Romantic Gulangyu and Xiamen Famous Delectable Food
Gulangyu is a pedestrian-only island off the coast of Xiamen, Fujian province in southeastern China. The name literally means waves beating and making drum like sound. The island is about 2 km² in area, and is reached by an 8-minute ferry ride from downtown Xiamen. It is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site. I suggest making the ferry reservation early. Morning ferry tickets are usually hard to buy. Weekends are full of people, if possible, I suggest go to Gulangyu during weekdays. I was lucky enough to have one of my college classmates who currently lives in Xiaman to be my guide and companion. People come to the island for leisure stroll around many pretty little alleys and relaxation. There are many well-known buildings and picture spots usually packed with people taking pictures. We went to the island on Monday, luckily that day there wasn’t too many tourists. We took our time to stroll around the streets, visit a couple of museums and sit in a café to enjoy delicious mango ice slush.
Gulangyu is most famous for its many colorful and beautiful international architecture buildings. This includes an old US Embassy, old Japan Embassy, bank buildings, manors, and villas that were built in late 1800 and early 1900. Today some of the buildings converted to museums and gardens for people to visit.
When visit Xiamen, one has to try many delectable food. I was so lucky to eat almost all the famous ones including bubble or jelly tea, Sha Cha noodles, Tu Shun Dong (sandworm jelly), mochi, fish balls and sweet peanut soup.
With many thanks to my classmate who took the time to show me around and even let me to stay at her home for several nights. It was absolutely wonderful to see her after 33 years.
New Shanghai
Shanghai is my hometown. Each time I visit home, I try to see one or two new places. After all, Shanghai changes so fast, it’s all new to me. But no matter how it changes, Shanghai will always be the city I love.
A day in Shanghai May 2016
In the morning I walked from the place I stayed near Nanjing Road to Shanghai Exhibition Hall to attend a travel trade show. Two hours later I was at one of the 嘉里中心 building and seeing Shanghai’s busy street from above. A friend treated me for a delicious lunch at a Japanese restaurant and then I hop on a subway heading to Pudong to see another friend.
Later in the afternoon my friend took me to see the back stage and theater of a show she was putting on. Seeing actors and actresses was eye opening for me.
The next morning I went to Tianzifang 田子坊，I like the old Shanghai nostalgia atmosphere. On the way to lunch passed by a farmer’s market we called 小菜场. Nowadays farmer’s market is much cleaner and nicer. After some delicious Yunnan style lunch, I flew to Guangzhou for my next destination.
Sinan Mansions October 2015
Sinan Lu is a residential stretch of road located in the Luwan district and walking distance from both Tianzifang and Xintiandi. Most of the mansions there were built in the 1920s and 30s and housed Shanghai’s elite – including the political figures of Sun Yatsen and Zhou Enlai. In fact, Sinan Mansions is located right around Zhou Enlai’s house where now it’s a museum. The day when my brother took me there, Shanghai had a rare blue sky, it was a nice day.
The Old Pier老码头 October 2015
Near the Bund is the Old Pier. It was fun to visit the Old Pier with many restaurants, old buildings and even saw people taking wedding pictures there.
Nanjing Dapai Dang 南京大牌档 October 2015
If you haven’t tried this food chain, I highly recommend it. The hosts, waiters and waitresses wear old Chinese costume. The food comes in smaller dishes so that you can eat many different kinds. They have a thick menu and a ton of items to choose from. While you dine, you can listen to Pingtan评弹. Pingtan also known as Suzhou Pingtan, storytellers or Southern word, is storytelling performance use folk art forms and Suzhou dialect.
Gourmet Guangdong
A friend and I went to Guangdong in 2016 for two purposes: indulge in their mouth-watering delicious food and search for family root because our ancestors were from this region. Guangdong (formerly Canton), a coastal province of southeast China, borders Hong Kong and Macau. Its capital, Guangzhou, sits within its industrial Pearl River Delta region. While I don’t remember all the places we went on the 6-day gourmet food tour around Guangdong, I certainly remember some of the tastiest food we ate and I’m glad I took some pictures. Cantonese cuisine is one of China’s Eight Traditional Cuisines, it is also popular in the western world . Roast pigeon, egg custard, abalone, duck, crab, double-skin milk, dim-sum, roast suckling pig, and Foshan Chen-village noodle are among the favorite, too many to name the others.
Below are some of the pictures I took around the region. Best of all, I got to see two college friends whom I haven’t seen since we graduated from Fudan University many many years ago. It was delightful to see them and chat with them, even though it was a short time. The other fun thing I got to do was being drafted as a temporary actress for a show and I got to dress up and be on stage acting as an empress, it was so much fun and totally unexpected.
