Don't worry or go to the bathhouse! China-2017. Part 7. Bread and circuses.
If everything is clear about Peking duck - it is expensive, fatty and tasty - then other Chinese food should be told in more detail. She is very specific. In about eighty cases it is tasteless, and in forty cases it is generally inedible. Finding food, choosing from the menu, explaining some nuances that the waiter will definitely want to clarify with you, and, in the end, having enough to eat is a real quest in China. I highly recommend, where there is Internet, and it is almost always available in institutions, to use the Search by Image function in the translator. Point your phone at the menu and highlight the hieroglyphs you like on the screen with your finger. We did not think of this right away, but we were helped out by the fact that cold cucumbers (they are also called beaten), I found visually on the menu, and I knew how to say potatoes (Tudou) Therefore, in most cases, we ate fried potatoes and cold cucumbers.
You will tell me now that you like Chinese food) And I will have to ask if you like Chinese Chinese food or are we talking about Chinese food in Europe or America. The fact is that the food that is called Chinese, and I love it myself, is not at all the food that you have to eat in China. First, seasonings. They have a very specific taste, unfamiliar and even unpleasant to us. Secondly, lotus. This was my biggest disappointment. The lotus was beautiful to look at and terrible to taste. Well, maybe not horror-horror, but spoiled any dish. Thirdly, submission. It seems to me that one can get used to spices and put up with the lotus, but it is impossible to desire food served in small dishes at a time when fat or juice literally flows over the edges. In a deep bowl, you will be served noodles or soup. Or rice. The rest will be on dishes, saucers, saucers...
And now we come to the most important thing - to the soup. Maybe you remember how I admired Vietnamese cuisine - the cuisine of awesome, very strong, extremely, incredibly delicious soups. Arriving in Asia again, I was looking for soup and only soup. You already know about the first experience (how you filled your noodles with Nadya’s broth)), the subsequent ones were with varying degrees of success, but I didn’t eat soup in China)
So, one of the most successful, most delicious soups was in the city of Zhangjiajie. We ate it in a grocery store with a couple of tables, opposite the cable car station, and cooked it right in front of our eyes, in the open kitchen in the same store. And they ate this soup, right there, the cooks themselves and the store employees, glancing surreptitiously at two laowai trying to eat the soup with chopsticks)
It is unlikely that anyone will ever find this store and this soup, because all people, having descended from heaven to earth Zhangjiajie, go to the big street, where there are food stalls at every turn, and only we, normal heroes , as always, went around. Now I tried to find our route on the map, but even Baidu didn’t help) We did notably confuse the tracks zigzag.
It is worth telling separately how we ordered this soup. I'm an expert, Christmas trees, sticks, I know the hieroglyphs meat, cucumber, eggplant, noodles! And I already have experience with a waitress) I demand a casual menu:
- Qing Gei Chaidan.
Oh, miracle, they understand me and bring me. We look into it, looking for familiar hieroglyphs. Let's sweat. I realize that I'm not that good at reading Chinese, although at home I was great at "little white rabbit eating banana". There is no banana or little white rabbit on the menu.
After sweating a little over the Chinese letter, I am trying to agree with the waitress in words.
-Ni youmeiyou thangmentiao ? (Do you have noodle soup? ) - I ask. A long and completely incomprehensible answer plunges me into despondency. Than - in Chinese, both sugar and soup, depending on how you say it. I carefully pronounce Thaaan in the first tone, but again there are many letters in response. And I don't recognize a word, not a single Chinese word in her monologue. We won't be able to dine here.
We leave frustrated through another exit and run right into a huge advertising poster of my coveted soup. I come back and pull the waitress behind me:
-Tsou ba, tsou ba! Jaege yo ma? (Let's go, let's go! Do you have this? )
-Yo, yo! - the waitress exclaims happily, runs to the kitchen and takes the soup away from the cook. - Do you need spoons?
Ha! We can collect spilled poppy with chopsticks! And the soup! ) What, we can’t see it? )
-Needed!
You will laugh now, but the Chinese eat soup with chopsticks. Sticks, honestly! Choose what is thicker, and drink water. I, back in Vietnam, learned to eat soups with chopsticks and a spoon at the same time. I give them a master class. Chopsticks in right hand, spoon in left. Soup absorption rate is thus doubled.
They bring us a kettle of tea. I'm worried.
-Zhege duoshaochien? (How much does it cost? )
-Miefade. (It's free)
Many times later we were served free tea, however, like rice. There are two types of tea in China. One is completely free and the other is outrageously expensive. Therefore, I clarified each time how much tea costs)
After eating delicious soup and drinking free tea, we hurried home, we still have to get ready for the show. And it's good that I like to chat)
-We would like a taxi - I told the girl at the cash desk and showed the address of the hotel.
-Now we will organize.
Taxi in Zhangjiajie turned out to be very requested. And the girl is very persistent! ) She talked first with one of the diners, probably it was a taxi driver. He told us the cost of the trip - 10 yuan, but he refused to go. I'm eating! ) The girl went with us to the street, and, moreover, quite far from her cafe-shop, and tried to catch a taxi there, but no one wanted to take us. It all lasted about fifteen minutes, our patience was coming to an end, I tried to go on foot, and the girl persuaded us to wait another minute, it’s a long walk, it’s uphill) Finally, there was someone who wanted to take us for 10 yuan, but he rode with such a face, that one would think that at the moment his whole family is held hostage by that girl, otherwise he would never waste his time on us)
The street on which we lived, as you remember, is pedestrian, and it is also located not far from the cable car, so we drove no longer than we walked later) Time was running out, we quickly packed up, put things in the laundry (regardless of the number things - 40 yuan) and went to the show ???? ? Tianmen Fox Fairy Show. The owner himself took us to the bus, sat us down, waved his hand. Golden man.
The most important thing when traveling to a show is not to get lost in the parking lot on the way back. Not only are the Chinese themselves the same, they also arrived on the same buses! ) To find our own later, we take pictures of the numbers.
Even in the parking lot, I turn my head and gasp at the incredibly beautiful building, illuminated in the best Chinese traditions.
We'll see more later, but now there is no limit to delight.
We go further and find the entrance to the show in the same style.
Quite quickly, the whole mass of people passes through the turnstiles and spreads through the rows. Our seats are in the fifth row, on the right, very close to the stage. Well, how about the stage)
Directly among the mountains, scenery is built - a small lake, houses on the slopes, a staircase, a large snag and even a huge moon, which we were shown later.
Mountains in the background are highlighted and your brain is not able to understand that this is all a scene, because you went down from these mountains a couple of hours ago)
There are a lot of people in the show. When the extras come out, it seems that in Zhangjiajie the entire population is playing in this theater. But no, Zhangjiajie has a population of 1.5 million, and only 500 people are employed in the performance)
The main characters appear in one place or another. The distances between their appearances suggest that there are several pairs of main characters. Or they have jet engines)
A story about the love of a shepherd for a fox, who turned out to be a goddess and could turn into a girl. In general, about female cunning reincarnation and mastery of illusions) There are titles in English and Korean. But it’s understandable and so, they don’t talk much, they sing more. The costumes, the voices, the grandiosity of the scale - everything is impressive. But when the waterfall flowed, and then the fountains exploded, I screamed like a child.
-Wow!
The only inconvenience was the cold. Fog was descending from the mountains, it was damp from the water, I put on everything that I found in my backpack - a cotton pareo scarf and a raincoat) I really regretted the warm stole that I wanted to buy at the parking lot, but did not bargain. And many bought and wrapped themselves in warm fabric from the cold.
I was walking back under the impression of what I saw, my soul was still exulting, the hamster in it smiled blissfully, even he did not feel sorry for 238 yuan, especially since I was counting on 400 with a transfer. And we got the transfer for free.
There are a huge number of buses on the square - large and small, every second they leave the parking lot, I hesitated, crossing the road, and at that time Nadia found out in sign language that a completely different bus would take us home, in vain we took pictures of ours. I often forgot to put marks in Mepsme, but Nadya always found the places we needed with her sixth sense. Even sometimes I see on the map - that's where, and Nadya says - no, not there, it's better to listen to her and go where she said. Some kind of geolocation talent) Only once I rested and didn’t want to go where she says, because all the Chinese were pointing in the other direction. I will talk about this later. This will be 115 Apyatka's stories.
In the meantime, we're going to bed, tomorrow the Avatar Mountains are waiting for us, despite Soviet power in any weather. We decided so!
