China is not as scary as I anticipated. Although the censorship here meant initially I was cut off from the outside world with no access to google or social media, tonight I learnt of a VPN app which means I am now back in touch with the outside world! Phew!
I quite like Shanghai, and I haven't even really seen that much of it yet. I expected it to be much crazier in terms of volume of traffic and people, but after Vietnam I think anywhere else is quiet! I think it might be a bit of a struggle in places here, as English doesn't seem to be very widely spoken. My hotel room is palatial in size compared to what i had in Hong Kong, and the location is perfect. When I arrived I spent the afternoon wandering around People's square and shopping for jeans. I have one pair with me given most of the places I've been to have been warm, so I definitely need another pair to see out the remainder of my trip. Not that its cold in china, but it's not really shorts weather.
Tonight I went on a, surprise surprise, food tour! Like all the food tours I've been on, this was heaps of fun! It started off with arguably the most dodgy dish of the trip, which was salt and pepper snake. We watched as the chef pulled out a couple of live snakes from the tank before chopping their heads off with scissors. The bodies still squirm away for ages after the deed is done, even while the man is skinning them. The body is then deep fried and coated in salt and pepper, and you eat it just like you would a chicken wing. And it's equally tasty. I've surprised myself on this trip in terms of how adventurous I've been with my food. This was by far the most out there, but that's maybe just because I watched the process of it being prepared 😧
On the food tour I had so many dishes I lost count. We had lamb skewers, noodles, Szechuan pork, potato skewers, garlic aubergine, spicy tofu. The beer was flowing all night and we also had some 39% Chinese liqueur. I can't remember the name but it's strong as hell and cheap as chips! There were 10 of us on the tour, including a father and son from Newcastle and a group of guys from Philadelphia who were really fun. The woman who hosted the night was great and was so enthusiastic about the city and the food. They have a food tour in Beijing also so I'll definitely be checking that out!
Beijing
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