza Hut or two although the western imports don't intrude on the Chinese environment in a blatant way.

Gulangyu

• One of the most charming parts of Xiamen is Gulang Island, a short ferry ride across the harbor from the downtown district. It is a former foreign enclave and many of the stately houses there are decidedly European in flavor. Many are large compounds that were surely consular residences and offices.
• There are no cars or bicycles allowed on the island which takes perhaps an hour to circumnavigate on foot. Two tunnels allow casual walkers to avoid undue hill climbing although other parts of the island have winding lanes through the mansioned streets.
• The island has one or two swimming beaches, quite nice, and we noted how clean they are kept. Guarding the ends of the main beach were disused concrete pillboxes from the Cold War days when they maintained a protective vigil against invasion from Taiwan.
• One very notable spot on the island was a small memorial museum to a beloved woman doctor of the first half of the century. A native Chinese, she pioneered new obstetric and gynecological approaches in mainland medicine and seems to have been genuinely loved and appreciated both popularly and professionally. The memorial, in several places, notes her great love for the Communist Party through which Deng Xiao-ping oversaw the changes "from idealism to realism and from christianity to communism."

Lujiang University

Students from the Tourism 96 English class. They were delightful!

• Xiamen is home to Xiamen University, one of the major national universities of China, but it also has Lujiang University which has a more technical and career-oriented course of studies. Major concentrations of study are offered in tourism and English, and Jack and Yvette teach English students in both these disciplines.
• I talked with the students for an hour as a guest lecturer offering them another native-speaker version of English. I made a point to talk slowly and clearly fearing that the difference between my Kentucky English and the Connells' New England pronunciation might be a bit much for the students to handle. I was amazed at how freely and easily we interacted.
• Of special interest to me was the question from the students about Hong Kong. They wanted to know what HK people feel about the transition back to Chinese rule. I told them that HK people have mixed feelings, readily acknowledging the bond of Chinese race and culture that unites them with the mainland but also fearing the different political system of the People's Republic. Indeed, many of the current residents of HK are those who fled the Communists fifty years ago when the Party confiscated their homes and businesses and freedoms. The students seemed disappointed that the HKers may not be as enthusiastic about the resumption of sovereignty as the students themselves are, but I think they appreciated the reason and it was good for them to hear that.
• Gulang Island is the site of the Catholic Church for Xiamen, and the Connells and other foreigners make the trip to the island every Sunday. It is a parish of the official patriotic, government-sponsored church, but everyone seems to get along fine there and politics don't interfere with the life of the small parish.