EATING IN CHINA

    At our first evening meal in Beijing at Nine Flowers Mountain Restaurant we enjoyed a delicious Peking duck dinner. David gave us instructions on the use of chopsticks saying, “Most of our meals will be served family style. Food is the first necessity of the people. Color, taste, smell, shape, sound, and the serving vessel are all important aspects of food. Vegetables are the main ingredient and rice is the foundation of Chinese meals. Food is an integral part of our culture.

    “China is divided into four sections when it comes to cuisine and cooking differences, and yin and yang are ever present in the Chinese diet. Yin foods are moist, soft, have a cooling effect and nurture the feminine aspect of nature. Yang foods are fried, spicy or with red meat and are warming, nourishing the masculine side of nature.”

     We were to learn that we always ate at large round tables, symbolizing unity, seating 8-10 people. Each table had a large glass lazy susan in its center. Our plates were saucer size and forks were provided only on request. Meals always included soup and rice in addition to several (6-7) other dishes. Pots of tea were also placed on the turntable so we could fill our own small teacup. Chinese do not normally end a meal with dessert, but if they do it is fruit. I found the food very tasty and managed from day one to successfully eat with chopsticks. That was a real surprise to me! The spoon and fork I packed remained in my suitcase.

    Once in Xian we were in the land of noodles. One day at lunch we watched a noodle maker stretch a glob of dough into yards and yards of spaghetti size pasta. One evening after an 18-course dumpling dinner at the Tang Theater Restaurant we viewed a folkloric show.

Upon arrival at the Tibet hotel we were given a cup of warm sweet yak milk. I’m not a big milk drinker but I, as well as the rest of us, thought the beverage was quite good. It tends to be chilly at high altitudes so the warm drink was welcome.

 

     We had several domestic airline flights while in Chine. Each was a on different airline. We found the planes clean, new and efficient. We were served very good meals on each flight---reminiscent of what American air travel used to be like!

Arrival evening in Tibet we were served yak burgers which were very tasty.

    The gal I traveled to China with was a very picky eater. In Beijing she wanted to eat at a big American chain steak house. What everyone wants to do when in China, right? But to avoid her pouting I acquiesced and had the absolutely worst hamburger I’ve ever eaten!

    One evening in Xi’an we partook of a Mongolian hot pot dinner, hot meaning heat hot, not spicy hot. A pot of boiling water over a burner was at each place. A lazy susan in the middle of the table was loaded with all kinds of veggies, and meat. A large array of condiments to make one’s own sauce was on another table. It was a different kind of meal and one could individualize her meal however she liked. It was fun experimenting with foods and an unusual evening and experience.

MORE CHINES INFO

                                        Other Cities

   Chongqing is a mountainside city located at the confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing Rivers and was once known as Chungking. This city has been a bustling port and major center of commerce throughout China’s history. During WW II Chongqing was capitol of Nationalist China (1938-’45). Nicknames often applied to the city are Mountain City and River City.

      With a population of over 3 million, the mountainous and river metropolis is China’s 7^th largest city. The 300-year-old city has a significant historical, cultural, economic and political importance. It was here that Chiang Kai-shek and Chow En-Lai made the famous agreement to jointly fight the Japanese rather than each other during WWII. Japanese bombers did do a considerable amount of damage to the city.

      Today it is a city of contrasts. Undergoing a rapid transformation, it is quickly becoming a vibrant and modern city, a city with skyscraper fever. A city full of cars, but because of the very hilly terrain hardly a bike was seen, which was a big change from what we’d seen elsewhere in the country. The Three Gorges Dam will make Chongqing a major deep-water port.

     We were within easy walking distance of Xian’s Big Goose Pagoda, built in 648 AD. Earthquakes in 1487 and 1521 knocked off the top two stories of the pagoda so now it is only seven stories and 209-feet high. It has been restored, remodeled, and added to many times over the centuries. It was built to hide Buddhist scriptures brought from India to be translated into 1335 Chinese volumes!

     The courtyard is large and from the street very deceiving. The pagoda is Buddhist. Monks are basically vegetarian. In China there are 13,000 Buddhist temples, 30,000 Muslim mosques, 4000 Catholic churches, 12,000 Protestant churches and 1500 Taoist temples, which are usually built on mountain tops as they don’t like the human world. Xian's warriors are in a post noted below

    A visit to the Beijing Opera School was a delight. A local docent told us, “The government established the school in 1952. Prior to that, it was a private school. This best school in the country started out with a one story building. Now we are a high rise residential school with 3600 graduates. Children can come here at age 10 and stay for six years.”

     We worked our way through a small museum where there were many manikins dressed in ornate opera costumes. We visited several classrooms and were quite impressed with the students’ abilities that we observed. We learned that Chinese opera has four characters—young man, old man, woman, and clown.

    Our Yangtze river boat docked at Wanzhou, the gateway to Sichuan. It was an easy walk up 120 steps that were perfect for pacing and narrow in depth. After working our way though many hawkers we boarded a bus that took us first to the Acrobatic Theater. The show performed by children was excellent. They preformed some remarkable stunts. Some of them were so young and they performed such fantastic stunts!

     Because we were delayed leaving Tibet we were late arriving in Chongqing to board our river boat. Instead of taking the time to stop for dinner our guide phoned the ship and they had dinner waiting for us on arrival. We ate even before we made it to our staterooms. It had been a long day.

see post: Xian 11-10-11, and Hutong 5-2-10