Tuesday 16 October 2012

Takin' It Easy

Salutations!  It's the end of another day in Zhuhai and I'm feeling pretty relaxed.  We actually did spend a brief portion of the morning being tourists today, but for the most part it was just visiting family and shopping.  We started with a trip to the Fisher Girl Statue which is considered one of the major symbols of Zhuhai.


The name Zhuhai is composed of two Chinese characters: "Zhu" means "Pearl" and "Hai" means "Sea".  Interestingly that's the same "Hai" as in Shanghai, which means "Above the Sea".  Zhuhai's name comes from the fact that it's the point where the Pearl River meets the South China Sea.  The statue of a fisher girl holding a giant pearl is therefore appropriately symbolic.  There's an interesting legend associated with that, but rather that repeat it here I will simply suggest that you read the Wikitravel article on Zhuhai.

There is a mountain that separates parts of Zhuhai, with a lovely tunnel running through it.  After our trip to the statue we headed toward the tunnel, but got off the main road at the last minute and got onto a very small road that runs part way up the mountain to take in the view.


You can see from that shot that it's still unfortunately hazy here in Zhuhai.  I was getting a lot of that same haze in Beijing until we had a good overnight rain one night which cleared things up considerably.  Sadly a quick Google search for Zhuhai weather does not anticipate any showers, overnight or otherwise, for this week.  Oh well, sunny days all the way through are also good.

After that little offering to the tourism gods we spent the rest of the day visiting either family or shopping malls.  Euphy was loving all the great deals you can get on clothes and shoes here.  Unfortunately for me the things that I usually look for in a mall are almost identically priced to those in Canada, so there's no real likelihood of me coming home with a new camera lens or cellphone.  Also the few men's clothing stores that I poked my head into seemed to offer one of two things: spiffy collared shirts for the working man, which I wouldn't be caught dead actually going to work in, or (inexplicably) row upon row of plaid shirts.  I loved the 90s as much as the next guy, but unless I was just in a really weird mall don't expect me to come home with a whole new wardrobe.

We wrapped up the day by having dinner out with a bunch of Euphy's family.  I'm not sure what the restaurant was called, or what particular style they were serving up, but it was awesome.  We had some weird little eggs that were and absolutely terrifying shade of green but were really quite delicious cooked up with some wee little hot peppers.  There was also camel!  Never had that before now.  It was fantastic too.  I was expecting a beef-like red meat, but it was quite firm and pale, reminded me slightly of pork.  I'm not sure if that's just the cut we had or if that's typical of camel.  It was served up thinly sliced on a skewer like a kebab and cooked with some potent little hot peppers.  There were also green beans cooked with these fiery peppers, some pork intestines with hot peppers, a bun stuffed with BBQ pork and hot peppers, something that I think was chicken cooked with some really hot peppers, and this stewed fish dish which for some reason tasted really bland to me.  Can't figure that one out.

Anyway, they finished the meal with a doughy thing rolled in sugar that cut the heat, and the doctors say that I should be able to taste things that aren't peppers by Christmas.

During our shopping outing today I picked up a bottle of red wine that was produced here in China from Chinese-grown grapes.  I thought that was pretty cool and wanted to give it a shot.  I actually got to try it at dinner since the restaurant apparently had no issue with us bringing our own wine in.  Unfortunately massive sinus congestion does not facilitate wine tasting, but as far as my limited senses could tell it was pretty good.  Just kind of a typical red wine with no great standout features, though again that could just be my cold talking.  I've still got a fair amount of it with me.  Everyone grabbed a glass at dinner, but I think I was the only person that had more than a thimble-full.  I don't think that China has really established much of a passion or culture for the consumption of European-styled red wines at this point, though it could have just been my particular selection of drinking companions.

Well, Euphy's out getting her hair done and I think I'm going to kick back and enjoy the rest of that wine.  Have a good day everyone!

4 comments:

Jabbles said...

"something that I think was chicken" the joys of travel.

Have you tried to find a tailor to make you a suit? I have heard it takes less than 24 hours and the price is quite reasonable for something made just for you.

Debbie said...

Seems to be alot of peppers in the food.

I love the statue of the fisher girl. Very cool.

Colin Young said...

From what I understand the cheap, hand-made suit thing is something that's unique to Hong Kong. I watched a show on the plane where Anthony Bourdain was having one made and it was still $400. Pretty damn cheap for a custom suit, but more money than I'm willing to spend given that the suit I currently own gets worn an average of twice per year.

The peppers seemed pretty constant in the food last night, but I think that was just a particular style that we were eating. I certainly haven't seen THAT much spicy food normally.

Jabbles said...

Yeah, I guess the thought of a custom suit is neat, but not really practical for a non suit wearer.