I'm writing this at work! I have a VPN at work again! It's about damn time. Now I can waste all the time I want! This is totally gonna change my blogging game. So let's waste a bit talking about the rest of my family's time here in China. Get ready for a long one!
After Ningxia it was off to Chengdu. Since my sister and I started talking about her next trip to China (a discussion that started years ago) she's been saying she wants to go see the pandas. So ever since I knew she and my parents were coming in June for my friend Rich's wedding, and ever since I started planning my event schedule for the year which included Chengdu, I made sure that the Chengdu event was the week before Rich's wedding so I could take my family there when I had to be there, and work would pay for airfare and accommodation. So that worked out quite well. The only problem is that I actually did have to work, so they were on their own for about a day, but for the most part we were able to hang out together and have a lot of fun.
We had some restaurant recommendations from my friend Jenny, who's a food blogger and chef in Shanghai, and is originally from Chengdu. So of course we tried to fit in as much as possible from her list of recommendations. We started out with awesome Sichuan noodles and a visit to one of Chengdu's main temples, which made for a great afternoon. And for dinner, we went to this private kitchen she had recommended. It's in a refurbished old building, which has been done up and redesigned beautifully into a restaurant and cafe. The restaurant only has like one or two seatings a night and serves a set menu, which I misunderstood from her info, so we walked in expecting to have dinner, then thought we were gonna get turned away. Luckily they had enough ingredients to cook for us too, and we had an amazing dinner. It wasn't Sichuan food, actually, though it did include some Sichuan dishes, but it was amazingly fresh and flavorful. Nothing groundbreaking in terms of trying new things, but every dish was just beautifully and perfectly done. So all in all, good first day.
Then it was work for me and fun times for the family the next day, but while in the elevator at the hotel I spotted a sign for bianlian, a face changing performance which Sichuan is famous for, which made me think we should probably see it. So I got us tickets for Sichuan opera for the evening. Before going to opera though we had to eat hot pot. Because Sichuan. The family weren't huge fans, but they liked it more than what they'd had in the past. Sadly, due to time constraints we couldn't go to the place Jenny recommended, but just found a random one near the opera house. I thought it was pretty good, all things considered. Hot pot also isn't my favorite, but I wasn't gonna let me family go to Sichuan and not have it. Then it was time for opera, which was actually awesome. The place we went to is totally made for tourists. They've got screens on either side of the stage which show translations of what's happening into Chinese, English, Japanese and French. It's probably good for the Chinese too, though, cause they speak some funky dialect in the show and I understood like nothing. Even when I read it it made no sense. Maybe it was ancient Chinese or something, I don't know. The opera consists of the annoying singing that you probably associate with Peking opera, but they keep that to a minimum. Instead they had a bunch of acts showing off traditional Chinese arts, like shadow puppetry and acrobatics and, of course, face changing. If you haven't seen the face changing check it out on youtube cause it's pretty impressive. The whole show was amazing. If you go to Chengdu, I'll tell you where to go. It's awesome.
Then we had one more morning in Chengdu, which we spent with the Pandas, the entire point of the trip. Because we were flying to Beijing that afternoon we had to get up early and get there at like 8am when they open, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. When we arrived it was still nice and cool, not so many people there, and plenty of pandas out playing and eating. By the time we left at like 10:30 the park was super crowded with visitors (although our taxi drive told us that it wasn't even close to as crowded as it gets on holidays and weekends) and it had started to warm up so when we passed back by the panda enclosures there were a lot fewer than when we'd gotten there in the morning. So we were able to wander around without being too bothered and see a ton of pandas. And we got to see a 2 week old baby in the nursery also. My mom loved it so much we got in line and went to see it twice. It was pretty cute. But the best had to be the red panda enclosure. Red pandas look like red raccoons or something, but apparently they are also pandas and also endangered. And there are a couple enclosures which instead of being like normal zoo enclosures that separate you with a trench, are more like a bird park or something where you can walk through it. The walkways are fenced off from the panda areas, but you can get closer. Also there are holes in the fences, which means the pandas can get out and come say hello to you. Or, in the case of my mother, nibble on your toe. Nothing too mean, just a little nip, kind of like a puppy or something, but enough to shock her and make for a good story. And great pictures. So we left Chengdu on a high note.
Next stop was Beijing for Rich's wedding, the reason that my family was in China to begin with. They had a couple days in Beijing, so Rich and Nana had organized tours out to the Great Wall and Summer Palace for everyone, but I had to commute to Tianjin every day for work. That was not fun. But we did get to have dinners together in the evenings, and we got to eat Peking duck (which my sister said she'd been thinking about for years), and we got to eat it with Wendy, my one and only reader! She got to meet the family! And as expected, they loved her. I mean, she has the advantage that her research basically has her talking to old people all day every day, so talking to my parents was easy. And she's great, so there's that too. And of course I had to take them to Great Leap for the best burger ever. For me, Beijing was really planned around what to eat. Other than Wendy they'd already met most of my friends that are here, and they were going to meet more at the wedding, and they'd all been in Beijing before, so I wasn't too worried about introducing them around or showing them the sites. Plus Nana arranged all the sightseeing. So my job was easy. My job was to be the best man at the wedding on Saturday (and my sister was a bridesmaid). The wedding was at a Yunnan restaurant they rented out. To be honest, I wasn't so sure about it beforehand, but they hired this company to decorate that really did a wonderful job. The restaurant cleared out the ground floor for the ceremony and the decorations really made it feel like we were not just in a restaurant. I was pretty impressed. And the upstairs bit, where we had the dinner party after, was already much more fitting for a wedding reception than the downstairs bit had been, but with the decor it was even better. I don't really know how to describe it other than a lot of flowers and twigs. That sounds lame, but basically it was a very earthy, natural feel, which blended really well with the decor of the restaurant already, and made it feel much more organic than just a restaurant. I also gave a speech. It was fine. I guess I had to mention it, but whatever. I was the best man. That's kind of exciting I guess. First time I've been really involved and first time I've been a best man. So yeah, exciting! Speech, lame. Whatever. I hate that shit.
So post wedding we did a little brunch then headed back to Shanghai for the rest of the week. More work was done by me. More shopping was done by my parents and sister. My Chinese friends took them out to a water town outside Shanghai one day while I worked. More friends were met and favorite restaurants were visited. And then we were done. Good times.
Ok, that was really long. I was originally just gonna write about Laura Mvula today, but I've changed my mind. Since I wrote a lot, I can also share a lot of music. I'm still starting with Laura Mvula though. She just put out her second album, The Dreaming Room. While it's not as good as her first, it's still pretty damn good. There's one standout track, which is Let Me Fall.
After Ningxia it was off to Chengdu. Since my sister and I started talking about her next trip to China (a discussion that started years ago) she's been saying she wants to go see the pandas. So ever since I knew she and my parents were coming in June for my friend Rich's wedding, and ever since I started planning my event schedule for the year which included Chengdu, I made sure that the Chengdu event was the week before Rich's wedding so I could take my family there when I had to be there, and work would pay for airfare and accommodation. So that worked out quite well. The only problem is that I actually did have to work, so they were on their own for about a day, but for the most part we were able to hang out together and have a lot of fun.
We had some restaurant recommendations from my friend Jenny, who's a food blogger and chef in Shanghai, and is originally from Chengdu. So of course we tried to fit in as much as possible from her list of recommendations. We started out with awesome Sichuan noodles and a visit to one of Chengdu's main temples, which made for a great afternoon. And for dinner, we went to this private kitchen she had recommended. It's in a refurbished old building, which has been done up and redesigned beautifully into a restaurant and cafe. The restaurant only has like one or two seatings a night and serves a set menu, which I misunderstood from her info, so we walked in expecting to have dinner, then thought we were gonna get turned away. Luckily they had enough ingredients to cook for us too, and we had an amazing dinner. It wasn't Sichuan food, actually, though it did include some Sichuan dishes, but it was amazingly fresh and flavorful. Nothing groundbreaking in terms of trying new things, but every dish was just beautifully and perfectly done. So all in all, good first day.
Then it was work for me and fun times for the family the next day, but while in the elevator at the hotel I spotted a sign for bianlian, a face changing performance which Sichuan is famous for, which made me think we should probably see it. So I got us tickets for Sichuan opera for the evening. Before going to opera though we had to eat hot pot. Because Sichuan. The family weren't huge fans, but they liked it more than what they'd had in the past. Sadly, due to time constraints we couldn't go to the place Jenny recommended, but just found a random one near the opera house. I thought it was pretty good, all things considered. Hot pot also isn't my favorite, but I wasn't gonna let me family go to Sichuan and not have it. Then it was time for opera, which was actually awesome. The place we went to is totally made for tourists. They've got screens on either side of the stage which show translations of what's happening into Chinese, English, Japanese and French. It's probably good for the Chinese too, though, cause they speak some funky dialect in the show and I understood like nothing. Even when I read it it made no sense. Maybe it was ancient Chinese or something, I don't know. The opera consists of the annoying singing that you probably associate with Peking opera, but they keep that to a minimum. Instead they had a bunch of acts showing off traditional Chinese arts, like shadow puppetry and acrobatics and, of course, face changing. If you haven't seen the face changing check it out on youtube cause it's pretty impressive. The whole show was amazing. If you go to Chengdu, I'll tell you where to go. It's awesome.
Then we had one more morning in Chengdu, which we spent with the Pandas, the entire point of the trip. Because we were flying to Beijing that afternoon we had to get up early and get there at like 8am when they open, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. When we arrived it was still nice and cool, not so many people there, and plenty of pandas out playing and eating. By the time we left at like 10:30 the park was super crowded with visitors (although our taxi drive told us that it wasn't even close to as crowded as it gets on holidays and weekends) and it had started to warm up so when we passed back by the panda enclosures there were a lot fewer than when we'd gotten there in the morning. So we were able to wander around without being too bothered and see a ton of pandas. And we got to see a 2 week old baby in the nursery also. My mom loved it so much we got in line and went to see it twice. It was pretty cute. But the best had to be the red panda enclosure. Red pandas look like red raccoons or something, but apparently they are also pandas and also endangered. And there are a couple enclosures which instead of being like normal zoo enclosures that separate you with a trench, are more like a bird park or something where you can walk through it. The walkways are fenced off from the panda areas, but you can get closer. Also there are holes in the fences, which means the pandas can get out and come say hello to you. Or, in the case of my mother, nibble on your toe. Nothing too mean, just a little nip, kind of like a puppy or something, but enough to shock her and make for a good story. And great pictures. So we left Chengdu on a high note.
Next stop was Beijing for Rich's wedding, the reason that my family was in China to begin with. They had a couple days in Beijing, so Rich and Nana had organized tours out to the Great Wall and Summer Palace for everyone, but I had to commute to Tianjin every day for work. That was not fun. But we did get to have dinners together in the evenings, and we got to eat Peking duck (which my sister said she'd been thinking about for years), and we got to eat it with Wendy, my one and only reader! She got to meet the family! And as expected, they loved her. I mean, she has the advantage that her research basically has her talking to old people all day every day, so talking to my parents was easy. And she's great, so there's that too. And of course I had to take them to Great Leap for the best burger ever. For me, Beijing was really planned around what to eat. Other than Wendy they'd already met most of my friends that are here, and they were going to meet more at the wedding, and they'd all been in Beijing before, so I wasn't too worried about introducing them around or showing them the sites. Plus Nana arranged all the sightseeing. So my job was easy. My job was to be the best man at the wedding on Saturday (and my sister was a bridesmaid). The wedding was at a Yunnan restaurant they rented out. To be honest, I wasn't so sure about it beforehand, but they hired this company to decorate that really did a wonderful job. The restaurant cleared out the ground floor for the ceremony and the decorations really made it feel like we were not just in a restaurant. I was pretty impressed. And the upstairs bit, where we had the dinner party after, was already much more fitting for a wedding reception than the downstairs bit had been, but with the decor it was even better. I don't really know how to describe it other than a lot of flowers and twigs. That sounds lame, but basically it was a very earthy, natural feel, which blended really well with the decor of the restaurant already, and made it feel much more organic than just a restaurant. I also gave a speech. It was fine. I guess I had to mention it, but whatever. I was the best man. That's kind of exciting I guess. First time I've been really involved and first time I've been a best man. So yeah, exciting! Speech, lame. Whatever. I hate that shit.
So post wedding we did a little brunch then headed back to Shanghai for the rest of the week. More work was done by me. More shopping was done by my parents and sister. My Chinese friends took them out to a water town outside Shanghai one day while I worked. More friends were met and favorite restaurants were visited. And then we were done. Good times.
Ok, that was really long. I was originally just gonna write about Laura Mvula today, but I've changed my mind. Since I wrote a lot, I can also share a lot of music. I'm still starting with Laura Mvula though. She just put out her second album, The Dreaming Room. While it's not as good as her first, it's still pretty damn good. There's one standout track, which is Let Me Fall.
I was thinking I'd share another track from the album, but couldn't really pick, which is when I decided that I have a ton of music lined up to share with you anyway and so whatever I'll just share one song from her and then some other stuff because this is my blog and I'm gonna do what I want.
The next one is Oasis, the first (and currently only) song from La Chica, a Venezuelan-French artist and singer. It came up on my weekly Spotify discovery playlist, and I'm glad I discovered it. Great song, and pretty awesome video, too.
Right after La Chica on the playlist was an artist I've shared on here before who I really like, Moses Sumney. He's a bit weird, but I'm a big fan (after having tried over and over and finally becoming a big fan). His newest single is called Everlasting Sigh and it's wonderful.
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