Monday, December 29, 2003

I'm back! Here's what happened in China, in a nutshell:

1. Lived in Shanghai with Aunt, in what must be the coldest house in the Southern province of China.
2. Caught the flu despite having been vaccinated (I demand a refund!), fell miserably ill. Got better in the end though, with help from a large variety of Chinese drugs.
3. Shopped a lot, since that's really the only thing there is to do in Shanghai. (For those who don't know, the Bund, or Shang Hai Tan, refers to a belt of skyscrapers, mostly shopping malls, along the coast of the Pujiang River.)
4. Met some interesting people, including but not limited to a vegetarian Taiwanese family (my little cousin's little girlfriend's family, which also comprises 3 DGG stepsisters).
5. Went to Hangzhou and met up with Fu Qi. Xi Hu is the most beautiful place I've ever seen! I still can't believe she lives there.
6. Also went Suzhou and Zhouzhuang, which was supposedly the Venice of the East, but I can tell you it's nowhere near there (um, I hope, since I still want have my honeymoon in Venice). Suzhou was fine, but not as nice as Hangzhou.
7. DVDs! Lotsa them, dirt cheap, just below my aunt's house. And hence a late night movie almost every night in Shanghai. Interview With the Vampire was great. Turn Left Turn Right was exceedingly dumb.
8. Food! Great food in Hangzhou where Fu Qi brought us to this place with fantastic and very interesting local fare at rock bottom prices. Also specially drove up to Yangcheng Lake to eat their famed hairy crabs and those were delicious too. Really really fresh. And I tried the snails that they fed the crabs and they were also fantastic. No wonder the crabs taste so good.

Will post some photos here when I get the digicam sorted out.

-- tee @ 10:24 pm |