Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall
The morning of Day 3, having dried off from my day of moisture in Hangzhou, I headed back to Shanghai’s high-speed train station. This time the destination was Nanjing (formerly known as [Read more…]
China 2015 Food Diary, Day 2
At Shanghai’s high-speed train station in the morning, I had the obligatory first croissant of the trip. (Plain, not the standard chocolate.) But it’s not because I was dying for a croissant. It was basically the only thing I could order. All of the major train stations I went to had food concessions on the upper floor. There were many fast-food type options. But I didn’t see any English anywhere. I went to a bakery, and the croissant was the only thing that I could be sure I knew what it was. So, I had the first croissant of the trip.
China, A Little History, Part 2
Yuan Dynasty
1279 marks the start of the Yuan Dynasty, declared by Kublai Khan of the Mongols. It was the first time China was ruled by foreigners. By this point, the Song Dynasty only had rule over southern [Read more…]
China 2015, Day 2: Hangzhou
After my night out in Shanghai, having arrived almost 24 hours late, I was ready to begin my first full day in China. It was also time for my first day trip. I took the subway out to the western part of the city [Read more…]
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.”
