End of September 2014, I was grateful to have the good fortune to do a short few months (relatively speaking) backpacking trip with friends and family which included China (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6), Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Singapore and Korea. I’ll be writing an 12-part series of the trip on the food that was memorable enough to have made it onto my camera.

China – Part 1

Here’s a rambling back story on how I went on this trip.

Those who know me know I’m interested in China. Those who have known me for a long time know that East Asian Studies was my backup major and that I’ve been talking about going to Red China for a long time. Not Hong Kong, not Taiwan, but the mainland aka Mao’s China aka The Motherland. Almost 10 years actually. My discovery of Gil Azouri’s breathtaking pictures of China in 2006 during my hardcore photography phase further fuelled my desire to go.

Credits to the amazing Gil Azouri.

Two years ago in 2013, I was browsing through my Facebook feed and news popped up that a freak fire accident happened in my hometown of Victoria BC where one of the victims was a childhood friend of mine. It’s one of those things where you think will never happen to you or anyone you know, but unfortunately it did. He was 26, and so was I. And that was one of the most sobering wake-up calls I’ve had that living to a ripe old age is a matter of luck and fate.

One article I read before that hammered home was buy experiences in your 20s, not things and I took that advice to heart. I’m young, healthy, largely carefree with no obligations and I’d be doing myself a disservice to not go on another adventure when I have the means to do so, especially one that I’ve been talking about for 10 years! After pitching the idea to my friends and family, my sisters and I ended up going to China because YOLO, carpe diem, and everything. In hindsight, I’m pretty lucky that I largely get along with my sisters and we’ve all seen each other at our worst. We’re not picky eaters and we speak the language and understand the culture.

So without further ado… China! Part 1 – Guilin, Yangshuo, and the LongSheng Rice Terraces.

Very briefly, we flew from Vancouver to Hong Kong, spending a night and a day there. We then crossed the border to the neighbouring city of ShenZhen. From there we flagged down an overnight bus which we took for 10 or so hours to arrive in YangShuo. I’m really trying to put my ‘food writer’ hat on right now and not my ‘adventure traveller’. But a sample of what all actually went down during the Hong Kong to YangShuo segment involved getting lost late at night with 2 hrs to spare to find our bus (seriously challenging), some scamming involved, chasing after a person with a bus ticket with 40lb backpacks on for 5 minutes, enduring terrible Chinese techno on the bus, bladder holding contests, yelling matches, and a Greyline-like coach bus with 3 rows of bunk beds jerry-rigged onto the bus. Welcome to China.

Yang Shuo. West Street. Credits to http://travel.mattmittelstadt.com/

YangShuo is a rather picturesque little town 2 hours away from Guilin. Guilin is traditionally known for the natural beauty of the Karst mountains. It really is a sight to behold and experience. Most people head to YangShuo since it’s more relaxed, more rural, less crazy. So we did just that. Bike rides around the farming villages, bamboo rafting in gentle rivers. The landscape is so famous that it’s on the back of the 20 Yuan RMB note! It’s known for some amazing climbing too, but we didn’t end up doing that. YangShuo’s development over the last 20 years has the opening of China to thank. It has become a premier tourist town with great infrastructure to support it, making it very easy to access the region.

Beautiful YangShuo. Average scenery you’ll see while riding your bike around.

Bamboo Rafting

I’m not very familiar with Guangxi food. But one thing that kept popping up was Guilin Mifen as the must try local food item. Guilin style rice noodles. I found a cool little video here describing it – actual content starting at 1:45.

That’s 2000 years of this noodle dish which is nothing short of amazing. The noodles themselves are a coarser cut. Thick. But the texture is springy, chewy and has a lot of ‘give’. It’s served with a pork based broth, with a few slices of pork. From there you put some hard boiled eggs on top, some pickled bamboo, some pickled soybeans, chives, roasted peanuts. And there you’ve got yourself a meal! How much? All for the princely sum of about 6 to 10 RMB. That’s $1 to $1.50 a bowl of delicious noodles to slurp down.

Flavour-wise, it’s pungent without being too overwhelming. But it is still clear and light enough that it is mostly a breakfast item. I’ve had this several times while staying there. Curiously enough, the best place to go to according to our front desk receptionist is a place called “No Name Rice Noodle” – Wu Ming Mi Fen. I really want some right now.

One thing I enjoyed immensely while in YangShuo which I didn’t think I ever would was Mangos. Specifically Mango slushies or whatever they are. I never really liked mangos at all growing up in Canada. It’s always tart, crunchy, and just never a pleasure to eat. I saw these mango cafes everywhere and the fruit was dirt cheap so I gave it another go. It was a mind clearing moment at how soft, fragrant, sweet and ‘mango-y’ ripe mangos can taste.

Some notable eats were at a small Sichaun style restaurant where I had some Tea Smoked Duck (Zhang Cha Ya). It is probably my favourite duck dish ever and we used to make it home, though not often since it’s incredibly labour-intensive. You marinate the duck, blanch it, air dry it, and smoke it over tea leaves; then you steam and then deep fry it. It results in a deep smokey tea flavoured duck with a very crispy flakey skin. Last time we did that, we set the BBQ on fire. Yes. On fire. It required a fire extinguisher. 🙂

Tea Smoked Duck. Zhang Cha Ya.

Slightly less notable was a disappointing bamboo steamed pork sticky rice. Yes it was steamed bamboo. Yes it was novel. Yes it had bamboo taste. But it didn’t quite hit the spot. I don’t know what I was really expecting with this one. I’ve never had it before. It is quite visually appealing though.

Bamboo steamed pork sticky rice.

I also happened to buy some Lays Chips while buying water and snacks while staying there. I love exploring local junk food. There was CHAR SIU! Chinese BBQ Pork! In theory it should’ve tasted amazing. In reality, it was really gross. You should save your money and not buy it.

There’s also pre-made ready to eat Sweet bean curd aka sweet soft tofu that you can buy as well! You can see it in the picture. I love that stuff. It’s silken tofu, sweetened. Kind of like pudding you could say.

Lays Char Siu Chips.

Yangshuo is really a gem of a tourist town. It’s a shame we had only a few days there and I didn’t take full advantage of all there was to offer there. After bumming around in laidback country we high tailed it on a roller coaster bus ride (common theme here) to the LongSheng Rice Terrances and went to Dazhai in the mountain sides. It’s about 800m above sea level and was built around 700 years ago.

Breathtaking is certainly a world that underwhelmingly describes how it looks and feels – figuratively speaking and literally speaking. Once you get to the gate, there is no way to get up to our accommodation except to walk. I gained much experience in learning how to hike small steps carrying 40lbs of stuff up mountainous terrain for an hour.

It’s supposed to look amazing like this during the growing season. But we missed it since they already harvested. This is really what we got… not so stellar but still very cool unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

Long Sheng Rice Terraces.

We stayed there overnight to go see the sunrise. It was an extremely drafty cold sleep with bugs everywhere, but the sunrise made it all worth it.

Sunrise over Long Sheng Terraces

Open air butcher market.

Food there was… interesting. It is absolutely the epitome of the local food movement. All that I ate was grown from those exact fields, same with all the vegetables and meat. There were a bunch of vegetables I’ve never eaten before with some distinct textures and tartness to it. Still good nonetheless. I doubt I’ll have the opportunity to have it again anytime soon though here in the United States. I do have to admit there is something romantic about being told that everything you’re eating is sourced from the mountains.

Another thing you should know about me is that beef is one of my favourite meats, and for the first time ever I stopped going out of my way in China and the rest of the trip to order it. Cattle raised in Canada/USA are raised solely for consumption. Cattle in China are primarily beasts of burden to work the fields, then when they get old, they get slaughtered. The beef was extremely tough and really not something I’m used to. Most dishes with meat only give you a few slices here and there. There is definitely a gap in culture and wealth here which I’ll explore later on in the series.

Stir fried tomatoes with chicken, potatoes, some beef and some roots of some sort.

Another interesting thing is feeling the reversal of Chinese inspired western foods. Here’s an omelette that I had for breakfast. Tomato onion stir fry with I think some beef in there.

Chinese omelette complete with WonderBread.

From there we went back to Guilin to board a plane to Xi’an. I wanted to take a train, but that would take 20+ hours!! The flight was only a couple hours long and much to my surprise, we were served a full meal there! I was floored. It reminded me that air travel in China is still somewhat of a luxury for a majority of the population, not your usual ‘low cost’ airfare experience. It was surprisingly decent.

Air China food.