Urumqi

Ahh.... Urumqi!  My favorite.  The people are friendly, the food is delicious, and there is such distraction!  It's an impressive city.

Mike and I left early Sunday to fly from Chengdu to Urumqi.  I was excited because Xinjiang food (Xinjiang is the province out West in which Urumqi lies) was one of my favorite things to eat back in Shanghai, and we haven't found anywhere in Chengdu that serves it.  I was thrilled (of course) at the thought of three Xinjiang meals a day in this Northwestern city.

The view during the flight over was incredible.  Lots of desert, mountains, long stretches of snow.  We could tell that we were going to a place that was different from the rest of China that we had visited so far.

When we arrived we were surprised at the large number of outdoor markets and the different kinds of fruits and nuts that they were selling  These markets were everywhere and they sold not only dried fruit and nuts, but also all sorts of breads.  We made it a habit to go explore them every morning and get a sampling of different kinds of breads for breakfast.  It was delicious!

The clothing markets were crazy!  Very crowded and for good reason: the prices were inexplicably much cheaper than anything else we've seen.  At one point we walked around behind one of the large markets trying to take a shortcut to the Xinjiang Museum (the desert has preserved bodies almost 4000 years old, and they've got several at the museum!) and we saw a long line of trucks snaking down a side road, each of which loaded down with sacks and sacks of clothes, shoes, wallets, trinkets - I don't know how they're able to sell like that, but they've got throngs of people buying.

A different day we ventured farther south looking for some markets mentioned in the guidebook.  These markets were filled with stalls selling things more traditional to the local Uyghur culture.  They had carpets, knives, spices, jewelry, amazing instruments and other things that Mike and I thought of as Middle Eastern.

It was beautiful the whole time we were there and although it was a bit chilly we had a great time walking around and exploring. 

Here I am after a long day of walking around with two of the local drinks: wine (a sweet red wine that from pictures we saw in the airplane magazine (excellent resource) we think may have been ice wine) and date juice (I want to call it Jujube Juice, but Ann is vetoing.  "It's a date!").  The date juice (da zao juice) was a bit too sweet for my (Ann's!) taste, but the wine was great.

Ahhh....yes...this is one of our favorites.  This pilaf is available everywhere during lunch and dinner.  Both Mike and I would get a huge plate and lots of tea for just 24 RMB.  Amazing.  Actually, we couldn't break the bank here if we were trying - none of our meals cost more than 40 kuai (that's $6) for the two of us, and most fell into that 24-30 range.

Generally served with these great pickled vegetables (julienned yellow and orange carrot, sometimes a bit of cabbage, a little spicy, a little vinegary) to go on top of the pilaf.  Also very tasty.

Pilaf is everywhere and in the morning you can see people preparing it for lunchtime.  We had our eating routine: pilaf for lunch and then noodles and skewers (sometimes stew served on bread!) for dinner.  The skewers are Ann's (my!) favorite and incredibly delicious.  People eat much later in Urumqi which is much more in tune with our eating habits and worked out very well.  Restaurants are crowded at all hours, and we often found ourselves sharing the table with some locals.  Our last day there we were lucky enough to share with someone who spoke English and we had a great time talking to his group (via him) about Urumqi and Xinjiang.  Then when it came time to pay and the cashier was ringing us up for the wrong things, the woman at our table stepped in and rescued us (calling over to him to tell him what we had eaten).


Mike and Ann

Waffles

Our trip to Hong Kong was a success, one we intend to celebrate with waffles.  Ha ha ha!  Look at us laugh at this waffle!

Ann

Another Reason that Pandas are Great.

Ann and Mike (it's hard to pick good pronouns when we're both writing) didn't make it to the panda sanctuary until a little before two in the afternoon.  We had learned from the guidebook that pandas get fed at 10am and don't do much after but sleep - but we operate in reverse!  We sleep until ten, then eat and begin to do things.  The bus ride was long (and would have been logistically quite challenging had google maps not come to the rescue with a fully functional bus-routes search for Chengdu) and we figured it would be like the zoo:  maybe some pandas, probably asleep.  But not only were the pandas awake, they were romping about!  Okay, "panda romping" consists mostly of laying on the ground eating, or sitting around scratching (or staring dejectedly over the railing?  I don't know what that was about.) but even this leaves us totally entranced.  You see the videos:  pandas are amazing.
The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding ("Welcome to Chengdu, the home town of pandas.  The Charm of China, the Cradle of Pandas." (But it's not creepy!  It's great!)) is split up into various panda enclosures by panda age (with an additional area for Red Pandas, which are only distantly related to Giant Pandas).  The first place we visited was the adolescent panda enclosure, and they were mostly laying around eating.  Second was adult pandas.  It was impressive how close we could get to them - there's just a low wall below which the pandas are hanging out, snacking, pooping, etc.  And they're totally indifferent to the gawking tourists (even the one woman who repeatedly shrieked and clapped at them.  I winced.  Pandas didn't even notice). 

After the adults we trooped up a long series of stone steps to the Panda Nursery.  There were five baby pandas, eight to twelve weeks old, and impossibly cute (No pictures allowed!  Of the cutest thing in the whole sanctuary!)  They were already pretty big (20-30lbs?), fuzzy black and white, laying about yawning, stretching, lazily snoozing up against each other.  Except for the one whose turn it was to be 'pooped' by the zoo keeper, who diligently rubbed its stomach with a washcloth while holding it over a garbage bin.  Cute!

Ann's favorites, though, were the one year olds.  We visited their spot last, and the four that we saw were tumbling around, wrestling with each other, climbing all over their wood structures, and getting bathed and fed bamboo shoots by a keeper.   They were completely uncoordinated, frequently falling off their platform, and even sliding down the little gully at the edge of their enclosure to the foot of the wall we all watched from.  Clumsy pandas!

Overall, it was a great day.

Ann and Mike

Pandas!

Chengdu, Sichuan

Mike and I arrived in Chengdu ready for some delicious spicy Sichuan
food and pandas, and Chengdu has delivered! Ann was infuriated by Hot
Pot chili oil splashing on her new dress ("I was! Stupid hot pot. It
wasn't even that tasty"), I was enchanted by the crispy/tender combo
of my favorite vegetable, Bitter Melon, and we both have been shocked
by the vast number of fancy pastry shops here - orders of magnitude
more than there are in Shanghai. I mean, sometimes you just want some
tasty vegetable baozi for breakfast, and those are hard to come by
now, but I can hardly walk down the street without tripping over sweet
buns (tasty), cream-topped coffee dusted custard things (delicious!)
and baguettes to rival those made daily at Safeway (a side note: no
pastry purchase is safe from the threat of odd, unanticipated savory
items lurking inside. Does this have fish in it? Why is the
character for fish in its label on the display case? I'm not buying
this fucking fish bun!).

We were dismayed yesterday when we spotted a number of Hai Bao here.
They've broken through the Shanghai quarantine. Or perhaps there has
been a Hai Bao forced migration. But the Hai Bao do seem to have
maintained their upbeat demeanor. One question answered! They put
them to work selling pastries.

Chengdu: home to Panda everything! This includes: signs, posters,
toilet seat stickers, taxi logos, taxi hood decorations, trash can
decorations, a clothing line ("Hi Panda", at http://www.hipanda.org),
and cigarettes. I didn't know pandas smoked, but their cigarettes
come in gold boxes! Pretty swank! More to come.

Ann and Mike

Suzhou: This time with Gardens!

Yes, yes. We did actually make it to a few gardens.

Yi Yuan
The first was very quiet and one of the most relaxing. There were a
few other people there, mostly playing cards or actually sleeping,
like the guy in the second photo. Mike and I found a nice table and
sat down and read for about an hour. It was really nice to be in the
city but have this peaceful setting to relax in. This garden also had
the great feature of being very close to our hotel. Always a nice
bonus.

Beisi Ta
A giant pagoda that was apparently a favorite of Marco Polo. At one
time it was 11 stories, but now it just has 9. Although we
contemplated climbing to the top, Mike and I were scared off by the
crowds and quickly scurried to the the silk museum, like hungry grubs
in search of a mulberry leaf.

Silk Museum
The best part about the whole museum was the live silkworms! You
could hear them munching away noisily at the mulberry leaves. There
is a very odd, creepy mannequin holding the silkworm basket. She
tricks you into thinking that they aren't alive. Then when you lean
in really close you can see that they are moving and hear them eating!
It is pretty amazing. There were also several incredible looms and
some women using one. The museum sells the silk pieces that they
make, but they were a bit out of our price range.

Ou Yuan (The Couples' Garden)
The second garden was larger and very beautiful. Unfortunately we
picked the first day of October, the beginning of a mega-holiday for
China, and were inundated with noisy tour groups and guides noisily
lecturing through their megaphones! We snuck off to the far corner of
the garden, relatively quiet after the rest, to sit and relax.

Ann

Suzhou: delicious West China food!

Mike and I went to Suzhou last week. It is a smaller city (than
Shanghai, still larger then Seattle) famous for its gardens. I was
excited the night that we arrive to find a Uyghur restaurant because
they have great food. Especially delicious kebabs. Since that is my
current China favorite, Mike was immediately dragged in for dinner.

Okay, so that menu might look a bit less appealing, but it was
actually quite delicious. I was thrilled when I accidentally ordered
my favorite bread and lamb dish. It is strongly seasoned and served
with fresh cilantro on top. One of my personal favorites. Besides,
what is not to like about a place that actually serves a darker beer
with (slightly) more favor?

The other two pictures are ones that I took from the window of the
restaurant. Suzhou has lots of Van-trucks. They are everywhere and
despite being labeled "van" decidedly a truck. The third picture is
the view across the street from the restaurant. I think this is
another place to eat, but a bit confused by the title.

Anyway, more Suzhou posts to follow! This time with actual gardens.

Ann