On this day we made a trip to a shipbuilding museum near Fuzhou, but before we did we stopped by a rather large cafe/restaurant for breakfast. It’s been too long since the time of the trip to the time that I’m writing this entry for me to remember what we had to eat. I know this place had waffles with mangoes and mango ice cream and I think that’s what we ended up getting.

One of the various seating areas throughout the large cafe.

After breakfast we walked back home before the next rain shower started and I took a few shots of random objects and scenes that caught my attention.

After the rain ended we met up with some friends and made our way towards Fuzhou. The last time I was in China was 2018 and during that time there was lots of construction, particularly residential construction. The were also working on an elevated rail system connecting the suburbs to the city. This time when I went back I saw the train in action as well as many completed buildings. Even with all the new buildings, they were still building more during this visit. I’d read some news articles about how many of the new buildings were completely empty due to multiple factors including costs, safety issues or simply not enough demand to begin with. I wondered how many of these newly completed buildings were empty or if they were actually fully completed.

Large highways that are mostly empty. I’m wondering just how busy they get during holidays or how busy they will become in the future.

It wasn’t too long before we arrived at the district of Mawei which is where the shipbuilding/naval museum, also know as the Foochow Arsenal, is located. I enjoyed my time at the museum and came across some interesting artifacts, such as a maintenance manual for a General Motors diesel engine which was for the U.S. Navy. Of course this book was from World War II, but nonetheless it’s still fascinating. Another thing I found to be quite interesting were the massive lathes that they had outside. Seeing these things in person is always so much more interesting than seeing it in a photograph. That being said, of course I took photographs.

While I was in the museum, I was walking past a window and took a look outside to the surrounding area and much to my surprise I saw a sign for Indian Motorcycles in the distance. This was certainly something I wasn’t expecting to see. So after we left the museum I immediately headed over to take a look. Sadly it was closed but I was still able to get a glimpse inside from the window.

If there’s ever one thing that doesn’t change when I visit China, it’s the fact that there’s always significant construction going on. Judging by what I saw while I was there and what I saw on the map, it seems as though they were connecting two sections of roads via a tunnel. 25.99345° N, 119.44368° E

After the visit to the museum we went to find some place to have dinner. Of course being in the Fuzhou area, seafood was the food of choice. We spent a few hours there, if I remember correctly, before we headed home for the night. Now that I look back, I wish I would have taken some more photos throughout the day, but I’d imagine that during the time I probably felt that so many things were too familiar and therefore not photo-worthy. Oh well.

ASIA TRIP 2024 – CHINA – JULY 27

ASIA TRIP 2024 – CHINA – JULY 26