I don't have words to describe the weirdness of advertisements in China, so I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking.
The second day in Beijing was the most exciting - Timo planned to spend his 30th birthday on top of the Great Wall of China. Our hostel booked us a tour on the Mutianyu section of the wall. We got on a bus and drove about two hours from the center of Beijing. First, we took a Gondola up to the Great Wall. Then we wandered around for a few hours. There was even a toboggan you could take down the Great Wall. How cool is that? Unlike some major tourist attractions, the Great Wall of China was everything I expected. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life and would highly recommend stopping by Beijing to visit it! You will need a full day to dedicate to the trip.
Beijing was my final vacation during this school year. In April, we had a three day weekend, so two friends and I left on Friday and came back to Suzhou Monday night. We got up early Saturday morning and started exploring Beijing, starting first at some temples. Then we took a taxi to the Temple of Heaven, a bunch of religious buildings and parks, and one of the coolest parts of Beijing. Because it was a holiday weekend, the crowds were maddening. We then went to Tiananmen Square. We felt awkward smiling. We wanted to drive past the Olympic Stadium, called the Bird's Nest. We got dinner at a nice restaurant near our hostel and I was able to try Beijing's famous dish, Peking Duck. Yum!
One of my absolute favorite things about China is Sichuan food (also spelled Szechuan or Szechwan). Sichuan is a region in China in southwest China that I've visited twice - first to take a tour down the Yangtze River, and second to cuddle baby panda cubs. The food is spicy and bold from the liberal use of garlic and chilli peppers. There are two Sichuan restaurants near our school, which don't have names, so we call them Dirty Sichuan and Clean Sichuan. Clean Sichuan not really very clean, but since it is less dirty than Dirty Sichuan, we named it Clean Sichuan. Despite the fact that Dirty Sichuan gives most of us, uh, less than desirable consistency of bowel movement, we frequent the restaurant at least once a week. There are many, many amazing Sichuan dishes, but there are three that no lunch outing would be complete without: green beans, eggplant, and kung pow chicken. First up: green beans. Beans, you say? Yeah, they're fucking amazing and will blow any green beans you've ever had away. The beans are fried crispy, cooked with chilli peppers, and generally come with pork. Here's a recipe. Second is the eggplant. Chinese eggplant is different than eggplant back home - it's much skinnier and not as bitter tasting. I cook my eggplant with garlic, chilli peppers, and oyster sauce. The last essential dish is the kung pow chicken, a spicy chicken chopped up in small pieces and served with nuts. These are only three of the many dishes you can order, but they are the favorites of myself and other foreign teachers here. It's best if you can go to a Sichuan restaurant with around five people and order around eight dishes to share. Usually everyone sits with a bowl of rice around a circular, spinning table. If you se
Services in China can be quite cheap: Hair cuts, massages, beauty treatments - you can get them at a fraction of the cost of back home. Because I'm going back home in three days (!!!), my friend and I decided to take advantage of cheap manicures in the best way we know how - being obnoxiously American. The manicurist and other customers kept peaking over and saying, "很漂亮!" which means "How pretty!" I don't think they got that we were getting them as a joke. I mean - I have a hundred dollar bill sticker on my pinkie nail. It doesn't get more classy than that.
Chinese food in China is wayyy different from your typical Chinese buffet back home. No take out boxes, no fortune cookies, and many "Chinese" dishes (crab rangoon, General Tso chicken) aren't even actually Chinese. [Though I did once go to an American Chinese food restaurant in China.] One particular awesome part of China is the street food. For less than a dollar or two, you can get a decent sized meal. They're not always cooked in the most hygienic of places, but that's the price you pay for cheap deliciousness. Street food is best enjoyed when one is at least mildly intoxicated, and thus the only original photo I have is the following picture of my coworker enjoying a giant potato... thing. The rest of the photos are ones I got off of google, but they're pretty close to the stuff I see on a regular basis.
I visited a trick art museum when I lived in Taiwan and had a blast, so when I spotted a flyer for a newly opened trick art museum in Yangshuo, I knew I'd have a fun night. Because the opening was so recent, I was the only one in the entire place. The worker followed me around and took my pictures for me. Check them out!
Early morning, a car picked me up from my hostel to bring me to my cooking class. We first headed toward a market, where we bought fresh vegetables. Then the car took me out to the countryside, up on a mountain. Because I was traveling during the off-season, I was the only student in the class and got one-on-one attention from the teacher! First she taught me how to make one of my favorite dishes, eggplant, as an appetizer. I know, eggplant does not sound like it'd be that yummy. But trust me on this - Chinese eggplant is AMAZING. Here's the rest of the dishes I made: beer fish (a famous local dish), chicken with cashew nuts, steamed stuffed vegetables, and garlic vegetables. I made all that! Quite the feat, if you know anything about my cooking skills. It was all extremely delicious, and I fully recommend taking the course if you make it down to Yangshuo. Because it was only me and the teacher, she took me on a mini-tour of the countryside nearby. After they dropped me off from my cooking class, I stopped by McDonalds for a McFlurry for dessert. Here is the view from the Yangshuo McDonalds: I'm serious. Here's the proof: I then booked yet another river tour. This time, the bamboo rafts were smaller (we fit two people and the rower). It was super touristy and filled with photo taking stops, but I enjoyed myself regardless.
First up in Yangshuo was a tour I booked to check out one of Yangshuo's many caves. I was the only non-Chinese person on the tour, so I have no idea if there is any interesting history of this particular cave. All I know is that the Chinese love putting gaudy disco lights in their caves and playing techno music. There are lots of caves in Yangshuo, but once you see one disco cave, you've seen them all. Yangshuo's pretty small and there's not a public transportation system, so I spent the rest of my day on bicycle. It had been about six years since I rode a bike that wasn't stationary, so I retired my aching body early to get ready for the cooking class I booked for the next day.
Yangshuo is my favorite city in China and possibly one of my favorite cities in the world. My sister was supposed to visit me here in Suzhou, but had last minute visa issues. We planned a trip to Yangshuo together, but after she couldn't come to China, I still went to Yangshuo by myself. I flew into Guilin and spent the night at a lovely hostel, which hooked me up with a one way boat ticket to Xingping. We took a bus to the harbor early in the morning, and then got on rafts and floated down the Xi River. Here's some fried street food I bought that looked like a lollipop. We then stopped at Xingping, a cute little village. Here has the famous lookout that is on the 20 yuan note. I wandered around the village of Xingping for a bit. Then we went hiking up a high lookout area. From Xingping, I took a bus to Yangshuo and went to bed early to prepare for all I had planned for the upcoming days.
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