Shanghai

I went for a quick walk this afternoon after spending most of the day in my hotel room working. I was struck by how incredibly diverse Shanghai is. In a single glance, you see old and new, East and West. Some pictures from my walk to back up what I mean. All of these were taken within a block or two of my hotel.

Beijing smog, National Day and Peking Duck

Greetings all from the Chaoyang district of Beijing, the historic capital of China. My apologies for not being more regular with this. The mainland government maintains rather strict control on information, including the web. One form that takes is that web sites that are based outside of China are often very difficult, if not impossible, to access, even if they are not restricted by the government.

This included Blogger. However, I learned from an expat here that this can be circumvented by the use of a VPN (virtual private network). I actually use VPN for work to access alumni data that is confidential. Anyway, as the expat explained to me, the government will know I am using VPN, but the system won't know what sites I am visiting. As long as I am not fomenting revolt, and am not Chinese, it's no big deal, he said. I hope he's right because here I sit, using my VPN to make this post.

Beijing is very, very different from Hong Kong, as one should expect. Where westerners were a common site in Hong Kong, they are rare here. Some guys from Michigan that were staying in my hotel told me of being approached to have their picture taken with a group of Chinese that were, probably, themselves tourists in town for the Mid-Autumn Festival (roughly equivalent to Thanksgiving) and National Day (similar to the 4th of July) which happened to fall on consecutive days this year, giving most Chinese a week-long holiday.

The first thing I noticed upon arrival here was the pollution. My eyes started burning as soon as I got off the plane. As the sun came up the next morning, I could see why.

That's not fog folks, that's air pollution. I was told by one local that, during the summer, it can sometimes be difficult to see across the street. I just can't imagine. Luckily, the next day, it rained and a cold front with strong winds moved through. The view changed dramatically.

As I mentioned above, two huge holidays fell during my visit to Beijing, drawing hundreds of thousands of people to the city. The "China Daily" was full of stories of motorists stranded for hours on the country's interstate system. Nearly all of China's highways are toll roads and the tolls nearly double the cost of any road trip. For the holidays, the government called a moratorium on tolls and Chinese flocked to the highways, only to find themselves trapped in gridlock.

National Day marks the day when Mao unveiled the PRC flag for the first time on Tienanmen Square. Chinese mark that day as the birth of modern China. So, Chinese regard being on Tienanmen Square on Oct. 1 the way we would feel about being in Washington, D.C. on the Fourth. There were an estimated 300,000 people on the square that day, and I was one of them.

  

I met a group of guys from Michigan here with the father of one who was checking things off his "bucket list". In this case seeing the Great Wall of China. Anyway, we all hit it off and on our last night decided we had to go out for "Peking Duck." If you've never done this, find somewhere that does it right, roasting the duck whole, serving it head and all, with every bit of crispy skin.

The duck is served table-side and the first thing the carver presents are perfect little pieces of the crispy skin from the back. The skin is served with a small bowl of sugar. You dip the skin in the sugar and pop it in your mouth. The bite is so perfectly Chinese in that it takes two things you would not expect to go together and gives them to you in a way that is harmonious and delicious. Trust me, you want this. The duck skin is fatty, slightly smokey and gamy, that is all cleaned up and balanced by the sweetness of the sugar. OMG!

The rest of the duck is then carved and served with small rice flour tortillas, vegetables and plum sauce. You build your own bites and mix in servings of salads and an incredible egg custard topped with broth and ground duck. This is definitely a multiple foodgasm.

In a couple hours, I'm off to Shanghai, which I am expecting to be nothing like either Hong Kong or Beijing. I'll let you know. 

谢谢您的阅读

Scott

A test

This is a test to see if I can post to the blog from Beijing. Did it work? Somebody commented let me know.

Heading for Beijing

I had a great experience in Hong Kong and hope Beijing goes as well.

Anthony Bourdain, Mak's Noodles and Bordeaux, etc

George Washington slept there, yeah, so what! Lincoln and Douglas debated there, ok, whatever. Anthony Bourdain ate here! Now you've got my attention! 

Just across Leitghton Road from my hotel is a little hole in the wall noodle shop. Most restaurants and shops in this area are little hole in the wall kind of places. I had walked by it several times without giving it much attention. But today, after Skyping with Nancy and listening to her tell me about the risotto she'd had at Bacaro, and watching her eating sweet potato chips, I realized that skipping lunch had not been a good idea. Self, I said, we need some noodles. So, of we went to Mak's Noodles. I stopped outside the door to take a quick look at the menu and who stares back at me? None other than foodie icon and all around jerk/gift to mankind, Anthony Bourdain. Yes, the TV food guy my son says is most like me ate here. Well, if it's good enough for Anthony... 

I had the beef brisket and tendons with "dry" noodles, meaning not in broth, which is served on the side. What you see pictured above was about $50 HK, that's less than $6 US and was absolutely incredible. The Brisket and tendons were tender, without being dried out, the noodles toothsome and delicious and the broth was both meaty and herbaceous with hints of onion, garlic, ginger and lemongrass all coming through. After polishing this off, I wanted to ask for the menu back to order something else, but as the only gui lao in the place, I didn't want to make a glutton of myself. Do you think they'll recognize me if I go back for dinner?  

After eating, I was taking a little exploratory walk around the area. I mostly wanted to find Yiu Wa Street, which I had read is a trendy little road (about a block and one half long) where young chefs are doing their own thing. I found it, and will be back to check a couple of places out before I leave. At the end of the street was a shop that was at least three or four times larger than most and the front window was filled with wine bottles. Of course I had to go in! Bordeaux etc is one of two shops owned by a local server programmer turned wine nut. He loves Bordeaux and Champagne, so has two stores, Bordeaux etc and Champagne etc. I'll let you guess what he sells in each. It just so happened they were doing a tasting, four reds, pictured above and one white, all, of course, Bordeauxs. However, it was made clear to me that some were left bank and some where right bank. Yeah, ok, I know that mean's something. I'll have to ask Nancy. The red's were nice, but subtle in that French way that makes me prefer Italian wines. But, the white, a 2011 Moulin De Gassac Sauvignon, was really wonderful, and I'm not usually a white wine drinker. The reds ranged in price from $315 to $1190 HK, at an 8 to 1 exchange rate, you can do the math, not cheap. The white was $108 HK. Lucky me, I like the cheapest one, so I bought a bottle.

The coolest part was that the guys in the shop were just so into the whole thing. I love passionate people. As we tasted, we sat around and chatted enthusiastically about the flavors, the pluses and minuses of French, Italian and California wines and whether sweet and sour pork is really Chinese food. They said it is, I said it isn't! They also were totally into all the cool wine accoutrement, decanters that coiled like snakes, corkscrews that looked like insane stick men, you get the picture.

Anyway, the afternoon was a wonderful break from a frantic week. Now, while my bottle chills, I need to write some visit reports and prepare for two meetings I have tomorrow (yes, on a Sunday). Did I mention I tasted five wines? And, that the guys at the shop apparently liked me because the pours for each got progressively larger? Maybe I'll take a nap before getting to those reports.

First full day down, plus, marketing on steroids

I'm happy to say I got through my first full day of work in Hong Kong without a problem. I was able to get where I needed to be by showing cab drivers the nifty little cards the hotel gives out where they have written your destination in Mandarin. Works like a charm, and the back of the cards have a little map showing the hotel so you can get back. Brilliant! 

This city is so incredibly vertical. You will not find a Prairie Style home hear, I guarantee you. But then, there aren't any prairies either.

Like Tokyo, Hong Kong is known for taking marketing to extremes. I came across a great one today. It is actually a pretty darn good Italian restaurant that is also a screaming marketing tool for the Fiat 500. Called, of course, the Fiat Cafe, there are three 500s parked in the restaurant. Do you see the "500" in dark chocolate dusting on the top of my mocha in the photo? But they also had house made biscotti and salumi. I An order of the biscotti came with 6 unique bite-size pieces that ranged from tasting of dark chocolate and sweet cream to fennel and basil. Who'd a thunk it.

I'm still hoping to get my sleep schedule straightened out. I was out cold before 9 p.m. Hong Kong time last night (Sorry Nancy), but woke up at 2:45 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep. So, I worked until 4:30 a.m. when, again, I realized I couldn't keep my eyes open. The alarm going off at 6 was not greeted warmly.

One of the alums I met with regularly travels back and forth across the Pacific and said to expect it to take a week to settle out. Such is life.

View from my window

Just thought I would share the view from my window. You don't see much like this back home.

Ahhhhhhhh

Tomorrow, the real work will begin. But, for tonight, I am enjoying a glass of Shiraz and this view. The wine is overpriced, but not bad, the view is free and incredible.

That's how an airline should work

I flew Cathay Pacific from Tokyo to Hong Kong today and it has to have been the best flying experience of my life! Even long lines moved quickly, the crew was attentive, polite and helpful.  The food was good and there was plenty of room, even in economy. American Airlines, are you listening?

Scrambled eggs and buttered corn

My unplanned layover in Japan included a free breakfast. The "western" offerings included scrambled eggs, buttered corn, and a pasta they called Florentine. I had yogurt, fruit, and a wonderful seafood noodle dish.

Toilets and flight delays

I write this from Tokyo, not Hong Kong, where I'm supposed to be!

My connection between flights in Chicago was a little tight, but I made it and was even able to grab a burrito to take on with me. I thought things were going well.

Then, the captain came on to explain that, just as they were finishing their safety checks, they discovered that half the toilets on the plane weren't working and they were trying to fix them before we left. Two hours later, he comes back on to tell us that they have to pump the toilets out and that doing so could release "a biohazard"  and everyone has to get off. We disembark, but not for long.

Soon, they are rushing everyone back on the plane. You know they are in a hurry when they let all of the economy flyers use the priority lane as well as general boarding. It's a little after 4 and we are told that if the plane doesn't pull away from the gate by 4:30, the flight will be canceled. so, on we rush and the plane pulls away at 4:25.

But wait, there's more! We no sooner pull away, then we hear the engines turn off. It turns out there's bad weather on our flight path and they have to re-figure. Anyway, we are eventually airborne.

Needless to say, I missed my connecting flight to Hong Kong. The airline is putting me up at a hotel near the airport, but I had to go through immigration and customs to get here. I hate lines!

The folks at the airline in Japan were very helpful, getting me an early flight to Hong Kong, providing hotel and meals. So kudos there.

And, after spending so long traveling domestically, I'm finding there are some nice benefits to international travel"
-No baggage fees
-Meals are provided. By no means great, but edible.
-Beer and wine are free. Again, by no means good, but I had a glass of bad French white Bordeaux with dinner.
-No charge for pillows and blankets
-A selection of movies. I watched Men in Black 3, not bad, and Snow White and the Huntsman, terrible.

Hopefully, my next post will be about how wonderful Hong Kong is.

Still in Chicago

After sitting at the gate for more than two hours as the airline tried to fix the toilets on our plane, we have been sent back to the terminal because of the potential of a biohazard.

The big day arrives

I am packed and ready to go, I think. Wish me luck!

Almost time

The days I have left to prepare are passing far too quickly. There is so much that needs to be done, decisions to be made. My biggest concern is how I will get around in China, so I am using Google Maps to create both driving directions and transit directions to all my destinations in the hope that if all else fails, I can just show someone the printout and get pointed in the right direction. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

It begins

Several months ago, I accepted a new position as the director of international advancement for the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This blog will document my travels and experiences. It's mostly for my friends and family, but all are welcome to follow along.