A belated post in honor of Gina, my travel companion in fair China. I never thought I'd be calling it fair China before I went there, but I really did enjoy visiting China immensely. A lot of that is thanks to Gina, but a lot of that is thanks to China, too.
I'm sitting in my new(ish) apartment in South Philly. After work and coffee with friends, I sat for awhile in Rittenhouse Square reading. It's one of those days where it feels like I am really doing what I want, though not all my days are like that. Anyway, an old man sat next to me and started talking to me about books and traveling. I started feeling like I need to write down some reminiscences about China before I get old and forget them. Here are some of them, distorted by the mirror of months at home. But the mind is always a carnival mirror, isn't it? You just hope it's not the kind that makes you look short and fat.
I'm going to try to keep this short(ish) for each place, since we went to so many in our short (and long) three weeks there.
1. Beijing
Beijing has a surprising amount of good, flaky pastry. Gina and I started the very good habit of just getting into any long food line we found on the street, and we ate some great pastry that way. There was also a shockingly long line for sunflower seeds. (We dutifully got in line, but bought nuts instead.) Gina and I went to a hot pot restaurant where you cook your own food in boiling hot water. We totally failed at making our meal delicious, but all the other patrons seemed to be having better luck. The best meal we had in Beijing was Peking duck at a restaurant I was later dismayed to find out is a big-time chain. It was the best I've ever had, nonetheless. They carve your duck tableside and give you a small slice of the crispy skin to sample before you dig in, almost like tasting a fine wine before they pour your full glass. They also number their ducks, and I mailed my parents the complimentary postcard that said I had tried duck number whatever. Beijing has a surprising number of beautiful and quiet parks. At least in the places we went, it is not loud, nor is it crowded. I was surprised by that. There are great car-protected bike lanes, if you're into that. We stayed at a hostel that was in an old courtyard-style house, which was beautiful but very cold. I regret rushing through the Forbidden City because we were too damn cold to enjoy it, but I hope to go back someday. Neither of us had proper winter clothing--not surprising for backpackers coming directly from a tropical country--so we tended to wear all the clothes we had, all the time. We made friends with an English-speaking cafe proprietor who had her nails painted in a cow pattern, with the thumbs being the cow heads.
2. The Great Wall
Wonderful. Surprisingly up-and-down aerobic. Shockingly crumbly in places. We went to one of the more ancient sections, which was less touristed for being over 3 hours away from Beijing. Gina is afraid of stairs, it turns out, which made the wall terrifying for her at moments. But that girl has the heart of a lion and laughed her way through it. A bitingly cold north wind gave us the gift of smog-free views here and in Beijing proper, but nearly killed us.
--Cheap, amazing high speed train ride that puts America to shame and makes me think we probably, maybe are doomed--
3. Shanghai
A beautiful, European oasis in China. Our first night, we stayed at a hostel and took ourselves on a self-guided dumpling walking tour. Oh, the street dumplings of Shanghai! The best was a halal dumpling that tasted like Indian food and Chinese food and Middle Eastern food all in one hot street dumpling dripping with beef in a bright yellow sauce inside. We also ducked into a tiny wonton soup shop where the owners were making mountains of dumplings by hand right there. The soup was incredible, the dumplings light and delicate, and we couldn't have been more smugly self-satisfied for finding such a non-touristy joint. We took in the skyline at night and avoided being scammed by young "English students" who offered to take our picture and ultimately wanted to lure us into overpriced tea shops. Gina scammed the scammers with aplomb, however, and held them up for a good ten minutes while cheerily taking their picture with their camera, commanding them to take all different cheesy poses before we walked away unscathed. Genius. We also took in a beautiful, if overwhelming, art museum that had everything from ancient pottery that boggled the mind in its intricate detail to simple brush drawings of mountain scenes. I instantly regretted my absolutely zero knowledge of Asian art and art history, and hope to learn more. (Theme of this trip: Liz realizes she has huge gaps in her knowledge about many fascinating things. Then realizes how many fascinating things there are out there that she didn't even know she didn't know. Gets overwhelmed, resolves to learn, maybe someday will.)
The next day, we met our lovely Nordic Couchsurfing host in a Frenchified cafe in the Frenchified French Concession. (Must learn more about Shanghai's history.) He was very kind and introduced us to his amazing local friends, an artist and a businesswoman, who both spoke impeccable English. We visited the artist's vintage shop--she was definitely way cooler than I could ever aspire to be--and went to a delightful (if touristy) alleyway district full of western delights, including mulled wine, which we sampled with delight. We also had some leftover homemade dumpling soup, courtesy of the businesswoman's cooking skills, in the artist's cluttered apartment. We went out to a Belgian beer bar and a lucha-libre-themed margarita place. In the morning, our host took us to the most delicious street breakfast--and perhaps the most delicious breakfast, period, according to Gina--we've ever had. It was basically just a scallion pancake with some crunchy element and something like hoisin sauce, but I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. We walked through different neighborhoods of Shanghai and marveled at the big department stores and marvelously tacky Christmas displays in stores and on streets. With the help of our host, we succeeded in a hotpot-like enterprise. It was a soup place where you select your ingredients from something like the shelves where they keep lettuce in American grocery stores and then it's added to a delicious broth they cook for you. We also went to a wine bar and a jazz club and a cafe that served tiramisu and an organicy, local foody, fresh-baked bread place for lunch one day. I don't even like places like that last one that much at home, but it was heaven to go there in Asia. It was all like a wonderful respite from the East and its oddities and confusions and challenging surprises--but with the delicious and authentic dumplings still included. I don't know how much I would like Shanghai if I traveled all the way there from home, but I loved it in this context. I can't tell you how bone-tired I was of being out of my element, not knowing how things like bathrooms and trains and buses worked, not being able to find comforts I was used to from home.
--A long bus ride that ended with what I thought was a very early dusk but was just a huge cloud of smog that made me think maybe, actually, it's China that's doomed--
4. Suzhou
Yet another "Venice of the East!" Gina and I stayed in a hostel in the old part of town where we heard rats crawling in the walls but ignored it. We walked around the nice canal streets full of red lanterns. I enjoyed it, but the whole thing had a bit of an artificial, over-preserved feel. We attended a Peking opera performance, which was unintentionally hilarious. The singing, with its peaks and valleys of rises and falls in pitch, was bewildering and painful to my uneducated ear. The story was lost on us, despite the translation efforts of our middle-aged Chinese businessman seat mate. We had a dumpling soup breakfast--served with vinegar that we decided to just throw on in--at a little outdoor stall-type place in an alley. The other patrons seemed to be locals, and a cute baby and cute dog were in attendance. Everyone seemed to kind of be laughing at us and/or resenting us for being there, but we enjoyed our soup.
We visited "The Lingering Garden," which got me all fired up for Chinese gardens. I overuse the word "beautiful" in this blog, but it truly was, especially with fall foliage. Why do you only hear about Japanese gardens? Why do I always like places that are beautifully simple, yet fill my own life with clutter? I must stop here because I don't have the heart to select pictures to go along with this, yet I know I must. Another time I'll add pics and keep writing about all our other lovely China destinations.
No comments:
Post a Comment