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Thursday, December 13, 2012

On the Bus Again in China

Due to some sleep deprivation, yesterday morning I enjoyed some coffee with my tasty xiaolongbao, a style of steamed bun/dumpling* famous in Shanghai.

Starbucks coffee with xiaolongbao in Shanghai
My way of doing "fusion"

Later in the day, I departed Shanghai not by high-speed rail, but by bus, because I hoped I would get to cross the Hangzhou Bay Bridge. However, the bus took another route, and the scenery often included the high-speed rail tracks. Oh well, at least I got to ride shotgun.

view of road and nearby high speed rail tracks from a bus in China
The bus driver was a fan of "proactive honking", a practice I have noticed more often in other regions of China.

One obvious difference from riding the train was stopping at the Xiasha (下沙) travel service center. Unlike the service center I visited on the way to Wuzhou, it did not have a restaurant "inspired" by McDonald's.

Xiasha, Hanghzhou service center
I don't think this experience justifies putting Xiasha on my list of visited places.

After arriving at my hotel in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, I asked the manager to recommend a place for dinner. He provided one and said I should take a taxi there. But I later discovered that available taxis were not plentiful at the time. So I improvised, and based on an earlier glance at a map I figured heading east would be my best bet to find a worthy restaurant. After walking for 10-15 minutes, I was surprised to see the street mentioned by the hotel manager. And about 5 minutes later I found the recommended restaurant. Sometimes it all works out in the end.

Zhuangyuan Lou Restaurant at night
A good recommendation -- Zhuangyuan Lou Restaurant

In addition to my meal, I enjoyed a bottle of Shaoxing's famous huangjiu or "yellow wine". If you like Manischewitz wine, you might love this stuff.

bottle of huangjiu in China
A good way to celebrate arriving in Shaoxing

As I walked back to my hotel, I watched a bit of night dancing at a public square.

dancing at a square in China
Earlier I saw a large group of older women dancing to American hip hop music.
Unfortunately, it was too dark to record a video.

And that's all for this light travel-bloggish post. I'm still sleep deprived but I hope to resolve that issue now. More later...


*Whether it should be described as a bun or a dumpling can be a deeply religious issue for some people. Perhaps I will touch on this debate of taxonomy and translation another day.

1 comment:

  1. MMM, I want one of those buns/dumplings!!! Yum, yum, yum. And with some of that wine. Did you pee on the bus?

    ReplyDelete