The Starbucks Experience Now Available in Hengyang

Last year I saw a clear sign at a large shopping mall that Hengyang would soon have its first Starbucks.

Starbucks would offer an experience not available in Hengyang I could see people were craving, and I had little doubt this store would be a success. When I returned to Hengyang this month, the store was open.

On one Thursday afternoon, people apparently not enjoying Starbucks products occupied most of the outside space, but customers took up much of the available seating area inside.

While the store represents some of Starbucks incredible growth in China, it is also another sign of how Hengyang is changing. 

A Restaurant, Mojitos, and a Roller Coaster: Examples of Recent Change in Hengyang, China

Gaining a deeper understanding of regional variations is part of what has motivated me to examine a large number of cities in China. Gaining a deeper understanding of what can change over time is part of what motivated me to spend two months in Hengyang, Hunan province, last year and return for a look this year after 9 months away. Here, I'll share three changes I noticed which impacted personal experiences of mine. However, they touch on broader issues as well.


Somewhere Under the Bridge

The first case involves a restaurant which appeared in a subtle photo essay about an important date in Chinese history. Unlike most restaurants, it was located under a bridge.




I passed the no-frills restaurant many times last year and on a few occasions stopped for lunch.




The dishes were already prepared and kept warm while on display — no printed menu necessary. I typically selected at least one fish dish.





The prices were especially low, and typically the customers were surprised to see me eating there. One man asked why I didn't eat across the street, since he thought the food was better there. I didn't agree, although most people would consider the other restaurant to have cleaner and more upscale conditions. For me, the restaurant under the bridge had a special atmosphere — including a group of older men often sitting outside drinking baijiu during lunch.

I was looking forward to stopping by again this year. But when I approached the bridge, I felt momentarily confused. Not only could I not find the restaurant, the building which held it no longer existed.



Fortunately, Hengyang has many other restaurants, though I haven't seen another under a bridge.


Minted on Zhongshan Road

Towards the end of my time in Hengyang last year, a new drink shop opened on a shopping street that, unlike the restaurant under the bridge, was popular with youth. The shop featured mojitos — a rum-based cocktail with mint.



Most of the drinks were alcohol-free drinks, some similar to cocktails, but genuine mojitos were available. Mojitos aren't a common drink in Hengyang, or in many Chinese cities, and at an outside promotion they provided details on its non-alcoholic ingredients.



After inspecting their bottle of Barcardi rum, which was either genuine or a decent fake, I ordered a mojito for less than US $2 — hard to beat, especially since they were willing to be rather liberal with the rum. Honestly, I was most attracted by the fresh mint, something I hadn't seen in a while. I then enjoyed a riverside stroll with the drink. Unlike the U.S., in China one is free to walk around public areas with an "open container" of alcohol.

This year when I returned, I saw that the mojito shop was no more. But unlike the restaurant under the bridge, it had been replaced.



No rum or fresh mint, though. I can't say I am surprised.


Lost Tracks

In a more surprising case, I hoped to revisit a roller coaster I once compared to a historic roller coaster in the U.S. The cat & mouse themed roller coaster in Yueping Park had its charms.






As I approached the roller coaster walking on a winding path up a hill, something seemed amiss, and I briefly wondered if I had taken a wrong turn. I then realized the location for the roller coaster was now covered with newly planted trees.



Perhaps the park wanted a more natural look. The rooster and chicken walking around the edge of the area weren't talking. I would never ride a roller coaster here again, and I couldn't even drown my sorrows with a mojito.

Other changes in Hengyang also caught my attention. In some cases, the changes reflect issues which extend across China. I will share more examples of change and also some of what hasn't changed in later posts.

Chilling a Chongqing Beer

One night at a slightly upscale restaurant in Chongqing, I ordered the Chongqing Brewery Company's Shancheng Beer 1958 (9.5°), partly because I didn't recall trying it before. Many people in China are content to drink beer at room temperature (whatever that may be), so I made sure to ask for a cold bottle. They didn't have one, and I said a regular bottle was just fine.

Several servers were intent on serving me a cold beer though. After they discovered I was not interested in adding ice to the beer and saw me explore another possibility with the ice now at my table, one server took back the bottle of beer. Despite my insistence that they really didn't need to worry about it, a few minutes later this was at my table:

The restaurant's effort was most appreciated. I don't think a beer that one reviewer described as having the taste of "grainy malts, plastic, cardboard, grassy hops and some light citrusy notes" could ever look better.

A Day's Journey by Air, Bus, and Rail in China

Similar to the recent dinner I had on an overnight train, the meal I consumed on a plane today will not enter my top ten list of meals I have enjoyed in China.

The flight attendant told me the meat was chicken, but it didn't seem like a poultry substance. I am not sure what it was, but it reminded me of yak meat. The wet wipes had a nice smell and were made in Xinjiang.

I feel fortunate that my nearly three hour flight did not feature anything similar to one of the "flying China-style" problems which seem to often make the news these days. In other words, the flight was not delayed, no flight attendants were violently attacked, and no passengers attempted to open the emergency exit door for fresh air. Way to go, team.

The end of the flight did feature something I commonly experience when flying in China and which does not thrill me. Despite numerous open gates at the airport, the plane did not park at any of them, and instead we had to take a bus from the plane to the airport terminal.

Once off the jam-packed bus, I considered the architectural style of the airport concourse.




After that, I was excited to be back in a city I hadn't set foot in for almost exactly 6 years. Rail was not an option for traveling from the airport before, but it was now.



Since the monorail train, which soon filled, traveled above ground most of the time during my hour-plus trip, there was ample opportunity to look around at the city and marvel at its size.

I paused to soak in one scene when I was switching train lines.

Not long after that, I was able to put the plane's mystery meat behind me by diving into some appropriately numbing and spicy local food.

That was definitely fish.

Some savvy readers may have figured out my current location in China, which is far from Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Beijing. For others, I will provide one last clue: the beer which accompanied my outdoor dinner.

More soon about a fascinating hilly city where I have already noticed a tremendous amount of change since my last visit.

A Good Strong Mix

One of today's discoveries:

Swiss chocolate with too much cocoa pairs excellently with Belgian beer with too much alcohol.

Cheap Milk Tea in Hengyang

Black Tide in Hengyang sells inexpensive milk tea, but a street vendor near a Hengyang elementary school sells it more cheaply at only 2 RMB (about US $0.33).

I tried the taro flavor. It didn't compare to Black Tide's milk tea, but, as the vendor's customers likely appreciate, it is hard to beat the price.

My Fourth of July in Hengyang, China

If I had been in Beijing, Hong Kong, or Shanghai on July 4th, I would have had many well-suited options for places to celebrate America's Independence Day. Off the top of my head, I can also easily think of such places in other Chinese cities such as Changsha, Kunming, Nanning, Xining, and Zhuhai.

However, enjoying a bit of American spirit proved more challenging in Hengyang, Hunan province, and required some improvisation.

My attempts during the evening to find proper American-style food not from a fast food chain restaurant were not fruitful. But a beer at a cafe caught my eye, and I decided to drink my first American Budweiser in a rather long time.

Unlike Zhuhai, I have yet to see anything approaching a hoppy beer in Hengyang.

Not by design, I later continued the beer theme and picked up a Pabst Blue Ribbon World War II memorial beer with an explicit US military theme.

I first saw this beer in far away Changchun 4 years ago, and I still would like to speak with the team who designed the can.

At the same supermarket, I picked up another item. The BBQ steak flavored Pringles definitely had much more of a taste than the beer despite lacking a military theme.

I wasn't sure how I could properly followup beer and potato chips. When I saw a Dairy Queen the answer became obvious—an Oreo Blizzard.

I was now ready for the main meal. I thought my best option would be another supermarket where hopefully I could buy ingredients to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But by the time I arrived it had closed.

So I gave up on avoiding fast food and headed to KFC for some fried chicken to wash down the beer, chips, and ice cream. Protein, grains, vegetables, and dairy—a good American diet, right?

After waiting in something approximating a line at KFC, the server explained it would be another 30 minutes until the fried chicken was ready. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there is something incredible about that.

Whatever the case, I didn't want KFC that much.

I decided to call it night. The earlier delights combined with a long walk in extremely muggy weather had decreased my appetite anyway. But later I noticed a store with a selection of foods similar to the Bart Simpson themed snack store, so I picked up something to top it all off—Filipino coconut water and Chongqing spicy peppers.

I just pretended I was enjoying freedom water and freedom peppers.

A Numerical Bart Simpson Snack Store in Hengyang

A local chain store with a notable sign in Hengyang, Hunan, sells a variety of snack foods, many imported.

The use of Bart Simpson's image on the sign raises the common issue of trademark and copyright infringement in China. And the store's name, 527 零食汇, highlights how technology has influenced the use of numbers in Chinese language. In Chinese, the numbers 5-2-7 are a near-homophone for the phrase "I love to eat". Combined with the first two Chinese characters, the sign reads "I love to eat snacks". For more about how technology has influenced the adoption of numbers for expressing Chinese language, see the piece "The Secret Messages Inside Chinese URLs".

I took a quick look inside the store. I didn't see any snacks I wanted at the time, but due to the hot weather I was especially happy to pick up a brand of bottled water I would not expect to find in Hengyang.

Vita bottled water is from Hong Kong and, like other products from the Special Administrative Region, would typically be considered an import. I doubt I could distinguish it in a taste test, but, like the image of Bart Simpson, the branding connected me to a far away place.

Wi-Fi and Notes in a Hengyang Black Tide

Admittedly, it was the name of a cafe on Changsheng Road in Hengyang, Hunan, which first caught my attention.

But I have returned to Black Tide (黑潮) several times due to its decent inexpensive iced milk tea and the friendly woman who has been working there anytime I have stopped by.

When there, I have seen a mostly younger crowd. Sometimes they are using a piece of modern technology, whether a laptop ...

or, more commonly, a mobile phone, useful for taking advantage of Black Tide's free Wi-Fi.

And sometimes they are writing messages on colored paper to publicly post there.

Free Wi-Fi, mobile devices, and colored notes with customers' messages can be found in many other cafes in China. This mix reminds me of issues and questions I earlier discussed regarding the value of looking at people's offline world when conducting user research for online services.

And it shows, like a reading protest in Thailand (related AP report), how paper can still matter in a high tech world.

A Very Short "Taiwanese or Thai" Beer Quiz

In response to my post about Metro Vancouver incorrectly claiming there was a coup in Taiwan, I have seen many people comment elsewhere that, like me, this wasn't their first time seeing or hearing someone confuse Taiwan with Thailand. So I will now present a brief beer quiz that may be useful for helping raise further awareness of the Taiwan / Thailand distinction.

Question 1 (no time limit): Is Mystery Beer #1 a Taiwanese beer or a Thai beer?

Mystery Beer #1

Question #2 (no time limit): Is Mystery Beer #2 a Taiwanese beer or a Thai beer?

Mystery Beer #2

I will refrain from providing the correct answers. If you need, ask a friend familiar with Taiwan and Thailand to score your responses. I can't offer any prizes for acing the quiz but, if they are available where you live, feel free to treat yourself to a Taiwan Beer or a Chang Beer to celebrate. You are also welcome to provide your answers in the comments section. Perhaps of more interest, though, would be your answer to a deeper question:

Which beer would you choose?

And this concludes today's (and possibly this year's) tests here.

Scorpion Bowls: A Great Drink to Pair With Chinese Food?

In a food-related post, a friend of mine in the U.S. yesterday mentioned having a scorpion bowl. I have eaten scorpions, but, knowing my friend, I guessed no actual scorpions were involved. The name sounded familiar, and I found a recipe online for what seems like a rather strong and fruity alcoholic drink. I read the accompanying description:

Routinely found at Chinese restaurants, this punch-like cocktail is absolutely mouthwatering. This goes great with Chinese and Polynesian food.

After a few moments of thought, I assumed the writer was specifically referencing American-style Chinese restaurants in the first sentence. I have never seen this drink served at a Chinese restaurant in China, which I feel safe saying has the largest number of Chinese restaurants in the world, and I am highly skeptical it is common here. Yet another site claims the cocktail is "now served in Tiki bars and seedy Chinese joints around the world". "Joints" is broader than "restaurants" and "seedy" could be an important qualification. Perhaps I would find something different if I frequented a certain category of KTVs, clubs, and bars in China. However, if I wanted to find a drink like this in China, some more upscale Western-style bars not found in most cities would first come to mind.

The second sentence in the description is what most caught my attention. I questioned how a single drink could "go great" with everything from tongue-numbing Sichuanese dishes to sweeter and less pain-inducing Shanghainese food. I would expect that such a versatile drink would pair well with much more than only Chinese and Polynesian food. Again, I quickly assumed the writer had typical American-style Chinese food in mind. The diversity of tastes would be narrower than the full range of Chinese cuisines. Still, a presumably strong-tasting drink that complements everything from moo goo gai pan to pepper steak? That is probably more likely if one is well into their scorpion bowl before eating.

More than any purely edacious or potatory influences, I wonder if the "goes great" simply reflects an association of this drink with a subset of American-style Chinese restaurants in the U.S. The drink reminds me of a Chinese restaurant which was near my alma mater in Baltimore, Maryland. I don't recall whether scorpion bowls were on the drink menu, but one could order similar cocktails with liquor and fruit juices, such as zombies. More important to some students under the age of 21 than the exact drinks offered, this particular restaurant rarely asked for ID when cocktails were ordered. The students probably wouldn't argue that the drinks went great with Chinese food.

A Return With an Outdoor Cafe Scene

Here are two people sitting at an outdoor cafe in the middle of a pedestrian shopping street in Zhanjiang's Xiashan district:

On an unrelated note, I finally have usable Internet access once more and expect to be returning to a relatively normal state. So of course that means posts about a big boat, mud worms, and mobile phones are all on the way.

Supernaturally Good Bottled Water in Zhanjiang

Va Kin spring water, which uses the name 画景  in Chinese, is from the county-level city of Leizhou in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province. Earlier today in Zhanjiang's Xiashan District, I noticed a large outdoor advertisement for Va Kin in a central shopping district:

I'm not sure why the ghost coming out of the television screen is so interested in bottled water, but the text helpfully recommends giving her the water and points out you can simply buy another at a store. That may seem reasonable, but, personally, if a specific brand of bottled water attracted this type of attention, I would consider buying something else next time. I also know something else I would do.

The OMG Bar in Yangjiang, China

One day while walking around Yangjiang in Guangdong province, I noticed a bar with an unusual name.

Later, without making any comment I showed the above photo to several young Yangjiangers of drinking age. They all recognized that "OMG" is an abbreviation for "Oh My God", and most thought it was a creative and good name for a bar.

I don't have anything deeper to add at the moment--just a "and now you know" post.

A Brief Return To Zhuhai and a Longer Return to Mainland China

After arriving in Hong Kong over a month ago, I took advantage of an opportunity to learn more about the city and its people. More than two weeks ago, I departed, and after a hour-plus ferry ride I arrived in Zhuhai, Guangdong province. I continued to blog about Hong Kong since there was still much I wanted to share.

I noticed a few changes in Zhuhai since my previous visit last year, such as my favorite place for Wuhan-style noodles tripling in size ...

The restaurant's name includes "Sichuan" and the name of a another dish, but they still have a decent Wuhan regan mian.

... and the addition of countdown timers for pedestrian crossing signals at an intersection where I previously encountered much noise and dust.

No gravel blowers were in sight this time.

I also returned to one of my favorite places for a late night meal, where the owner continued to display his penchant for mumbling about my taste in beer. My stay in Zhuhai was brief, so I didn't have the opportunity to treat him to one of the craft beers for sale there.

But I didn't come to Zhuhai for beer, and the locally produced Haizhu beer I drank elsewhere was enjoyable in its own way.

The logo is based on a famous statue in Zhuhai.

While more about Hong Kong will likely appear, I don't expect to say much more about Zhuhai, featured in numerous past blog posts. I already left there to visit several Chinese cities which are new to me and unknown to most people outside of China. The journey provides an opportunity to return to several old themes and start some new ones.

Much more soon ...

Food vendor taking a rest in Zhuhai

Zhuhai Gets a Little Crafty

Hong Kong was not the only place I have had a positive beer-related experience in Southeast China. One day late last year in in nearby Zhuhai, Guangdong province, I went to a Carrefour, a French hypermarket chain, and saw this in the imported foods section:

Although Zhuhai has an October Beer Street Festival, finding American craft beers from brewers such as North Coast Brewing, Rogue Ales, and Saranac was shocking and a stark difference from anything else I had seen in Zhuhai or any other comparable Chinese city.

I wasn't planning to remain in Zhuhai much longer, so I didn't want to buy too much from the imported foods section. But that didn't stop me from leaving Carrefour with a few select difficult-to-find-in-Zhuhai essentials.

The beer was room temperature, but the staff at my hotel agreed to chill the bottles after they took photos of them. Later that night, I enjoyed a cold Saranac White IPA at a favorite late-night outdoor eating establishment.

It proved to be an excellent mix. Saranac, a beer friends tell me is difficult to find in parts of the U.S., never tasted so good. One side effect, though, was that it left an unintended impression on the owner/cook. To this day he disapprovingly mutters to himself about me thinking American beers are better than Chinese beers if I don't order a Tsingtao beer from him, even though I never again brought my own beer.

Maybe next time I will treat him to a Saranac so he can decide for himself. It might even inspire him to start selling it and save me from making a trip to Carrefour*.



*It would be another surprise, but one can dream.

Hong Kong Gets Crafty

After reaching the bottom of Hong Kong's convenient Central–Mid-Levels escalator and walkway system one day, I saw a man holding a sign.

I froze. Although Shanghai and Beijing have seen their craft beer scenes notably improve in recent years with places such as the Boxing Cat Brewery, Hong Kong had seemingly been left behind. This man gave me hope things had changed.

The man confirmed that HK Brewcraft sold craft beer in additional to brewing supplies and said the store was nearby. Having walked around the area on a number of occasions, I was surprised I could have missed it before. It turns out it is not so easy to notice--one of the reasons he was standing there with a sign. So he kindly escorted me to the street underneath the lowest level of the escalators.

And we entered a building.

After walking up one floor of stairs to an elevator (the elevator does not reach the ground floor) and taking it to the fourth floor, I met his son and store founder Christopher Wong.

His Washington Huskies shirt gave me hope our tastes would share some common ground. I took a look at their area for classes.

I also perused their selection of craft beers from around the world.

After enjoying a couple of tasty, hoppy beers I had never tried before, they recommended I visit a not-so-far-away bar to try a locally brewed beer. So I headed back up the escalators and found The Roundhouse - Taproom. Once there, I basked in the sight of their 25 craft beers on tap.

But I had come there for something specific, a beer from a new brewer in Hong Kong--Young Master Ales.

I chose their Island 1842 Imperial IPA and was not disappointed. Good hoppy stuff.

HK Brewcraft, The Roundhouse - Taproom, and Young Master Ales are all relatively new to the Hong Kong scene, and together with some others they mark a significant change that will make my stays in Hong Kong all the more pleasurable. I could opine further, but for more see a recent article on Time Out Hong Kong about "The Rise of Hong Kong's Brewing Scene". Apparently I'm not the only one enjoying the change.

I'm glad I saw Mr. Wong holding that sign.