Day 8: Wuzhen (outside SH), Xintiandi

So, I had a great dream a couple days ago, and this morning had a terrible one that kept me up.

Finally got up at 6:30ish.

We left about 7:10 to first take Rui to school then head to Wuzhen (wu4 zhen4), which is a water village (shui3 shang1) outside of SH. Uncle Fred and Aunt Sandy had to take care of some stuff along the way, but we got there and walked around a bit. Cool little town w/ a lot of history (6000 yrs old). Wood houses built on stone foundations w/ waterways running through it. A lot of little narrow streets with houses where people currently live, restaurants, people selling souvenirs and antiques. Also some side areas set aside to show some of the history of the clothing, banking, beds, etc of the people who lived there in the past. Also, maybe most importantly, there was a currently operational small factory for a liquor San Bai Jiu (san1 bai2 jiu3 – three white alcohol). They let you have a taste, and they sell it there, too. Its made w/ sticky rice, so a little bit sweet, and processed at different temperatures for somewhat different tastes. I think it’s supposed to be strong. We got some, of course.

We had lunch at a little diner in the middle. Aunt Sandy said the region is famous for its goat. We had ordered yang rou mian (noodles w/ goat meat), some tofu dish w/ a weird veg, some celery and dried tofu. The noodle dish was nice. Not spicy, meat was tender and tasty, noodles cooked well, broth not too salty.

We wandered a little bit more after, but not much. Then took a boat ride back towards the start and headed back to the city. It took us forever to get back. Like 2.5hrs, b/c of traffic. We all slept some. Stopped at the Puxi apt, dropped stuff, went to walk around at Xintiandi (xin1 tian1 di4). Big touristy shopping area built in older buildings. Has a lot of restaurants and bars, and all kinds of high end clothing stores.

Dinner at Din Tai Fung for soup dumplings. They were really good, and I took a few pics of the guys behind the glass in the kitchen making them. We actually got the small kind that Jen Jon and I had, but we also got the regular kind w/ crab. Super tasty. We got some of the vegetarian dumplings, too, and they were awesome – finely minced veggies – not sure what kind – green and a little crispy, plus I think there were some mushrooms chopped in there, too. Nice fresh flavor. And a couple other cold dishes that were good. The cucumbers were better here I think than the one we ate at in Beijing. But, they didn’t have bing. So we went to Bellagio Café to get some (it’s a Taiwanese restaurant down the street). We got bao4 bing1 w/ red and green beans (the sweet kind), taro stickies (and extras too), tapiocas, and I think pineapples, but I avoided those. This kind (the crunchier ice) isn’t as flavorful I think. Uncle fred asked Rui a question at one point when we were eating… but she was spaced out and so I learned that spacing out in Chinese is fa1 dai1.

I’m posting day 7, 8, and 9 right now and having trouble w/ my picasa albums so don’t have links to pics but I think whoever is reading this gets the idea of how to find those by now…