We arrived in Nanchang on a cool misty morning. The McDonald's breakfast we got upon arrival was a little disappointing. I thought the breakfast sandwiches would be served on English muffins like they do, but instead I got a cheeseburger with an egg on it. We went back to my place afterwards feeling more unhealthy than we had before we ate. I seem to forget this whenever I'm about get McDonald's again. Anyways, we were tired and just chilled out in my cold apartment watching American Psycho, followed by American Psycho 2: All American Girl, which I wish I could erase from my memory. One of those films that should just not have been made.
Chilling at my place was a pretty common theme during Mike's visit. Our hiking plans kept getting delayed because we'd spend our nights out at the bars and the clubs having a wicked drunk time, where the next morning would be spent sleeping, and the next afternoon would be spent watching some sort of DVD and talking about hiking the next day. This went on for several days. Jess wasn't all that thrilled since she had come up with the hiking plan. I guess the only bright side to not going hiking was that the weather was crap. Nanchang winters can be nasty. But the nights out weren't to be regretted. Mike was a big hit with the lady clubbers of Nanchang.
He went back to Beijing after about five days or so. Jess and I then had a couple days to ourselves. Afterwards, I headed over to Changsha with Dmitri, just to try it out and see what there was to see. It's only a few hours away afterall. Turned out to be a pretty great city. For one, I like Hunan food. Changsha has a reputation for its cuisine. And its street food should not be left out of this. I've never had any interest in trying chou doufu (stinky tofu). I've smelt it enough times to know I wouldn't want to taste it. Imagine a yak defacating on another yak that happens to be dead and decaying. That's what comes to my mind at least when I've passed a chou doufu vendor. But Dmitri is a street food enthusiest, and chou doufu is pretty high on his list. If I was ever to try it, I'd at least want the best. And Changsha is supposed to have the best. I was a little nervous at first, but I got myself an order, and wow was it good! It doesn't taste anything like it smells. That's actually just an odor from the deep frying process. The texture, juiciness, and flavor was just incredibly good. This was the black chou doufu mind you. I've yet to try the yellow type.
Changsha's street food goes beyond chou doufu. One of Dmitri's students is a local of Changsha and he was kind enough to take us around town to see some sights. One of our favorite stops was a restaurant that specializes in street food. Though not as good as the stuff you actually find on the street, it was a good introduction to everything. And we ate a lot. Our table was just about overflowing with dishes. This student also took us to another famous place in Changsha called the Window To The World. It's an amusement park aimed at children and shy couples. Not the kind of place three grown men go to for kicks. We decided on not paying the hefty entrance fee and opted to just checking out the Martyrs Park. Nice park too. Lots of cool buildings and folk activity going on. China has this amazing old generation that hangs out in parks and squares all day talking, singing, dancing, and playing games. Changsha had a lot of this going on everywhere actually. We heard our fair share of Changsha opera out and about. Seemed this city had more of this type of activity than other places I've been to. Another great locale for this is along the river right by Dufu's mansion. It's a beautiful riverside walkway that has a lot of lively streetlife activity going on.
Nights in Changsha were spent out at the bars and the clubs. One peculiar thing I found in Changsha was its beer fetish. Most any bar you go to in Changsha has a variety of imported beer that you would not find in other parts of China, even in Beijing and Shanghai. All sorts of ales, lagers, stouts, and hefeweizens. Some even come on tap. There's dozens of these bars too. Most of the ones we found were at least walking distance from the main walking street. In fact, there's two new actual "bar streets" near walking street that also don't allow automobiles. They are paved with old looking stone, giving them a charming olde time feel. We explored a few of these bars, finding the only foreign owned one. Hooligans Pub is owned by a Frenchman named Pierre who had spent most of his life in America. He made us feel right at home in his bar and introduced us to some of the other expats. Real mixed, interesting, and friendly crowd of all ages. I even happened to meet a fellow former Hampshire College student. Imagine the odds when most foreigners in China have never even heard of the place.
We also spent some time partying with some local Changsha people at the 9.Cool club. We simply walked in just the two of us and bought a bottle of vodka. After a few rounds of perudo, we were invited over to a booth by a middle aged man. They had already ordered two bottles of whiskey. He was spending his night partying with some old college classmates. All the toasting of whiskey and vodka mixed with tea got us pretty gone. After parting ways with them outside the club, we checked out a late night food place. Got our ususal ganbian tudousi and ganbian doujiao (deep fried shredded potatoes and deep fried green beans). I lost this late night meal after I stupidly took a few puffs of this cigarette a man gave me at the restaurant. I had been turning down cigs from people all night at the club, and when I finally give in, it propels the food out of my guts. Tobacco and I haven't mixed well together for a long time, which I'm quite happy with. I should just stop checking to see if it's still the case and never smoke it again.The few days I spent in Changsha were brilliant. I really like that city. Definitely wouldn't mind being posted there. It has a unique and flavorful air to it. The culture and history are deep-rooted to it. The cuisine, both on and off the street, is delectable. Hunan cuisine sort of reminds me of Sichuan cuisine, but without the numbing pepper. Really spicy, but no annoying whole piece numbing peppers. The winter weather didn't seem to be as wet and windy as Nanchang too, so another plus.
Dmitri and I got back to Nanchang late. We spent the next morning and afternoon with Will back in Liantang. We were invited over to his girlfriend's place, where her mother cooked us a feast. They force fed me pig's feet and baijiu, two things I'm not too crazy about. We spent the rest of the time playing majiang while I suffered from the baijiu burps. Later, I got a train ticket up to Jiujiang to see Jess. We had ourselves a few lazy days with some nice dinner dates here and there. Nanchang was about dead by the time we had gotten back from Changsha. Lucky for Jess, she at least lives downtown in Jiujiang. Out in the Yaohu suburb of Nanchang, businesses depend on the student population. Businesses all seemed to close up shop, as all the students went home for the holiday.
Besides the dinner and KTV birthday bash we had for Dmitri, there was really no point in hanging around at my place, and Jiujiang was getting a little boring, so we decided to head on up to Shanghai for Spring Festival eve. Jess's mom was flying into Shanghai several days after that, so we thought why not hang out in the big city and have some fun. This story will follow in my next post.
1 comments:
Aw. That's a nice picture of us.
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