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Many
ter lunch we visited Gulang island, where the old European
consulates and houses are in a sad state of dilapidation.
retired government officials now live there.
3.
Everywhere in Amoy there are signs of building; we
saw many private houses under construction in the surrounding
countryside as we approached the airport. The airport is new and can take 747s; but international flights from Hong Kong, Philippines, Japan, Singapore are charters, generally using smaller aircraft. Amoy is not yet really on the map, but it is
a better access point than Fuzhou (see below)..
4.
very
Nanping. A sad little town at the junction of two
rivers (badly polluted by paper mill waste) that together become the Min river, which flows through Fuzhou. We arrived after a twelve hour overnight train ride from Amoy uncomfortable because of frequent couplings and decouplings of extra locomotives, in addition to the usual dirt and squalor of
a Chinese train. Lunched at a rather nasty floating restaurant (Hong Kong joint venture). The only new building we saw was a hideous home/recreation centre for retired government officials.
5.
Wu Yi Shan. A beautiful mountain resort, three and a
half hours by bus on a tarred but narrow and bumpy road from
Nanping. The hotel their pride is mediocre and the food
rather poor.
There is brave talk of upgrading the Wu Yi
(military) airfield to take larger 'planes but I got the firm
impression that no money had yet been found to do this.
present very few tourists from outside China come to Wu Yi each
year 20-30,000 foreigners, overseas Chinese and Hong Kong and
Macau visitors was the figure quoted to me.
At
6.
Fuzhou. Via Nanping, and four hour train ride.
Nowhere near as much new building as in Amoy, indeed virtually
none apart from a handful of office blocks and hotels. Our
CONFIDENTIAL