The Accidental Hike.

After having such a pleasant park experience I decided to discover another amazing park on my day off. So I set out on bus 87, my "church bus" because I have seen some cool areas during my bus trips, as each one passed by I felt like none of them were able to stand up to the high standards that were set by the other park. So I settled on exploring XiaDa (Xiamen University).Almost half of the students there were walking with umbrellas. It was the biggest sun-shielding group I have yet to come across. Forget the sun! I was shielding my eyes from getting poked out!

In the middle of the school there is a big lake that students and tourist alike sit and enjoy.

After successfully conquering the campus I was unsatisfied with my lack of a pure park experience, so I set out to hunt for yet another park I had "seen" on the bus. After walking for about 20 mins I was convinced I was on the absolute right trail to my destination.

A cool building and gate I passed that only further validated that I was onto something big...
After 20 minutes of more walking, and winding up on this gigantic street, I started to doubt my usual keen navigational skills.

But then I saw a crowd of people flocking to this mysterious staircase down a tiny alley, so I decided that the mob mentality hasn't failed me yet, so I tried my luck.
When I got to the top there was a map that I was unable to decipher so I picked a staircase and went.

The park was awesome. It wasn't really a park in the whole huge lawn and water fountain sense, but more of an exploring park. There were rock formations, man made water areas and staircases that led to nowhere. It was pretty cool. Times like these I am really glad that I adopted the shoes and socks concept, because I don't think I would have wanted to hike in sandals. On my way up there was a creepy old man that kept staring at me, that kinda freaked me out for a while and made me remember sometimes I shouldn't wander off by myself, at least not too often...


Even though this wasn't the kind of park I had in mind I think it was well worth the hike and adventure!