Chinese Food Culture

Anyone who knows me knows I am a big foodie. After all, loving food is part of my culture and is part of who I am. Chinese food culture is over 5000 year old and is laced into every facet of Chinese person's life.

Every dish served at a Chinese dinner table has to have good symbolism. Instead of a birthday cake, the Chinese eat birthday noodles on their birthdays. The long strands symbolize longevity. For Chinese New Year feast fish is a must since the word sounds like the homophonic word for abundance. The Chinese also love to give their dishes very poetic names (but sometimes really confusing when translated into English directly). Chicken forms part of the a good luck symbol of the phoenix, so the well known dim sum dish Chicken's feet is actually referred to as "Phoenix feet".

Meatballs are referred to as "Lion head". A Sichuan dish called "Ants Climbing a Tree" is just minced beef with bean thread noodles.

The Chinese believes the main meat ingredient of the dish will help you improve particular parts of your body. For example: eating pig's liver will make your liver healthier. In Beijing, there is a very famous restaurant named Guolizhuang (锅里壮) which can be directly translated as "Manliness in a pot". It specialises in animal penises. Yes, you read correctly. You can imagine what this body part is suppose to help you with. This is very popular with the gentleman customers.

(deer penis on a gold platter garnished with lettuce!)

When cooking an animal is important to the Chinese not to waste anything that is edible. Keeping the body of the animal whole is also very crucial. You will see fish, chicken and duck heads and feet all make it to the table along with its body. The head is not only believe to be the tastiest, but also often reserved for the eldest or most honoured guest at the table.

We even greet in terms of food. The phrase "你吃了吗？" which means "Have you eaten yet?" is equivalent of asking someone "how are you?". Instead the reply of "I am fine", you say "I have eaten." no matter what time of the day.

When I hosted my wedding rehearsal dinner last year, we had prepared just enough food for everyone. However, this was to my mother's horror: no leftover meant the guest did not have enough to eat. Having plenty of food is showing respect for your guests. Here are other dinner table etiquette/culture such as:

• must try everything (even just a little bit) on the table
• never take more than 1 item at a time
• sometimes Chinese diners will slurp their soup or burp after a meal. You can too.
• when offered the last piece in the dish, you should always decline at least 2 or 3 times before accepting it
• it is ok to answer the phone during dinner
• it is ok to stand up and reach for food
• never stick your chopsticks upright in the rice bowl (actually don't play with your chopsticks at all including air drumming)

(Photo courtesy of Xinhua)

10 Things I Love About China

Photos from my personal collection.

10. Fishing for your own lunch in rural Beijing

9. KFC the Chinese Version.

8. Outdoor Dancing (by the Bund in Shanghai)



7. Star Rated Public Toilets (this one in the Forbidden Palace is rated 4 stars)



6. Not Obeying Funny Chingrish Signs
(`Stop Climbing the Cliff`from Yellow Mountain and `Relic Protected, No Scratch`in the Forbidden Palace)



5. Roadside Fine Dining
(Best meal I ever had! Seafood District in Pudong, Shanghai)



4. Food, Food, Food and Food. All the yummy food!
(on the left are Hairy Legged Crabs and on the right is a Peking Duck Feast)



3. and food you didn`t think is edible.
(Star Fish on the left and scorpion on the right. All deliciously presented in stick format)



2. Tobogganing down the Great Wall



1. China, you are simply beautiful.

UNESCO List = My New Bucket List

Through my travels, the term "UNESCO World Heritage Site" is heard a lot. UNESCO stands for United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization. An UNESCO World Heritage Site is a man-made or natural place listed by UNESCO that significantly contributes to world culture. The list consists of 911 sites around the world. Italy might be a small country by area. With 45 listed, it is home to the greatest number of world heritage sites. Followed by Spain with 42 sites, China is in third with 40 sites. As one of the 4 ancient cultures, China's well knowns such as the Great Wall, Forbidden City and Sichuan Panda Sanctuaries made the list. Lesser known sites such as the Longmen Grottoes, Danxia, Ancient village of Hongcun and etc are usually the domestic favourite spots.

(Grottoe, Danxia and Hongcun Photos courtesy of http://www.unesco.org/)

Although a long list, I have made it my new bucket list. I even made myself an excel sheet to help me keep track where and when I have been. I will upload a copy on my website in a couple of weeks; so check back. The world is truly a wondrous place and life is too short not to explore it as much as I can.

For a complete list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites click here.

The Poverty behind the Neon Lights

Recently China just surpassed Japan as the world's second largest economy, behind United States. There are more millionaires in China than the entire population of Canada. But behind all the neon lights of progress, 468 million people still lives on below the $2 per day poverty line (PPP). PPP refers to people whose income is less than the $2 per day set by the World Bank.

The persistent level of poverty is especially evident in remote rural areas of China. Urban incomes are now more than three times higher than rural incomes. The income gap is also very wide between eatern and western China. Recent disasters in the western regions are not helping with the matter. Sichuan earthquake, Yushu earthquake, Gansu landslide and Guizhou flood have left many homeless.

Another alarming poverty trend is children, especially girls, are more likely to be poor than the elderly. According to China Real Time report: Overall, poverty rates for male and female adults and the elderly population is very close – between 12% and 13%. But poverty rates are higher among children under 16 years old: 16% of boys and 17% of girls are poor. Girls are also more at risk than boys of becoming poor.

Why is China so invested in Africa?

Leaving or arriving at the Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta Airport, you will come across an archway that is erect by the Chinese to symbolize the friendship between Kenya and China. The archway is not the most aesthetically pleasing thing in the world. In fact, it is falling apart. In Africa, the general feeling about things made in China is poor quality. I wonder why?

After my trip to East Africa, I was really surprised by China’s presence here. Driving through very rural parts of northern Ethiopia, we saw large trucks with “XXXXX Construction Company” in Chinese painted on the side and not too far away, Chinese engineers working on the road. We would often see groups of Chinese workers (very obviously not on vacation) transit in and out of airports. I even came across a large paint store named Jiangsu (a Southern province near Shanghai) and very authentic Chongqing hotpot restaurant which had a sign that was all in Chinese expect for the words “Chinese Restaurant”. I chatted with a man who was working as a mobile communications salesman in Rwanda. He was waiting for his flight back to China in the Nairobi airport. He was surprised I was on holidays in Africa and asked “what is there to see here?”

China actually invests a lot in Africa. The China-Africa Development Fund has invested nearly US$540 million to support 27 projects in Africa, which will likely lead to investment of about US$3.6 billion in the continent by Chinese companies, China's Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday.

Why is China so invested in Africa? There are two major reasons. First, Africa has a lot of natural resources. From copper to diamonds, China not only wants them, but she wants first dibs on them. China is helping Africa build roads and other infrastructures to excavate faster and better transport these resources. A third of Chinese oil is now imported from Africa.

Reason number 2, Africa is a huge market for cheap Chinese goods. In recent years, Chinese goods have been flooding the African markets. Even African souvenir t-shirts came from China which made me wonder if the zebra-head chopsticks I bought were also made in China…
Here is a good blog for you can read more on China-Africa relations: China-African the Real Story

Goodbye East Africa

East Africa is treasured with bountiful natural resources, majestic wide life, colourful culture and history. Our 3.5 weeks here has come to an end. I feel like I have seem, heard and felt so much, yet there are so much more left to be seem, heard and felt. I can't say it has been one of the easiest trip for me and must admit at times, the experience was rougher than I have originally anticipated. But this is one of reasons why we travel, to challenge and test our expectations. I can't wait to explore rest of Africa in the near future.

Sunset Massacre - A Safari Adventure!

We decided to save the best for last! East Africa is forever linked with its wild life such as lions, zebras, wildebeests, cheetahs, leopards and rhinos. After some much needed R&R in Zanzibar, we were recharged and headed out for our 4 day in the Masai Mara Game Reserve on the northern border of Kenya.

We spotted a herd of elephants less than 10 minutes after we entered the reserve.

There were countless zebras, gazelles, topis and wildebeests roaming the vast Mara grassland. We even came by the curtest baby giraffe who normally is hidden out of our sight by its mother. By the Mara River, we didn't see the great migration. However, we did see the after math. One poor wildebeest didn't make it over river and became a feast for the crocodiles and vultures.

Down the stream, we also spotted hippos napping in the sun.

Morning of our last day in Masai Mara, we visited a Masai village. The Masai are semi-nomadic people who don very colourful clothing and jewelries. Their unique lifestyle has caught the curious eyes of the world. Despite education, civilization and western cultural influences, the Masai people very much have clung to their traditional way of life, making them a symbol of Kenyan culture. Our guide Samson said the lions will not come near a Masai since tradintionally, a Masai boy becomes a man after he kills a lion. These days no more lion can be killed on the reserve, but I guess the fear still lingered.

Before coming to the Mara, we were warn that leopard was very rarely spotted during the day. Leopard catches its prey by jumping out of the trees that they sleep all day in and drags the prey as big as a Thompson gazelle into the tree. With a great digestive system, Leopard can even process meat that has rotten; so this means they will always have plenty to eat. We couldn't believe our luck when we came across this majestic spotted predator hanging out in a tree in the late afternoon hour of our last game drive.

Shortly after we left the leopard, we came across an interesting scene that looked like it was right out one of those animal kingdom documentaries. It was a pride of lions (including 4 or 5 cubs) stalking a buffalo. Samson told us normally lions would not dare to challenge a buffalo, however, it looked very old and was alone. The lions would most likely make a move after dark since the playing field would be more leveled. We watched this intense stare down for about 1 hour and had to head back since the reserve did not allow night game drive. Now we will never know what happened...

Although we didn't spot any rhinos or witness a kill, we did score very well by seeing a leopard and baby giraffe.

Beach, Sun and Much Needed R&R

After a short, but delayed (again) morning flight from Addis, we only had one night back in Nairobi to re-pack and be ready to be "shipped" out to Zanzibar, Tanzania. I must say when we landed in Nairobi again, it felt very different than the first time we landed here. Compared to Ethiopia, this capital now seemed so modern and metropolitan.

Shortly after achieving independence from Britain in the early 1960s, Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form the nation of Tanzania in 1964. Zanibar is an archipelago made up of Zanzibar, Pemba Islands, and several islets and 6° south of the equator. We landed in Zanzibar mid afternoon and took an one hour taxi ride to the resort. As we drove through the street, I was trying to take in the sights and sounds as much as can. The lines of palm trees reminded me of any beach town. Children sat in front of their mud brick houses and waved at cars going by.

The next day we hung out on the white sandy beach, swam in the crisp blue Indian ocean and worked on evening out our spotty farmer's tan. As much as I love trekking through mountain and learning new culture, but sometimes doing nothing is oh-so blissful. We also arranged a snorkling day trip to Mnewba Island area reef. Unfortunately, it was very windy and water was a bit rough, we had to cut our trip short. On the way back, we spotted several dolphins leaping around. I have never seem dolphins in the wild and this more than made up for having to deal with the rough sea.

Zanzibar's other must see is the magic of historic Stone Town. It is said to be the only functioning ancient town in East Africa. Needless to say, I didn't mind cutting my lazy days a little short to check out this UNESCO World Heritage Site. The first place we wanted to check out was the Anglican Cathedral. The church's altar stood on the location of the whipping post from the former slave market. Next to the Cathedral was a hostel and orphanage and the cellars below had been slave chambers. The dark and creepy space that one can barely stand up in use to hold up to 75 people at one time. It was unimaginable to fathom once upon a time, human beings were kept and sold like animals.

Stone Town made up of winding alleys, bustling bazaars, mosques and fancy brass-studded wooden doors. We spend the rest of the day just wandering (or getting lost) through the fascinating labyrinth of narrow streets and alleyways.

As a big fan of street food, I had to check out the Forodhani Gardens night market. It was hard to decide between skewers of tuna, calamari or even baby shark (really?) or fried plantain, samosa and wash everything down with a glass of sugar cane juice. I finally decided on a Zanzibar pizza, a greasy pancake stuffed with carrots, pepper, onion, minced meat, topped with spices and other unknown ingredients. It was really good and filling.

Holy City of Lalibela, Ethiopia

We returned to Gondar after the Simien trek and caught a flight to our last stop in Ethiopia. Lalibela was named after a king who commissioned extraordinary underground granite Rock-Hewn churches with the intention of creating a new Jerusalem for those who could not make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. It was a small town with a 30 meter wide round-about as its city centre. But its 11 Ethiopian Orthodox churches were complexly linked together via tunnels and gates, required a certified green jacket guide to manoeuvre through. We searched for such a person turn out to be a bit of a farce since everyone had green jacket if you asked.

The churches were carved downward into volcanic rock formation which meant the roof was at ground level. Insides were vibrant coloured paintings of various bible tales and icons. Majority of the churches are still in use today. In fact later in the night, a fellow traveller told us there will be some sort of ceremonial gathering tomorrow morning from 9AM to 11AM around the Bete Medhane Alem church area.

The next day we found out the gathering was to celebrate St. Mary's birthday. We arrived shortly after 9AM, there was already a large crowd dressed in their white robes. At first, priests chanted over the loud speakers at a high point next to the church as the worshippers listened on and prayed. We tried to get a little higher up view without disturbing the crowd, but ended up almost running into the priest precession coming down to bless the people below. The ceremony went on with more chanting, drumming and even dancing (actually just synchronized rocking back and forth) ! It was fascinating to people watch at a religious event like this one.

Lalibela may be rich in history and culture, but it is a very impoverished town. Our hotel was probably on route to one of the aid stations. We saw a constant flow of people and donkeys carrying large bags marked "wheat - USA Aid". Most people wore no shoes as they walked through the dusty road and children ran around the neighbourhood with torn clothes.

Trekking Through Simien Mountain Range, Ethiopia

We have arranged a highly recommended guide to take us trekking through the Simien (means "Northern" in Amheric) Mountain National Park for 3 days. This mountain range peaks at over 4500 meters above sea level. A sea level dweller, I was really glad I remembered last minute to get some altitude medication. The height also caused the temperature at night to drop down into the single digits. In fact, it even hailed during one of the nights. I had to pack my winter jacket for this June trek!

We got picked up from Gondar in the morning to start a very bumpy 2 hour drive north to the park entrance. We had to stop in the town of Debark first to meet up with our guide, cook, armed guard and pick up food supplies. Yes, we were required by the park to hire an armed guard who were all local villagers. It wasn't because the park was particularly dangerous. This provided them with a job and a chance to be involved in the protection and preservation of their land.

By early afternoon, we started our very short trek of the day. It was the rainy season in Ethiopia. We had to make it to our camp ground before the rain hit which happened everyday around 3PM. Dealing with the high elevation was much harder than I imagined. I was huffing and puffing at the slightest incline. Good thing we stopped frequently to watch the Simien baboons, primates that can only be found here. Their very human like ways were fascinating to watch. I thought they were even communicating in a form of human-like language with various tones and pitches.

The next day we had a full day of trekking. The guide told us, the rainy season was actually a great time to be here since all the greens are luscious and not too hot. We trekked by a beautiful waterfall, crossed a river in our bare feet, visited a traditional village hut and even came across a baby goat born minutes ago. It was a tiring day, but it was topped off by a very special dinner. We decided to purchase a fat sheep from a local farmer to slaughter for dinner. The cook used wild thyme found throughout the mountains as his main spice. "Benjamin" the sheep was very cute, but he was also very delicious and completely free range.

We saved the best for our last day. Imet Gogo is the promontory that peaked at 3926 meters above sea level. Although it was not the highest point, Imet Gogo offered the most spectacular and dramatic views. It actually reminded me of the flowing mountains in the movie Avatar. The cloud and fog added mystery to this less traveled part of the world.

I must say various different parts of Simien Mountain looked like it could be Yellow Mountain in China or Benbulben Mountain in Ireland or even rock formations in my current hometown, British Columbia. Over the 3 days, we covered approximately over 60 km. It was a very difficult trek, but it was extremely rewarding.