China: The Conclusion

Sadly, my trip to China has come to an end. I'm in France now!! But more on that later. There were actually a few things that actually happened in the little time since my last post, though. I went to a Chinese wedding for the first time (my aunt’s friend’s son’s wedding)…it really wasn’t that interesting. All I can say is, suuuuper cheesy. How are they so cheesy?? All that happened was a bunch of speaking by either a bridesmaid or the emcee (couldn’t tell) and eating, and after the eating people left. Where’s the dancing, man?? American weddings are so much more entertaining.

We also got taken out to dinner by my aunt’s rather wealthy friend. He was our ride to the airport. Check it out, biznatches.

Black Lexus SUV. I felt like a rap star or something.

We went to this restaurant called "A Xing Ji (阿兴记)" that was so incredibly fancy, my mouth was catching flies the whole time we were walking in. We had our own private room, and…well, I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Place setting. I know, right?

Raw "dou miao" with spicy sauce

Steamed fish

Some sorts of mushroom

Scallion pancakes!

Anyway, now that I’m out of China, I’ve decided to make a list of things I will and won’t miss.

Things I will miss:

1) Food. Oh my god, Chinese food. Need I say more? And not just any Chinese food. Sichuanese food. The land of the flavorful. Specific foods to illustrate my point:

-Red date flavored yogurt. YUM. Why doesn’t America have this flavor of yogurt? I could eat this stuff nonstop.

-My relatives’ cooking, particularly my Er Jiu Ma’s and my San Die’s (that’s aunt and uncle to you non-Chinese speakers). I've talked about Er Jiu Ma already. San Die has never had professional cooking experience, but somehow his food is equal to that of a chef’s. Maybe he was born with it. =P Even before I came back to China, I knew I wanted to eat his tang chu pai gu (sweet and sour ribs). He also makes incredible hong shao rou, which is this type of meat that is SO fatty, but so delicious. And his soups! Oh my god. I didn’t even eat rice while I was there (trying to lose weight lol); I just substituted soup for rice. I would have bowl after bowl of all of his soups because they were just so slurp-worthy. He made vegetable soup taste good. I’ve never had good vegetable soup. It’s always bland. Except for his. HOW DOES HE DO IT. Yeah, so…you get the point. 

San Die's "hui guo rou"

-This suan la fen that my aunt took me to eat one night—it was the best suan la fen I’ve ever had in my life. And I’m not even a huge fan of it! It was just so…I don’t know the word for it in English, but in Chinese we say it’s “xiang.” Literally, that it smells good. But it has another meaning too, it describes the way something tastes…but through smell. Not sure how to describe it. 

-Hot pot. Need I say more?

-Fish. Okay, usually I’m all like, “AMERICAAAA!” for most things, but when it comes to cooking fish, the Chinese definitely win. Americans can’t cook fish for shit. The Chinese do all kinds of things to their fish (fried, steamed, grilled, you name it), and they are not afraid to cook them whole, man! Whole fish is the bomb! Why can’t Americans accept that? Get rid of your crappy fish filets, they are not good. Luckily my dad knows how to make good fish. Unluckily, he lives in Florida and I do not go there very often. 

2) How cheap things are. Like taxis, tickets, etc. Pretty much everything except designer brands. Watches and electronics are actually cheaper in the States.

3) Haggling. There is NO WAY you could haggle in the US like people do in China. San Yi is a pro at it.

4) Of course, my family. That's a given, of course. I'm always jealous of Chinese friends whose families are in the States, because they can see them pretty much whenever. =/ I'm not that close with my family in China because I see them so little, which is really kind of weird. I mean, they're family. I should be close with them.

Things I will definitely NOT miss:

1) The squatting toilets. COME ON CHINA. I thought you were getting better at this...squatting toilets are so uncomfortable and awkward! Thank goodness my Er Jiu and San Yi each have one sitting toilet in their apartments. Otherwise I would constantly have cramped legs.

2) The clothes. Oh dear lord, the clothes. I don't understand how Chinese girls wear the clothes that they do. Seriously. So...tacky...they look appropriate for 5-year-olds, not 30-year-olds. All the ruffles and frills and cheap beading and misspelled English...I don't think so. Just...no.

3) The dirtiness of everything. I mean, honestly, most of China is REALLY dirty. Not just from the pollution! And I don't know how people live with it. I saw children playing on top of a GRAVEL PILE. First of all, that's just dangerous. Second, how could their parents let them play on such a dirty thing?? I would freak out if it was my kid. Also, kids pee in the street. Yeah. I saw so many kids just pop a squat and pee right off of the sidewalk. Hello, do they know what hygiene is?? I would never be able to get used to that.

4) The complete lack of respect for your fellow citizen. I mean, people say Americans are rude? We at least are taught common decency/etiquette. Most Americans say "Excuse me" when they try to get past someone. Americans know that cutting lines is a big no-no, and anyone who does cut a line is almost guaranteed to feel guilty from all the death stares he/she receives from the surrounding group. Chinese people...they shove themselves right in front of you to cut lines, they don't say excuse me, they spit on PUBLIC BUSES, they talk loudly and obnoxiously on the cell phone on a public bus...those are just a few of the things I experienced.

5) Smoking. Particularly, smoking in public spaces that are indoors, like restaurants and bars. I can't tell you how many times my mom's friends invited us out for dinner and the men would start smoking up a storm, causing me more secondhand smoke in half an hour than I've ever experienced in my life. They have got to put a ban on smoking in indoor public spaces!

Anyway, so that's pretty much it. As you can see, the cons outweigh the pros. Meaning I will never, ever move to China. Ever. The "things I will not miss" list isn't even complete. I only put the 5 biggest things (for me). Let's not forget the blatant sexism that permeates Chinese society. But I won't get into that because that will take up way too much time. All in all, though, I enjoyed my time in China. It was good to see my family again, and that was the most important thing. And I got fed well. =)

Chongqing

I've been in Chongqing (Beibei, to be exact) ever since we got back from Huaying. To be honest, we really haven't done very much. Most of my time is spent at home, online...doing some remote work for a start-up my friend introduced me to, on Facebook, on Gmail, watching Numb3rs on Netflix, etc. The only time we really went out was when we visited yet another historic site, called Changshou. It's currently in the process of being renovated so it wasn't complete when we visited. It was still interesting though; they modeled it after Lijiang, so there are canals everywhere.

Entrance

Pretty pond

There were lotus blossoms! 

Canal

Horse-drawn cart

Part being constructed

We had hot pot, FINALLY! I've been waiting this entire trip to eat hot pot. And it was oh so good. The peanut milk was to help with the spiciness, haha.

Just started

All the food we ate

The only other time we went out after that was when my aunt's friend had a birthday dinner and invited us. That was interesting, to say the least, because my aunt's friends can actually be quite rowdy. I tried bai jiu during dinner...not a pleasant experience. My aunt kept making me drink more! I only had three tiny glasses though. Didn't get drunk. However, my aunt and her friends certainly did! After dinner we ended up going to karaoke with them, and a couple of the people there were so incredibly drunk. One man kept pretending like he was playing the instruments used in the songs, and another woman kept dancing right in front of the screen, blocking the words. Not helpful. But it was rather entertaining. The air instrumentalist also sang a song, except his singing was SO off-key, just awful. Hilarious though. Anyway, so that was one of the more interesting nights here. I'm actually leaving for France in 2 days, so I probably will only have one more China post!

Huaying

After we left Mianyang on September 7th, we actually went to Chongqing (where my mom's sister lives) for a few days, but then we went to my dad's hometown, Guanyinxi, on the 9th. It's a very very small town outside the county-level city of Huaying. If you want to know the order of things, from small to large, it's this:

Guanyinxi (town/village?)

Huaying (small city)

Guang'an (large city)

Sichuan (province)

China (country)

The World

I didn't even know how it worked exactly until just now, when I looked it up on Google maps and Wikipedia, haha. I just heard these different city/town names thrown around ever since I was 4. 

Anyway, my dad's mother (Po Po for me) lives there and my aunt (Da Gu) lives there part of the time. She recently bought an apartment in Huaying, which is a big difference from the house in Guanyinxi. I think Guanyinxi might be the most rural place I've ever been. They don't even have a sitting toilet, they only have a squatting one (more on this subject in a later post). Not only that, it's outside the apartment! You have to walk down this long hallway to a balcony, and the bathroom is on the balcony. The only thing covering the door is this worn, threadbare sheet that flutters open at the slightest breeze. Luckily, the only thing the bathroom faces is the view of rolling hills. No buildings for peeping toms to creep in. Going to the bathroom in the middle of the night, though, is a scary thing. I used to be afraid of going as a child...I thought some axe murderer would come swooping in and kill me. I'm better now, but it still kind of freaks me out. 

We stayed in Guanyinxi for only one night, and the next day we headed to Huaying with my aunt and her granddaughter, San San. She is absolutely adorable, but also pretty spoiled. 

Cute, right?

I can't say that we did anything super exciting while we were there, but on September 11th, my mom went to the hospital down the road to get her tooth fixed, since one of my dad's friends is a dentist there. While she was there she realized that one of her old friends is also a doctor there, so she called her up. Then we bumped into yet another of my dad's old classmates, so the three of them insisted on taking us out to lunch once my mom's appointment was over. 

Some sort of duck...

They ended up taking us out to dinner too!! We ate frog, which I haven't had in a long time. I know it sounds gross, but it is quite delicious.

LOOK AT ALL THOSE PEPPERCORNS. My mouth was completely numb.

That was our last night; the next day we went back to Chongqing and have been here ever since! 

Mianyang

After seeing my dad's family in Chengdu, we set off to Mianyang to see my mom's brother's family. That includes my female cousin Qiu Qiu who's about my age, which made it much more fun for me since we get along really well. My uncle, who I call Er Jiu, and my aunt Er Jiu Ma live in Mianyang and my grandmother was staying with them. We were picking up my grandmother in Mianyang to take her to Chongqing, where my mom's sister (who I call San Yi) lives. One of my mom's friends drove us from Chengdu to Mianyang, and once we got there he took us to lunch at a buffet in a fancy hotel. I have to tell you, buffets in China are so different from the ones in America! I, of course, took a few pictures to show my friends back in the States. Be jealous, people. Be very jealous.

This was only one side of the main buffet.

Raw seafood bar

Dim sum station

Dessert bar

Sushi bar!

Once we finished lunch, we drove to my uncle's apartment and met up with my family. It was a little awkward talking to my cousin again after so long (3 years), but as usual we fell back into our normal interaction, mostly where she expresses lots of enthusiasm for American culture and asks me to introduce her to music and speak to her in English so she could practice, haha. She's a talker, so it makes me feel more at ease and gets me speaking more fluently. My other cousin, who's a boy, was there too, and that night they took me out to play arcade games and eat more food. Super spicy food, which they are much better at handling than I am...

The food, called "bo bo ji"

Our bowl

Luckily we also got this dessert that's like flavored ice with lots of fruits and jellies on it.

Dessert! Called "bao bing"

The dessert helped me deal with the overwhelming spiciness...I definitely need to build up my tolerance.

The second day in Mianyang, Er Jiu Ma and Qiu Qiu took me grocery shopping in the morning. Now, you have to understand, grocery shopping in China is COMPLETELY different from grocery shopping in the States. They do not go to a large supermarket once a week, they go to a gigantic farmer's market every day for fresh items. I couldn't believe my eyes when we walked in.

A huge warehouse floor filled with aisles and aisles of produce vendors, fish vendors, meat vendors...the list goes on and on. There were probably food items there that most people in the U.S. haven't even seen before. Like fresh dates! Have you ever seen dates before they're all shriveled? I haven't. This was my first time seeing them.

So yes, these are what fresh dates look like.

It was also a little gruesome in the market though, watching all the butchers hack away at the complete slabs of dead animals. Luckily I've seen enough crime and medical dramas to not get too disgusted. After buying the groceries we went home for lunch, and then we went out again to shop around a little. My cousin was looking for an iTouch case, since my mom had brought her one from the States as a gift. We ended up getting our nails done when she couldn't find a suitable one.

The third day, I tagged along for grocery shopping again, and then we went to multiple electronics stores to try and find a plug adapter for me. See, I bought an adapter/converter in the States at Best Buy for around $40, but I stupidly forgot that my Macbook plug is the kind that has 3 prongs, and the plug adapter did not have the hole for the third prong. So after going to countless electronics stores and failing, we finally went to Walmart. Yes, you read correctly. Walmart. I didn't even know they had made it to China! But I guess I'm not surprised. It is Walmart, after all. And it was at Walmart that we finally found my plug adapter. However, it is not a converter, so I can't use it for my hair dryer or anything like that. Phones and laptops are fine, though. But I'm not complaining, at least I can plug in my laptop. Anyway, that night was my last night in Mianyang so my aunt made some absolutely delicious noodles and then my cousin took me out for "shao kao" (烧烤), which is like barbecue. Basically there are a lot of things on skewers that you can pick out, and they grill it for you. Quite tasty, but also pretty spicy.

While we were waiting for our items to get grilled, we also had this type of rice noodle that was really really good.

Then we headed to my uncle's bookstore to help my aunt watch it, since she was alone. So that was my last night in Mianyang. We left the next day, which was also the same day Qiu Qiu was leaving to go back to college. My aunt made this absolutely incredible fish for lunch, but unfortunately I did not take a picture of it. I have to say, it might be the best fish I ever had in my life. It was steamed, but the flavor had managed to seep into every tender flake of the fish's meat. MINDBLOWING.

Chengdu

Since we were only in Chengdu for 2 days, I'm going to keep this to one post. We didn't do nearly as many touristy things since we've been there before. The first full day there was Sunday, September 2nd. My cousin Yang Yang came over and my uncle and aunt took us out to lunch. It was deeeelicious. Some pictures of the food we ate!

A special sort of black noodle 

A dish called "Grandma Dish"

Delicious corn with egg batter

Then my mom and I headed over to my Da Jiu's house. He's my mom's older cousin, technically, but his parents passed away when he was young so my grandparents pretty much adopted him as their son. That's why she calls him her brother, and I call him my uncle. I got to see my nephew for the first time! His name is He Tian Yu. Okay, he's not exactly my nephew, he's the son of my "cousin," who is Da Jiu's son, which really makes him my cousin once removed, and makes Tian Yu my nephew once removed? Something like that. American terms for family relationships are so confusing. Anyway, Tian Yu is adorable, but he's HUGE for his age!! He's only two and a half but he's the size of a four-year-old. Ridiculous. So we had dinner there and then headed back Yao Ba's house.

Not the best picture...but the three generations!

The next day, we went out with my cousin Yang Yang, and saw downtown Chengdu where all the shopping is. We didn't buy anything, just went into some high-end department stores filled with frilly, overly-flowered Chinese clothing that looks like it belongs on dolls. Honestly, I don't know how Chinese girls wear the clothes that they do. It looks so ridiculous! I don't plan on buying any clothes in China. Except maybe a nightgown or something, because their nightgowns really are comfortable. We ended up having lunch at this place known for specialty Chengdu dishes. It was pretty good; you got to pick a certain pre-set meal that came with all these mini dishes which were really cute.

The main set of dishes

Mini specialty dishes! Rice balls and spring roll =D

Aren't they so cute??

We ended up seeing The Amazing Spider-Man after lunch (which I had already seen in the US), but it was fun watching it again. Plus, this time I got to watch it in 3D! It was 60 yuan, which is about $10. Not bad for 3D.

Dinner was probably one of the most exclusive experiences I've ever had...one of my mom's old friends invited us out to dinner at this REALLY fancy restaurant called "Three Bricks" in English. Okay, actually, my mom's friend's sister-in-law invited us, technically, because she was the one who was pretty wealthy. It was located in this area called "Kuan Zhai Xiang Zi," translated as "Wide Narrow Alley," which is a historic preserve district that was recently renovated (so really, it's not THAT historic). It was pretty fun to walk around and see the different buildings. The restaurant was so nice though--we had our own private room with a private bathroom, and the restaurant itself had an enclosed courtyard. The chef even came in to explain some of the (very expensive) dishes. Pretty legit. More pictures below!

The enclosed garden!

Some squid and duck, I think...

"Drunken Shrimp"

Possibly the best, most tender beef I've ever had. With honey and spices to dip it in.

Chengdu specialty!

Handmade dough-cut noodles

Dessert!

Those pictures are only some of the dishes we ate. There were so many others. Insanity, I tell you. And we had watermelon juice to drink!!! Yummy. So yes, this was my final night in Chengdu...quite a finish, I must say.

Goodbye Hong Kong, hello China!

Our third and final day in Hong Kong was pretty uneventful. All we did was take the Star Ferry back over to Central, saw the Hong Kong Convention Center, and then took the ferry back. I mean, it's an impressive center, because it's huge, but really not that interesting.

See? 

The daytime ferry ride was a nice way to get some more pictures of the Hong Kong skyline though!

We had lunch at Cafe de Coral, which is a fast food chain in Hong Kong. But Asian fast food is very different from American fast food! So if you're imagining hamburgers and fries, try imagining pork over rice instead. After lunch, we took the shuttle back to the hotel, returned our Octopus cards--oh yeah, I forgot to mention Octopus cards! So Octopus cards are these cards you can buy in subway stations in Hong Kong, which you can use for public transportation...and also a ton of other things. Almost all the big stores take them, so it's a super convenient way to pay! You just put however much you want on the card and then you're set! All of the machines that read them also tell you how much you have left on the card after you swipe it. I thought it was a genius idea. America needs to adopt this.

Anyway, after we returned the Octopus cards we went back to the hotel and just waited for the shuttle to the airport. Everything went pretty smoothly, until...our flight got delayed. By an hour. All I have to say is, thank god for free wi-fi in Hong Kong International Airport. So we arrived in Chengdu an hour late, and my uncle (my dad's younger brother), who I call Yao Ba, had been waiting for a while because he didn't check the flight status before leaving. We managed to fit all of our luggage into his car by shoving two suitcases in the back seat, so I was squished in there with them. We managed, though, and got back to their apartment just fine. However, they live in a 6-floor walkup...so you can imagine how tedious it was hauling the luggage up there. But we made it back alive, and finally arrived in Chengdu!

Hong Kong, Day 2

Our second day in Hong Kong was quite packed, filled with a LOT of walking. It didn't help that Hong Kong's weather is dreadful, ridiculously hot and humid. There's a constant layer of sweat on your skin, which isn't fun.

We started off the day with a walk down Ladies' Street, which was almost the same as the Night Market, except closer to our hotel. Then we took the subway (which they call the MTR) down to Central, another area in Hong Kong. You would not BELIEVE how amazing their subways are. It's so clean, and air-conditioned, and organized...completely different from NYC subways. I love that the map that shows how many stops you have left in the cars actually include the whole system. NYC should do that.

See?? Isn't it so awesome?!

Once we got to Central, we headed to Lin Heung Tea House for some famous Hong Kong dim sum! I actually found it online because Time recommended it. It was crazy packed, and not exactly the cleanest restaurant either...but the food was excellent. Then we walked around and saw all the shops as well as some tourist spots, including Lan Kwai Fong, which is this small area filled with bars and clubs that apparently many celebrities go to.

Doesn't look like much during the day, but it's supposed to be hopping at night!

After touring Central we went to IFC, which is this huge mall right by the water with a lot of high-end stores. We killed some time there and then took the bus to Victoria Peak, which is a mountain in Hong Kong that has some great views of Victoria harbor and Central. The night view in particular is beautiful. We got there kind of early so we had to wait until nightfall to see the night lights. It was worth it though! 

Pretty, right? =)

We had dinner on The Peak (as it's called by locals), at a Vietnamese restaurant. It wasn't fantastic, but it was decent. It was also really overpriced since we were eating at a tourist attraction. After dinner we took the tram back down and then took the Star Ferry back to Kowloon! That was fun, because we got to see the night lights from the water. I would put up a picture but all of mine are really blurry, so...yeah. All in all, though, a productive day!