beijing trip preview

ni hao from shanghai! i finally have internet access here at our hotel in the modern city of shanghai, a metropolitan port on the south eastern coast of china. my travelmates and i have spent the last 5 days in beijing seeing the sights like the great wall and the forbidden city, smelling the smells of the streets and the pollution, and of course, tasting the delicious food everywhere. it's been quite an experience and a culture shock to see so many chinese people in one place. and they can instantly tell i'm a foreigner, as evidenced by my poor chinese language skills.

but that hasn't stopped us from trying all the fantastic food available in beijing from different regional varieties in china. in our 5 days there we've had beijing, hakka, manchu, shanghai, and loads of street vendor cuisine. it's amazing what variety there is and people here LOVE food. it's not a necessity, it's a hobby. at literally all hours of the day you'll see people on the street munching on some snack, whether it be dumplings fresh from steamer baskets or skewers of meat and innards that have been braised in szechwan broth from the street vendor around the corner. it's a food lover's paradise i tell ya.

i don't have much time to blog while i'm here, but i'll be posting up a full report once i get back (and after i've gotten in a few more $14 full body 90-min massages at the upscale spa near my friend's apt). in the meantime, here's a few pictures to tide you over.

xiao long bao and dumplings from a hole-in-the-wall near lama temple.

"shrimp drowned in wine" literally. live baby shrimp in a bowl are covered with a cold wine sauce, "drowning" the shrimp until they become inactive. you then eat the shrimp, shell and all.

becca and i on a couple of the thousands of steps we climbed on the great wall. this was an awesome experience.

the famous snack street, wan fu jing, where the entire street is lined with vendors enticing you with their skewers and snacks grilled and fried to order.

bug skewers of crickets, scorpians, and some larvae looking thing. yes, this is a real picture. no, i did not try any. although becca dared me to try the fried larvae for 5 kuai (which equals about 70 cents, uh no).

fried soft shell crab on a stick!!!

a cook in the nan xiang steamed bun restaurant making xiao long bao, or steamed soup dumplings.


more to come... jia jin.