Saturday, August 23, 2008

Other Experiences in Tianjin


Our last night in Tianjin found us atop one of the TEDA's best hotels dining in a revolving restaurant. The views were stunning, in spite of the overcast. On the left and right are two of the things we saw from our sky-scraping private dining room. On the left is one of the many monuments we saw in our drives around the city. On the right is one of the many Friendship stores - the Chinese version of WalMart?
We enjoyed dinner with a local businessman in import and export, who was interested in talking to John and Mark about timber and very interested to see the photo album of pictures from the wood lot. We enjoyed the food very much, and watched a soccer game on a field near the restaurant. During the course of dinner, the restaurant moved full circle, facing the southwest once again when watermelon and other fruit were served to end the meal.

Ms Feihang Wu and Ms. Cai Hui, two of our hosts, knew we would enjoy a brief shopping expedition, so they arranged an outing to an old town shopping district during our tour of the city on our last day. It was a great way to spend a few hours, soaking in the music, sights and ambiance of ancient China. There was a large courtyard with a raised platform for performers and we listened to several traditional songs by solo performers and groups of singers. Across the courtyard from the performers stage, there was a temple - an example of "historical and stylistic architecture" with a lyrical name - The Queen of Heaven Palace, which according to the sign, was provided very important protection.


There were vendors selling everything from embroidered paintings to clay figurines to silk scarves and carved wood items. I found a lovely cane with a dragon head and flowers carved along its length. Lucille, who is posing in the picture on the right, found a lovely traditional teapot and a couple of chess sets for family members. John and Mark made similar discoveries in some of the small shops along the street. We only had time to visit about a quarter of the shops in the old town; we could have spent an entire day there. I was taken with some of the tea carts spaced strategically along the way, a few of which had lovely dragon tea pots.


On our drives around TEDA, we saw many people doing what I would call green work - planting trees, shrubs, flowers and groundcovers in preparation for all the visitors during the Beijing Olympics. This area is planning to see many of the millions of visitors to Beijing, especially because of its proximity to the capital city - and with the new high speed train.




Our hosts from TEDA decided to make our last stop in their city at a very special place - a traditional dumpling house.The atmosphere and food at the restaurant, which was celebrating its 150th year in operation, were great. In one of the pictures below, Jinshui poses with a plate that commemorates the anniversary of the restaurant.

Partway through the meal, a chef rolled a cart into our room and showed us first-hand how to make dumplings. It was a memorable meal, and we appreciate the thoughtfulness of our hosts (hostesses) in this city, as we have in all the cities we've visited. The meal ended with watermelon, as so many meals have on this trip, in another spectacular presentation of fruit, as you can see from the picture below.

The table in the restaurant was a good demonstration of the use of napkins to show where the most important people at the table should sit. Look at the napkins in the picture below. Jinshui is sitting in the place of honor, behind the elaborately folded napkin. Our server was very impressed with Lucille and my use of chopsticks and presented us with chopstick holders similar to the ones on the table for our meal - white porcelain dogs.






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