Today was my worst day in China

Which actually says a lot for how much fun I've been having, considering today wasn't THAT bad. Things started off well. For lunch, I made it to the place I had missed last night. It's apparently a really famous place in Wuhan (all the cabbies know it), and has been around since the 1920s. http://219.140.194.38:88/CMS/webback/Publish/2005-10-10/2005-09-0510338.html (Btw, the crab ovaries part is news to me...) There, I had

Baotze (tangbao)
Some dish with egg, sticky rice and bits of pork

I had to wait around 20 minutes for my food to come out, but both things were amazing. And it was really interesting watching them make the egg/sticky rice dish (although I wish I hadn't seen the somewhat questionable sanitary practices....) Anyway, well worth the wait.

Unfortunately, the day went downhill from there. First, I had the taxi cab ride from hell -- he got me to the airport in record time, but only because he was doing 80 on the freeway, weaving in and out of cars and using the shoulder when he wanted to.

There are a limited number of flights going to Lijiang, and most of them require a stopover in Kunming. So I first flew the hour+ flight to Kunming, where I was supposed to have a 2 hour layover. But it started pouring down rain, and my two-hour layover became over 3. And when I finally arrived in Lijiang, I had to take a 30-minute bus, meaning I got dropped off in the rain, at 10pm, 20 minutes away from the Old Town (where I wanted to stay), without a hotel, and no taxis to take me there (inside Old Town is pedestrian only).

I decided to just find a hotel in the area, instead of trekking down to Old Town (where some of the inn-type places might even close their doors early). The first place I stopped in was a super-cheap 10 bucks, but it was really musty, and the bathroom was pretty bad, so I passed. The next place was really nice, but over $70, so I kept moving. Finally, I found a decent place for around $35, and was lucky enough to find a few restaurants nearby that were still open.

But, the good news is Lijiang seems like a really neat town, and it looks like Yunnan Province has a lot to offer. http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/lijiang.htm
Tomorrow, I'll explore the Old Town (and probably change hotels). Hopefully the rain will stop, and if not, hopefully it will at least stop in time for my Tuesday morning trek departure.

Ever heard of Wuhan?

Probably not. After all, it's just a small little city in China, with a population of 6 million people.

I spent the night there last night. It was a nice enough place. The woman at the desk in my hotel recommended a restaurant for dinner, but unfortunately by the time I got in a taxi and made it over there, they were closing up.

The area I had been dropped off in seemed to be a big hotspot for the youth of Wuhan, as there were lots of shops and a few malls nearby. One of the malls in particular seemed to have a lot of different little restaurants, so I decided to try my luck there.

First stop was a little stall, serving

Spicy Lotus Root

Delish! Much better than the lotus root Ben and I had in Xi'an.

Then I went to a cafeteria-style place, where I had

Hot/Dry noodles (a specialty of Wuhan, and supposedly one of China's 5 famous noodle dishes)
What I thought was sausage, but had bone in the middle of it

I was a little taken aback by the noodles being served in what seemed like an instant noodle cup. But it was pretty good, so I didn't mind.

I finished the evening off with a peanut ice dessert.

By that time, all of the surrounding shops had closed, so I made my way back to my hotel for a good night's sleep (I woke up at 6:30 on Saturday morning to go see the Dam, so I was pretty beat by this point).

There's a reason they call it HOTpot

Chongqing, where I stayed before my Yangtze River cruise, is it's own municipality, but it used to belong to Szechuan province. As you probably know from American Chinese food, Szechuan is famous for their spicy food. For lunch my first day in Chongqing, I had two of my favorite Szechuan dishes that I ate in Japan

Mabo Tofu (see previous post)
Tantan men (spicy noodles with ground meat and kind of a nutty sauce)

But what Chongqing is really famous for is their hotpot (which is where you cook different foods in boiling water at your table).

Which, of course, meant I HAD to try it.

As usual, the place I went to didn't have an English menu. But I knew the characters for Lamb (their specialty), as well as for tofu and for a few different vegetables, so I managed to order a few different things. I also (as usual) ended up ordering waaaay too much food...

Sliced Lamb (rolled)
Skewered Lamb
Tofu
Cabbage
Some green leafy vegetable

It was without a doubt the HOTTEST MEAL I'VE EVER EATEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!!!!!!! I can't stress this enough -- it was really really really damn hot. And not just spicy, but temperature-wise, as well. By the end of the meal, my mouth was on fire, my tongue was raw, I had the sniffles big-time, and I was sweating like a mad-man. And all of this was DESPITE the fact that they had given me the "mild" version, in which half is spicy and half is not. Of course, I loved it!

The lamb was really tender and tasty. And the tofu came out frozen, which was strange, but obviously it melted REALLY quickly. They had flavored the tofu with something, and it was delicious. AND REALLY SPICY!!

The next day at lunch (after my visit to the zoo), I had

Home-style Tofu
Spicy dried beef

The Tofu was especially good (and spicy!), as was the beef, which was great over rice. And I ended up eating more rice in Chongqing than I had in other cities, to keep my mouth from bursting into flames!

I LOVE spicy food. Growing up in Louisiana, I feel I was practically weaned on Tabasco. But after only three meals in Chongqing, it was time to give my mouth (and the lining in my stomach) a rest.

If it seems too good to be true....

It's too good to be true.

I thought I was getting a great deal on my cruise. I had heard that Victoria Cruise Lines cruises were usually $625/person, and I only paid a little over $300. Wednesday night, I headed to Chongqing's pier, and after searching for 20 minutes, asking several different people and ignoring the offers of locales to take me (for only 20 yuan! no thanks...), I managed to find pier #8, which is where the travel agent had told me to go.

Docked at Pier #8 was the Victoria Queen. Which I had foolishly thought was the same as Victoria #5. Oops. Victoria #5 was a DIFFERENT boat, docked at pier #3. Victoria Queen is the 5-star luxury cruise ship run by Victoria Cruise Lines, out of New York. Victoria 5 is the 4-star cruise ship, run by Victoria Cruises, out of China. Confused yet? Apparently the Victoria 1-5 ships used to be run by the US Victoria company, but then were sold to a Chinese company.

Tired, sweaty and more than a little frustrated, I wandered around another 10 minutes, until I finally found my way down to pier #3 (getting around the dock is not as easy as it might sound). Sure enough, the Victoria 5 was waiting there.

While I was certainly disappointed, all in all the Victoria 5 was okay. It was showing it's age, with a little wear and tear (the shower head on my shower broke off after 2 minutes), but things definitely could have been much much worse (despite the shower head issue, the shower was nice and hot, with great water pressure). I was glad that I had spent the extra bucks over the Chinese passenger ships. I ended up having a cabin to myself, and the ship was relatively empty, with only around 65 people, compared to the 3 or 400 people on the regular passenger ships (which, incidentally, are NO star ships, compared to 4-star). Plus, while the English level of most of the staff was minimal (more than zero but less than fluent), the various guides they had for us (on-ship and off-), all spoke English, which was quite a relief.

All the food on the trip was included, as were the 3 off-boat excursions we took. They did a pretty good job of scheduling things while we were on the boat, too, like movies, talks about the river, narration about specific points and even a cabaret show last night, with professional entertainers picked up during the morning. And the people I met on-board were really nice. Most people were in groups, although I did meet a couple of Americans that had signed up on the boat separately, like me (including a few people younger than me, which was a little refreshing given the average age of the tour groupers was probably well over 50) So looking back over my 3-day adventure, I was really happy with the cruise.

This was especially true because the Three Gorges were amazing. The scale really has to be seen to be believed, but if you're going to see it, go soon. The water levels have already risen dramatically over the past several years, to the point where it's hard to imagine how much more incredible it must have been then. This October, the water is rising another 25 meters, with the final water level reaching 175 meters in 2009, over 40 meters higher than the present level. So a lot of those majestic peaks will be tiny little hills, and a lot of the smaller places will be completely underwater. Kinda sad, but I guess that's progress....

And what progress it is! This morning, before arriving at our final destination, we stopped for a tour of the Three Gorges Dam, which, while not the largest dam in the world is still a pretty amazing feat of engineering. And when finalized in 2009, it will create more energy than any other dam in the world, 18,200 megawatts worth, supplying up to 3% of China's energy needs.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Gorges_Dam

Now, I'm in Yichang, just checking my mail, updating my blog and grabbing some lunch, before I head over to Wuhan, a four-hour bus ride away. Tomorrow, I fly from Wuhan to Lijiang, in Yunnan province, with a layover in Kunming. Unfortunately, both Yichang and Lijian are relatively small airports, so there are no direct routes, forcing me to lose a day in traveling. But, from what I can tell, it should be worth it, as Lijiang is supposed to be an old town with a lot of character, and from there I'm taking the two-day Tiger's Leap Gorge trek. Then, it's on to Guilin and Yangshao, before I head back to Shanghai to fly out to Thailand for a week.

In the mean time, I'm going to try to put as many pictures up (and meal logs) as I can before I have to grab lunch and hop on my bus. Otherwise, I should hopefully have time tomorrow in Wuhan.

Chongqing

First thing upon arriving in Chongqing, I hopped in a taxi and made for the Liberation Monument, which is kind of the center of town. My book had a travel agency listed around there, and I needed to buy a boat cruise ticket.

The taxi took me just outside the monument, but then when it came time to pay, I ran into a bit of a language problem. I had gotten a sheet of paper from the airport with set costs on it, depending on the destination and the type of car. It seemed to me that he didn't want to accept that amount, and was asking for more. I, of course, was having none of that, and tried to make that clear. After a few minutes of arguing, I heard from behind me "what seems to be the problem here?" It turns out we had pulled in front of a hotel (the World Traders that I stayed at last night), and there was an Australian guy, who spoke fluent Mandarin, working there. Eventually, I got the taxi fare straightened out (I had gotten the type of car, and thus the fare wrong, but he had still tried to charge me too much).

The hotel wasn't much help in the ticket department, but they recommended I head to the port, as there are travel agencies down there (my book had said the same thing). So I made my way to the port where several guys started to follow me around, trying to get me into different agencies (where they would clearly get a cut). I ignored them, and finding one in the book, got ready to decide on a boat.

Only to be told that all of the "Luxury boats" (meant more for foreigners) were sold out, and that only one Chinese boat was available that night, with the same situation for the next day, as well. Additionally, I was told that recently the schedules had changed, so that what I thought was a 3-day trip, was now a 4-day trip, throwing my whole schedule for the next two weeks in disarray.

Feeling there was nothig I could do, I bought a ticket for the boat later that night, and headed back to the city center, to buy some things for the cruise, as well as find an internet cafe and buy my airline ticket for right after the cruise ends.

I never did find the first travel agency I had been looking for, but did stumble into a pretty big agency that was full of young people. They were extremely helpful (two of them spoke sufficient English), and not only got me my airplaine ticket, but when I asked them on a whim about "luxury boat" tickets, they managed to get me on one leaving tonight, at a price that was signficantly less than what I had seen online. It meant I had to lose some of the money for the first ticket, as cancellation fee (around 35 bucks), but the luxury boat looks MUCH more comfortable, and much more geared towards foreigners, with lots of English speakers and tour guides.

I'm sure tonight's boat will be filled with tour groups, but the fact that it's smaller (only 100+ people, instead of 400+) and more comfortable hopefully should make it worth the extra cost. Plus, I'm thinking with fewer people, I won't have to jostle for space on deck to view the gorges. And they even have internet access!! (although it's probably ridiculously expensive...)

Anyway, the other added benefit of leaving today is I got to explore Chongqing a bit. It's supposedly the largest city in China, since it's a special administrative district with over 33 million people! The city does seem to go on forever, with lots of tall apartment buildings, but it doesn't seem ridiculously overcrowded (at least where I've been). Although, the idea of keeping a city that big in order (cleaning, police, etc) is pretty amazing.

My meal last night (which I'll save for another post) was great, and I spent a few hours today at the local zoo, where they have 6 Pandas!! I took a bunch of pictures for Panda chan (there's a reason I've given her that nickname here, remember), and it was nice getting out of the city for a bit. Plus, I got to see the Walmart Super Center across the street (crazy! Kinda like walmart at home, only kinda not...). When I was leaving, I saw some old foreigners on there way in -- probably after hitting the zoo in a tour group.

That's it for Chongqing. Maybe I'll be able to update over the next few days, but if not, expect something this weekend.

Hotels

So far, I've been reasonably impressed with the hotels I've been staying in (aside from the hard bed thing). They're cleaner than I had imagined, and the three places I've stayed have all been really modern in their facilities and even interior design (a far cry from the places I stayed at in India, aside from a few luxury resorts).

The highlight of the hotels so far would have to be the entry system in our hotel in Xi'an. It looked like a regular card key, but instead of inserting it into a slot, you wave it in front of the door handle for a few seconds, and it automatically registered, unlocking the door for you. Hi-tech, baby!

The hotel I stayed in last night, World Traders Chongqing, was really nice -- especially for the price. I paid around $35 (US), and got a modern, spacious room, a reasonably comfortable bed, great service and a pretty good breakfast buffet. Amazing!

100!! (and one)

Cool! I just noticed my last post was my 100th! Congratultions to me!

I gotta admit, when I thought about doing a blog, I didn't really think I'd be able to keep it up. And while I haven't exactly been regular about my updates (especially when I was back in the States), at least it's still around!

Now for my next goal -- 100 comments! (I think I have MAYBE 4...)

Change in Plans

I'm heading out to dinner now, so I'll go into detail later, but I had to change my schedule around a bit.

Leaving for the Yangtze river cruise tomorrow night.
Then heading to Lijiang and Tiger's Leap Gorge.
Then going on to Guilin and Yangshao
Before ending my China trip in Shanghai on the 6th.

More later.

(PS -- I'm adding new pics to Flickr as fast as I take them, or at least as fast as I can, so be sure to check back!)

Dinner and Tea

Our second night in Xi'an was an amazing experience. In our search for dinner, we wandered around some of the backstreets near the city wall and stumbled upon a pretty interesting looking place. It turned out to be a traditional tea house, but they also served food, so we decided to give it a try.

The English menu was limited to drinks, but there was one waitress who spoke quite a bit of English and who was extremely helpful, so with her assistance and my limited knowledge of chinese characters, we managed to order

Hot and Spicy Beef
Dried Tofu
Fried Rice

The beef was delicious (and spicy!). The fried rice had something that gave it a really unique flavor (in a good way) -- sweet peppers, maybe? And the tofu reminded me of a dish I had in Beijing 4 years ago, which I've tried to find ever since. Spectacular. We also ordered glasses of green tea, although I'm not sure which specific variety we got.

But the night didn't end there. The waitress offered to give us a tour of the place, at which point we found out how big it was (5 floors), how cool it was (very!) and the fact that it's pretty old and very famous (2nd most famous teahouse in China, after one in Beijing). Overall, she really spent a lot of time with us, as did one of her coworkers, who made us cup after cup of Puer tea (all free). They kept saying it's good for your health and your digestion, and we kept drinking, but both Ben and I had trouble sleeping later.... (oh well!).

In the picture, the woman on the right is "Cathy", who helped us out, while the woman on the left is the one that made us tea.

In the end, all of their attention paid off, because both Ben and I bought something from their shop. Ben got this really cool cake of tea that was pressed to look like an ancient Chinese coin, and I got an awesome teapot that's shaped like a bamboo chair. I'd put a picture up, but I sent it on to Bangkok with Ben...

Anway, it was definitely a highlight of my first week in China.

Lamb Delight

Seeing as how Xi'an has a large Muslim population, a lot of their food reflects this Islamic influence. Especially on this one street in the Muslim quarter, which leads up to the Drum Tower. Ben and I picked one of the more popular-looking restaurants, and had a go at the all-Chinese menu. We ended up with


Lamb Skewers (4 each, at only 12.5 cents per skewer!)
Mutton soup, with tiny bits of the local bread (I forgot the name of the dish and don't have that section of my guide book with me).

The skewers were amazing, and all of the meat was surprisingly tender. Plus it was just a fun place to eat, watching everybody else, and trying to interact with the really young waitstaff, who spoke NO English...

The Trifecta

Our first meal in Xi'an was at Den Fa Chang, home of the "Dumpling Feast" (or so claimed our tourist map). And we certainly feasted on dumplings, completing what I like to think of as the Trifecta of Dumplings -- Boiled, fried and steamed.

Steamed Pork and Shrimp dumplings
Boiled Pork and Shrimp dumplings
Pork fried dumplings (gyoza)
Sweet Lotus Root
Spinach

Ben and I left feeling like all of the dough had settled to the bottom of our stomachs. But our dumpling crave was finally satiated (temporarily).

In search of Starbucks

Let me come right out and say it. After two and a half days of searching, we didn't find a Starbucks in Xi'an. Because there is no Starbucks in Xi'an. Which is actually a little surprising, considering the size of the population (6 million people!), the number of foreign tourists and the amount of wealth that seems to be present in the city.

But despite this one failing, Xi'an has a lot to offer. The impressive Drum and Bell Towers dominate the city center. The ancient city walls that surround the inner city are still standing, and at 10 meters high really add to the "ancient" vibe of the city, as do the old-town areas, which had a very different feel from Shanghai. But there's a modern side, too, with a bustling shopping district, tons of restaurants and the obligatory (in modern China) upscale shopping mall. And the large muslim population, with the muslim quarter and Great Mosque, give the city an exotic feel, and set it apart from other major cities in China.

And then, there are the Terra Cotta Warriors. After spending all-day Sunday wandering around the city, we booked a day tour to the site of the Warriors (about an hour away from the city center), wisely choosing a weekday to avoid the crush of weekend tourists.

While the facilities seemed a little dated, the statues themselves were extremely impressive. The scale of the undertaking is hard to believe, especially given the fact that they are over 2000 years old. In fact, Ben and I were joking that maybe it's all sham, and they only found a few, making the rest up just so the warriors could become the "eighth wonder of the world". Well, okay, probably not. Anyway, it was a worthwhile trip out there, although we could have done without the "Geology Museum" on the way back, as it was just a shop with a few rocks in the entry hall (I was none too pleased with our guide, because I had said at the beginning "No shops!" when he tried to take us to the "Ceramic Factory". Puhlease!)

All in all, we had a great time in Xi'an, with some wonderful experiences (one of which I'm going to dedicate a separate post to later). But it would have been nice to have found that Starbucks. And we kept putting off climbing on top of the Wall, only to get there the last night and find out they had closed earlier than the posted hours. Oh well, I guess you gotta leave something for the next visit.

Xi'an report forthcoming

Hopefully tomorrow. Suffice it to say, I loved the city, and had a really good time.

But I have an early flight tomorrow morning (8:20, gotta get up at 6, but not as bad as Ben, who's leaving at 7:30 am to Bangkok), so I'm turning in early tonight. I'm flying to Chongqing, where I plan on boarding a Yangtze River cruise. Hopefully I'll be able to update tomorrow, before I board the ship (for 3 days or so). But if not, check back in a few.

Sneaking In

Take a step back in time with me. In reporting on our Hanzhou adventure, I inadvertantly skipped one of our major activities in Shanghai -- a Chinese acrobat show. When I left off the report of our rainy day, we were sprinting out the door to try to make the show on time.

Well, seeing as how it was pouring down rain, it took us 20 minutes to get a cab. And then it took us another 30 minutes to get to the theater, by which time it was 8:00, 30 minutes after the show had started. But I thought we could maybe get in during intermission, so we headed upstairs to the show area, anyway.

To my surprise, there was nobody selling tickets outside the theater, nor was there a booth for ticket sales. Even more surprising, there was nobody checking tickets at the door. So Ben and I just walked right in.

And sat down in two empty seats in the back. The theater was dark and the show was in progress, and nobody said a word (some people actually entered the theater even later than us). I'd never before snuck into a theater without paying, but somehow ended up doing just that.

Ironically enough, I was glad that we hadn't paid (the tickets were I think around $20). The show was okay, but not nearly as good as I was expecting or hoping. It had kind of an unnecessary modern touch (some boy band music and a few performances with funky costumes), and I was shocked at the number of times that the performers messed up on some of the key things (juggling, jumping through hoops, etc.) It wasn't nearly as good as I remember the troupe I saw 11 years ago in Beijing being. But, I guess I can't really complain, 'cause it was free....

Good news!

In addition to the meal pics I've started adding, I've managed to put pics up on my Flikr site! Check 'em out! (I've linked directly to my "China" section, but make sure you click on individual photos for my comments and descriptions)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/68195876@N00/tags/china/

Unfortunately, I'm beat, and we have an early start tomorrow, so the rest of my updates will have to wait. But enjoy what I've put up, and feel free to write comments!

Hangzhou

"In Heaven there's Paradise, on Earth, there's Suzhoun and Hangzhou."
-- An ancient Chinese saying

Both Suzhou and Hangzhou are pretty easy day trips from Shanghai, but we decided to hit Hangzhou, which is about a 2-hour train ride away. Hangzhou is famous for the West Lake, which has inspired countless Chinese poets and Artists.

The train was surprisingly comfortable, although the interior seemed a little "Communist Era" to me. The ride was uneventful, but punctuated by sales talks from the various railroad workers, who were hawking everything from food to toys to jewelry!

Our arrival in Hangzhou, at around 1pm, was not quite what I expected, in that we got off smack dab in the middle of a city with 6-million people. Not quite the rural setting I had imagined. A 20-minute taxi ride later, and we were at our lunch destination, a noodle shop that has been around since 1876! It was delicious!

Since they don't have an English menu, I'm not really sure what we ate, but I think mine was spicy chicken with bamboo (maybe? some sort of vegetable).

From there, we headed to the West Lake. At first, I was a little disappointed, as it was pretty crowded and it seemed a bit touristy. But the more time we spent there, the more I grew to like it. First we walked around the shore line a bit, taking in the scenery and enjoying the fountain show -- a set of fountains in the lake that shot water up and around, in time with music that was playing on land-based speakers.

The lake area really is pretty, surrounded by verdant mountains, with several small islands that each had different little chinese-style buildings on them. We took a touristy boat to several of the islands, then had it drop us off at the park of the Willows, this really peaceful and pretty park along the lake. All in all, we spent a relaxing day at the lake, taking in the scenery and the people (most of whom were Chinese tourists, although we ran into a few other foreigners, as well).

As it was getting dark, and we wanted to get back to Shanghai, we hopped in a cab and went to the train station to get our tickets back home. Only to be told that there were no trains back until the following day. Panic began to sink in, but after a little more prying, we got a ticket leaving from a nearby station, two hours later.

The delay, while upsetting at the time, turned out to be rather fortuitous, as we stumbled upon an AMAZING Szechuan restaurant around the corner from the station.


Mabo Tofu (spicy tofu with ground pork)
Boiled Gyoza (dumplings)
Spciy Rice noodle dish
Crawfish

Yes, crawfish. I was a little surprised to see them on the menu, and just had to order them, even though we already had MORE than enough food. I actually prefer Cajun-style to Szechuan-style (although Ben was chowing down), but the cool thing was they had these thin plastic gloves to keep your hands from getting dirty.

The Mabo Tofu, however, which is probably my favorite dish to order at Chinese restaurants in Japan, was without a doubt the BEST Mabo Tofu I've EVER had. Delicious!

Finishing dinner, we made it to the other station with plenty of time for our train back. We got back to Shanghai around 11pm, and unfortunately it seemed the subway was closed. Even worse, the line for taxis was ridiculously long. We had no choice but to wait.

And while in line, I realized I had forgotten my hat on the train from Hangzhou. My new UCBerkeley hat. The one I had won in a raffle at Days at Haas. Bummer. I was pretty pissed, but there was nothing I could do. We finally made it home, and tired, went to bed.

Impressions

So far, China has been very different from what I imagined. Obviously, I knew that Shanghai would be a modern city, but it was even more so than I expected. And the amount of money there was truly unbelievable. I really think the number of luxury goods shops quite possibly rivals Tokyo (especially if you consider the high concentration of them in one area!)

A lot of the city reminded me of other Asian cities. I'm not really sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but it's a far cry from "Communist" imagery. This vision of Chinese cities has held up to some degree outside of Shanghai, as well. Our visit to Hangzhou (next post) also showed another bustling, modern city. Xi'an, where we are now, while not quite as modern as Shanghai, and with a lot more of "old China" remaining, nonetheless has a young, vibrant modern side to it, that's evident pretty much wherever you look.

11 years ago, when I went to Beijing for a week on vacation from Kyoto, I met two American students who were studying at the university in Xi'an. They told me and my friend horror stories about how they weren't allowed to leave the confines of the university unaccompanied, and how "relations", of any sort, with locals were frowned upon. The Xi'an of today is extremely different, with lots of foreigners wandering around the city; not just tourists, but people living, studying and working here, as well. And we've found a surprising number of people that speak English here -- not necessarily fluently, but enough to make our travel easier.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I still have more on Shanghai and Hangzhou to report, as well as several meals. It's getting late, but I'll try to do what I can in this update before heading back to my hotel.

Meals from Day 2 (5/17)

Lunch
Roast Duck
Beef with pepper sauce
Spinach

Dinner
Shanghai Noodles
Hot and Sour Soup
Tomato and Pork Tofu

(It's gonna take a while to make these things look pretty...)

First Food pic

Here's our first meal in Shanghai.

A litte taste of home... only it tasted a little different

Wow. I can't believe I never posted this. I thought for sure I had, especially since it was one of the more surprising meals I had in China....
----------------------------
In Hangzhou with an hour to kill before our train, we stumbled upon a delicious Szechuan cuisine restaurant. Spicy!

Rice noodles with spicy sauce
Boiled gyoza (with two sauces -- soy and spicy)
Mabo Dofu
Szechuan-style Crawfish

Yes, that's right. Crawfish. Ben liked them a lot, but I actually prefer the Cajun kind. Of course, the novelty of eating crawfish more than made up for it. And they had one cool idea -- thin plastic gloves, to keep your hands from getting dirty!

By the way, the mabo dofu (which is tofu with ground pork, in a spicy sauce, and is one of my favorite chinese dishes), waswithout a doubt, the BEST mabo dofu I've EVER had. Period.