China 2013

Yup we're in Lijiang, China.

We're in Hong Kong

Yes after 4 long years we are back in one of my favourite cities on Earth. We have 4 quick nights here before moving onto Yunnan and up to the fabled Shangri La for some quality R n R.

Guangzhou – Too little time

There is really not too much I can write about Guangzhou, as we were there for only 2 nights, and only spent one full day wandering the streets of this Megacity.

It would be a disservice to say that Guangzhou was just another Hong Kong. It isn’t. They really are totally different in many ways, but being so close to each other as cross border neighbours they do have many similarities.

China Videos Part Twelve - Guangzhou

A short video of our even shorter time in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province in Southern China.

Guangxi Province - The Dragons Backbone

This was not our first visit to Guangxi province, this we did on our second visit to China 7 years ago. Unlike some of the other provinces we had visited on this trip,  Guangxi is one of the most touristy areas, but even though it gets far too many tourists for its own good, there are still some stunning areas of natural beauty that have not been spoilt.

China Videos Part Eleven - Ping'an

Ping'an in the Longji Rice Terraces or the Dragons Backbone in Guangxi province is the most visited village in the area, and with good reason. The walks and views from the vantage points are breath taking, during the high season you will be jostling for space amongst all the day trippers from Guilin, but it's a small price to pay for such beauty.

China Videos Part Ten - Dazhai

A short video of the small, but relaxing hamlet of Dazhai in the Longji (Dragons Backbone) rice terraces in Guangxi, China.
This village is much less visited than its more famous neighbour of Ping'an, but it is definitely worth the extra effort to come here for a day or two. The walks around are amazing.

China Videos Part Nine - Chengyang Village

Chengyang Village in Sangjiang, Guangxi is famous for having the wonderful Wind and Rain Bridge.
The village has changed a lot since we first visited it 10 years ago, but once you walk away from the bridge area and discover the village, you do get a sense of a very tranquil place.

Guizhou Province - Xijiang, Basha and Zhaoxing

We’ve never been to Guizhou before, it’s pretty much off any tourist trail in this part of China, especially for first timers who bypass it to/from Xi’an/Guilin and vice versa.

But it is defiantly well worth a detour. It’s one of the poorest provinces in China, roads are bad and poorly maintained, villages are far apart and a little isolated. But this makes the end result so much better. Plus there are a lot of minority villages here, which was the whole reason for coming.

Our wonderful hosts saw us off at the kind of bus stop in Hongjiang for the one hour trip to Huaihua, where we caught the train to Kaili, laden with fruit and warm goodbyes we were ready for our next adventure.

Luckily in Huaihua, we had enough time to grab some noodle soup from a small eatery close to the station. As with a lot of cheap places in China, they were using the same thin mass produced and cheap rice noodles. Not so yummy, but the stocks were always good.  As with everywhere in the world, food around train stations is nothing to write home about, but I am a people watcher and these places provide me ample opportunity for me to indulge in this past time.

When we first went to China over 10 years ago I don’t remember the shear quantity of small eateries that there are here today, or maybe I just never paid as much attention to it as I do today. But I’m happy for it.

There is nothing special about Kaili, apart form it is a good base for visiting the minority villages in the area.

It does however have an awesome night market, which thankfully stretched up the street adjacent to our hotel. This was a good place to get some cheap eats and watch the world go by. We ate well that night.

The journey to Xijiang, one of the largest Miao villages in China is pretty amazing. Roads that wind their way up and down and around mountains, giving you excellent views of the countryside below, as long as you don’t suffer from car sickness that is.

The inhabitants of this village or small town have made a very good job of restoring parts of the village, although a simple stroll from the main clean street will bring you to the real Xijiang.

Just wandering around the less developed part brings up many surprises and we met many a lovely person, who were probably wondering why two foreigners were in this part of town when everyone else was down below in the nice clean part.

Surrounding the village are rice fields and rivers, which mean that food is in good, supply here.

Guizhou is not known for its culinary delights, but it does have a sour fish soup called Suantangyu (酸汤鱼).

Quite by chance we managed to try this here at a small eatery on the main street. Quite by accident we had two perfectly innocent fish killed for our enjoyment. The chef even brought them through the front of his small joint to show us, still wriggling in the blue plastic bag before he knocked them on the head and begun chopping them up for the pot.

Suantangyu is basically a hotpot with a sour stock. The fish were already simmering away in the cauldron of fire when it was brought to our table, and we only had to add the other ingredients as and when required. Rice was served separately and made a great vessel for soaking up the delicious stock.

It wasn’t the best meal we had on this trip but it was one of the more interesting ones, the sour notes of the stock were from the tomatoes and were rather a surprise. I’ve never used the good old tom as a souring gent before. Interesting.

Xijiang like other minority villages include in the entrance fee a cultural performance. This one was really like no other except this particular group of Miao have a very bizarre duck dance. Sadly I do not have any video evidence of this, a shame as it was really funny. But with them grabbing people from the audience to make fools of them, we left pretty quickly, as being the only two non Chinese we knew where this was heading. I found a video of a similar thing here. Enjoy.

The road trip to Conjiang was long and dull. We followed the river, but passing through what seemed like an endless building site for 6 hours was not very fun at all.

Basha itself is an interesting village. It’s only 7km’s uphill from Conjiang, but it could be several centuries away.

It’s an amazing place, the people still live and dress as they have always done. They are clinging onto their culture here with full force. Thankfully.

With luck we met up again with a Chinese couple on the bus, who we met in Xijiang briefly. For the life of me I cannot remember their names, but they were pretty cool, except he had this thing that he didn’t like westerners because we called Tibet, Tibet and not Xizang, as it is called in Chinese. But apart from that we were aok. They were to be our translators for the next few days. And boy were we glad to have them.

They basically found us all somewhere to sleep and had arranged dinner for us as well in a simple hostel in the village.

Today another animal bit the dust before our very eyes. This time a chicken. I’m pretty sure it knew it was getting to the end of its time. It must have seen some of his mates or loved ones go into the pot over the last few months, that his all was resigned to it. It was quick and I’m sure it felt no pain as the cook wrung its neck.

I cannot remember what we ate, but there were a lot of dishes all cooked in the local style we were told. The chicken tasted lovely and it had lived a good life to provide us with a good evening. It would have been proud.

Basha is one weird place. As I said it has a feel about it of being centuries old. It is one of the last remaining villages in China where the men are allowed to carry guns. The ancient rifles are carried with pride over the shoulder, although I am really not sure how effective they are these days, as I’m sure they are just for show. But this is China so anything is possible.

The village below is still how I imagined it was 100 years ago, except for the sight of electricity and satellite dishes not much has changed.

The people still wear their traditional clothes, even the men, which is a big surprise, as I’ve found it’s normally only the women who keep to their traditional dress. But not here. 

Most of the men still have their hair long as they used to have in Imperial China. It was good to see that modernization was being kept in check here.

Zhaoxing is by far the most quintessential minority village in China. The largest group are the Dong and they lead a lovely life here in this relaxing town.

The town has a couple of large streams running through it, with wooden houses and shops either side, with bridges to cross and wooden Drum Towers to see it is peace in China. If you can ever imagine such a thing.

Slowly this will change with the opening of a new motorway in the hills above Zhaoxing and several miles away a new train line is being built.

One day soon this small peaceful village will see more tourists, progress and will loose its charm, but for now it is a sheer delight.

The villages surrounding the town are well worth the hike. An hour or so will bring you to a couple of villages where the only people you will encounter during the day are the scores of children and the old people watching over them.

Zhaoxing was one of the highlights of our trip to China, not a lot happened there, but this we liked. Its minor isolation has kept the peacefulness preserved, but with everything in China today, progress is forever advancing at a furious rate.

We loved Guizhou and really want to return here one day. Not sure when that will be but soon. Next stop Guangxi.

China Videos Part Eight - Basha

A small Miao village in Guizhou. It is only 7km's from a large town, but it feels like centuries.

This is also one of the few remaining, if not the last ethnic group still allowed by law to carry guns.

China Videos - Part Seven - Zhaoxing

This was one of the most peaceful villages we visited in China and one of our favourites. It was so amazing just to wander around this Dong village.
It is miles from anywhere, not that hard to get to, but does take a little bit of effort, but the rewards are endless here. The village is famed for its drum towers which are in perfect condition.
I will follow up with a write up on Guizhou later this week. I hope.

China Videos - Part Six - Xijiang

Xijiang is the largest Miao village in Guizhou. Even though it is very commercial and a lot of things are in place for the tourists, it still remains a simple Miao village with a emphasis on rural life.

Foto Friday # 92

Outdoor eating in Guangzhou, China.

China Videos - Part Five - Kaili Night Market

We were only in Kaili for 1 night coming in from Hongjiang, and heading out to Xijiang the following morning. 

Kaili has really nothing to offer except a crap bus station that gets you to just about anywhere within the state of Guizhou. So for us it was a must. 

Thankfully next to our hotel was a brilliant and varied night market, that fed us well. Just about everything was on sale here, and we ate most of it.

There really isn't that much else to do here, but we did catch some pretty interesting noodles at a small eatery across from the bus station the next morning.

Strangely after Xijiang we had to return to Kaili to try and get to Basha, but thankfully this we did all in one day. A bloody long one but we did it.

China Videos - Part Four - How to make Mapo Tofu in less than 2 minutes

We were only in Kaili for one night, before heading up to Xijiang. Thankfully right next to our rubbish hotel was one of the best night food markets we have ever eaten at.
We ended up eating at this place, amongst others, just because of how great the Mapo Tofu looked.
I think I missed about 10 or 15 seconds of actually cooking, but it was a pretty good dish for being cooked in less than 2 minutes.
Now who said this isn't fast food.

China Videos - Part Three - Hongjiang

Sorry for the delayed upload of this video, but I've been real lazy of late. I do need to address this and get my arse in gear.
Anyhows enjoy a longer than expected video of a real gem of a town. Hongjiang.

Hunan Province – Part Three – The Hongjiang Old Town of Mr Nie.

Hongjiang was definitely the highlight of our trip to China. We’ve never thought we would go, but at the last minute we made the decision to visit the town, and thankfully we did, as it is definitely a bit of a dark horse of a town.

It’s a bloody nightmare to get there as well. It’s not even on any reasonable route, which has kept it as good as it is.

To get there we had to take a bus from Dehang to Jishou, and then a train to Huaihua, then another bus from there to Hongjiang. It’s an all day mission, but bloody well worth it.

Upon arrival we were left at what seemed like a disused bus station, which actually turned out to be the bus station. Out of season, Hongjiang does not see many visitors and everything goes quiet giving an almost deserted feel to it.

As with a lot of heritage towns in China, there is an entrance fee, which is normally anything from 50RMB to 100RMB. But to be honest I don’t actually mind paying it, as from what I can see the money is actually spent on the upkeep of the towns and does give quite a bit of employment to local people.

We were assisted by the lovely Grace in buying our ticket, who not only scorned us on our choice of hotel, by literally calling it a filthy shithole, but she even rallied round the town to find us somewhere else to stay. As I said, lovely girl.

Looking back on it, it was fate that we were to stay at the home of Mr Nie. Him and his wife were the perfect hosts. They allowed us into their home, they made us feel so welcome, that when it was time to leave, I actually didn’t want to. I wanted them to adopt me.

Hongjiang used to be a prosperous financial centre during the early Qing Dynasty, and thankfully with the policies of the now Chinese Government, making this one of the many towns to obtain help in preserving the ancient buildings, which we were told there were over 300. The home of Mr Nie being one of them as well.

The Ancient Commercial Town is like a living museum, it has a distinct character with narrow, high walled lanes all in the same grey colour. Each corner leading you into a new area to discover. We spent 2 days just wandering around wondering what it must have been like in its heyday, as these days it has a very relaxed feel to it.

As a keen photographer Mr Nie wanted to show us the best parts of his town, which he was so proud of. In fact I think all the residents are very proud of this town. Only thing is, all the residents are old. There are not many young people living there. They have left to find work elsewhere, as locally there is not much around this area.

Not only did Hongjiang surprise us with its character, but also it surprised us with some damn fine food.

Mr Nie had a big part in this as well. For dinner he offered to take us somewhere to eat. We jumped at it.

We weren’t sure where he was taking us, but we figured out it was it was his favourite restaurant. The Yao People of Hongjiang.

We thought he was going to eat with us, but it no, he just ordered for us, and then departed. We feasted well on the advise of Mr Nie.

This was one of many times that animals had been dispatched on my orders. In two days, they chopped up a fish and a duck for us.

Both dishes were cooked with a sizeable quantity of chilli, as is the Hunanese way. But surprisingly they were not scorchingly hot, it was more of a gradual build up, so you got a glowing feeling by the end of the meal.

The fish was cooked to perfection. Soft mounds of flesh falling away from the bones, and even though there were vast amounts of chilli, it was not that hot, but added a great flavour to the dish.

The duck, which we thought was just going to be a portion, but turned out to be the whole thing. It was even cooked with pork belly as well. We even met the lady who did the deed and chopped it up for us. She was mighty happy that we were enjoying her duck.

Actually it was bloody good, and when I say we had the whole duck, we really did. Even the feet and beak were on that plate.

I think this was the first time in a long while that we had lotus root, it was cooked as you would expect with chilli, but also with chives as well. Man they were good. I had not seen them for sale here in London, but maybe I am blind. Please let me know where I can buy them if anyone knows.

The other place Mr Nie took us to was his favourite noodle shop run by Mr Yang. The shop was just on the edge of the old town along the main road. It was as we’ve found out in Asia, that 99 out of a 100 places that do not look the part are far from it. This was one of those hidden gems.

He basically did two types of flat noodles, wheat or rice, plus two toppings, pork and beef. We had all combo’s are they were fantastic.

I still hanker over the pork, just unxious pieces of soft juicy fatty pork belly in a slightly spicy hot sauce. Man it was good. If this was sold in London it would rank as some of the best, and be charged at least £10 a pop, instead of the 20RMB we paid.

The other surprise the town had for us was when we finally managed to leave the lanes of the ancient town and venture into the new town.

To be honest the new town is pretty dull. At night not a lot happens, most people just wander around seemingly lost, as there didn’t seem to be a lot to do. We did witness a bust up between 2 motorists, which had a crowd of at least a hundred people watching as well. It all finished peacefully as soon as the police arrived on their mopeds. Boring.

During the day we took a stroll down by the river and discovered a whole new world. This was where everyone was hiding. The local fresh food market.

This long street with small shanty like wooden warehouses on one side, which now doubled up as tea houses for all the old folk of the town, who spent their days playing mahjong with friends, and concrete buildings on the other with all manner of shops in them.

In the middle were the market stalls, with the stallholders doing their darndest to sell everything they had to all and sundry, including us. One poultry seller was on the little aggressive side with some prospective buyers, when their first offer was put in. She was not impressed and literally scolded them for their bare faced cheek.

We found the people in this area to be some of the friendliest folk we encountered in China. None of us could communicate with each other, but they were happy to chat with us about who knows what, but a smile goes a long way.

I have a thing about markets, I love them so much, that even just wandering down them and looking brings me great joy.

You may be wondering that Mr Nie spoke English to a good level. He did not. We communicated via his laptop and google translator. A wondrous piece of software that allowed to very different people from different cultures to learn things about each other and become friends.

If any of you are in this area of Hunan, please make the side trip to Hongjiang for a day or two and enjoy the city. You may not get to stay at the home of Mr Nie, but you will experience something totally different and unique.

China Videos - Part Two - Dehang

A video of one of the most tranquil places we've been to in China. Dehang, Hunan Province.

Hunan Province – Part Two - Dehang and Egg and Tomatoes

Not a lot happens in Dehang, and I think nothing should. The locals live a very simple life. It’s mostly an agricultural area with everything from rice to pumpkin are grown in the surrounding terraced fields that surround the village.

The tourists who visit rarely stay longer than it takes then to wander around this small village and to do some of the walks that this area is famed for.

The centre of the village is used for drying the rice as it is cut in the fields around. At night after the tourists have gone, some of the locals come out onto the streets and well do nothing. An odd mah-jong table gets set up and a few people play with some others standing around watching. But generally nothing happens.

This is one of the most peaceful minority villages we have ever been to.

The countryside around the town is where it’s at. There are several walks to some beautiful scenic spots and they are really beautiful.

Strolling through the rice fields, watching the young and old toiling together cutting the rice plants and thrashing them to get the rice kernels out so the old can put them out to dry on mats in the village center.

The walks are anything from an hour upwards depending on which one you do. They are all easy, unless you are amazingly unfit and suffer a lot under the scorching midday sun.

The food in Dehang was not brilliant, in fact it was pretty average, but our landlady (who only seemed to cook for us and watch TV all day) cooked the best egg and tomato I’ve ever had.

I’ve no idea what she did, as the dining room was out back overlooking the river, whilst the wok was at the front on the street, so we never got to see how she made it. But it was bloody brilliant. So good in fact that it was one of the highlights of this trip to China.

We had it for breakfast almost everyday in China there afterwards. Some were good, some were average. None were bad, and not one was as good as the one made by our landlady in Dehang.

This dish I first had a very long time ago in Chengyang cooked for us by a couple of fellow travellers we met from Guangzhou.

We were both staying at the same hostel overlooking the famous Wind and Rain bridge, but they were less than impressed with the cooking of the hostel, that they ended up cooking all their own meals and ours as well in the end.

This dish they cooked lovingly and with great care, making sure not to over whisk the eggs and making sure the tomatoes were of a certain size and cooked to the right tenderness.

I thought at the time as I was watching them take so much care and effort over such a simple dish did kinda baffle me, but now many years later, yeah they were right.

This dish is quick simple and I have it now at least once a week. It’s best served with leftover rice to soak up that lovely sauce.

It’s the simplest recipe ever. All you need is some tomatoes, eggs and some seasoning to get yourself going. From then onwards you can add whatever you like to it, I prefer a tad of Shaoxing rice wine just to give it a little bit more flavour.

Here are a few links to some other people’s recipes and thoughts on this simple but very very tasty dish. Tamarind and Thyme, Rasa Malaysia, Wandering Chopsticks, Appetite for China and Mijo Recipes. You can also watch the video below or go to the youtube page here. 

However you cook your tomato and eggs i hope you enjoy them as much as I do. If you do have a particular favourite way of cooking them, please let me know.

China Videos - Part One - Fenghuang (Phoenix Town)

Finally I got around to putting this video together. So for you have been anticipating it, the wait is over. The ancient town of Fenghuang in all it's glory.
More videos can be found here on youtube.