Its been a crazy old week in China - three cities in five days with back to back meetings has been really tiring and for that reason I haven't managed to blog as I had hoped, however, its my last night, I'm already in my pyjama pants, and I've got some time to sit down.
Its my first time in China and there is a lot to say. I've had a lot of flight delays and waiting around in airports, and getting into cities at 3am, so I'm really really really tired. China has been fascinating but I'm pretty keen to get home and I'm dreading the 13 hours in a plane tomorrow. Its a funny old place, hard to describe in a few words. I loved Shanghai and would be very keen to return; Beijing felt hard and smoggy, and I've only been in Guangzhou today and haven't got a sense of it at all.
Overall its been both great and awful; the people I've met through work are very welcoming and kind, and the few sights I have seen have been fantastic, but the food has been very hard work, and the experience of trying to get around on time, with no Mandarin, has been quite hard. Vegetarian is an unknown concept here (I haven't even attempted to explain vegan, usually "vegetarian" is ok because dairy is uncommon) so I've had a lot of plain plates of vegetables. The flavours don't seem as strong or as fresh as Thai or Vietnamese food and the dishes seem a lot oilier - but I have managed and have had a few bits of deliciousness to keep me going.
Here is some food, and I'll post a few photos of the places I've been in my next post:
Room service food has been pretty thin on the ground with only one or two options. In Beijing, a plate of beans and capsicum, with peppers and oddly, olives.
Surprising choice at a mall in Beijing while waiting for a meetings. Fried bean curd (eaten with rice and green veg).
Trying to brighten up room service with the "roasted potatoes", which were fries. It just occurred to me I don't know what they were cooked in - so I'm going to not think about that.
And a plate of broccoli. At least my iron has probably gone up:
Attempting breakfast: hash browns with baked beans:
One of the nice things about doing business in China is you get taken out for lunch a bit. I had a great lunch out in Beijing with Walden, who had spent time in Australia and knew about vegetarian food. We went to a restaurant with Shanghai cuisine, and had delicious bamboo shoots:
Dried bean curd with some green thing, in a cone shape. Served cold, and actually quite yummy.
My favourite - dumplings!
A surprisngly excellent plate of Korean food for lunch in Beijing (tofu and salad and rice, all mixed up), before I checked in....
A veggie burger at midnight in Shanghai, after a delayed plane from Beijing meant I waited at the airport for four hours, and then they forgot my special meal, so i was STARVING. This was the only veggie thing on the menu. Literally.
And waiting at Shanghai airport, for a flight to Guangzhou which turned out to be four hours late as well, except we had already boarded so we had to wait on the tarmac #definitionofhell But it was good tofu:
And what I've just ate, from the two veggie options. Its a plate of green veggies.
So, a couple of high points (that Korean salad was great, and I've eaten more dumplings which have been delicious every time) but also its been a struggle. Perhaps easier as a tourist when you might have the time to search things out and do your research beforehand.
The Guardian recently published an article about veg food in Shanghai so it is out there, and Shanghai was my favourite stopping point, so it must be out there! You just have a search a LOT harder.
