Apparently, it was very concerning that I had flown to Hong Kong and only stayed there for two hours.  There are many Chinese carriers that fly directly from Beijing to Xiamen and the direct flight time is three hours shorter than flying from Beijing to  Hong Kong and connecting with a flight from there to Xiamen.  But unfortunately, Continental does not have interline pass agreements with any of those carriers and the only way that I could get there was to take the out-of-the-way route I had flown via Hong Kong.  I tried to explain that the only reason I chose this route was because of airline pass agreements, to no avail.  They simply did not understand that I had to stay on ITBA carriers that honor my passes and were suspicious that I only spent two hours in Hong Kong and went another three hours out of my way.

As these were Chinese government officials and not airline officials, they I could not understand my routing.  Perhaps I looked like some kind of a smuggler or national threat.  So, for the next couple of hours (which felt like days) my new found friends and I perused and closely examined my passport, and I answered a string of unrelated questions.  "Why did you travel to Peru?  Who escorted you to Egypt and what did you do there?  Why were in Amsterdam for such a short time ~uh... maybe the same reason I was in Hong Kong....?"

Unfortunately, it went from bad to worse when I tried to explain why I was only scheduled to be in the Fujan Provence for just one night and would be leaving tomorrow evening for Japan.  I did not know the Chinese word for monument and the translator did not comprehend what that meant.  Finally, I showed them a picture of Chloe which was the first time they began to let up on the unrelated questions.  I explained that she was my precious granddaughter and that we had lost her to cancer in October.  I tried to tell them that I was only there to see her gravestone in the Huian City tomorrow at the granite factory.  Looking at Chloe's picture, and after going through my entire suitcase (looking for who knows what) they finally agreed to allow me conditional entry into Xiamen and not deport me or hold me for further investigation. 

The catch (or condition) was that I would be allowed entry only with an escort!  Unfortunately, I simply did not know a soul that I could call in Xiamen to run down to the airport and pick me up to escort me... The hotel did not have a shuttle service and as much as I went through all the people in my little black book, there was not a single person I knew in this place.  They took me to the arrivals hall to wait for this escort (who would never come) but I was to arrange.  After an hour of that, I began to think that I would be in this place forever and I was just over this charade...  I was sitting there ~ the officers were off to one side of the hall talking among themselves ~ the translator had gone to the information desk and thought  that there was no way they would shoot me, and since my Chinese was so bad and their English was worse, I simply walked out the glass doors and got into a cab that was at the taxi stand.  The guards spoke to me, but I pretended not to hear and they must have been tired of it too, so they did not try to physically stop me.  Luckily, I had the name of the hotel written in Chinese and the driver understood, so they just let me go... Thank you God!

Xiamen is a coastal city and a very busy sea port.  The buildings are huge and each is surrounded by ancient small cement living quarters of poor families (much like the Hutong area of ancient Beijing).  But all the people were smiling and walking together hand in hand enjoying this rare vacation day in China.  The Sheraton looked like an obscenely decadent gold high-rise in the middle of an especially poor area and stands as the only one of its kind.  The room itself was hands down the most luxuriously appointed room that I have had the pleasure of staying in in a very long time.  Lying in the whirlpool, I felt that I could have just stayed and stayed (until I thought of how hard it was to get there~and I will probably never return in this lifetime). 

Outside, however, was quite a contrast in culture.  I went out to find a small store with bottled water and hairspray, since mine were confiscated at the airport in Beijing when I could not check my bag, and I was quickly immersed in this family oriented quite different culture.  Vendors with carts were selling their home grown fruit and vegetables in the city on the street and pushed their carts from one alley to the next.  Children were playing in front of small family-run stores.  Just one-room little businesses selling anything from porcelain basins to candy and home-made dinner offerings.  The sites and smells were a mixture of curiosity and pungent odors.  There were fathers sitting on the curb with their children.  The father would break the neck of a chicken and hand it to a young child to pluck in front of their restaurants supposedly to prove to you how fresh the meat was.

And in the midst of it all stands the golden mirrored towers of the Xiamen Sheraton... I found a small store with what I needed and returned to the hotel in the rain that just began to fall.  I was in the lobby trying to send an email on the hotel Internet and a Muslim man and woman came up to me and asked if I was American.  They were truly the first Muslims I had seen in China and when I said that I was, they insisted that I exchange money for them.  They had a $100 US bill and wanted me to give them Yuan for it.  I told them to go to the hotel desk and the man became very irritated and started yelling at me and demanding that I exchange his US money... Yelling is very unusual in China.  I tried to ignore the man, but he would not hear of it.  Thankfully the security guards came and asked them to leave.  He was not happy, but they left.

After dinner (in the hotel) I returned to the room and slept until after 3:00am... As it was daytime in the US, I called Victoria to get the flight schedule out of this place and touched base with my Mom in Colorado.  I did not know when I would have another opportunity and was thrilled to be able to speak with them both.  Amazingly, I was able to fall back asleep knowing that today would be the day I would finally see Chloe's monument.