37. Finding the past and my future in Xiamen. By Adam Loomis

 Finding the past and my future in Xiamen. By Adam Loomis

My name is Adam Loomis and I come from a small farm town in the United States of America. I’ve been living in Xiamen for seven years and working as an English teacher. Let me tell you how I got here and why I’ve stayed.

My first glance of Xiamen was out the plane window as it flew over the island. Outside, the city looked like a neon beacon of new possibilities in the inky blackness of the night below. It wasn’t only my first view of Xiamen, it was my first of China and little did I know, my first view of a place that would become my new home.

That was seven years ago. I had never lived away from the U.S. before moving here. So when the time came to make the decision to move to a country so vastly different from my own, on the other side of the world, that I had never even visited, it was a scary decision. I still remember my parents seeing me off at JFK airport and the immense feelings of trepidation, doubt and fear swirling around in my mind. At the same time though, being filled with so much hope, excitement and wonderment at this new stage of my journey in life.

I was living in Brooklyn, New York at the time and got an offer to teach English here in Xiamen. The city seemed a perfect fit. I grew up living close to the ocean and spent every summer at the beach and as such the idea of moving to a beautiful sub-tropical island surrounded by sand, surf and sun was too good to pass up. I accepted the job and three months later I was landing on the tarmac at Xiamen airport.

My new foreign friends were very quick to enlighten me on the “island life” culture here in Xiamen. Moving from a crowded, fast-paced city like New York to the more relaxed atmosphere of a tier-two city like Xiamen was a very big relief. I immediately liked how the people here kind of moved a little slower and were more relaxed. The palm trees and blue skies just make everything seem so much more laid back and peaceful. That’s one of the biggest attractions of Xiamen for me, the intermixing of modern life and nature. Even on busy transit lines like the BRT, vines and flowers and plants grow alongside of it. There are palm trees outside of my window. There are thirty story apartment buildings and modern architecture right next to beaches and traditional Chinese architecture, hundreds of years old. Xiamen feels very traditional while still mixing in enough international influence.

I quickly came to love Chinese food. One of my favorite tourist spots here is Zengcuo’an. I love all the different options for Chinese street food. Living in New York for five years I was a huge fan of food trucks and street carts so when I found so many options here I was very excited to try everything. My first day here, my boss took me to Coyote for lunch, the best Mexican restaurant in the city. I was blown away that there even was a Mexican restaurant in Xiamen let alone one that was authentic. One of the biggest worries I had about moving here was the food. I was really worried about missing a lot of the foods I loved. It was a huge relief to find that Xiamen had plenty of Western restaurants.

The biggest thing that makes Xiamen my home away from home is the diverse group of friends I’ve made. I’ve met people from the U.K., Australia, Russia, Ghana and countless other countries. That’s why I love living here so much. I’m getting so much experience and knowledge I would never have gotten back home. I’ve become a citizen of the world as a whole just from living here in China.

I’ve visited as many different cities in China as I could to learn more about the culture and life here. I think one of the biggest stereotypes that has been broken for me is the sheer diversity of Chinese culture and people. Every province, district and city has completely different cultural traditions, foods, customs and languages. I always knew China was a big country but as a person who never traveled much before I was blown away by the sheer massiveness of China. Not just the actual land, but it’s people, culture and history. In Xiamen I can order the latest fusion cuisine lunch from a robot ordered on an iPad and later buy dinner from a woman on the side of the street who has been making the same dish for forty years in the traditional Minnan style. My 中文 has gotten pretty good but the fact that in parts of Xiamen I can’t even understand what people are saying because they speak a different dialect is fascinating. Let alone the next city over. Again, the sheer diversity of China is mind- blowing.

My long-term goal is to eventually settle down here in China, start a family and maybe open my own language school or similar business. I want to contribute to the future of China in whatever way I can.  I love living here. China has become my home away from home and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am eternally grateful to everyone who has made this experience so amazing and especially the people and friends who have welcomed me into their home and showed me why I want to make it my home too. 我爱中国！

About my Home town: As I stated above I come from a small farm town in New Jersey, USA. I grew up surrounded by corn farms and not much else. It was a great place to grow up as a child with clear blue skies, lots of fields to run through, trees to climb and dirt roads to ride our bikes down. I was a very lucky kid to have grown up how I did. While it was a good place to grow up, it is not a good place to stay, for me anyway, so I traveled. The led me here, to China.

 

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