Home Cooked Chinese Dinner With Friends...(Part 2 of 4)

by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)

April 1, 2012: Wuhan, China: A Chinese home kitchen is separated from the rest of the apartment by a sliding door, which is usually kept closed.  I only found this out because Sandy said her mother-in-law was making dinner, yet I couldn’t hear any stir-frying, chopping, or other kitchen noises.  Also interesting is that Chinese kitchens do not have ovens.

When dinner was called, I was surprised to see that no rice was on the table.  So, I asked Raymond about that.  Raymond translated to Sandy, who immediately asked me if I wanted rice.  I declined, but I did learn a large bowl of rice is not brought to the table.  Rather, if you want rice, you go to the kitchen and take what you want from the rice steamer, which is always full.  Kind of not what the average American would expect at a Chinese meal.

Sandy and Raymond waiting for me to sit and eat with them...Note the soy milk.

Dinner is served:

Center: Soup with spinach and boiled meatballs
Clockwise from bottom: Tofu, charred chili Peppers, pork with peppers, whole fish, long beans, eggplant, broccoli

Whole Fish

The Six Story Climb (or...Don't Tell Me There is no Elevator?) (Part 1 of 4)

by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)

April 1, 2012: Wuhan, China: Sandy, Raymond’s friend, met us at the corner of her street just as we got out of the cab.  The three of us small-talked while walking back to her apartment.  At least for me, it was very small small-talk since she spoke poor English and Raymond did not translate "everything" she said.  During my time in Asia, I became used to being the only person not in on the conversation, even when your name is mentioned in a rapid stream of Mandarin.

Walking through the grounds of their apartment block complex, she proudly pointed out her and her husband’s brand new car.  I did hear that the only problem was neither she nor her husband had a driver's license yet.  I did not ask how the car got there or what they planned to do with it.  I have found that unless you have a serious question that you really want or need the answer to, it often does not pay to ask.  Otherwise, by the time it becomes obvious the person you are asking the question does not understand what you are saying, the conversation usually ends with you saying "Never mind" or nodding your head "yes" while smiling.  Though I have found these are common ways to get out of conversations that are going nowhere, who knows some of the things I nodded "yes" to.

Though built in the 70's, the buildings of the apartment block...at least from the outside, looked far older.  While this is not a picture from their apartment building block, the medium-height white block towers in the foreground of the following picture are somewhat similar. 

We reached her building and somehow I heard and understood that she lived on the sixth floor.  I also heard and understood that there was no elevator.

My overall impression of the building from its outside appearance (white concrete with brown chemical pollution stains) and the fact that the building did not have an elevator left me with no idea what to expect of the inside of Sandy’s building and her apartment.  My expectations, based entirely on my observation of the outside, were extremely low, eventhough both Sandy and her husband were professionals and at least wealthy enough to afford a new car.  I also did not know what to expect from myself and whether I would make it up the six flights of stairs without embarrassing myself or passing out. 

The stairway had raw concrete floors and walls, with little interior light and two apartments on each floor.  The stairway was dreary and making me expect even less than I had been previously expecting.  Even in Bayview, the New York City public housing in which I was raised until I was 12, the stairways were painted and well lit.  Though admittedly,  the China stairs lacked the pee and pot smells common to Bayview.

I made it up to the 6th floor without losing it.  I made it even with having to carry my backpack, filled with my camera, clothes, and a “China emergency kit” (umbrella, mesquito repellant, sun-block, Cipro and hydration tabs, and hand sanitizer).  I was kinda happy about making it up the stairs without incident because every once in a while I notice that I am able to do some things I was not able to do 100 pounds ago.  Also, when I met Sandy’s elderly mother-in-law, who carries groceries and things up and down the stairs a couple of times a day, I realized it would have been absolutely humiliating to not have made it.

When Sandy opened the door to their apartment, I was happily surprised and all my original low and admittedly stereotypical expectations were wrong.  The apartment was brightly lit with freshly painted white walls, built in bookcases, and polished hardwood floors.  The bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom, and dining area were up a few small steps from the living room.

I pitied whoever it was that had to carry their huge widescreen flat panel TV up the stairs.

NEXT: A home cooked Chinese dinner at Sandy's...

"One Country, Two Systems..." or... Why is she sitting back there all alone?

 by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)

Under the principle of "one country, two systems", Hong Kong has a different and separate political and economic system from mainland China (PRC) and these differences will continue until at least 2047.  Generally, this means absolutely nothing to the average American.

However...

***

March 8, 2008: Hong Kong/Shenzhen:  My job interviews in the PRC were over.  I was back in HK and set to spend a few days doing touristy things.  Today, I was scheduled to take a full day tour from Hong Kong to Guangzhou in Guangdong province, PRC.  A van picked me up at HK's Marco Polo Hotel (yes, I splurged for the Victoria Harbor view) and then others at other HK hotels in the Tsim Sha Tsui tourist area.  The tour included English speakers only.

View of Hong Kong Island across Victoria Harbor 
from upper floor room of Marco Polo Hotel (hand-held)

Our tour guide was a young HK lady and she escorted us to the high-speed ferry terminal for the ride across HK Harbor to Shekou in Shenzhen.  During the ferry ride, she gave us each a PRC one day tourist visa to allow us entrance into the PRC for the tour.

We all got on the same line at customs in Shenzhen, and almost everyone went through without a hitch.  Of course, I had the hitch.  The PRC custom agent checked my passport and day visa and then looked-up, saying something in Mandarin to our HK tour guide.

She came over to me and said "You have a multiple entry/exit visa."  Multiple visit visas take precedence over the tourist day visa and so I was on the wrong line.  Embarrased for slowing down my tourmates, I got on the other line (there really was no other line; just a guard standing there by his podium) and had my passport instantly stamped as I was allowed entry back into the PRC.

After exiting the customs building and ferry terminal we were introduced to our new tour guide, who explained why we now had a new tour guide even when we had a perfectly fine old tourguide.

Our Hong Kong guide was not allowed to work in the PRC, so she was replaced with an official (government issued) PRC tour guide.  The HK tour guide had to pretty much sit in the back of the tour van the entire day and say nothing.  I cannot absolutely recall, but I seem to remember that she was not even allowed to have lunch with us.

The difference between the two tour guides could not have been any more obvious.  The HK guide spoke a much smoother and natural English.  The PRC guide, though speaking an entirely understandable English,  was rigid and reading from a memorized script.

Official PRC-issued tour guide

For the drive from Shenzhen to Gaungzhou, the tour van took the new modern toll highway.  While it was a modern highway, bicyclists and wheel barrow pushers still used the shoulders.

At the end of the day, when the Guangzhou tour was over, it was time to return to HK.  We were told that we would be taking the Guangdong Through Train from Guangzhou East rail station directly back to HK.  The PRC tourguide kept repeating how lucky we were to be taking the train.  She went on about how her and and the van driver not only had to drive back to Shenzhen, they were not allowed to take the modern highway, due to the toll costs.  They were forced to take the "Old Canton Road" ("Canton" being the old name for Guangzhou), which would be a substantially longer and more uncomfortable trip.





New toll plaza on Shenzhen-Guangzhou Highway (National Freeway 106)




Wishbone-style Bridge



Shenzhen-Guangzhou Highway (National Freeway 106)

That is in Shenzhen? Uh...Yeah.

by Steve Reiss (Dalmdad Landscape Photography - www.dalmdad.com and https://www.facebook.com/Dalmdad.)

On my first trip to China (March 2008), after officially visiting Longhua and Shenzhen for my interviews, I took a few days vacation to explore nearby mainland China and Hong Kong.  After all, it was not like I was having to take time off from work; I was out of work.

One tour I took was from Hong Kong to Guangzhou, China (more of this in a later post).  The tour started with a 50 minute high-speed ferry ride from Kowloon in Hong Kong to Shenzhen Harbor (Shekou), where the tour unfortunately moved on to a short tea sampling.  In Shekou, a largely  expatriate area, there is a large French cruise liner cemented into the ground called "Sea World".

In a park at Shekou Harbor, is this huge statue. My pictures do not accurately reflect the statue's grand scale, so try looking at this one.

Remarkably, no one in Shenzhen or Longua, China that I showed these pictures to had ever seen the statue, no less know the statue was in Shenzhen.  Many commented that the women of the statue did not look "Asian".

Turns out the statue is of the creation godess Nüwa.  While many different legends are attached to Nüwa, this statue depicts her role in the upkeep and maintenance of the Wall of Heaven, which if collapsed, would obliterate everything. The statue shows her lifting the stone to fix a hole in the sky.

I especially like the three short lightning rods on the top of the stone Nuwa is lifting (see first picture).

***

About a year ago, we were asked by, and granted permission to, a 14 year-old girl from Italy writing a book about legendary women of Ancient China to use the picture.  I am trying to find out whether that project actually went anywhere.