Snippets from China

 

 

For the past few weeks I left big, beautiful Canada behind to go explore big, beautiful (and crowded) China with my boyfriend. We'd been planning this trip for most of the year and it was pretty exciting to finally have it arrive.

I won't go into a long, detailed post of everywhere we went and everything we did, but I wanted to share a few of the highlights.

  After our 13 hour flight we landed in Beijing to explore the historical sites and traditional-style neighbourhoods.

The city was super safe so we were free to wander up and down the alleys finding little shops, even at night. There are still pick pockets, but violent crime is really low so we just kept an eye on our wallets and were free to go wherever caught our eye.

One of the most memorable parts of the trip was when we took a day trip out of Beijing and hiked the Jiankou section of the Great Wall. The section hasn't been renovated so the wall is the original ruin. It's a stunning area, but some parts of it are dangerous so we hired a private guide to take us along the beautiful yet safe parts.

 

We were lucky enough to a go on a clear day and the views were amazing. From one tower we were able to see all the way to the Beijing sky scrapers in the distance.

Once we reached the first tower of our hike we didn't run into anyone else until we arrived at the renovated section which is a popular tourist spot. Having the wall to ourselves was awesome, we already want to go back so that we can hike a different area

  Sadly, any calories that I might have burned were more than made up for by the constant eating that we did for the entire trip. In Beijing we ate noodles, noodles, noodles. Often when people think of Chinese food they think of rice, but the Northern part of China uses mainly wheat (noodles, buns) and also has a fair amount of dairy. The blue and white bottle on the right is a yogurt drink that was for sale all over the place. It came in a little ceramic jar that you had to give back when you were finished.

Once we left Beijing we headed to Shanghai where we made it our mission to find delicious dumplings and Shanghai street food. Those tiny eggs on a stick were fried at a stand on the street, then slathered with either sweet or spicy sauce. I'm pretty sure that they were quail eggs despite the fact that the stand had a photo of a bird that looked like a hawk. 

 

 

Beijing was a big city, but Shanghai was on another level altogether. The population is around 15 million! Considering that Canada has roughly 35 million total it's hard to wrap my mind around so many people living in the same city. The skyline was surreal....

..it just went on forever.

 

We hit up museums and popular neighbourhoods, but just walking around the city was entertaining enough. It's a mix of glittering new buildings and crumbling old neighbourhoods. Beautiful gardens like this one often had skyscrapers looming nearby.

We had to leave Shanghai with still so much more that we wanted to see and do, but we were heading to Hong Kong for the last leg of our trip. Compared to Shanghai, Hong Kong felt almost spacious.

Just when I thought I couldn't eat any more, Hong Kong inspired a feeding frenzy with it's amazing food and delicious baking. I was so in love with the cocktail buns from a streetside bakery near our apartment. I literally ate one every day and still regret not eating more of them. Soft, sweet white bread with buttery shredded coconut filling, amazing.

 

  We split our time between the city portion of Hong Kong, and the coastal sights like this fishing village...

 

..and the big Buddha in the mountains. By the time we were getting on the plane to head home I was split between being sad to go, and looking forward to sleeping in my own bed.

Now I'm back in Canada with pants that are slightly too tight and 100s of photos to sort through. So long China, and thanks for all the food!

 

Comments

[Mallory @ Because I Like Chocolate]

Wow, sounds like you had the trip of a lifetime. I would love to go to China one day, but I would definitely miss my space and fresh mountain air.

[erin @ yummy supper]

So cool, Stephanie! What an amazing trip you had. I especially loved you pix of the traditional neighborhood and the crumbling great wall. I so often think of factories and modern industrial China and it was beautiful to see the old charm.
xoxo
E

[Amanda @ Once Upon a Recipe]

Looks like a great trip packed with amazing food! Welcome home!

[TasteHongKong]

Really good to go beyond those tourist spots at the Great Wall, cool shots!

[Stephanie]

Looks like a wonderful, exotic trip . . . I'm sure the memories will help you through the long Prairie winter!

It's also funny because I feel like we lead somewhat parallel lives -- you in Calgary, me in Edmonton. At the end of summer, we both come back from the Okanagan with lots of fruit to deal with, we have the same name, and I spent much of October in Asia (Japan)!

[Ashley Naugler]

I love this post!
I've been to China and reading about your fun times just brought back all those amazing moments I had while I was there. I went when I was in my first career of teaching. Now that I'm in the pastry world I would love to venture back and see things from a whole new point of view, food wise.

Thanks for sharing!

[Stephanie]

Stephanie: That is quite the set of coincidences! Maybe we are following some sort of life path set out for Stephanies who are food bloggers...