I went to the People's Park in downtown - as I had my Chinese courses there - tried out teahouses - first time experiencing drinking buckwheat tea (quite unusual, considering that buckwheat in Eastern Europe can be used as an alternative to rice). Hot pots, alleys, ancient legends and a person wielding a sword almost the size of himself. Sounds like a start to a national epic story! However, this is daily life in China! I will tell more about some of the pictures too and thanks to my historian Xiangyu, who told me about most of the things I will tell also here.
I finally got to experience one of my biggest wishes (food related) - trying out a hot pot! Which was amazing - for those who have never tried it, basically, it is soup based dish, where, very often, there are two different broths - one is spicy and the other one is a mild one (a bit saltier). The objective of this colossal pot? To dump all the ingredients in there and boil them - rather straightforward. The main deal-breaker here, though, is the combination of sauces you make for the ingredients to be dipped into, when they are done boiling. But, of course, sorry Chai, the cow stomachs still did not look appealing, but the throat skin was quite chewy and was edible. Went through Wide and Narrow Alley, which was quite crowded, but the smell there was amazing - especially the smell of the sweets. And it also was raining, so did not had a very big possibility to check out everything - but later on, another teahouse followed where I tried a flower tea and we were given peaches (gosh, the fruits are so juicy here, I can't stop eating them) - we went to a Taoist temple, which had very much halls and different Immortals in them, but now I had the chance also to appreciate the Chinese architecture. well, the Dragon was believed to have 9 sons, and each one of them had also a different shape - so this one looked like a tortoise (+dragon). we had a chance to see (perhaps one of taoist monks, not sure) wielding this huge sword, which, as told by my trustworthy person, was designed to counterattack the Japanese pirates (who could have had katanas back then, so that is why, the shape, not the size, does resemble it) - and of course In & Jan, and also elements around it, which is believed to be found by "Chinese Adam & Eve, forgot the names, sorry" on a back of a turtle who just passed the river. |
AuthorOn a self-discovery in a country down under-ish! New Zealand! Archives
May 2020
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