So, we start in the Capital. As you can see in this picture (of some random building that I saw on the drive from the airport), the weather is awful. Just my luck, it's pouring rain when I get there...
Nothing like relaxing for a bit on this ridiculously large bed after 12+ hours on the plane!
I had a nice long sleep and there was breakfast at the hotel in the morning. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Hua Du hotel uses only the finest in butter, imported from NZ! Hehe. Interestingly enough, Anchor butter kept appearing at each hotel that I ate at and even on the plane ride back to the states.
Adrian visits the Forbidden City...but only briefly. Had a bit of a whirlwind tour of Beijing that involved a stop here, walking past Tiananmen, a visit to the Urban Planning museum and lunch w/my cousin.
So, you may know that the Summer Olympics will be held in Beijing next year. What you may not know is that those 5 crazy dolls standing behind me are the mascots.
As I mentioned previously, here's that Urban Planning museum. They had this huge (HUGE) diorama of the city. I've taken a picture of just the Forbidden City section as it's being highlighted in an audio tour.
Walking towards the place where we (my dad & I) were meeting my cousin for lunch, I snapped a pic of this lovely scene.
I had a very brief stay in Beijing because I had to jet off to Shanghai to visit Cat!!!!! After a very difficult bus ride and lots of walking through torrential rain, we found each other at our 2nd chosen meeting location and rushed to dinner. Here we are sampling some of Shanghai's tasty treats!
Here we are, Adriel & I in the area where our restaurant was. Just behind me to the right is a delightful little "boulangerie" where we all shared a little cake for dessert.
After dinner, I got to meet all the cats in the household (all of whom I had the opportunity at one point or another to share the sofa with throughout my 2 night stay). Here are Boots, Baby Girl & Lukie captivated by the moth in the window.
Since Cat & Adriel both had to work during the day, I had some time to do a bit of sightseeing on my own. Cat sent me a link for a walking tour through Shanghai which I spent the better part of the afternoon following. Here's where the tour begins. "Old Street" is where there are a ton of shops & stuff sorta in the heart of the original city limits.
Another building in the area. I love how this beautiful, old world architecture is melded so (un)seamlessly with the McDonalds on ground level...
After walking through a fair few shops, I came across the next major landmark on the walking tour: this little manmade lake w/plenty of koi/carp.
On top of the lake is the "9 Turns Bridge" (I couldn't fit all the turns into one photo). Apparently, it was believed that sharp corners/turns helped to ward away evil spirits. Where might this bridge lead to?
Why, the Hu Xin Ting teahouse of course!
It was quite an involved process to drink this tea (TieGuanYin). It sure was worth it and I would definitely rate it as one of the best teas I've had (and one of the best places to drink the tea as well). The full tea leaves are in the pot with the lid. So, first you pour the hot water into there. Then you empty that into the lidless tea pot. Once you've done that, you can pour it into the little teacup. The tea also came with some delicious snacks!
After Hu Xin Ting, there was the Yu Yuan gardens right next door! Here's the entryway to the classical garden.
Not much really to describe about many of the following pictures except to say that they are all very, very beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed the gardens and would recommend taking the time to check it out if you visit Shanghai (or also if you've lived there for over a year but haven't had the chance to go...*hint, hint*).
Another lovely building on top of a small body of water.
A bit hard to tell, but this is a shot of a mirror reflecting me reflecting on the beautiful scenery (har, har...how clever).
Water, rocks, foliage & buildings combined superbly. If only the weather were more cooperative...
Another timer shot. I'm sitting on the top of the rock formation in the previous pic. The camera has been placed on the step of the little building/shrine.
Me. Same area, different angle.
Moving to a different part of the garden, the shape of the rocks and the pointedness of the roof make for quite a dramatic image.
A circular entry way. Walked through a few of these in there. I believe at this point, it started to rain again (and it didn't subside).
You can see the rain falling ferociously in this photo of the performance stage in the garden. They did little operas, shows & stuff here and surrounding this little foyer were two levels of seating (dinner table style...like at a Vegas show - for lack of a better example).
More rain falling on me & my poor camera. Here's a pic of one of the larger ponds, the overlooking gazebo and willow tree to complete the scene.
After getting soaked in the gardens, I called it a day and caught the metro back to home. There, I took a welcome nap (with the cats) while my clothes dried. After Cat & Adriel finished work, we set out to EAT! Here, me & Cat (and our umbrella-ella-ellas) wait for some yummy food outside of a stall at Wujiang Lu.
Here's a candid shot of me munching on a sausage and waiting in line to pick up some shengjian bao!
Pictured here, Adriel & I are enjoying some mutton and the aforementioned sausage & shengjian bao. In other words, we're being carnivores.
There are some tasty chicken wings in that cup (though, according to Adriel, not as good as usual) and I'm mockingly pouring in some WangLaoJi (herbal tea soft drink).
And here's Cat pretending to be a carnivore. She didn't really eat the meat...still vege, more or less...
After dinner, we enjoyed Paris je t'aime while getting massaged at Taipan. Quite a good combination if you ask me. The movie was great, the massage was relaxing and the company was spot on. Who needs good weather when you have all that! Well, the cherry on top really was getting these "smoothies" at Charmont. Thanks for the intro Cat. It's really more like a fruity, yoghurty, slushy thing that is just really, really good. I had the strawberry one & Cat had her obligatory peanut butter. We even discovered that you can take them to go!
I went to the Bund both days that I spent in Shanghai. Here are two contrasting pictures. The first was taken during typhoon induced, wet weather while I was walking along on the pedestrian walkway. The second was taken the next day when it was still a bit cloudy but infinitely drier. I also took Adriel's advice and visited New Heights, a restaurant/bar that had a spectacular view of the Bund. A much better photo if you ask me! I'm very glad I went twice b/c even though the weather didn't change a whole lot, the second set of pictures turned out way better!
Another second day photo of me & the trademark of the Shanghai city skyline: the Oriental Pearl Tower.
A look at some of the Colonial era buildings along the Bund. There's such an atmosphere here in Shanghai that I enjoyed very much but, due to time constraints, didn't have the opportunity to fully explore. Next time!
And to wrap up my trip to Shanghai, Cat & I lunched at A Niang noodles (green onions & pork slivers for me, yellow fish for Cat) for some authentic local eats. You know it's good when most of the patrons are local people and there are no tourists in sight! I can't begin to thank you, Cat, and Adriel for being wonderful hosts during my short stay in SH. I hope to return in the not too distant future! [Gotta put that multiple entrance visa to good use]
Many of you may ask what's in Xi'an? Well, most of you have heard of the Terracotta Soldiers. That's precisely the most well known thing in town. And that's pretty much the first thing I visited while I was there!
Here I am in front of the some of the reconstructed soldiers. This is Pit 1. It's the largest of the 3 pits and mostly contains infantry.
Pit 3 containing the "command post".
Pit 2 here contains a ton of chariots, cavalry & archers (standing & kneeling).
Speaking of the kneeling archer. Here's a close up. I bought a little replica one that will be sitting in my new place. Pics of that one to come...
Another photo of me at Pit 1.
So, Xi'an isn't all about Terracotta soldiers (so I learned). I had the chance to check out the Huaqing Hot springs next, which turned out to be pretty darn cool.
Many of the original buildings were destroyed so new ones were built to resemble what they would've looked like in the Tang Dynasty (when Emperor Xuanzong made extensive use of it).
Xuanzong built it up and allowed his favorite concubine, Yang Guifei to use it. Here I am standing beside her statue.
Here's the Emperor's own private pool (I believe this is the Lotus Pool). Would definitely give any MTV crib a good run for its money...
Back in the day, the springs were exclusively for the use of royalty. That privilege is now available to the common man for a small fee of 0.50 RMB!
Next up on the list of things to explore in Xi'an: The Big Wild Goose Pagoda!
The weather was brilliant in Xi'an and it really made the sightseeing experience more enjoyable (and much more dry).
When it rains, water flows out of the dragon's mouth (i.e. they had pretty balling gutters here).
A final parting shot of the Pagoda. It was really pretty.
For dinner, I dined at the Xi'an hotel where I was able to try some delicacies from the Shaanxi Province (where Xi'an is located).
A mutton dish.
Clockwise: Bean curd cake, walnut kernel cake and a "floral basket from Persia" (that's what it's called in the menu).
Noodles cooked in Qishan Style.
Potstickers. Yum.
And my favorite dish of the evening? Persimmon cakes. Just plain awesome. Dry-ish, almost flaky pastry on the outside, moist persimmon-y goodness on the inside. And, it was all warm to boot.
Continuing on with the sightseeing, here's the Bell Tower in the center of town.
See. This tower contains this bell. Hence, Bell Tower.
They had quite an exhibit of shadow puppets in there. I have a new respect for shadow puppets!
They also had this little stage where they did a small, musical performance.
Just down the road from the Bell Tower is the Drum Tower.
See. Big drum in a tower means Drum Tower. All kidding aside, both this tower and the Bell Tower were used to keep track of time in the olden days. The Bell tower would chime at sunrise and the Drum tower would beat at sunset.
And here's a view from the balcony of the Drum Tower looking out towards the Bell Tower.
The Drum Tower also had a little mini musical performance.
Nothing like looking at the markets here and seeing a bit of China's charming qualities.
Lunch was rather interesting. It started off with peeling these pieces of flat bread into small, tiny chunks. I was told the smaller the pieces, the better it would taste.
Here I am peeling away. You can see my tour guide, Yangping sitting to my left.
So, this is what all that hard work was for. Essentially, this is a nice soup dish with some rice noodles and meat. The small pieces of bread, once soaked in the soup, were like little mini dumplings. I must say, the whole exercise was well worth the effort.
After lunch, we did a bit of shopping in this little street of stores. I saw this cool little bird that was chirping away quite melodically.
Here's a picture of the actual area. The trees really have a nice affect on the scene when coupled with the older style of the buildings.
There was this little mini (and nameless) pagoda near the start of this street of shops. Fascinating.
The city center is still surrounded by the old city walls that protected this former capital of the country. At the center of the city is the Bell Tower that I visited earlier. Here, I'm standing outside the South Gate that even features an old drawbridge (the wall is surrounded by a moat).
Dinner that night was some roasted meats. Here we have some mutton (brown) and, what I think was, cow intestine (red) of some sort.
There was also some sort of rice-y soup (was sweet and more viscous than, say juk). Also, Wang Lao Ji makes a reappearance!
A picture of the hole-in-the-wall place we dined at.
Continuing on with the food, let's skip to lunch the next day. Here's some of that lotus w/glutinous rice again (good, but not as good as the one I had in SH).
Um...there's some hair in my soup?
A really tasty fish (some sort of freshwater one). Very simply prepared (steamed I believe with a soy/ginger/oil sauce). The whole thing was gone at the end of the meal.
Moving away from food photos (for the moment), I had an opportunity to walk around the city at night and here are some of the photos from that little journey. Here's one of the South Gate.
The Yong Ning Palace Hotel at night. The city is really well lit up in the evening.
A spectacular pic of the Bell Tower at night. I tried to take this picture while riding in a car past here a couple nights before and it turned out all blurry. It's much better, and much more brilliant when you can stand still!
South Street at night. Leads from the Bell tower (which you can see on the right edge of the image) back to the South gate.
And just outside of the South gate, there was a bit of a mini festival of sorts. It must have been in celebration of Zhongqiu Jie (the Mid-Autumn festival) even though that would not come to pass officially for a couple days after I took this pic.
And right back to the food. This is what I ate for my last lunch on my last day in the city. Vege/meat soup, lotus root and a really good eggplant dish of some sort. That eggplant one in particular was pretty damn good.
And skipping ahead a bit to dinner, here's the restaurant that we ate at on the last night. It was very modern in style as you can see.
Dinner was this little hot pot, cook your own (shabu shabu-esque) with thinly sliced meats & veges. You can see some mutton, a potsticker and this little savory pastry on my plate. Also noteworthy, the pot used induction heating and the black surface upon which the pot sat on was cool to the touch. In the background, you can see a glass of this mui juice that I tried. All around, a nice meal!
After all that, it was back onto the plane bright and early the next day to fly from Xi'an to Beijing. From Beijing, dad & I flew to SFO in the comfort of, thankfully, First Class. This was the first time in a good long while that I had the privilege of traveling on an international flight in First Class (and probably my last opportunity for another good long while) so I decided to document some of the journey for you guys. The meal was awesome. It started with a shrimp spring roll, roasted lamb koftas and spiced red pepper relish. That plate alone was ridiculously flavorful.
Next up, a minestrone soup and salad w/sesame soy vinaigrette (not pictured).
The main course was an herb-crusted cod fillet with fresh tomato and basil sauce. It also came with orzo risotto and a vegetable saute on the side. Mmmmmm.
After the main course, there was a light serving of fresh fruit with a blueberry coulis.
I honestly thought that was dessert but there also was a bit of ice cream at the end as well. Mercy me, I was stuffed at the end. And ready for some sleep...
So I slept. Normally. Or, in other words, on a nice flat bed.
After my restful slumber, breakfast was served! Boursin cheese omelette w/roasted red pepper sauce, canadian bacon and spinach. Tasty! And, the more observant of you will notice that the NZ Anchor butter makes another appearance (as I noted earlier).
So, that brings me back to now. I'm back stateside getting ready to make the move up to the Bay Area and hopefully I can see a great many of you (who are in So Cal) sometime in the next couple of days before I leave. It's an exciting time and I'm glad I got the opportunity to preface it with a trip out of the country. Thank you China (and also Dad, Cat, Adriel, Yangping, etc.)! I hope you've all enjoyed all the pictures (or at least a few). In this post, there's only one more picture than I had in the Paris blog. Somewhat surprising. On that note, I wish you all the best. Take care and good bye from Pasadena.
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2 comments:
Honestly, up until now, I've had no desire at all to visit China (other than 'might as well go cause I'm close') but now, after seeing your pictures of Shanghai, I really want to! It looks so beautiful...
And those first class pics are nuts. I guess the only way these days to fly comfortably is to pay more than double your fare >.< stupid airlines.
thank god you;re back on this, and pictures to boot!
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