Billy's Cities

Explore the great cities of the world!

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China 2015 Food Diary, Day 1

Shanghai is known for its dumplings, especially its soup dumplings.  Soup dumplings are filled with pork and a soupy liquid.  If you’re not careful, the soup will burn your tongue and face when you bite into the dumpling.  Everything I read told me that the best place for soup dumplings was Yang’s Fry-Dumpling.  So that was the first place I headed to upon arriving in Shanghai.  Using extremely limited Chinese and some pointing, I ordered 4 dumplings at the counter.  I didn’t see any Diet Coke, just a cabinet with bottles of brightly colored beverages.  Having limited linguistic tools at my disposal, I ordered “huang”.  In other words, “Give me the yellow one.”

Yang-s Fry-Dumpling, Shanghai, China, Asia. [Read more…]

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China, A Little History, Part 1

Ancient China Through Song Dynasty

The ancient Grand Canal, Hangzhou, China, Asia.
The ancient Grand Canal, Hangzhou.

Understanding the (quite long) history of China is helpful in appreciating its fascinating sights.  Every week while I’m sending out the pictures of my trip to China, I’ll add a post on Chinese history.  In a perfect world, I’d match up the history with the sights for that week.  But I don’t think I could quite get that to work, so I’ll just go chronologically.  Chinese civilization goes back about 10,000 years.  I’ll cover the first [Read more…]

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5 Reasons Why You Should Go To Asia

Sri Maha Mariamman Temple, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Asia
Sri Maha Mariamman Temple, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

A few people have mentioned to me that they love traveling to Europe, but they have no desire to go to Asia.  I have a brief response to that:  You’re missing out!  Sure, it’s a longer trip from the US to Asia than it is to Europe.  But it’s a completely different world, one definitely worth visiting.  Here are 5 reasons why you should go: [Read more…]

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Introduction to China 2015

Dragon Wall, Beihai Park, Beijing, China, Asia
Dragon Wall, Beihai Park, Beijing

[This post is a little long, but you don’t want to miss the pictures at the end.]

Ni hao!  Welcome to my trip to China!  Technically, it’s my trip to East China and North China.  Someday, I hope to make a trip to South China.  That would include my return to Hong Kong, the city I fell in love with while I was in the Navy many years (decades, actually) ago.  Lately, I’ve also been thinking of visiting West-Central China, home of giant pandas and spicy Sichuan cuisine! [Read more…]