A journey for one person

     As soon as I went back home, I immediately came up with a idea: why not travel to somewhere alone? Then I just made a quick decision and booked a train ticket to Xiamen Cirty, which is a city located in Fujian Province. I didn't expect too much at first about traveling alone, since I was still 16 years old and could not book any hotel. But my dad just agreed with my idea and said I could just go to Xiamen and live in his friend's apartment. That was great! So I spent a whole day preparing all the stuff for my journey.

     When I got there, the strongest feeling I got was excitement. Xiamen City left me a familiar emotion and I didn't know why. I could just take a bus and go somewhere like I was so familiar to any place without any help. I visited Ximen University at first. I had to say when I was young, I'd ever dreamed to enter this famous University. But I just chose to study abroad as I grew up, it was kind of regretful, though. And then in the afternoon, I took a ferry and left for a well-known island, Gulangyu Island.

     Gulangyu Island was so popular because of its rich history and different kinds of old buildings left. It was also popular because there were many local unique and delicious snacks. Visitors were always happy to have a taste of these snacks. I had lunch at first and bought a map, then I began my "exploration". However, I should've realized that maps would never work. I could always got lost no matter the maps showed how specific indicators were. And this time, fortunately like before, I got lost in an alley.

     It was an alley with old buildings with stones and old banyans. There was no any other sound except my breath and and the sounds of my foorsteps. Why there was no one else in this alley except me? Was this a strange alley that nobody had ever visited and so I was the first one to discover it? Or was it a scary alley where there were some supernatural things happened? I hoped not. And as lucky as I was, there was a little dog sitting at the road and looking at me. I thought it must belong to someone else. It had yellow fur and a pair of big black eyes. I was not terrified any more because of this cute animal. Finally I found an old lady sitting in front of her house by following the lovely dog. She showed my the way clearly to seaside and told me that I just went in an alley which was seldom visited by tourists. It was absolutely not a supernatural alley.

     I thought it was the most memorial thing I had on the whole journey. It was the first time that I got lost in an alley and had such an interesting experience. Maybe many years later I would still remember there was an old alley with old buildings and banyans. It was silent because there was almost nobody walking along. It was silent also because there were only a dog, an old lady and me.