exploring
Guilin Day 1: Hostels, the Lijiang River, and the Zhengyang Pedestrian Street
My trip to Guilin last week was a total success! We saw some amazing things out there, and this is what I saw on my first day. After having got off the train (Check my last week’s post Riding a Chinese sleeper train from Shenzhen to Guilin in China) I took a motorcycle to my hostel, the Sky Palace Hostel in Guilin. I checked in and I had to wait a couple hours for my room so I had some western breakfast.
After having some breakfast, I was able to check into my room. I was alone for Day 1, so I stayed in a shared hostel room for only 45 RMB a night (USD $6.78) which was a total steal.
In fact, no one even checked in for the rest of the day and I had the room completely to myself! The cheap hotel fad would soon be over since my girlfriend arrived the next day, but I was still very happy. After taking a shower I headed out to get some food. I ate some Guilin noodles for lunch (Which will be in a future episode of my show, Ian’s Journeys) and then I decided I would like to check out one of the main attractions in Guilin, the Lijiang River. It was very near my hostel, so I took a walk (In the sweltering summer heat – Guilin absolutely does NOT have pleasant weather in the summer – very hot and humid) down to the river bank.
The river was quite breathtaking. The river stretches down hundreds of kilometers and passes through various towns – and you’d better believe we toured the river – which is coming in future blog posts/videos. All day you can watch different boats and fishermen trying to catch some river fare. After checking out the river, I returned to the hostel to enjoy a beer and take a break from the heat. I went out a few hours later and checked out one of the main tourist areas, the Zhengyang and Zhongshan walking streets which are home to tons of shopping and spots for street barbecue!
After checking out the pedestrian walking streets, I stumbled upon a familiar face: The king of burgers…
I couldn’t help but justify a burger meal since I was on vacation as I do love my western food!
Later that night, I went to the bar at my local hostel and enjoyed some beers with the locals and had some pizza.
Then, it was off to bed as I had to wake up quite early the next morning to greet my girlfriend, Maggie who was coming in on the sleeper train. The Guilin adventure was just beginning! Make sure to check out the video of this trip, one of my best produced yet, right at the top of this page and on my YouTube channel! Make sure to like and subscribe if you haven’t yet, and let me know what you think in the comments!
Kung Pao Chicken and Ox Tongue: Spicy Sichuan flavor feast!
Living in China affords access to all of the culinary wonders that is Chinese food. China has many provinces and each one has their own special types of cooking. Sichuan food is renowned for being very spicy and that is just like the meal we had today at a traditional Sichuan restaurant located in the Longgang metropolitan area of Shenzhen. It’s located at the corner of Longping W Road and Aixin Road in Longgang.
It is a very beautiful restaurant There’s even a coy pond with fish swimming around! It’s quite a sight. This is some of the delicious food we had:
The first dish we had is what we know of as Kung Pao Chicken back home, or 宫保鸡丁. This is chicken meat along with peanuts, dried chiles, and leeks fried in a high heat wok covered in a sweet and spicy sauce. This dish is absolute heaven. A lot of Chinese dishes have bones but this is the few that actually use pure chicken meat with no bones. The meat was soft and moist and literally falls apart in your mouth. The leeks give a nice onion essence and the chiles give it some serious heat. This dish is actually one of my favorite Chinese dishes ever, hands down. The next dish we had was a bit different, but still spicy as hell!
So this dish is called Fu Qi Fei Pian (夫妻肺片) which is sliced beef with ox tongue over a spicy chili sauce. This dish was served cold, but it sure is spicy hot! The tongue is nice and chewy which I really like and reminds me of tripe. It’s covered in a citrus style spicy chili sauce that compliments our other dish very well. Coupling a bite of tongue with the thinly sliced beef is a match made in heaven as you have chewiness mixed with moist tender beef.
So from tomorrow for the next week I will be traveling to Guilin from Shenzhen by sleeper train (It’s about a 13 hour train ride and I will be exploring much of that beautiful area! My blog probably won’t be updated for at least one full week, but when I get back, expect lots of interesting new Asia content! Don’t forget to check out this week’s Sichuan food meal, below:
Walking around Chungking Mansions in Hong Kong
So this last weekend it was time to do a visa run for our mainland China visas, so I went with a friend to Hong Kong for a day trip. We crossed the border at Louhu Station in Shenzhen into Hong Kong and planned to hit two destinations that day: Chungking Mansions (The Indian district of Hong Kong) and the Temple Street Market (The most famous street market in Hong Kong.)
From Lo Wu station, we went all the way to Kowloon Tong and transferred to the green line to Mong Kok. Then we transferred again to the red line and got off at Tsim Tsa Shui where Chungking Mansions is located. Upon arrival, we were bombarded with Indian men trying to sell us drugs. Over and over I kept hearing “Hash? Cocaine? Marijuana?” it was a pretty funny experience. We knew we were in the right place. Chungking Mansions is where I come in Hong Kong to buy all sorts of interesting things that can’t be found in mainland china. Mainly, I buy authentic Indian curry paste so I can make curry dishes like in Indian restaurants at home, and I also buy pinto beans so I can make refried beans (For some reason, pinto beans are just nonexistent in mainland China.)
Inside Chungking mansions we did a walk around which I filmed and found some amazing Indian food and some pretty cool deals. You can also get the cheapest hotels in Hong Kong in this area as well. I really love going to Hong Kong, because it’s such a culture shock compared to mainland China. It is really the feeling of being in a more developed country, instead of all Chinese people you truly see a mixing pot of people just like in America. I love it.
Here are the things I got from Chungking Mansions that day:
3 cans of authentic Indian curry paste: tikka paste, tandoori paste, and butter chicken paste. I can’t wait to try cooking with it at home! I also visited the Temple Street Market that day, and I will have a walk through video with the bargains I got coming next week!
Take a look at part one of our Hong Kong day trip below at Chungking mansions! Don’t forget to subscribe if you enjoy the video!
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