China is a very big country, and I suppose you're supposed to learn something everytime you go there. From a tourism perspective, I'm not a big fan of China, but I did learn one thing this trip there, to Xiamen.

ONE. Xiamen is an island.

Xiamen is a rather industrialised part of China, with many major international brands running their production plants on the island. There isn't too much to shop, though some stuff is cheap. If you're going for clothes, they're not exactly dirt cheap, if you're insisting on quality. But CDs are. But there I learnt another thing about China.

TWO. Some Original (ie, not pirated) CDs are more Original than others.

Really. They all look the same from the outside, and each CD costs you somewhere between 12RMB to 20RMB, but When you open them up, you'll know what I mean.

One third thing I learnt about China ought've been expected but somehow it was new to me...

THREE. The Chinese listen to Taiwanese pop-stars.

And they watch Taiwanese variety shows too. Didn't manage to ask them what they thought about China-Taiwan relations, but while I was there, even the streets were filled with the pungency of Smelly Tofu - which I assumed was from Taiwan. Bubble Tea was in there too. Yet, apart from the stink from the Tofu, the whole atmosphere was somehow different. While I don't enjoy Smelly Tofu whether it was in Xiamen or in Taiwan, I think I had enjoyed Taiwan somewhat more than Xiamen... though maybe Shanghai could have been quite different.