Changzhou
Our second city on our tour. I feel my excitement growing with each new location.
Shavar and I caught up on some much needed sleep the first day. We arrived at the hotel slightly after midnight. Our bags were there to greet us in our rooms.
It seems to be a trend; both hotels we have stayed in have their own upscale restaurant located on one of the floors. I found the cuisine in Changzhou slightly more appealing than Nanjing. A specialty of this region (and a favorite of our cast) is dumplings. These delectable steamed puffs are filled with meat and soup. I don't know if this dish exists in this form in America.
There really wasn't many restaurants to explore here compared to Nanjing. So, the majority of us ate most our meals at the hotel restaurant. There was a very cute young waitress who would serve our group. She spoke very proper english, so she won our tables by default. Chang Xie was very interested with us, always asking about our lives on the road and at home.
A couple tidbits of Chinese culture: Personal space is non-existant here. If they are talking to you, faces are often a little more than a foot away. Tipping is seen as rude here since everyone is expected to do their jobs well without monetary gratification. And hotel maids never take "Please come back later" as an answer.
Day two of our break was spent at a reconstructed ruins site. There was a neat museum within the reconstructed walls with some neat exhibits. China is a very interesting place: they are constantly building the old and restoring the new at a very quick pace. On top of the recreated ruins of a 3,000 year old gate, you can see skyscrapers reaching high into this ancient city. I believe the Chinese feel a strong sense of pride in both their future and past.
My favorite part of the day came when a bunch of the cast met up outside a pool hall. The attraction: 2 yuan beers. That's around 35 cents! All I will say is that a crowd of spectators quickly gathered around, watching the strange Americans get worse and worse at pool as the empty bottles grew in numbers.
Good times in China!
-- Nathaniel Beaver
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