Today was another travel day, up at 7am for an early exit from the city and onto another four-hour bullet train. It is crazy how much of China we have managed to cover in just one week. You can really tell from the change in scenery outside the train window, as we are starting to see many more rice paddies and even a few small villages with no high-rises in sight.
For the first time, we are also seeing a lot more children about. It is probably because it is a Sunday, but all the kids we come across seem fascinated by these “big nose people,” as our guide Michael calls us. I always smile back at the inquisitive faces. While on the train, I made friends with a three-year-old through a fierce competition of waving and sticking our tongues out at each other. Her parents seemed quite keen to interact with us too. They asked for photos with their daughter and even sent her over with a bag of baked goodies to sweeten the deal. As if I would have said no to a photo before, but definitely not now with snacks involved. After we had our photos taken, we tried the coconut balls, chestnuts, and a type of walnut bread that the dad explained, via Google Translate, was made in their village. Everything was very tasty, and the family seemed pleased when we shared the treats around our group. A few stops later they got off, following many rounds of goodbyes and blown kisses from my new little friend.
The rest of the trip was uneventful. We arrived at the hotel around 2pm and headed straight out for a tour around the city. We were taken to see a famous statue of Mao in the old town, where Michael treated us to a local snack of rabbits head, that of course I was the first to try!
After, we headed to the People’s Park for a wander. The park was absolutely jam-packed with life. It was almost overwhelming, with stalls selling arts, crafts, food, and pretty much anything else you could think of. There were groups dancing, people singing, bands playing, tea drinkers chatting, checkers players concentrating, and others practicing calligraphy. It was so lively and fun to walk around.
My favourite part was the dating profiles. There was a fence filled with hundreds of dating applications, alongside a few mothers holding actual billboards advertising their single children, conveniently colour-coded by sex with phone numbers provided at the bottom. It was fascinating to walk along and read them, with the generous help of Google Translate, of course. Alongside the wall sat a row of fortune tellers, ready to guide singles toward their future matches using palmistry and psychic readings. We spent some time taking it all in and picked up a few art prints to take home before heading back toward our hotel.
Michael had previously pointed out a local noodle place near our hotel and recommended we try the food, especially their dessert. It was closed when we walked past at 5pm, but when we peeked through the window, we saw it was actually Michelin-recommended several years in a row. We decided to drop off our purchases and head straight back at 5:30pm when it reopened.
We had not realised quite how popular it was. We arrived at 5:30pm on the dot, and there was already a queue. We joined the line, moved up quickly, and had to make a split-second decision on our food after catching a glimpse of an English menu for all of five seconds. I went for the Dan Dan noodles, a mix of pork, peanuts, spring onion, and Sichuan pepper. Adam went for a squid and chicken soup, and we shared a side of chopped chilli and cowpea wontons. Boy, did it deserve the awards. It was delicious and easily knocked the Chinese burger off the top spot to become both of our favourite meals of the trip. I was very tempted to order a second bowl of Dan Dan noodles, and only the massive queue outside stopped me.
We did, however, try some of the recommended dessert that Daniel, who joined us for dinner, had ordered. That brought us right back down to earth. Adam declared it the worst thing he has eaten in China, and I was not a huge fan either. I was hoping for something sweet after hearing the word “dessert,” but the tofu jelly and red bean paste was not particularly sweet at all. It mostly tasted like plain soy and gritty beans. Safe to say we will definitely be back to the restaurant, but we will probably skip dessert next time.
Tomorrow we will hopefully be seeing some giant pandas! We will tell you all about it soon.
Love, Alice x