Of Chinese hotpots

14 04 2010

When we arrived in Xi’an we were greeted by my colleague Yong, Yong and I were classmates in the MBA in St. Gallen last year.  Yong lives and works in Xi’an and was at the train station with his colleague Mr. Lee.  Yong and Mr. Lee were kind enough to show us around until we could check in to our hotel at noon.

We saw the fanciest part of town where the government has built a great looking garden to jack up real-estate prices in the surrounding areas.  It is quite obvious that there is no recession in Xi’an, you can see building cranes everywhere and a lot of things going on. 

We went to a culture center that acted both as a museum displaying traditional Chinese art – paintings, sculptures and antiques – as well as a restaurant and a meeting place for the rich.  The whole place was fancy to say the least but the fanciest piece in the whole place was a nice piece of pork that had been conserved in some kind of transparent coating.  Very arty!

For lunch Yong and Mr. Lee took us to a Chinese hotpot restaurant.  We had never tasted a Chinese hotpot before so we were very excited.  On the table came two pots, one with some kind of lightly seasoned fish broth and a the other with a spicy kind of chili soup. 

We went to a communal table to create a dipping sauce where we could choose from about twenty different ingredients: garlic, chili,  spring onions, ground peanuts, sesame oil, soya sauce, peanut sauce, fish sauce and many others that I didn’t recognize.  We just followed Yong and tried to do as he did.  In the end our dipping sauces tasted great :)

Finally all sorts of things to dip into the boiling hotpots came to the table: mutton, beef, ground meat, mushrooms, seaweed, noodles, beads, fish balls and cabbage and I’m sure I’m forgetting a few items.  Gradually the dipping things were were dipped into the hotpots to boil and then we ate them.  We can both agree that this was absolutely fantastic and the best Chinese food we have ever tasted.  We had a Japanese hotpot in Bangkok but this was much better, especially the spicy one. 

Thank you very much Yong !!!

After the late lunch we had no choice but to go back to our hotel to digest and relax for the rest of the day.  We watched Resident Evil II on the computer – highly recommended …hehe.


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When we woke up in Xi’an

14 04 2010

We spend our last whole day in Beijing strolling round Central Beijing.  We walked to Tiananmen Square where I bought a old fashioned Chinese/Russian winter hat.  We had been stared at before but nothing like when I had the hat on.  Later we were told that the Chinese connect the hat with Chairman Mao and his followers.  We were also approached by several Chinese people that wanted us to pose with them on photos.  We felt like rock stars but somehow this was a strange and surreal experience.

After checking out Tiananmen Square and the surrounding buildings we walked to Jingshan Park.  The park is located on a small hill, 45 m. above the very flat surroundings, just behind the Forbidden City.  There seems to be an (small) entrance fee where ever you go here but and we paid 2 Yuan to get in (15 cent).  The view from the top of the hill was great!  We saw over the Forbidden City and basically all over Central Beijing – or as far as the smog allowed us – and this was something we should have done on day one for sure.

Before heading in for the night we had a wonderful Pizza at Hutong Pizza a well hidden Beijing treasure.  In the morning it was time to train to Xi’an.  We had to postpone our departure to Xi’an for one day because the Hard Sleeper class we wanted was full.  The west train station in Beijing is huge but very well organized.  Right in the lobby there was a big sign telling us which of the twelve waiting rooms to use and forty minutes before departure we were allowed to check in.

The train had double decker coaches and each floor had about twelve open cabins with four bunk beds – two lower and two upper.  We bought upper bunk tickets both because they were cheaper but also because we had heard that it would be easier to sleep in the top beds.

The train ride was twelve hours and went by pretty quickly.  It was very easy to sleep in the nice beds.  Even though they were a little hard they were way better than the buses in Thailand.  We found us in Xi’an at 06:20 in the morning – roaring to go.


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Brrrrr…. it’s cold in Beijing

11 04 2010

When we arrived in Beijing the weather was very nice, 20°C and sunny, better than in Hong Kong, which lays almost 2,000 km. south of Beijing.  When we woke up on Friday however the weather seemed freezing cold to us even though it was about 13°C but quite windy.

Despite the cold we went to the Forbidden City – probably the most famous site in China.  We walked from our guesthouse to Tiananmen square and walked through the Gate of Supreme Harmony, which sports a nice portrait of Chairman Mao.  The Gate overlooks a massive courtyard where the rulers of the past could address up to 100,000 people at the same time. The Meridian gate marks the beginning of the Forbidden City and we joined the constant stream of hundreds of people flowing through gates.

We mainly followed the south/north axis of the city that contains all the biggest halls and buildings.  I don’t know if it was the weather but we felt that the city was a very cold place and not very inviting.  There are big gray plazas between great halls that all looked similar but no one was allowed to enter the halls.  It wasn’t until the Imperial Garden that we felt any warmth in the place.  Due to the cold we didn’t stay too long in the Forbidden City but we’ll return to Beijing before we go home and have already planned to return to the Forbidden City and explore it further.

Most of the afternoon went into searching for warmer clothes.  We wanted to find something cheap and that wasn’t too easy since we were in down-town Beijing.  I found a nice Burberry coat for $4,000 and an Armani coat for $2,000 but that wasn’t exactly what I was after :)  Finally we found a sweater for me for $16 and a nice running jacket for Elínborg for $7 and two pairs mittens for $7 so for $30 we got what we wanted.

On Saturday morning we walked for an hour to see the Lama Temple, the most renowned Tibetan Buddhist temple outside Tibet.  The weather man had said that today would be colder than yesterday but we were happy to see the warm sun and the weather was quite nice.  The Lama temple was beautiful and we could sense the peacefulness that surrounded the temple as soon as we arrived.  The whole temple stunning but the most famous artifact is a 26m. or about six stories high statue of Buddha that was carved out of a single white sandalwood tree – quite impressive.

We ended the day by eating Beijing (Peking) duck at the Beijing Dadong Roast Duck Restaurant, highly recommended by Lonely Planet.  We had been looking forward to this moment of months and were quite excited.  Unfortunately the duck was overpriced and even though it was good it wasn’t any better than at Nings in Reykjavík.  We have not given up on Peking duck and will continue trying until we find the perfect duck!

We have been quite surprised that Beijing feels like the most westernized place that we have visited on the whole trip.  Maybe westernized is not the right word – it is most like what we are used to in the west.  Maybe it is the climate that makes the difference but the people most like the people back home apart from the different faces of course.  They are similarly dressed and have all the latest gadgets and all that stuff.  The traffic is also most like we are used to with mostly cars on the streets.  Maybe there are more bicycles outside of down town Beijing – we’ll find out soon enough.

After listening to Lost on Planet China we has some implanted ideas about China and the Chinese but so far many of them have proven wrong.  The Chinese are not as rude the author proclaims, they are not spitting or blowing their noses at every step and the menus in restaurants are in English and the food is quite good so most things have a more positive spin that we thought :)


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From Hong Kong to Beijing

8 04 2010

On our second day in Hong Kong we had planned to take an open air double decked bus tour around the city.  When we woke up the weather would have nothing of it though.  It was raining and kind of cold so for the first time during our trip the weather made us change our plans and first we went to the Hong Kong museum of Art and then we went shopping.  I have never seen so many shops anywhere and the luxury brand stores here will make even Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich blush!

In the evening we saw the Symphony of Lights, a fabulous light-show where the sky-scrapers on Hong Kong island are the main actors.  The lights on the sky-scrapers dance to the rhythm of a specially composed music and you can kind of see the character of the sky-scrapers on how they dance.  Some are shy and minimalistic while others are cocky and a bit of a show-off and everything between. 

This morning we took the short flight to Beijing and landed in Beijing in the afternoon.  The weather in the capital was nice and the temperature was about thirty degrees hotter than when we flow through in January.  We have been quite impressed with the Chinese so far.  People have seemed cheerful and there is a pleasant wibe everywhere we have been. 

The taxi drives tried to scam us though.  We knew that we should pay 15 Yuan ($2) from the train station to our hostel but they didn’t want to talk to us for less than 100 Yuan.  We met two girls that told us they paid 300 Yuan ($45) for a ride that was supposed to be 20 Yuan.  Fortunately we found a tourist information office that helped us out.  It shows what we knew that you have to know everywhere what is the right price to pay for things or else you will be overcharged.

In the evening we went to a touristy night market that sold food and snacks from all over China.  On offer were for example grilled snakes and scorpions and worms, lamb testicles and penises, pig kidneys and hearts and cow stomachs and many other mouth-watering dishes.  We were not so adventurous and had fried dumplings, chicken pancakes, Chinese hamburgers and deep-fried ice-cream for dessert.  All of the dishes we tried were very delicious.  Hopefully we’ll go again and perhaps we’ll be more adventurous then ;)


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Have you seen Jackie Chan in person?

6 04 2010

We we haven’t either seen Jackie Chan but we are in his home town – Hong Kong – and saw his wax statue :)

When we arrived in Hong Kong our first impression was that of high organization and that everything seems very efficient and just the way you like it.  The airport is ultra modern and easy to navigate and the public transport system is very effective.  It has busses, trams underground trains and boats and everything works extremely well.  It is obvious from the start that the there is a lot of money in Hong Kong.  Nothing is done half way but without overspending either.

Another thing we noticed when we arrived in town is how many people are in Hong Kong.  This small “country” has over seven million inhabitants and is the fourth densest country on earth after Macau, Monaco and Singapore.  Since I was looking this up I checked how Iceland was doing on the list and we were eighth from the bottom or eight least dense country by population, just after Australia.  Can you guess what country is the least dense?  I’ll put the answer at the bottom of the post :)  Since I was looking at lists I looked where Hong Kong stands according to size.  I was surprised to find that it came in 179th of 233 countries so there are 54 countries that are smaller than Hong Kong – did YOU know that?

Anyway, today we have been exploring the city.  In the morning we went to Victoria Peak, a mountain that offers majestic view of Hong Kong.  Unfortunately there was an overcast so we didn’t get as good a view as we hoped.  That should however not be a problem because here is a photo service at the top that can “fix” the view for you for a few dollar so even if you arrive in dense fog your pictures will be beautiful.  The sights were impressive though and we might shoot back tomorrow if the the sky will be clearer.

After the peak we walked down town and checked out a few shops.  Hong Kong is a shopping heaven – if you have the money – with many shopping districts, big malls, flagship fashion stores, markets and some small alley-ways with some cheaper stuff.  We ended however in familiar territory in H&M.  After picking up a few items in H&M and eating the local specialty – dumplings – we took the boat to the mainland.  The mainland offers a fantastic view of the Hong Kong skyline which is quite impressive with the most amount of skyscrapers compared to any other place on earth (106 buildings above 180 meters).

We’ll only be two whole days in Hong Kong so I’ll have to go back to planning what to do tomorrow.  There is plenty to do and see here se we have to choose wisely…

To answer the question above: the least dense countries of the world are Greenland, then Falkland Islands and third is Mongolia.  There you have that.

The smallest countries of the world are Vatican City, then Monaco and third Pitcaim Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean.  The largest are however, as we all know, Russia, Canada and China or the USA depending on definition.


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Test – posting through email

5 04 2010

I’ve been told that WordPress.com is not accessible in China. Fortunately I discovered that I can post to the blog through email and this post is my first test so if the post is horri ble – be patient.

Right now we are sitting at the airport in Bangkok on our way to Hong Kong. While in Bangkok we noticed a lot of protesters in the streets, all wearing red shirts. They are calling for the end of corruption in Thai politics, which seems ironic since most of them are supporters of the former prim minister Thaksin Shinawatra who him self has been charged with corruption. The protesters in Iceland can learn a lot from their Thai counterparts who are very persistent – with excellent stamina and also know how to have fun!

Last night we went out to a Shabu Shabu and sushi place for Easter dinner. Shabu Shabu is a Japanese style hot pot where you get a thin soup but can add all sorts of stuff to it – just the way you like it. They had meat, herbs, noodles, squid, fish and a lot of other unidentifiable stuff. The sushi was also good and I think we have not eaten as much the whole trip.

Well we have to go to our gate – I hope this post comes out all right through the email interface. I’ll tell you all about Hong Kong in a day or two. I’m sorry about how fragmented this post is – I’ll do better next time :)


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