China

Being the capital city of Qinghai province, it is the hub for many travellers from its history as part of the Silk Road, and also right now being the starting point of the famous Qinghai-Tibet (青藏鐵路) railway. It also has the second worst air quality in all of China……. even worst than Beijing!

In our hostel, we met a lot of travellers, most of them here in season to see Lake Kokonor (青海湖) and the 油菜花田 in full bloom. One thing I learned today is that, 油菜 is not actually used for eating with wonton noodles! In most parts of the world, it is also known as rapeseed or more specifically, CANOLA!!! ….. Who woulda thunk?

The city of Xining itself is rather uninspiring, but it has an interesting mix of several main ethnic groups. The city has the largest Muslim mosque in China, and also a sacred Buddhist temple in the outskirts. Being in the northwest part of China for the first time, it is definitely an interesting sight.

For our train ride, it officially marks the beginning of our trip, as staying with relatives and sleeping in really doesn’t count as a ‘journey’. Arriving at the Nanjing train station, I was once again reminded how massive the population of China was, as the train station was like rush hour New York City’s Grand Central, except this was 11am on a Wednesday, at a train station only for long-distance trains….!!!

For the train ride, we brought with us 4 preserved eggs, as grandma had an oversupply of eggs…. and we naively ignored the advice to take on more food with us….. By the 7^th hour we were already regretting our decision as the train had 19 carts, but only 1 of them served food. And we were staying in the very last train, so by the time the food carts got to us the only thing that was left was unappetizing scraps. W T F! We had to wait for the food cart to come back an hour later, and luckily we got the LAST TWO rice boxes. When other people asked about more food, the attendant was like “Too bad, the kitchen is closed there’s no more food for the day”. W T F x 2, but at least we got the last two…

F O O D!

We rationed our 4 eggs carefully, and managed to find 3 CLIF bars tucked away for emergency consumption. And at the next stop, we rushed out to get ourselves some instant noodles. Disaster avoided!

So after a long trek of 28hrs full of sore bums, hunger and greasy hair, we finally arrived in the northwest city of Xining西宁!
After numerous failed attempts getting onto a taxi, and two more failed attempts on getting into a bus (again, rush hour Grand Central, but in a different city), we finally managed to fight our way into a taxi and onwards to our hostel!

Note: People of Xining are extremely friendly, whether it be taxi drivers, asking for directions or eating at old fashioned food shops, everyone was very nice!

One of the four “furnaces” of China in terms of summer heat waves, Nanjing is an old city with lots to offer in terms of sights, food, and unfortunately a bit of recent history (on a semi-related note, a highly recommended movie to watch is “The City of Life and Death”, which is beautifully directed and absolutely disturbing).

Arriving in Nanjing, we are once again welcomed with 38C heat. We did our final bit of gear buying at Turen (土人), swapping my Arc’teryx Cierzo bag with a Osprey Talon. I have to say, ultralight packs are definitely not functional at all!!!! We also met this really cool salesperson who had a lot of personal experiences to share, it’s a bit long so I kept it at the bottom of the post. Continue reading →

We spent a couple of days visiting relatives. I’m not sure if its the same for others, but whenever we visit relatives, its all about eating and sleeping. Somehow, our relatives in China think we’re malnourished 7-year olds and constantly feeding us with foods. I’m definitely not complaining, just an observation!

My dad tells me stories of him, climbing up the family lychee trees and eating until he feels a couple pounds heavier when he climbs back down. So when presented with the opportunity, I had a pound of lychee fruit for breakfast. Yum. I’d liken myself as to continuing the family tradition!

So after a couple days of much needed rest recovering our stomachs, we head on to the next family stop: Nanjing.

Update:　舌尖上的中国 is a show about Chinese food, filmed like a BBC epic, it also had a little feature about 靖江 汤包, which is pretty much a crab stuffed dumpling, except inside it is awesome awesome soup! Here’s a picture for those not fortunate enough to have these. I don’t remember how many I ate, but I’m pretty sure I was able to stuff 6 down once, and that was AFTER a meal.

DELICIOUS BAO

After our 25hour endeavour from leaving Vancouver, we finally arrived in Shanghai. One way to describe Shanghai: Hot.

I think during that week there was this worldwide heatwave, with Shanghai reaching 38C, and North America hitting above 100F in some parts. Not cool… literally, not cool.

With jet lag, we got our day started early and headed over to eat some traditional Shanghainese breakfast 点心at 南翔, inside the popular tourist attraction 城隍庙.

Continue reading →