Last week

I had a great last week in Beijing. Originally, I had planned on making a trip by myself to Taishan in Shandong Province, as I am sure I mentioned numerous times in the past. However, it would have taken at least three days to go there, and I didn't want to rush a trip there. Additionally, I wanted to hang out with my friends and just take it easy before I headed back home.

I already wrote about my Monday in the last post. On Tuesday, I met up with 王尧 to treat her back for a meal, as well as treating her for her birthday...we had lunch at a Japanese place near Peking University, which was pretty decent. Lots of good sashimi and roasted eel, as well as a nice chat and funny stories.

I then went to the Haidian Bookstore and bought some books and CDs. For dinner, I went with my gym/eating friend 范聪 to the Yunnan Provincial Government Office restaurant (云腾宾馆), for the third provincial government office restaurant for my trip. We had a mint salad, mashed potatoes (of course), and fish head soup. It was very interesting to eat a salad of just mint leaves (and stems), but it was also pretty tasty. The potatoes were of course quite good, and I am glad I finally found a friend who likes to eat fish heads! I have only recently begun to appreciate the meat that is on fish heads (especially the cheek and eye), but I don't think most of my other friends have the same taste, so this was the first time I had actually eaten a dish that consisted of mainly fish heads. It was really good, with a tomato-based, sour-tasting broth.

I then tried to call up my grandma's tour group leader, but he was grumpy and told me to call back tomorrow. So we walked home (took about 45 minutes from the Beijing Railway Station area). My grandma ended up calling me, right as I took my phone out to check the time...I hadn't even heard my phone ringing! Talk about having a premonition....

Wednesday, I met up with 王凤丹 to go to Zhongshan Park, which is just southeast of the Forbidden City. It was a really nice park, filled with lots of greenery and flowers, especially tulips.

We looked in an exhibition hall in which they grow many different types of orchids, which were all really pretty. There was also an area where they raised many different types of goldfish, but mostly those types that Chinese people like a lot: they often have large red bumps on their heads, or air sacs under their eyes. These fish were bred specially for the literati, and not saying that my dad belongs to that class, but he used to try to raise those types of fish in our home. They definitely would not survive in the wild. Both Fengdan and I think they looked pretty strange or 恐怖, but there was one Chinese lady who walked by and said (in Chinese), "Oh! Look how pretty those fish are!" I'm not sure how the fish with the air sacs under their eyes got selected for, but the bumps on the other fishes' heads are apparently sarcomas (soft tissue tumors). =(

Afterwards, we tried to find a snack street in the Qianmen area, but failed. We ate at a decent-looking place, but the food turned out to be not-so-good. I packed during the afternoon, and then met back up with Wang Fengdan, Lin Yicong, and Jia Yuan for dinner. We ate Korean BBQ. A LOT of meat, but decent-tasting. We had a good time chatting and laughing about different things.


I finally got in touch with my grandma and I went to her hotel to meet her, just as it started to pour (I had been too lazy to bring my umbrella). I met up with her and her Chinese-from-Korea friends for a little bit in their lobby. It was really nice being able to see her in Beijing! =D And I can now communicate with her, hehe. I even understand the Shandong dialect pretty well!



Later that night through to the next morning, I went to overnight KTV (karaoke)! It was a lot of fun, and I definitely got KTV out of my system for at least a few weeks. Six hours of singing will do that to you. It was fun going with someone who has a similar taste in music, so I was able to sing all the old Chinese songs and Stefanie Sun songs I wanted to, without feeling (too) embarrassed or like I was wasting other peoples' time. Oh, and the best part was that it was only about $8.50 USD each person for those 6 hours! We had Cantonese dim sum afterwards. I took a nap for a couple of hours, continued packing, then had lunch with Wang Fengdan and Lin Yicong for the last time in the cafeteria. I finished the rest of my errands (returning my cafeteria card, which had 0.05 RMB left on it, and my white coats) and finished packing. I then went with 范聪 to a place called HaiDiLao Hotpot (海底捞火锅) for my last dinner in China. The wait (as expected) was long, but the service there makes you feel like a valued customer. They set up a waiting area outside the restaurant, with small tables, board games (Go, Chinese checkers, playing cards), snacks (nuts, lemon water), and other entertainment (movie, KTV booth, manicures for the girls). We ended up waiting 2 1/2 hours. I was really hoping the food would the worth the wait. It pretty much was. We ordered tofu, some veggies (spinach, dou miao (the young bean sprouts)), pig feet, beef balls, tender beef, and noodles.
The tender beef was really good, and it was interesting, in that it got more tender the longer one cooked it, rather than getting tougher. The noodles were the highlight of the meal, and I was sad they came at the end. A guy comes to each table with noodle dough, and he proceeds to stretch it out into a noodle by performing a dance with it! It was really interesting and impressive.

Oh! The other best part was that there is a sauce station that allows you to mix your custom dipping sauce. There are probably around 35 ingredients, including green onions, cilantro, peanuts, satay sauce, sacha sauce, sesame sauce, vinegar (范聪's favorite, haha), hot sauce, sesame oil, etc, etc, that you can mix as you like. It was much better quality than at Coriya Hotpot City in the Bay Area.

We felt so full afterwards that we decided to walk home, all the way from Xidan to Dongdan (and via Beihai, not along Chang'an Avenue). I just mapped it, and it was only four miles, but it felt like much longer, probably because we set out at 10:30 pm and only got home around 1:15 am. Beijing is pretty safe at night, and I'm glad, haha.


So that was my last week. It was filled with friends and food, which I think are the best things in life (family is there, too, hehe), and I'm glad I stayed in Beijing for that week. I will definitely go to Taishan in the future, but with my mom, since she hasn't been to Shandong before, either.

I will write a couple more entries about my travels immediately following Beijing, but after that, my entries will surely tail off.

Four days left....

I had a really fun weekend hanging out with friends and eating good food, but it was bittersweet, as it was my last weekend here in Beijing. I'm spending this week just seeing some random sights that I haven't seen yet, as well as eating my favorite foods before I leave.

Today, I took care of some shopping. My first stop was the 马连道茶叶城 (MaLianDao Tea City), which is a huge neighborhood that is filled with shops and malls selling tea. There aren't even any other stores in this area, just stores that sell tea, tea tables, tea pots, tea ceremony tools, and the like. When I first got there, I was overwhelmed, because I was just looking for rose tea, but there were too many options. I bought some from a random small store on the street, because I was (stupidly) worried I wouldn't be able to find any later, and then I went inside one of the malls that had been recommended on a website. I went to a couple of the stores/stalls on the third floor but didn't find any other rose tea. On the second floor, I bought some pretty fragrant and inexpensive rose tea for much cheaper than on the street. The girl at that store commented on my paper, on which I had taken notes on which stores to go to, as I had written most of it in English (except for things like 马连道茶叶), which she couldn't read. I asked if they had any 龙井 (LongJing) tea, and then I finally got the full experience that I had read about online. She invited me to try a couple of the teas to see which one I wanted. I was initially a little apprehensive, because I thought it would be a somewhat pressure-filled situation in which she would try to push more expensive teas at me. On the contrary, once I told her I didn't want anything too expensive, she chose two lower-quality teas to try. I then proceeded to have a very relaxing 45-60 minutes of just sitting by a fan (it was warm today), drinking cup after cup of tea with the salesgirl (from Meizhou, Guangdong province, the fourth person I know from that city now). I probably drank a liter of tea. I drank so much that I was getting sleepy and the girl joked that I had 喝醉 (gotten drunk from the tea), haha. The one I bought ended up being 55 RMB for two 两 (I think about a quarter pound), so not too bad.

I then went to Xidan to continue my search for hair ornaments for Tam. I first bought a couple of belts for myself, because they fit really really well, and it's very difficult to find belts (or anything else, besides shirts) that fit me in the US. Once I found some hair stuff, I fell into my old trap when I bargain for stuff. Susan (my fellow exchange student, from Harvard) also has this flaw, and she explained it well. The flaw is that we get too attached to the item we want, so it's difficult to walk away from the deal or offer too low a price, for fear that we won't be able to buy the item. When I went to Silk Street last week, I did pretty well, because I didn't get attached to the stuff I wanted to buy, so I offered very low prices and walked away if they weren't willing to initially bargain, only to get called back when they finally agreed to sell. Today, however, I got nervous that I wouldn't be able to find any other hair pins/clips/chopsticks, so I think - no, am certain - that I got cheated quite a bit. I bought everything from one seller, when I could and should have left to walk around, look some more, and do some comparisons. However, I reverted from my cool, confident buyer alter-ego back to my weaksauce n00b form =( =( Oh well. I think it's worth it when you're trying to make a friend happy. =)

The rest of this week will be spent eating at a couple more places that I haven't tried, seeing my friend from Beida, and running a couple more errands before I leave. Oh yea, and packing. =(

Delayed massage entry

Jasmine pointed out that I never commented on my massage, which was about a month ago. It cost 88 RMB (about USD 12) for 80 minutes and was a whole body massage. I have to say, 80 minutes was a bit long, but it did feel good. I kept my clothes on, and it started with me prone, and the guy massaging my head. It moved to my shoulders and back, and then I flipped over to the supine position, and the guy started massaging my arms. The weirdest part came next, when he massaged my belly (?!), which was actually pretty painful, as he pushed with considerable force on my abdomen. It ended with leg/feet massages, with me still in the supine position. I did the massage because I've found that massage helps with my chronic L scapular pain, but I was actually pretty sore the next day. But I've felt better since (with some off days), so I guess it did end up helping in the end. If I go again, though, I'm only getting a shoulder massage (38 RMB for 40 minutes)!!

Lazy Saturday

I had some interesting experiences today. I got to eat braised cola chicken wings again, the flavor of which transported me back to 1 year ago when I ate many meals with the PUMC students who came to UCSF. I also got to hear my friends sing lots of "Communist" songs that they sang as children. It was pretty fun. I then went to see a new Chinese movie, called "红河" ("Red River"), a dramatic love story involving a Vietnamese-Chinese (not sure which one) girl. I won't give away any of the plot, if you want to watch it. The story was pretty interesting, although the one thing I wondered is how accurately the actors' Vietnamese was pronounced, since most of them (being Chinese actors) learned it specifically for the movie. If some who speaks Vietnamese watches it, he/she should let me know. It's late now. I'll update with more pics tomorrow or something.

憶江南

The above is a phrase that roughly translates to "Recollect the JiangNan area" (the area south of the Yangtze River). During this last weekend, we had a holiday on Monday due to the QingMing Festival (清明节) that occurred on Saturday. A few of my classmates and I decided to take Thursday and Friday off, as well, to take a trip to the Shanghai area. It was a lot of fun.

We took Hainan Airlines there, and it was a really nice airline. I would highly recommend it in the future. Individual entertainment systems, decent food, and comfortable reclining seats. I had just watched 非诚勿扰 (If You Are The One), in which Shu Qi (see below) plays a flight attendant on Hainan Airlines. I joked with a couple of friends here, before I left, that I hoped that "笑笑" (her character's name in the movie) would be my flight attendant, but unfortunately, that did not turn out to be the case =( =(

In any case, we checked into our hostel once we arrived, and it, too, exceeded expectations. Paying $26 USD for four nights is a good deal in my book. We set out to find the 城隍庙 (Temple of the City God) and the 豫园 (YuYuan Gardens), and it was a great day to enjoy the gardens. I really enjoyed the different shapes of each of the doorways and all the greenery and flowers that were blooming in the garden.

After visiting the temple, we ate some 小笼包 (xiaolongbao) at 南翔馒头店's takeout window, but they weren't that great. I was a little disappointed.

I also ate some stinky tofu from the street...very tasty!

At night, we walked around Nanjing Lu (expensive shopping area) and then along the Bund (along the Huangpu River) at night, to enjoy the nighttime skyline, which reminded me a little of Hong Kong's.


On Friday, we originally had planned on going to Suzhou, but all the train tickets for that day and Saturday were sold out (in retrospect, this was due to the Saturday holiday). So we bought tickets for Sunday, as well as buying tickets to join a tour group to Hangzhou on Saturday (the only way we could get train tickets for Hangzhou). We spent the rest of the day walking around the French Concession area, which was the part of the city that used to be controlled by France during China's . We visited the former house of 宋庆龄 (Soong Ching-ling, Madame Sun Yat-sen), where she lived for many years. She is the Soong sister who "loved China" (the three Soong sisters were often described as "一个爱钱、一个爱权、一个爱国" [One loves money, one loves power, and one loves the nation], because one married a banker, one married Chiang Kai-shek, and one married Sun Yat-sen and later did a lot of work herself in building the nation). It was really inspiring to see the museum exhibit on all her work and achievements in trying to build a strong nation with the Communist government early in China's republic existence.

After that, we leisurely strolled through the French Concession and some parks until we reached Taikang Road, which is a relatively newer art studio section of Shanghai. We visited a lot of shops and checked out some artwork, most of which was pretty neat. There were a lot of traditional paintings/photograph stores, but I saw a few paintings that were pretty neat (no photos allowed, unfortunately, otherwise I would have taken a few!). Similar to the previous day, there were lots of flowers blooming along the streets and in the parks:

And we ate noodles and 生煎包 (pan-fried buns) for lunch! =D

We stopped by Dr. Sun Yat-sen's former residence as our walk continued, but they were just closing. The security guard was nice enough to let us in to use the restroom and take a picture outside, though.

We also visited XinTianDi, which is a small area near the former site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China that has a lot of touristy (and expensive!) boutique shops. We tried to find a restaurant that I had read about that supposedly had really good xiaolongbao, but once we found the address, we were told that it had been torn down a long time ago. =( =( Major FAIL. In the future, don't look for 佳家汤包 on 河南南路, because it's not there.

Saturday was the QingMing Festival and also the date of our trip to Hangzhou. Before I left Beijing, I had read a poem by the Tang poet 杜牧 (Du Mu), simply called 清明 (QingMing) (look up "QingMing Festival on Wikipedia for the English translation):
清明时节雨纷纷
路上行人欲断魂
借问酒家何处有
牧童遥指杏花村
I thought this poem was apropos for our trip, especially the first line, as it was misty/raining lightly as we arrived at Hangzhou. A few of my friends from China were saying that it was actually good for it to be raining during our trip there, since 西湖 (West Lake) would be more romantic in the rain. Too bad I couldn't take advantage of that. In any case, our first stop was West Lake, and the scenery and foliage were breathtaking. Lots of green, pink, and yellow, and barely-visible pagodas on distant islands in the mist surrounded us as we walked along the shore and on one of the islands.

I can see why people would think it would be a romantic place to go (excepting all the tourists...)

I really enjoyed the idyllic atmosphere that surrounded us, too. This particular scene made me feel like we were there 1000 years ago.


Our next stop on the tour was the Temple of Yue Fei (岳王庙). Yue Fei was a general during the Southern Song Dynasty who fought against the Jurchens from the north. The emperor executed him and his son, on the advice of an evil couple in his court, and as Yue Fei voluntarily returned to the capital for his execution, despite being on the brink of defeating the Jurchens, he is seen as a model of loyalty in Chinese culture. He also had a famous tattoo on his back, that was done by his mother, that reads, 盡忠報國, which means "Serve the country with the utmost loyalty." We learned on our tour that the uppermost dot in the word for "country" was left out in the tattoo, and that his mother said that she would finish the tattoo once he had reclaimed the lost Chinese territory, but it was never done. The tour guide also said (in a totally serious manner) that the dot also was not in the painting on the wall of the temple, because "Taiwan has not returned to us yet."

The tour group then took us to a couple of classic tourist traps, i.e. a silk market to buy silks, and also a tea-tasting place to buy 龙井茶 (LongJing tea), for which the area is famous.

We also went to a village built in a Song Dynasty fashion, as it was the capital during the Southern Song dynasty. It was pretty interesting, as they had lots of handicrafts and local food for sale, as well as people dressed in Song Dynasty-era clothes, but it was definitely built for tourists. I did get an awesome picture that a cariacturist drew...all I have to say is that if I were a Jurchen, I would be terrified to see a 7'6" Yao Ming bearing down on me with a sword or a spear:

The last couple of stops were famous temples in Hangzhou, but by then, I was too tired, wet, and cold to really enjoy them, which was a little too bad. Although the day was pretty fun, I reminded myself why I hate large tour groups.

Sunday was our Suzhou trip. I ate a 饭团 (rice roll) for breakfast =D

Anyway, Suzhou is famous for its silks and private gardens, and although we didn't take a look at any silks, I have to say that the gardens did not disappoint. We visited the 拙政园 (Humble Administrator's Garden), considered to be the best garden in Southern China. I think a couple of pictures will demonstrate why. I only wish I had the $$ and land to build a garden like this:



In my future yard, though, I am definitely planting plum blossom trees, cherry blossoms, and magnolias, as well as a myriad of ground flowers. I have become inspired. We met up with my roommate Peter, who's originally from Suzhou, and we had lunch, then went to his grandparents' house for tea. We visited 盘门 (PanMen), the old city gate or Suzhou, that was both a land and a water gate (the only one in the world). Pretty awesome to see the strategic fortifications of old. We also went to 虎丘 (Tiger Hill), which is another nice scenic area. We got in for free, because Peter's cousin works there. Pretty awesome. At night, we went to the Jin Mao Tower (金茂大廈), which was formerly the tallest building in China (until the World Financial Center was built right next door), and which houses the Grand Hyatt on floors 54-88. We went up to Floor 88 to go to the highest bar in the world and to enjoy the night view. It was fun, though pricey.
Jin Mao Tower:

Shanghai World Financial Center:

A view of the Bund from the bar:

The Oriental Pearl Tower from the bar:


So in recap, it was a really fun trip, but exhausting. I am definitely not travelling very much more until the end of my trip. I still need to explore more places in Beijing, anyway!

I'm going to Shanghai for the weekend. Update when I return. I want to eat lots of xiao long bao.

落叶归根

The two Chinese idioms/proverbs I used in this entry are pretty much the only ones I know, so don't get any ideas that I am so learned (the two-syllable pronunciation of this word), haha.

So as I mentioned last time, I spent last weekend in Guangzhou, and it was a lot of fun. I think the following pictures encapsulate my trip very nicely:
At the Beijing airport, I saw this sign informing passengers how long they'd have to walk to get to the furthest gate (C20). Guess what gate I boarded at? Yup, C20.

In addition to his restaurant in the Seoul airport (see my Facebook pictures), Jackie Chan owns a cafe in the Beijing airport:

I think ALL waiting room seats in ALL airports should be like these!

Dinner on Friday night was at one of my favorite restaurants in Guangzhou, at which you eat hotpot, but with porridge as the base instead of broth!

Group picture with my GZ friends, all current/past students at SYSU. From L->R, Athena, Tina, Gary, me, Wayne, Liang Feng, Yang Daizhi, and Dandan:

One of the foods I was craving was 莲子双皮奶 (literally, lotus seed double-skin milk), which is lotus seeds on top of a custardy-type dessert made from the milk of a water buffalo (purportedly):

The Liang Family Garden in Foshan (my dad's family's hometown). Wouldn't you like to have a garden like this to relax in?

Huang Fei-hong and my dad's family are from the same hometown (as is Yip Man, kungfu teacher of Bruce Lee):

In front of the Ancestral Temple of Foshan. I am too awkward when asked to pose for a picture by myself...

This picture does not begin to capture the strength of the storm that suddenly appeared as we took the bus back to GZ from Foshan...the roads flooded in less than an hour. For my Chinese-reading readers, it really was 倾盆大雨:

The other foods I was really looking forward to in GZ were 鱼片粥 (fish porridge) and 手拉肠粉 (literally, hand-pulled noodles) (in this case, of the 叉烧 (BBQ pork) variety). The 肠粉 here is so much better than in the US (although Tai Son in Westminster comes close). Observe the thinness of the noodles, as well as the addition of vegetables and mushrooms in the filling, instead of just meat:

Shenzhen, China on the left, Hong Kong on the right. I had to cross the border into Hong Kong, because my visa allows a 60-day stay, while if I didn't leave and come back, it would have been 64 days. I didn't want to risk a huge fine and delay at the airport when coming back to the US.

Chris (Chinese 10 BX buddy currently teaching in Shenzhen), me, Wayne, and Wayne's cousin at the tallest building in Shenzhen:


All in all, a fun trip, and I didn't get sick. I like GZ and Hong Kong, because every time I go, I feel like it's a very familiar place. When I stepped off the airplane in GZ, I immediately recognized the smell and the (humid) atmosphere, and it gave me a very...nostalgic and comfortable (mentally, not necessarily physically) feeling. I guess it's because it's my family's 祖籍 (ancestral home). I wonder if I'll have the same feeling when I go to Shandong province? Or to Cambodia in the future?