First Week in China!
First week in China... Tama and I met my old friend Sergio for lunch at LAX, then Tama and I had a pleasant enough 15 hour flight into Hong Kong. Hong Kong was fun. We did a lot of walking, and took the Peak Tram, which has truly stunning view of the city and the harbor. We ate some good vegetarian Indian food. and a variety of local dim-sum-ish dishes, although we tried to get to Maxim's several times, but found it wasn't open for dim sum in the morning, and didn't offer dim sum in the evening.
The trip from Hong Kong into the mainland is much smoother than it used to be. We got a train straight through from the Kowloon Light Rail station to Guangzhou. The train took us to the new Guangzhou East Railway station. From there, we caught the subway (also new and shiny) to the old Guangzhou Railway station, which is as crowded as ever. Caught a bus to Foshan, a dozen or two kilometers out from Guangzhou. We were disappointed to find that, despite Foshan being nominally another city, we never really left the urban, polluted landscape that is characteristic of Guangzhou. We got a comfortable room in Foshan, though, and relaxed a bit. Dinner was at a Buddhist temple, with an octagonal tower built in the seventeenth century. The best part of this temple was the vegetarian restaurant. As we walked toward the entrance, we got some views of the kitchen... six cooks busily working six woks. The large dining hall was bright and noisy, just how most Chinese think a restaurant should be, and food was delicious. We did steer clear of the pork intestine. Even though it was made entirely with vegetarian ingredients, we figured veracity to the meat analog would not be a virtue with this dish. We did have a good sweet and sour pork, though, and a tasty snow pea dish.
The next day we went to see the big Taoist temple complex that is there. The temple is dedicated to Bei Di, the god of the north and protector of seafarers. Neat stuff there- lots of very intricate woodwork and bas relief ceramics. We had some tea at the teahouse there while planning where what other cities we might want to see on our trip. Then, back to the Buddhist temple for some lunch. It was even more crowded than the night before.
After a night in Foshan, we returned to Guangzhou, en route to a small town in Guangxi province called San Jiang. San Jiang means three rivers. We decided that we'd just concentrate on one province, Guangxi province, since it seemed to have both such just famous sights at the karst topography around Guilin, and a good variety of less well known attractions, combined with very nteresting and colorful local minority culture.
We caught an overnight train to Guilin. It was impressively easy to buy tickets, and the train was comfortable and clean. We met a fellow from Gansu province, who was traveling with friends on vacation. We got into a friendly conversation. Had we gotten used to Chinese food, he asked? Yes, we said- rice, noodle, dumplings, buns... we had been eating well. He said he wasn't too fond of American food. I said he was probably just getting a small sampling of American food. He said, the problem with it was, you eat it and then before too long you get hungry again! I had to laugh at this. Yes, he said... it isn't like good Chinese rice or noodles, stuffing you up and keeping you full. Too funny, a new twist to an old cliche.
There's nothing quite like sleeping on a train, with the rocking and the white noise. We had a good night's sleep. Then, we caught a bus to San Jiang, and from there a smaller bus to the town of Chenyang. Actually, it is a cluster of villages of the Dong minority people. It has been turned into a sort of cultural preserve, where the local architecture of multi-story wooden houses with imposing roofs has been preserved. They also have striking drum towers. Hopefully, some of our pictures of this very cool architecture will come out well. We stayed in a spartan but clean and friendly guesthouse, with a beautiful view out on the famous ancient bridge the village is known for. We chose the nicest place in town, with the best "feel" to it, and the night's lodging only cost 40 kuai- a little over $5. Can't argue with that.
Today, we headed into the town of Longsheng. Caught a bowl of some tasty sort of rice crepe with peanuts, green beans and hot sauce back in Sanjiang, then to Longsheng. The town itself is no great shakes, a little dull and drab. The misty, humid weather we've been having doesn't really help either. But, we read that there are waterfalls, Bai villages, and terraced rice fields to explore not far from town, so tomorrow should be fun. We wandered a marketplace this evening. Our evenings have been pretty slow. We didn't have much jet lag, but we've been getting up at 5:00am or 6:00am every morning! Very strange...
The trip from Hong Kong into the mainland is much smoother than it used to be. We got a train straight through from the Kowloon Light Rail station to Guangzhou. The train took us to the new Guangzhou East Railway station. From there, we caught the subway (also new and shiny) to the old Guangzhou Railway station, which is as crowded as ever. Caught a bus to Foshan, a dozen or two kilometers out from Guangzhou. We were disappointed to find that, despite Foshan being nominally another city, we never really left the urban, polluted landscape that is characteristic of Guangzhou. We got a comfortable room in Foshan, though, and relaxed a bit. Dinner was at a Buddhist temple, with an octagonal tower built in the seventeenth century. The best part of this temple was the vegetarian restaurant. As we walked toward the entrance, we got some views of the kitchen... six cooks busily working six woks. The large dining hall was bright and noisy, just how most Chinese think a restaurant should be, and food was delicious. We did steer clear of the pork intestine. Even though it was made entirely with vegetarian ingredients, we figured veracity to the meat analog would not be a virtue with this dish. We did have a good sweet and sour pork, though, and a tasty snow pea dish.
The next day we went to see the big Taoist temple complex that is there. The temple is dedicated to Bei Di, the god of the north and protector of seafarers. Neat stuff there- lots of very intricate woodwork and bas relief ceramics. We had some tea at the teahouse there while planning where what other cities we might want to see on our trip. Then, back to the Buddhist temple for some lunch. It was even more crowded than the night before.
After a night in Foshan, we returned to Guangzhou, en route to a small town in Guangxi province called San Jiang. San Jiang means three rivers. We decided that we'd just concentrate on one province, Guangxi province, since it seemed to have both such just famous sights at the karst topography around Guilin, and a good variety of less well known attractions, combined with very nteresting and colorful local minority culture.
We caught an overnight train to Guilin. It was impressively easy to buy tickets, and the train was comfortable and clean. We met a fellow from Gansu province, who was traveling with friends on vacation. We got into a friendly conversation. Had we gotten used to Chinese food, he asked? Yes, we said- rice, noodle, dumplings, buns... we had been eating well. He said he wasn't too fond of American food. I said he was probably just getting a small sampling of American food. He said, the problem with it was, you eat it and then before too long you get hungry again! I had to laugh at this. Yes, he said... it isn't like good Chinese rice or noodles, stuffing you up and keeping you full. Too funny, a new twist to an old cliche.
There's nothing quite like sleeping on a train, with the rocking and the white noise. We had a good night's sleep. Then, we caught a bus to San Jiang, and from there a smaller bus to the town of Chenyang. Actually, it is a cluster of villages of the Dong minority people. It has been turned into a sort of cultural preserve, where the local architecture of multi-story wooden houses with imposing roofs has been preserved. They also have striking drum towers. Hopefully, some of our pictures of this very cool architecture will come out well. We stayed in a spartan but clean and friendly guesthouse, with a beautiful view out on the famous ancient bridge the village is known for. We chose the nicest place in town, with the best "feel" to it, and the night's lodging only cost 40 kuai- a little over $5. Can't argue with that.
Today, we headed into the town of Longsheng. Caught a bowl of some tasty sort of rice crepe with peanuts, green beans and hot sauce back in Sanjiang, then to Longsheng. The town itself is no great shakes, a little dull and drab. The misty, humid weather we've been having doesn't really help either. But, we read that there are waterfalls, Bai villages, and terraced rice fields to explore not far from town, so tomorrow should be fun. We wandered a marketplace this evening. Our evenings have been pretty slow. We didn't have much jet lag, but we've been getting up at 5:00am or 6:00am every morning! Very strange...
posted by John at 4:57 AM
2 Comments:
How fun! I've been missing China, especially the food and travel. I'm a bit jealous;)
Yep, it has been fun, with great food. And it is amazing how much easier it is to get around, even compared to 2001...
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