I have a group of friends who I have known for most of my life. We met in the lower school and have been contacting with each other ever since. Twelve years of friendship has bonded six of us so closely and intimately that we feel like a big family right now.

We always planned to have a graduation trip. We hanged out a lot in our own city, but we never travel as a group to somewhere else.

In the summer of 2018, we had our first chance to travel together because everyone graduates from high school (except me).

 

The first city we go to is Xiamen. It is a famous coastal city in the southeast of China. It takes us four hours to get there by train, and we all are very excited because it has always been our dream! We bought the same shoes for everyone to wear during our trip!

 

 

After we arrive in Xiamen, we take the metro to get to our Airbnb. The metro in Xiamen is very colorful and bright.

 

 

It is raining heavily when we get to the Airbnb, so we stay in the house for two hours and organize our clothes and other stuff. Then we go to Mingfa Square which is a shopping mall nearby for dinner.

 

We can never miss seafood when we are in a coastal city. We order a huge seafood platter for our first meal. Even though I am not a big fan of seafood, I am impressed by the looking and taste of the food.

After dinner, we walk around the Mingfa Square and look for entertainment. We discover an Escape The Room and decide to try. We pick a horror theme room, and the story is set at a school. The picture is taken before we start to play. It is used as the last key of the game. I can still remember before the staff closes the entrance door, she asks us which level of difficulty we want, easy, medium, or hard. “Easy.” We answer simultaneously. Then the staff begins to laugh in a weird way and closes the door heavily, leaving us screaming inside. I did play escape the room a few times before, but I never tried the room with NPCs inside the room. When we are in the third room, a Japanese style “ghost” lady with white dress and hair hanging in her face crawls into our room. One of us starts screaming, and then all of us are screaming. This is the loudest scream I have ever experienced, and I always laugh whenever I think of the moment. Luckily, after asking for help for several times, we get out of the room, but everyone is still in horror and scared. This is the experience that I would never forget. 

After the game, it is almost nine. Five of us start to plan something because today is also the 18th birthday of the only girl in our group. We try to distract her attention while we are ordering a cake secretly online. We walk around the square for half an hour and then we go back to our home. While the cake is being delivered, we play around in the house like usual and we also have made a plan. When the cake is delivered, we send two people to pick it up and tell her that we just ordered some extra food. They take the cake and open it up outside, and they also light up the candles. Then when they knock on the door, one of us turns off the light, and we start to sing Happy Birthday. Everything goes perfectly, and here is the picture of our birthday girl.

On our second day, we go to the Zhongshan Road, which is the famous shopping street in Xiamen. The weather is very good, but it is already very hot in the morning.

There are so many food choices around. Although it is morning, we start to hunt for food: Barbecue, Stinky Tofu, Icy fruit, dried pork slices, ice cream, etc.

                                                      

 

After lunch, we decide to ride bikes to the cat street. It is a very lovely streets with everything around related with cats. The owners of shops are friendly and welcoming.

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In the late afternoon, we come to the Huandao Road. It is right next to the sea. We walk on the beach with barefoot. Seaside always makes me peaceful, even though there are so many people around.

 

On the third day, which is also our last day in Xiamen, we decide to go to the waterpark of Xiamen Fantawild Dreamland.

All of us had a lot of fun in the park. We tried almost every entertainment. But my friend lost his phone which contained all the photos and videos we took in the park, and everyone got sun burned even though we put on sun screen.

This is my second time in Xiamen, and I always enjoy my time spending in the city. I enjoy the happiness the city brings me. I feel more relaxed and joyful this time with my best friends. And our graduation trip has not ended; We set off for Xi’an the next day.