Paul's Travel Pics

Famously Cheap Food in Athens

2011-12-28T20:55:00.001-08:00

Being self-guided budget travelers, one of the most important questions on any of our trips has been ... What is the PINNACLE OF CHEAP PEASANT FOOD in Kyoto/Florence/Prague/Hong Kong/Dubai/Quebec City? Based on this question I've come across my favorite Ramen-ya in Osaka, my favorite Chalou in Guangzhou, my favorite Osteria in Milan, and my favorite Deli shop in Montreal. And my favorite Gyro stand? That, was one of the major objectives of our trip to Greece.

Our search for that elusive taste worthy of our 14-hour-flight started several months prior to the trip, as usual, with suggestions from various people to give us a starting list of definitely must-tries, maybes, and avoid-at-all-cost tourist traps. Some restaurants would end up in all three categories, depending on who you talk to. At the end we amassed all the information and visited just a few, based on comments from other visitors and convenience of location.

Food Review: Ariston
Address: 10 Voulis Street, Athens
Hours: Rumoured to be 07:00-14:00
Website/Map: Review from Trip Advisor
Directions: Start from Syntagma Square and walk West along Karagiorgi Servias Street and turn right on Voulis Street. Ariston should be on your left.

Gyros and Souvlakia may be more well-known among foreign tourists, but the most popular fast food, based on the sheer number of Athenians we spotted chomping them down by the mouthful, seems to be the wide assortment of savory pastry pies. Just walk down Athinas Street any given weekday morning and watch the people coming out of the Everest branches with flaky phyllo pastry sticking to the chin.

And I did enjoy Everest -- it may be the McDonald's of Greece, or at least of Athens, but the quality is decent for a two euros Tiropita. But our time in Athens was limited and we wanted to find a truly traditional, authentic place the connoisseurs of Tiropita would go. So we took Matt Barrett's advice and headed to Ariston.

The above picture is what Ariston looks like -- an oldish, bland storefront flanked by rows of parked motorcycles on a nondescript street. It's only two blocks from Syntagma Square, but not busy enough to catch the eyes of the uninitiated. But look closely and you'll see its store sign proudly stating "Since 1910," the bold letters advertising "Tiropites," and most alluringly, the welcoming aroma of cheese, butter and pastries you can smell from a block away. You know you're in pie heaven.

Pies pies everywhere! From the typical Tiropites and Kototopites to Melizanotopites and more than a dozen other kinds I could hardly pronounce. Even the ubiquitous Spanakopites had a couple of variations -- I loved the one blended with Feta cheese pictured above.

We also had the Kotopoulo (Chicken Pastry) on the right, which came with some of the thickest, most flavorful chicken filling anywhere. So do what the locals do. Don't miss this cheap, authentic and filling breakfast if you're passing by the Syntagma Square in the morning.

Bill for Two Persons

Spanakopita with Feta Cheese	Euro 2
Kotopoulo	Euro 2
TOTAL	Euro 4 (CAD$6)

Food Review: O Thanasis
Address: Mitropoleos 69 (entrance to Monastiraki Square), Athens
Hours: Around 09:00-21:00 (unconfirmed; based on experience)
Website/Map: Review from Trip Advisor
Directions: Go to Monastiraki Square and face the Acropolis. The little alley to the left side is Mitropoleos Street. O Thanasis at the entrance to the alley, on the right hand side.

Tasty. Cheap. Conveniently located. Having Gyros at Athens’ Monastiraki Square is as essential an introduction to the city as stopping for Ramen at Dotombori in Osaka. Situated near the two Agora ruins, this popular crossroad is home to three of the city’s best-known Gyro joints -- O Thanasis, Bairaktaris and Savvas.

Twice we couldn’t resist the alluring smell of charred meat and dripping fat when passing by, and ended up hitting both O Thanasis and Bairaktaris. We visited O Thanasis for an early lunch one morning, sitting down (which cost a lot more than take-out) out front in the shades and ordering a full plate of Pork Souvlaki as well as a lamb kebab pita.

The above Souvlaki was actually quite enjoyable -- nicely charred, succulent and slightly spiced for a mild kick -- but it was also overpriced at 8 Euros. I would pay 4 to 5 Euros for a good Souvlaki but I felt 8 was a little too much. But this is at the centre of Athens's tourist district ... oh well.

A much better deal, and one of my favorite memories of Athens, was this lamb kebab pita at a much more reasonable 2.2 Euros -- lovely minced lamb with grilled onions, tomatoes and parsley. Juices oozed out of the lamb at each bite and became soaked up by the soft pita. This is what I would order next time, skipping the table and grabbing a kebab pita to go. But as we found out, O Thanasis’s arch-rival across the alley had great deals to offer too ...

Bill for Two Persons

Pork Souvlaki Plate	Euro 8
Lamb Kebab Pita	Euro 2.2
TOTAL	Euro 10.2 (CAD$16.3)

Food Review: Bairaktaris
Address: West side of Monastiraki Square, Athens
Hours: Around 09:00-21:00 (unconfirmed; based on experience)
Website/Map: Review from Trip Advisor

Here's the arch-rival of O Thanasis right across the narrow alley, sporting your typical electric rotisserie out front along with a line-up of tourists and local faithfuls alike. One of the oldest establishments in town, Bairaktaris is said to have been standing here since 1879, having passed down from father to son for generations. But does it live up to its legendary history? Well, that depends on who you ask.

Prior to our visit I had heard as many high praises as vehement attacks about this place, as if every patron either loved its no-nonsense Gyros or left feeling terribly ripped off. But as I stood in line and watched the locals in front paying 1.8 Euros for a Gyro, I realized that much of the criticism probably came from people who tried to sit down and ordered more complicated food than a simple Gyro stand should offer. I mean ... how ripped-off can you get for 1.8 Euros?

So how did it taste? I admit that we may have been slightly swayed by the reasonable prices, but both my wife and I thought our Gyros Pita were better than the Souvlaki at O Thanasis the previous day. How can anyone argue against charbroiled meat heavily smothered in thick, rich, garlicky tzatziki? This alone, in my opinion, propels Bairaktaris way above O Thanasis in my memory. Too bad we didn't have the stomach to also try Savvas around the corner ...

Bill for Two Persons

Gyro Pita (Pork)	Euro 1.8
Gyro Pita (Beef)	Euro 2
TOTAL	Euro 3.8 (CAD$6.1)

Athens is such a great place for cheap and good food seemingly around every corner, just waiting for the curious tourist to stumble upon. In fact one of the best Gyro Pita we had was at this nameless but packed Gyro place on Navarinou street in Piraeus, just a couple blocks from the ferry terminal. Juicy meats, thick Tzatziki, loaded with fries and tomatoes ... all for just 1.5 Euros with a table for sitting down. The whole lunch for two people, even with an Amstel to share, cost 5 Euros. I'm sure every adventurous foodie have similar stories to tell of Athens, and these were a part of ours.

Athens - a Photo Gallery

2011-12-28T20:17:00.001-08:00

Hopping from one ancient culinary influence to another, we took our tastebuds to the sun-blessed terrain of Greece this past summer.

Raw sea urchins. Well-grilled sea breams in sea salt. Crunchy Symi shrimps. Creamy Pastitsio. Strong unfiltered coffee and delectable Galaktoboureko. Even simple peasant fares like Souvlaki and Fakes soup occasionally blew us away with wondrous flavors. A year would be too short to sample all of the delicious pleasures offered by this cultured and yet rustic nation.

After a couple months of planning and ferry booking, we ended up with an itinerary that would take us on an 18 day trip from the plains of Central Greece to the eastern expanse of the Aegean islands. The final plan went like this:

This wasn't my first choice, as the original plan was to fly into Thessaloniki, make our way south towards Meteora and Delphi, then to Athens to start our island hopping. But our connection in London wouldn't work very well for the Thessaloniki flight, and so we started our journey in Athens, just in time to catch the start of the Athens Festival.

This is where we arrived -- the chaotic, rambling, urban sprawl of Athens. Through my travels I've recognized at least two definitions of beauty when it comes to appreciating a city. First there is the FIRENZE definition, where exceptional aesthestic qualities permeate the entire central core of the city as a whole. Then there is the KYOTO definition, where a seemingly characterless modern city on first glance presents endless surprises at every street corner with objects of astounding cultural heritage and elegance. Falling into the latter category would be the maze-like concoction of ancient and modern Athens.

Our self-guided tour of Athens started with a morning visit to the Ancient Agora, the heart of Pericles' Athens crowned by the Temple of Hephaestus. Located just southwest of Monastiraki Station, it's also conveniently located a few minute's walk to the souvlaki heaven of Mitropoleos Street for a gratifying and cholesterol-filled lunch.

One of everyone's highlight in Athens, the National Archeological Museum definitely lives up to its reputation as one of the world's great museums IMHO. The privilege of coming face to face with the death mask of Agamemnon and the Poseidon of Artemision costs a worthwhile 7 Euros, not unreasonable compared to the nationally established museums in, say Rome or Vienna.

But most memorable was the 2100 year old statue of the Jockey of Artemision -- just look at the flesh and veins of the bronze horse in full gallop! This was one of my favorite ancient sculptures during our visit ... next to the Charioteer of Delphi that is.

One of our favorite indulgences wherever we go on vacations is ... the afternoon nap. A waste of valuable time perhaps, but it's so sinfully enjoyable and gives us the recharge of energy to sustain our sightseeing exploration into the late evening. On this particular evening we did need the extra energy, as I had pre-ordered a ticket to a Thanos Mikroutsikos concert at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus.

The Odeon of Herodes Atticus may appear to be just another of Athens' many archeological sites in the daytime, but it's about to become jam-packed with a raucous crowd as it transforms one of the venues for the annual Athens Festival.

Frankly I had never heard of Thanos Mikroutsikos prior to shopping for tickets on the Athens Festival website -- I craved only the rare chance to attend a musical performance inside an 1800-year-old amphitheatre. After some quick research I realized that he isn't just a typical musician -- not only is Mikroutsikos a well-regarded composer of popular music in Greece, he was also the former Minister of Culture who initiated bringing the 2004 Olympics to Athens. Unlike the North American concerts I'm used to, this one actually started on time at 21:00 and there was no opening act besides Mikroutsikos!

Despite not understanding any of the lyrics, we quite enjoyed the music and came out with a fond memory of the performance. It was songs after songs of strong, emotional ballads, which our neighbours all knew the lyrics by heart and sang along with. Everyone was having such a good time and the concert lasted well into the late night on this Tuesday ... which made me wonder ... don't Athenians need to work the next morning?

Well we don't, and the next morning we started our day at Syntagma Square, slowly making our way westward towards the Roman Agora and the Tower of the Winds. But the true highlight of the morning was ... the 100-year-old traditional pastry shop of Ariston! I'll write up a proper review latter, I promise.

Our arrival in Athens also coincided with the grand opening of the new Acropolis Museum -- in fact we visited on the 4th day of opening when an online reservation was required to guarantee entry. This is Athens' other world class museum, airy and well-organized and filled with the several floor's worth of priceless artifacts from the Acropolis. The long benches within the museum was also the perfect place to recuperate our tired legs, with a marvelous view of the Parthenon through the glass walls.

The graceful Caryatids is one of the two attractions everyone has come to see. After 2400 years of weathering the elements, the maidens now greet their admirers in their new temperature- and moisture-controlled home. The other main attraction is, of course, the controversial Parthenon Marbles. But I won't start to get into that debate here.

We saved the highlight of climbing the Acropolis until our second last day in Athens. The 30-minute ascend starting from the Acropolis metro station was longer than we expected, or perhaps it was just the afternoon heat. We must have spent close to an hour just sitting in the shadow of the Parthenon, adoring one of the world's sacred monuments while taking shelter from the sun.

Besides the main attractions of the Parthenon and the Erechtheum, an added bonus to visiting the Acropolis is the sweeping panoramic view of central Athens. It was a glorious sunny afternoon when the visibility stretched way past the harbour of Piraeus into the Saronic Gulf. To the northeast, Mount Lycabettus rose like a giant pyramid, imposing and nearly symmetrical, from the heart of urban Athens.

On our last day in Athens I wanted a serene, uncrowded location for a panoramic view of the Acropolis in the sunset, so we started from Thissio Station in an attempt to scale the Philopappos Hill. After thirty minutes of our uphill climb through atmospheric backstreets and small trails, we reached the flat summit of a hilltop when, I then realized, THIS WASN'T THE PHILOPAPPOS HILL AT ALL. We ended up at the Hill of the Pnyx instead! Oh well ... we still got the serene sunset view of the Parthenon that we originally wanted.

But frankly, many of our favorite memories of Athens had to do with the excellent food the city offers. Starting with the next post I'll try to document our favorite eateries from our rummage in Athens.

Savory Greece in 18 Days

2011-12-28T20:14:00.000-08:00

This will becomes the INDEX PAGE of our 2009 trip across Greece. I'm currently planning about 15 posts, so please check back for updates.

If you're planning a trip yourself and urgently require restaurant recommendations or general info, please post a comment at the bottom and I'll get back to you with the information I have on hand.

Beijing Food Trip - Part 5: Imperial Cuisine vs. Peasant Snacks

2011-11-01T20:34:00.001-07:00

From exclusive Imperial recipes sneaked out of the Forbidden City to cheap street snacks peddled at New Year's Temple Fairs, the taste of Old Beijing is deeply rooted in centuries of illustrious culinary traditions. These two extremes have both blossomed into specialized but integral branches of modern Beijing cuisine, and on our Beijing Food Trip we searched for the best within both genres -- authentic, reasonably priced, and highly recommended by local foodies.

While peasant snacks can easily fit into any backpacker's tight budget, finding a moderately priced restaurant for Imperial cuisine is a bigger challenge. The most famous of Imperial cuisine restaurants, Fangshan Fanzhuang, starts at RMB 198 per person for tiny set lunches and twice that for dinners. Of course patrons also behold the lovely view of Beihai and of waitresses dressed in Imperial Court gowns, but that's aside from the food.

We consulted the opinion of local Beijingners, who suggested another restaurant with an even better reputation for quality food, better service and, amazingly, much cheaper prices. The location is harder to reach, but if you're going to visit the Summer Palace (aka. Yiheyuan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in itself), you're almost in the neighbourhood already.

Food Review: NAJIA XIAOGUAN, Main Branch (Haidian, Beijing)
Address: 29 Xiangshan Yikesong, Haidian District, Beijing
Hours: 10:30-21:30
Website/Map: From Dianping.com
Directions: Taxi is the easiest way -- flag one down outside Beigongmen subway station and it should cost around RMB 25 (as of 2011). But if you opt for cheap public transportation like we do, take bus 331/563/696 across from the Beigongmen subway station and get off at Wofosi or Botanical Garden. Najia Xiaoguan is located right on Xiangshan Nanlu.

Hidden at the foothill of Xiangshan where the Emperor's Manchurian Legions traditionally settled, the old residence of the Na family has been converted into an intimate restaurant serving the family's own recipes. But this isn't just any regular family, but one that served the Emperor as court physicians and inherited the secrets of the Qing Dynasty's imperial kitchen.

Najia Xiaoguan isn't easy to find -- this is outside of the 5th Ring Road after all -- which tells you how good this place is. Visitors have come for the proprietor's 200-year-old recipes, many of which still call for rare and expensive ingredients in addition to the ultimate requirement of tasting good. How this place manages to charge relatively low prices for the quality of food they serve is entirely beyond me.

Prices listed on its old-fashioned menu of bamboo strips are all surprisingly affordable, especially for Beijing's rapidly growing middle class. Smaller cold dishes such as Sliced Pork Knuckle, Fish in Gelatin and Chinese Yam in Guihua Sauce are mostly RMB 28. Hot entrees generally range from RMB 38 to 48 and include intriguing choices like Braised Belt Fish, Stir-fried Mongolian Lamb with Green Onions, Old Duck in Sour Broth. Larger meat entrees such as Braised Deer Meat and Dry-Braised Yellow Croaker Fish start at RMB 68 and up.

It was fitting to start our meal with Najia's most famous dish, originating from a 200-year-old recipe that once served the Emperor and his concubines. This dish fits in the category of Yaoshan, or medicinal cuisine, which traditionally served as a dietary staple of the Chinese royalty. Available (though not necessarily affordable) to peasant workers nowadays, this Manchurian thick soup is known as Huangtanzi, or Vessel of Royalty (my translation).

Inside this heated claypot was an extremely thick and smooth yellow chowder with a deep, mouth-watering Xianwei (aka. Umami) flavour extracted from a soup stock of chicken and cured ham. But it was the ingredients floating inside the soup that asserted traditional Chinese opulence: deer tendons, fish lips and bamboo pith. This was the collagen diet for the Emperor's harem of concubines, and is still trusted by modern day Chinese consumers to enhance the skin's elasticity.

For us though it's a deliciously thick soup and a rare glimpse into Imperial culinary traditions. Huangtanzi comes in several versions with various medicinal values (and escalating prices). The cheapest (Saiwai) starts at RMB 38 and the most expensive (Manhan) climbs all the way up to RMB 208. We ordered the Hougong (Emperor's Harem, RMB 68) version, infused with collagen-rich ingredients tailored for the female body. The male version, Bawang, is priced at RMB 58 and contains deer penis as an aphrodisiac. Very appetizing.

Next came one of the best dishes of our 16-Day trip, and certainly one of the best prawn dishes I've ever had. Even after reading countless raving reviews about this dish from local Beijingners we were still amazed at the first bite. This was another one of Najia's hugely famous dishes -- Mizhi Supixia, or Secret Recipe Crunchy-Skinned Prawns.

These gigantic prawns were sweet and firm like any good prawn, and were liberally coated in a honey sauce with a tinge of spiciness in Old Beijing tradition. But what really set this dish apart was the incredible crunchiness of the prawn shells -- all of the shells and even the tails disintegrated under my bite and became completely edible. I don't know what's inside their so-called Secret Recipe, but at a measly RMB 38 (CAD$5.8) this marvellous dish has to be one of the best bargains of Beijing.

My wife loved this cold dish of Guihua Shanyao, or Chinese Yam in Guihua Flower Sauce, which has the starchy yam generously smothered with the distinctly fragrant and sweet jam. I always like Guihua in Northern Chinese desserts and apparently it works in more substantial dishes as well.

We wanted one more dish and had to decide between the warm Spring Water Spareribs (Quanshui Paigu) or this cold dish of Jellied Crunchy Cartilage (Cuigudong). This turned out to be quite an interesting dish with slightly softened pork cartilages suspended inside a gelatinized Lushui sauce. Just the right supplement of calcium and collagen after an afternoon of hiking at the Summer Palace.

The bill totaled RMB 168 (CAD$25.5) for two persons even with a beer, not exactly cheap for the locals but certainly much more affordable than most other places serving high-end Imperial cuisine. Najia Xiaoguan has recently opened a few more branches all over Beijing, with one being centrally located near the Yong'anli subway station. If they can maintain the same exceptional quality as the main branch, Najia Xiaoguan has the potential to truly assert its claim as one of Beijing's star restaurants, just like the rise of Dadong 10 years ago.

Bill for Two Persons

Huangtanzi (Hougong)	RMB 68
Secret Recipe Crispy-Skinned Prawns	RMB 38
Chinese Yams in Guihua Sauce	RMB 18
Jellied Crunchy Cartilage	RMB 28
Draft Beer	RMB 16
TOTAL	RMB 168 (CAD$25.5)

At the other end of the spectrum is the much more budget-friendly Xiaochi, or traditional Chinese peasant snacks, which some translators equate with the Spanish concept of tapas or the Greek concept of Mezedes. That's not entirely correct in my opinion. While there are similarities in terms of size and informality, the Xiaochi of Beijing is often breakfast, after-meal dessert, AND late night snack to the locals. And there's no better way to experience it than to live inside the Hutong alleys of Old Beijing and to rub shoulders with the locals while seeking their advice for what to order.

Food Review: HUGUOSI XIAOCHI, Main Branch (Huguosi, Beijing)
Address: 68 Huguosi Street, Xicheng District, Beijing
Hours: 05:30-21:00
Website/Map: From Dianping.com
Directions: Take Ping'anli Station's northeast exit and walk east along Huguosi Street for half a block. It's on the left hand side.

This is a mecca for anyone interested in authentic Beijing cuisine. How good is this place? We booked our guesthouse around the corner so that we can have breakfast here everyday. Crazy perhaps, but it was well worth it.

Huguosi Xiaochi is widely recognized by locals as one of the city's best places for peasant snacks. For hundreds of years these traditional recipes were passed down through independent street vendors hawking outside the Huguosi Temple. But with the old temple's partial demolition back in the 1950's, these vendors were assembled into an troupe of specialty chefs to carry on their tradition in an eatery setting. Dozens of mouthwatering choices await curious visitors -- presented below are the varieties recommended to me by the locals.

My own favorite was probably the Naiyou Zhagao (Deep Fried Cream Puffs, RMB 6 per order), a filling-less Northern Chinese doughnut. Deep-fried and dusted with sugar, these morsels were feather light and tasted much less oily than they look.

Look at the puffiness of the scrumptious dough! Good thing each order came with five puffs as I can easily finish a dozen for breakfast.

But our daily breakfast staple was Shaobing Jiarou, Beijing's counter-punch to New York's Pastrami Sandwich. Literally meaning Meat in Roasted Flatbread, this beef sandwich makes a delicious light breakfast for only RMB 5 (CAD$0.8). The more adventurous can also walk next door for an equally appealing Lurou Huoshao (Donkey Meat in Roasted Flatbread).

Wandouhuang (Yellow Pea Cakes, RMB 1.5) has been a springtime favorite of Beijingner peasants and Empresses alike for centuries past. These blocks of mildly sweet, smoothly ground peas may look and taste like Japanese gelatinous Yokan, but are actually made of pure pea paste and thus are quite filling as a breakfast item.

The curiously named Aiwowo (RMB 1) is actually a round ball of soft glutinous rice flour with a centre of sweet sesame paste. Now this gets even more filling than the Wandouhuang, and for a cheaper price as well! This is precisely the attractiveness of the Chinese concept of Xiaochi -- any blue collar worker can get reasonably full for RMB 5 (CAD$0.8) or less.

But perhaps the strangest name belongs to the Ludagun, or Rolling Donkey, certainly one of the best selling items judging by the breakfast trays of the locals. This little cake of millet flour and red bean paste is mildly sweet and wonderfully chewy.

And if the above breakfast staples aren't filling enough, there's still the fruity and densely packed Hawthorne Jelly (Shanzhagao, RMB 5). Despite its resemblance to the ubiquitous varieties of starchy rice cakes, it's actually refreshingly sweet and sour and slightly crunchy.

These absolutely delectable pretzels drenched in Guihua flower syrup are known as Sanzi Mahua (Loose Twisters, RMB 2 per order). Now these are much more suitable as casual snacks than breakfast items.

Those who have a sweet tooth can consider a bowl of the steaming hot Babaozhou (Porridge with Eight Treasures, RMB 3), a chunky porridge filled with sweet red beans, lily root, peanuts and other goodies. This is even more filling than the Aiwowo.

One of the more expensive snacks (still costing only RMB 7) is the Niuroubing, which literally means ... ahem ... Beef Cake. This pan-fried roll of flat bread was deliciously greasy and came with a savory filling of minced beef. It actually turned out to be one of my favorite items.

The common Sanxian Baozi (Bun with Three Delicacies, RMB 1.5) is probably a better option for the budget-conscious -- three or four of these would make a very cheap and extremely filling breakfast.

Finally there's the Beijing equivalence of McDonald's Big Breakfast, a complete breakfast set with a millet porridge, a salad, marinated steamed peanuts, and your choice of hearty entrees. We chose this Stir-Fried Shrimp and Dough Lumps (Xiaren Chaogeda, RMB 13) for brunch on our final day. The shrimp stir-fry certainly wasn't as spectacular as the traditional Xiaochi snacks though, and I really should have picked my favorite Beef Cake as entree ... which would have dropped the price of my breakfast set down to RMB 10.

Hungry yet? To tell the truth we only tried a TENTH of Huguosi Xiaochi's offerings -- I still haven't braved the famous (or infamous?) Douzhi, or Mung Bean Milk, yet. And then there are a number of other famous Xiaochi eateries around the city (eg. Longshengming, Baodu Feng, Baodu Zhang, Jiumen Xiaochi). If you consider yourself a foodie, definitely don't deprive yourself of these delicious and cheap treats during your time in Beijing.

Bill for Breakfast for 2 Persons for 5 Days

Deep Fried Cream Puffs	RMB 6
Meat in Roasted Flatbread x 6	RMB 30
Yellow Pea Cakes x 2	RMB 3
Aiwowo x 2	RMB 2
Rolling Donkey x 2	RMB 3
Hawthorne Jelly	RMB 5
Loose Twisters x 2	RMB 4
Porridge with Eight Treasures	RMB 3
Beef Cake x 2	RMB 14
Bun with Three Delicacies x 2	RMB 3
Stir-Fried Shrimp and Dough Lumps	RMB 13
5 DAY TOTAL	RMB 86 (CAD$13)

Beijing Food Trip - Part 4: Legendary 200-Year-Old Eateries

2011-10-21T22:54:00.001-07:00

Beijing is as much a foodie paradise as Tokyo or Hong Kong, especially if you appreciate traditional, slow food that has withstood the test of time. Seven centuries as China's capital has bestowed on Beijing more culinary traditions than arguably anywhere else in East Asia, as reflected in its citizens' respect of Laozihao, or Time-honored Brands.

Practically dozens of restaurants and food producers still carry on traditions from the era of the Emperors, with one dating from as early as Year 1530. On our Beijing Food Trip we tweaked our itinerary to fit in several of these highly-esteemed Beijing institutions, all of which were conveniently located for sightseeing and all were quite reasonably priced.

Food Review: DUYICHU, Main Branch (Qianmen, Beijing)
Address: 38 Qianmen Dajie, Chongwen District, Beijing
Hours: 08:00-21:00
Website/Map: From Dianping.com
Directions: Duyichu is right at the epicentre of Beijing's original tourist district, where the pedestrian street of Dashilan meets the wide boulevard of Qianmen Dajie. It's about a 500m walk directly south of Qianmen subway station.

One of the most popular among Beijing's pantheon of venerated old restaurants, Duyichu originated in the 3rd Year of Emperor Qianlong, or Year 1738 in the Western World. To put things in perspective, the United States was still a British colony, the Dutch were a world power, and Napoleon wasn't even born yet. That year a little eatery popped up outside the south gate of the Imperial Quarters, and through centuries of evolution became specialized in the cheap, unpretentious steamed dumplings known as Shaomai.

270 years passed and Shaomai's bastardized offsprings have been happily adopted by various East Asian cultures as their own -- now you can have Shuumai in a Tokyo izakaya, Siumai in a Hong Kong teahouse or even Siomay at a street-side stall in Jakarta -- which all taste quite different. But Beijing was where it was first perfected into an art form, and for a taste of the original we had to visit Duyichu.

This is granddaddy of them all -- plump, mouth-watering Shaomai in fine Beijing tradition. Being more familiar with Hong Kong's version I always considered the definition of Shaomai/Siumai/Shuumai to be 1) an open-top dumpling and 2) enfolded in a lye-water flour wrapping. Neither was true of Duyichu's original recipe, which consisted of a white flour wrapping and a pomegranate-shaped dumpling with a twisted, semi-closed top. But most importantly, unlike the small Cantonese steamer that typically holds four Siumai, one steamer here in Beijing comes with ten Shaomai!

The varieties in our steamer of Assorted Shaomai (RMB 40 for 10 dumplings) included Pork and Leeks, Beef and Cilantro, Lamb, Vegetarian and, last but not least, the old and original recipe of Sanxian (pork, shrimp and sea cucumber). Call me old-fashioned but the Sanxian was far superior according to my tastebuds. Next time I won't even bother with the other flavors.

But the climax of the meal was the king of Shaomai, an exquisite Crab Roe (Xiehuang) dumpling that had to be ordered separately at RMB 16 a pop and came in its own little steamer. That's the price of a full lunch for a blue collar worker, packed into one bite-sized morsel. As Crab Meat and Roe is traditionally a Shanghainese speciality, I felt that this was starting to deviate from Beijing cuisine now.

And it did taste remarkably similar to the Xiefen Xiaolongbao (Soup Bun with Crab Roe) of Shanghai, with the robust flavor of golden crab roe mixed with the sweetness of fresh crab meat... and of course less soup and more meat than the Shanghainese version. Though I would hesitate to call it a traditional Beijing dish, this was an excellent Shaomai and certainly among best I've ever had. Not cheap, but money well spent.

A much more traditional Beijing dish was the Qianlong Baicai, a plate of fresh, crispy Chinese cabbages blended with a thick sesame vinaigrette. There's a local legend about Emperor Qianlong granting the name Duyichu to this once-nameless eatery, and it's not inconceivable that this dish originated during Qianlong's time, two-and-a-half centuries ago. The time-tested recipe had just the right amount of acidity for balancing the thickness of the sesame paste, and was the perfect palate cleanser after a meal of meat-and-cholesterol-filled dumplings.

Bill for Two Persons

Assorted Shaomai	RMB 40
Crab Roe Shaomai x 2	RMB 32
Qianlong Baicai	RMB 18
Pepsi	RMB 6
TOTAL	RMB 96 (CAD$14.5)

Food Review: SHAGUOJU, Main Branch (Qianmen, Beijing)
Address: 60 Xisi Nandajie, Xicheng District, Beijing
Hours: 11:00-22:00
Website/Map: From Dianping.com
Directions: Shaguoju is halfway between the stations of Xisi and Lingjinghutong on Subway Line 4. From Xisi station walk south along the main road of Xisi Nandajie. It's about 500m away on the left hand side.

This place has become one of my favourite restaurants in Beijing, on the basis of two dishes.

Only a few years younger than Duyichu above, Shaguoju is yet another 270-year-old Beijing culinary institution that started during the reign of Emperor Qianlong. The main claim to fame here is ... what else ... the Shaguo, or claypot dishes. In fact Shaguoju used to have a different name, but nobody seemed to care and eventually it became known as the “Place for Claypot Dishes.”

My own strategy when visiting these legendary old restaurants is to skip the other 20 pages of the menu, and pick only from the first section where they introduce the best dishes that made it famous in the first place. At Shaguoju we picked three from that section of the menu -- Ganshao Huangyu (Dry-Braised Yellow Fish), Jiemo Dun (Cabbages in Mustard Sauce), and of course the claypot dish of Suancai Bairou (Sliced Pork with Pickled Cabbages).

This ordinary-looking dish is what earned Shaguoju 270 years of fame, and it turned out much, much better than I imagined. You see, the Shanghainese, Cantonese and Sichuanese all have their own claypot specialties which typically make use of the hot clay surface to lightly sear the meat and herbs to add an extra layer of flavor. The Japanese concept of Dobanyaki works the same way. But inside this Pekinese claypot is a clear broth with pickled cabbages and potato starch noodles lining the bottom, and with meat placed on top. Compared with the rest of China, that's just backwards.

But one sip of the broth and I became a convert -- this historic recipe has brought these unassuming ingredients as close to perfection as can be. Sweet umami flavors from hours of bone-simmering has taken on the slight acidity of the pickled cabbages, which then perfectly balances the mild oiliness from the paper-thin slices of pork. Even the potato noodles became a highlight as they soaked up all the goodness of the broth like sponges. The pork itself was so flavorful that we barely touched the dipping sauce of fermented tofu and shrimp paste. And the best part was ... this wasn't even the best dish.

The best dish was this Ganshao Huangyu, which started with a fresh, swimming yellow croaker fish brought to our table for approval before being fried and finally braised in a sweet, sour and mildly hot sauce. The skin was crispy and spicy, the flesh was soft and sweet, and even the fins and tails were finger-licking good. Reasonably priced at RMB 88 per Jin (ie. 500g) this whole fish cost only RMB 114 (CAD$17.3), certainly less expensive than it looked as the centrepiece of a dinner at such a highly renowned place.

Finally the Jiemo Dun (Cabbages in Mustard Sauce) worked great as a traditional palate cleanser, especially after the bold and spicy yellow croaker fish. Once a peasant favourite during Beijing's cold and vegetable-deprived winters, the cabbage is lightly fermented with a ground mustard paste to be preserved for weeks. Though they may look menacingly yellow with the mustard, the cabbages were actually quite sweet and didn't really possess too powerful of a kick.

Frankly Shaguoju was better than I expected -- the trademark Sliced Pork with Pickled Cabbages did live up to 270 years of hype, and the Dry-Braised Yellow Fish was just spectacular. This is probably one of four restaurants in Beijing I won't hesitate to revisit on the next trip, along with Dadong, Najia Xiaoguan and Hongyuan Shuanroucheng.

Bill for Two Persons

Sliced Pork with Pickled Cabbages	RMB 32
Dry-Braised Yellow Croaker Fish (650g)	RMB 114.4
Cabbages in Mustard Sauce	RMB 12
Yanjing Beer	RMB 10
TOTAL	RMB 168.40 (CAD$25.5)

Food Review: TIANFUHAO (Various Branches, Beijing)
Address: Numerous stores, including one across from Quanjude on Qianmen Dajie
Hours: Generally open from late morning till early evening
Website/Map: Official Site

This is not a restaurant per se, but Beijing's most respected and trusted shop for take-out food over the past two-and-a-half centuries. Ask the locals about what they're having at their Chinese New Years Eve family dinner, and many will tell you the Sauced Pork Elbow of Tianfuhao. It's that good.

And it can make a totally authentic and quick dinner in your hotel room. Just drop the inner plastic package into an electric water kettle (or a boiling pot), heat for a few minutes then pour the content into a bowl. That's what I did at the picture above and it turned out restaurant-quality.

We even brought one of their ready-to-eat packages of chicken wings on our Great Wall hike (a strenuous 2.5 hours from Jinshanling to Simatai). Consider this option if you're taking a day-trip to the Great Wall or Chuandixia and want an authentic Beijing meal in the middle of nowhere. Your hiking partners will be envious.

Bill for Two Persons

Sauced Pork Elbow	RMB 28
Spicy Chicken Wings	RMB 20
TOTAL	RMB 48 (CAD$7.3)

Food Review: DAOXIANGCUN (Various Branches, Beijing)
Address: Numerous stores, including one on Dashilan pedestrian street
Hours: Generally open from late morning till early evening
Website/Map: Official Site

Again this is not a restaurant, but an old and historic bakery for traditional pastries. Even since this southern-style pastry shop opened its doors in 19th Century Beijing, the locals here have since embraced it and made the Beijing franchise the most successful of several Daoxiangcun franchises across China. The allure is simple -- delectable sweets, affordable prices, and the convenience of over a hundred outlets dotting every Beijing neighbourhood. In other words, there must be one near your hotel as well.

A local Beijingner recommended to me this Xianhua Meigui (Fresh Roses), a fluffy-skinned pastry with a filling of rose petals and peeled melon seeds. Sorry about the condition of the cakes in the photo -- the words Xianhua Meigui were originally stamped on top of the cake before they flaked off when I dropped them into my backpack. The sweetness was just right and reminded me somewhat of Hong Kong's Lo Po Beng (Wife's Pastry Cake).

But this Matcha Tea Pastry (Mochasu) was my favourite by far -- beautiful to behold until it crumbles softly in the mouth. It's not quite as bitter as most Japanese interpretations of Matcha sweets have it, but this mild sweetness is exactly how the locals here like it. And for the past century and a half, life itself was bitter enough that you wouldn't want more of it in your dessert. How's this for a history lesson in one bite?

Bill for Two Persons

Assorted Pastries

RMB 20 (CAD$3)

Beijing Food Trip - Part 3: Showdown of Two Peking Ducks

2011-10-08T18:02:00.001-07:00

Crispy, succulent and dripping with finger-licking goodness, the plump, fruitwood-roasted Peking Duck is probably Beijing’s best known contribution to the culinary world. As my wife is a huge fan of everything duck from Quebecois Confit to Cantonese Barbecue, a major highlight of our Beijing Food Trip was to seek out two of the capital’s best restaurants for the two contrasting styles of Peking Duck -- Hanging Oven Style vs. Roasting Oven Style.

To narrow down our list of candidates, we again consulted local Chinese reviews on DianPing.com:
- Dadong: Hanging Oven Style. Review ratings are consistently off the charts for its legendarily crispy breast skin. Our pick.
- Bianyifang: Roasting Oven Style. Its 600-Year-Old recipe makes it one of the only remaining guardians of the old roasting style. Our pick.
- Quanjude: Hanging Oven Style. Most renowned of all Peking Duck restaurants and perhaps the most famous restaurant in China.
- Li Qun: Hanging Oven style. Its ducks are barbecued in front of diners in a wood-fire oven, which draws more foreigners than locals.
- Fuyuelou: Roasting Oven Style. Another rare devotee of the original style. Relatively cheaper and centrally located near Qianmen.

Food Review: BIANYIFANG, Hademen Branch (Chongwenmen, Beijing)
Address: 4th floor, 16 Chongwenmen Outer Street, Chongwen District, Beijing
Hours: 11:00-14:00, 17:00-21:30
Website/Map: From Dianping.com
Directions: From Chongwenmen subway station, walk south on Chongwenmen Outer Street for half a block. Bianyifang restaurant is located on the 4th floor of … guess what … the Bianyifang Building on the left side of the road.

The allure of Old Beijing comes from generations of traditional craftsmanship, passed down from grandmaster to master to apprentice. In the world of Peking Ducks tradition is synonymous with two names: Quanjude and Bianyifang, both established just outside the Front Gate of the Forbidden City back in the mid-1800s. For the past 150 years the battle of the two giants has nurtured two divergent styles of duck preparation -- the Hanging Oven (Gualu) Style of Quanjude vs. the Roasting Oven (Menlu) Style of Bianyifang.

And it was tradition that made us pick Bianyifang over Quanjude. While the Hanging Oven Style is a relatively recent invention at 150-years-young, the Roasting Oven Style, and the recipe claimed by Bianyifang, dates back from the 14th Year of Emperor Yongle, or Year 1416 in the Western world, before Columbus discovered the Americas.

We visited Bianyifang’s old and yet brand new Hademen branch, best known for a legendary "last supper" where 1,000 ducks were served on a single night to its religiously faithful clientele before the old building was demolished. The same old roasting oven from the old building has been carefully reassembled and is now churning out duck after duck in the new restaurant.

But traditions aside, the taste must still withstand the test of time. Most diners are amazed at the plumpness of the bird without appreciating the meticulous, almost surgical precision behind its preparation. First the duck is never gutted, but a hole is made under the armpit where the innards are excavated so that the abdomen can be inflated with air like a balloon. In the case of the Roasting Oven Style, the oven is first heated to a high temperature before the fire is extinguished and the bird is inserted for roasting. The end result is supposed to be an initial crisping of the skin followed by a juicy slow-roasting of the interior, as we were about to find out.

First we started with arguably the best part of the duck -- Foie Gras. Few foreigners realize that duck liver is likewise treasured in traditional Chinese cuisine as in its French counterpart -- in fact both achieve that rich creaminess of texture through force-feeding (Peking Duck is commonly called "Tianya," or force-fed duck). These slices of Yanshui Yagan (Brined Foie Gras) were just creamily soft and excellent as an appetizer, though the portion was a little heavy for the two of us.

When it comes to the choice of Roast Ducks, Bianyifang offers several variations based on the flavour of the soup stock filling the duck’s cavity during roasting. But for us there is only one worthy choice -- the "1416," named after the year its original recipe was conceived, nearly 600 years ago.

Our duck arrived after 30 minutes, escorted by its surgeon in white. With each calculated move the server carved half-moon-shaped slices off the carcass of the bird, down to the ribcage and leg bones. Each slice was remarkably uniform in size with a semi-circular sliver of perfectly browned skin hugging a wedge of moist, succulent meat. We soon ended up with two full dishes of meat, along with the unfilletable bits and pieces.

This Roasting Oven Style produced a duck with a browned but soft skin, a thin and visible under-layer of fat, and a very soft meat texture moistened at the same time by the melted fat and the soup stock inside duck’s cavity during the roasting process. The meat was actually somewhat similar to the Cantonese barbecued duck, only slightly leaner and more tender. And of course, a bowl of the milky white duck bone soup is free, or you can have the remainder of the carcass deep fried for an extra fee.

One whole duck for two people was just too much meat and we had to balance it with some vegetables. Our dish of Old Chef’s Sauteed Chinese Cabbages (Laochushi Chaobaicai) was wonderfully enhanced with old-fashioned pork rinds, an ingredient rarely seen nowadays.

The total bill of RMB 266 (CAD$40.3) for two isn’t cheap by Chinese standards -- it’s Beijing after all, and one of the city’s premier restaurants at that. But how many other restaurants in the world can boast a 600-year-old recipe? Kyoto’s Honke Owariya is the only other I can think of. Considering the uniqueness of the experience, I have no problem recommending Bianyifang to any reader who appreciates the attraction and romance of long-revered traditions. But if you’re just looking for the best Peking Duck ... well, scroll further down and read about our visit to Dadong.

Bill for Two Persons

1416 Roast Duck	RMB 148
Plain Crepes	RMB 6
Cucumber Sticks	RMB 3
Green Onions	RMB 3
Dipping Sauce x 2	RMB 4
Brined Foie Gras	RMB 38
Old Chef's Sauteed Chinese Cabbages	RMB 48
Yanjing Premium Draft	RMB 16
TOTAL	RMB 266 (CAD$40.3)

The goal of our Food Trip was to visit one restaurant serving the Roasting Oven Style, and one serving the Hanging Oven Style. As we already picked Bianyifang for the former, the latter was a toss between the venerable Quanjude vs. the innovative Dadong. We picked Dadong at the end, and it was one of the best decisions ever.

Food Review: DADONG KAOYADIAN, Dongsishitiao Branch (Dongcheng, Beijing)
Address: 22 Dongsishitiao Jia, Dongcheng District, Beijing
Hours: 11:00-24:00
Website/Map: From Dianping.com
Directions: Exit Dongsishitiao Station and walk west on Dongsishitiao Street. You will see a row of fascinating old houses (Nanxinchang) in the midst of skyscrapers. Dadong is at the bottom floor of the building right next to the old houses. It's somewhat hidden though, so be prepared to ask someone.

This is the best duck I've ever had. Period. Nothing comes even close.

How good is this place? Just look at its endless string of foreign embassy banquets ... and the nightly line-up of locals packing its modernist foyer. Dadong is unofficially dethroning the century-old giants -- duck for duck it already charges more than Quanjude and Bianyifang. But the experience awaiting the diner, as advertised by founder Dong Zhenxiang anyway, is the harmonious marriage between the age-old craft of Peking Duck and 21st century molecular gastronomy.

Never shying away from innovations, Dadong (a.k.a. Dongshi Shaohaishendian) has invented a novel technique based loosely upon the old Hanging Oven Style. First it skips the air-blowing technique traditionally used to separate the skin from the meat, and air dries the duck to reach a precise humidity content. Then it is roasted in the oven, at a certain precise temperature, for almost twice as long as the traditional recipe in an effort to completely melt away the underskin fat. And in order to retain the meat's flavours during the prolonged roasting process, the conventional step of filling the cavity with soup stock is skipped altogether. That's almost heresy to traditionalists but, as we found out, it was pure ecstasy for the tastebuds.

Dadong's magic is all about the skin -- in fact the first incision made by our serving chef was to carve out a 25cm x 8cm section of the breast skin, a rather unusual move. What made the skin so incredible was the seeming absence of visible underskin fat, replaced by a thin, delicate layer of browned brittleness achieved through prolonged roasting at the right temperature. This effectively deep-fried the underside of the skin within its own oil, which was then completely drained to reveal a golden, thunderously crispy and incredibly fragile piece of contiguous skin -- so fragile that the chef had to precariously slice it with surgical precision to avoid shattering it into pieces.

And the taste was just ... beyond words. The crunchiness was beyond crunchy as the skin would almost disintegrate at the push of my tongue. This was to be enjoyed with only a light dip in white sugar granules as the ladies of the Imperial Court preferred, and not to be overpowered by the thick dipping sauce.

Next up were the highly prized Yaliji, the two thin and flavourful strands of lean muscles on the sides of the backbone, also traditionally savoured without the sauce. Then it was off to the main course -- two little mounts of lean meat and crispy skin, all to be wrapped in crepes and Huoshao flatbread along with the variety of condiments provided. For myself though, green onions and dark dipping sauce was all the condiments I needed.

An unexpected interlude arrived in the middle of the meal -- a palate cleanser (meant to be a modern version of a Trou Normand?) in the form of a white peach sherbet. I suppose Dadong really wants to declare itself the leader in contemporary Chinese cuisine, but I thought this was somewhat over the top.

For our obligatory portion of greens we ordered the plain and simple Stir Fried Pea Sprouts (Qingchao Doumiao), a better palate cleanser than the sherbet in my opinion. Dadong is also famous for its house special fried eggplants, though that would have been too heavy for the two of us after finishing an entire duck by ourselves.

The meal did finish with the essential milky white soup made from duck bones, which was probably the only part of the duck that tasted conventional on this night. The Roast Duck set dinner did end up slightly more expensive than the same at Bianyifang, but it was also head and shoulders above anything I've ever had.

By now it should be quite clear who won the showdown. I will not hesitate to return to Dadong again and again, whenever I stop by Beijing. Bianyifang on the other hand is still a worthwhile experience, even just for the bragging rights of sampling a 600-year-old recipe. What about the famous Quanjude? Well ... every traveler needs an incentive for a next trip right?

Bill for Two Persons

Roast Duck	RMB 198
Condiments Set x 2	RMB 16
Stir Fried Pea Sprouts	RMB 42
Draft Beer x 2	RMB 30
10% Service Charge	RMB 28.6
TOTAL	RMB 314.6 (CAD$47.7)

Beijing Food Trip - Part 2: Lamb Hotpot and Jiaozi

2011-09-27T22:22:00.001-07:00

If you ask local Beijingners what dishes best represent the city, Shuanyangrou (Lamb Hotpot) would likely rank among the top. Before any lamb-shy readers get turned-off by the mere mentioning of the word, let me tell you that my wife normally doesn't eat lamb either. But this is not your regular gamey cut of mutton, as I'll explain below.

As this is a Beijing Food Trip, naturally one of our major goals was to visit one of the city's best Lamb Hotpot specialty restaurants at a reasonable price. Consulting local reviews on DianPing.com, we narrowed our list down to four candidates:
- Hongyuan: Our pick. Consistently gets excellent reviews from locals. Two of its branches are located in prime tourist areas -- one on the lakeside at Qianhai, and one just south of the Temple of Heaven.
- Jubaoyuan: Also gets excellent reviews, though its location at Niu Jie isn't the most convenient for casual tourists.
- Tianyishun: Its specialty Yangxiezi (lamb spines) gets rave reviews from locals, but it's located on the far west side of the city.
- Donglaishun: Famous as the grandfather of Lamb Hotpot chains, this 100-year-old Beijing institution seems to be avoided by local families and survives mostly on tourists and business dinners.

Food Review: HONGYUAN NANMEN SHUANROU (Houhai, Beijing)
Address: 1 Nanguanfang Hutong, Shichahai, Xicheng District, Beijing
Hours: 11:00-14:00, 17:00-24:00
Website/Map: From Dianping.com
Directions: It's on the western lakeshore of Qianhai, just south of the Yinding Bridge where Qianhai turns into Houhai. You can't miss the giant brass pot at the storefront.

We struggled between picking Hongyuan vs. Jubaoyuan, and judging from local reviews, it's probably hard to go wrong with either. But Hongyuan offers more than just great food -- it's a dinner on the lovely lakeshore of Qianhai, followed by an after-dinner stroll among Houhai's live music bars and tea cafes. It's a no-brainer.

As with most good restaurants in Beijing, Hongyuan is notorious for long line-ups and we decided to come early for dinner after spending an afternoon at the Forbidden City. The restaurant is housed inside a traditional Siheyuan courtyard, where each table either shares one large communal brass hotpot or gets personal-size Cloisonne Blue hotpots. Of course, both types are traditionally shaped with the long chimneys that have become the symbol of hotpot restaurants in Beijing.

Here's my big problem though: this is a Lamb Hotpot restaurant, and my wife doesn't normally eat lamb. Baby lamb racks are okay, but anything older and more gamey turns her off just by smell alone. Any goat or mutton and she wouldn't even come near me until I rinse.

So I took the conservative route and ordered a premium platter of the freshest, never-frozen slices of beef and lamb. The choice cuts inside this Four Delicacies Platter (Sixian Pinpan, RMB 58) included (clockwise from front-left) premium tender beef, sliced beef shank, lamb neck fillet, and hand-sliced fresh lamb. I had always wanted to try lamb neck fillet, known locally as Yang Shang Nao (literally Lamb's Upper Brain, but it's actually the soft muscle at the back of the neck), and was ready to set aside the beef for my lamb-shy wife and finish all the lamb myself.

True to its legendary reputation, the neck fillet was definitely the softest cut of lamb I've ever had. It wasn't quite melt-in-the-mouth-Wagyu soft, but it was non-oily and remarkably sweet in addition to extremely tender. In fact the entire platter was excellent, but that's hardly a surprise given the restaurant's consistent popularity. The big surprise here was ...

... my wife started eating lamb! She couldn't even tell the lamb from the beef as the characteristic gamey taste, the big turn-off for her palate, was entirely absent. To my astonishment half the lamb was gone within minutes, with much ending up in her hotpot! We ended up just sharing the entire platter of lamb and beef, which was all good.

To complement all the meat above we also ordered a Mushrooms Platter (Xianjun Pinpan, RMB 28), which our waitress worried we couldn't possibly finish. It was a healthy heap of Shiitake, Enoki, Yun'er (Cloud Ears), and Buna-Shimeji mushrooms, which are among our favourites in any hotpot meal. We did finish the platter at the end, though it took a while.

But the true essence of a great Hotpot meal lies inside the dipping sauce. Every respectable Hotpot restaurant in Beijing has its own so-called secret formula, which typically consists of sesame paste, fermented tofu, cilantro and chives, among other secret seasonings.

The sauce (RMB 5 per bowl) here was deliciously thick and lent an excellent rich flavour to the flash-boiled lamb, though the portion could have been a little more generous.

Last but not least, don't miss the free sweet-vinegared garlic cloves which come in small appetizer plates! It does take a little time to peel off the skin, but the delicious morsel inside is just the perfect palate-cleanser between mouthfuls of full-flavored lamb and rich sesame paste.

This was probably the most satisfying meal of lamb ever for myself, and an extremely rare and enjoyable one for my wife. I would encourage any reader visiting Beijing, especially those who usually dislike lamb for its gamey taste, to give this place serious consideration. Not only will you get an authentically Beijing dinner in a picturesque lakeside setting, but you may also acquire a whole new appreciation of lamb, just like my wife did.

Bill for Two Persons

Four Delicacies Platter	RMB 58
Mushrooms Platter	RMB 28
Soup Stock x 2	RMB 10 x 2
Dipping Sauce x 2	RMB 5 x 2
Harbin Beer x 2	RMB 8 x 2
Table Settings x 2	RMB 1 x 2
TOTAL	RMB 134 (CAD$20.3)

Another Northern Chinese delicacy on our radar was something every Chinese housewife makes, especially on the Eve of the Chinese New Year. No matter what you call it ... Gyoza, Kyoja, or Shui Gow ... it's a piece of mouth-watering stuffing inside a flour dough. In this part of China it is known ubiquitously as Jiaozi and, though it's often available at little informal eateries, most Beijingners would agree that mom makes the best. As I do not have a Beijingner mom, I'll just have to settle for the most famous Jiaozi chain in the region.

Food Review: TIANJIN BAIJIAOYUAN (Xidan, Beijing)
Address: 12 Xinwenhua Jie Jia, Xicheng District, Beijing
Hours: 10:00-14:30, 17:30-22:00
Website/Map: From Dianping.com
Directions:
directions: Exit Xidan subway station and walk south along Xuanwumen Nei Street for about 400m and turn right on Xinwenhua Street. Tianjin Baijiaoyuan is on the left hand side.

I have to clarify that I learned my Chinese culinary customs in the South of China where Jiaozi, or locally known there as Shuijiao, looked and tasted entirely different. I've always known Jiaozi as the bite-sized shrimp-and-bamboo-shoot dumpling with yellow, paper-thin skin and bathing in a savory broth, and have always been curious about the white, thick-skinned Jiaozi north of the Yangtze River. In this first trip to the North I was determined to find a trusted, authentic restaurant specializing in Jiaozi, just to satisfy my curiosity.

So we targeted Tianjin Baijiaoyuan, a franchised chain originating from Beijing's neighbor to the southeast. On Dianping.com it had the highest reviews from the locals among Jiaozi specialty restaurants ... and it's conveniently located at Xidan.

The first item we ordered was a pompously named Tianxia Diyijiao, or Best Dumpling Under Heaven. Affordably priced at RMB 10, it turned out to be a miserable attempt to emulate the Cantonese Shui Gow in a Northerner's menu. The mini-dumplings had fillings of minced pork/shrimp and were served in a southern-style clear broth marred by excessive MSG. That made us even more anticipative of the authentic northern Jiaozi to come.

Baijiaoyuan currently boasts 229 different flavors of dumplings, and we had the toughest time narrowing our selection down to six. Minimum order for each flavor is 2 Liang, or roughly 100g, meaning that we probably ordered enough dumplings to feed a family of four. Some of the flavors were the among the most traditional, while some were clearly not so traditional but still tasted great. Our favorites, in order of preference, were:
1) Pine Nut and Duck Egg Yolk (excellent, though slightly heavy after a few)
2) Three Delicacies (can't go wrong with tradition!)
4) Lamb and Cilantro (also excellent, especially if you love lamb)
3) Minced Mackerel (surprisingly good and less fishy than I imagined)
5) Duck and Shiitake Mushrooms (somewhat average)
6) Sablefish and Masago (unbearably fishy ... the sablefish was definitely spoiled)

What's this heinous creature in a bamboo steamer? Well it was our dessert! This was certainly not a real sea cucumber (costing only RMB 8!), but a sweet red-bean-paste filling wrapped inside a purple glutinous rice flour envelope. I guess it's probably fitting to call this a mutated Jiaozi.

It's a decent place for a casual and authentic meal if you're craving dumplings as much as I was, though we should have ordered half as much instead of stuffing myself to the neck (and still wasting a half dish at the end). If you ask about my preference of Chinese dumplings, I still like the Cantonese version in Hong Kong's street-side noodle houses better.

Bill for Two Persons

Jiaozi (Sablefish and Masago)
Jiaozi (Pine Nuts and Duck Egg Yolk)
Jiaozi (Duck and Shiitake Mushrooms)
Jiaozi (Lamb and Cilantro)
Jiaozi (Three Delicacies)
Jiaozi (Minced Mackerel)	Subtotal RMB 100
Best Dumpling Under Heaven	RMB 10
Sea Cucumber Dessert	RMB 8
Fresh-squeezed Corn Juice	RMB 12
TOTAL	RMB 130 (CAD$19.7)

Beijing Food Trip - Part 1: Itinerary and Hotel

2011-09-17T18:54:00.001-07:00

This latest series of articles is an account of our 6-Day Food Trip in Beijing, as the last segment of our 16-day overland journey across Northern China.

Being a food enthusiast with a particular interest on Asian cuisines, I've had Beijing on my to-do list for years. For months leading up to our departure my mouth would water at the thought of the crispiness of fruit-wood-roasted duck skin, the paper-thin slices of baby lamb in a hotpot, or the sweet spiciness of a whole deep-fried yellow fish. The allure of Beijing's sophisticated flavours and exotic ingredients prompted me to get serious on research and planning, in an attempt to fit the essential sights and flavours into our limited time and budget.

This article documents our trip-planning in summer 2011. We first came up with a list of the various categories of Beijing cuisine we considered essential for a full culinary experience, then consulted the grand daddy of China's food review sites, DianPing.com (in Chinese) for recommendations. Our list of top restaurants was then merged into our itinerary of essential Beijing sights.

Authentic Beijing flavours at reasonable prices were our main focus. Though many of the reviewed restaurants can be considered at or near the top of their categories, our average price per meal came to less than RMB 90 (CAD$14) per person.

Our short-list of candidate restaurants included:

Peking Duck
- Dadong (see review; highest review ratings according to locals)
- Bianyifang (see review; unique 600-year-old recipe)
- Quanjude (most famous of all Peking Duck restaurants)
- Liqun (atmospheric and popular with foreign tourists)

Lamb Hotpot (Shuan Yang Rou)
- Hongyuan (see review; highly recommended by locals)
- Jubaoyuan (highly recommended by locals; slightly inconvenient location)
- Tianyishun (specializes in lamb spines; very inconvenient location)
- Donglaishun (most famous of hotpot places; largely disregarded by locals)

Imperial Cuisine
- Najiaxiaoguan (see review; highly recommended by locals)
- Guoyaoxiaoju (also recommended by locals)
- Tanjiacai (famously expensive; mixed reviews by locals)

Peasant Food
- Huguosi Xiaochi (see review; highly recommended by locals)
- Heyizhai (see review; another breakfast spot near Ping'anli)
- Daoxiangcun (see review; 120-year-old Chinese bakery recipes)
- Tianfuhao (see review; 270-year-old pork elbow recipe)
- Baodu Zhang / Baodu Feng / Longshengming (famous for beef tripes)
- Jiumen Xiaochi (popular with tourists; largely disregarded by locals)

Other Beijing Cuisines
- Shaguoju (see review; 270-year-old clay-pot dishes)
- Duyichu (see review; 270-year-old Shaomai dumpling specialist)
- Tianjin Baijiaoyuan (see review; specializes in Jiaozi (ie. Gyoza))
- Beipinglou (Old restaurant and noodle house chain)
- Laohuji (famous for old Beijing recipes and noodles)
- Laobeijing Zhajiangmian (popular noodle house)
- Guijie Tongle Fanguan (late night dining for everything spicy)

Fitting our top restaurant choices into a tour of the essential Beijing sights, our itinerary became:

DAY 1: Arrive and Check-In – Dinner: Peking Duck @ Bianyifang (Metro Line 2 Chongwenmen) - After-dinner stroll at Olympic Park (Metro Line 8 Aotizhongxin)

DAY 2: Breakfast @ Huguosi Xiaochi - Dashilan Old Street (Metro Line 2 Qianmen) - Brunch: Shaomai Dumplings @ Duyichu - Tiananmen Square (Bus #Zhuan1) - Forbidden City (Bus #Zhuan1) - Dinner: Lamb Hotpot @ Hongyuan (Bus #5) - After-dinner stroll around Houhai

DAY 3: Breakfast @ Huguosi Xiaochi - Old Hutong Alleys at Luoguxiang (Bus#118) – Lunch: Jiaozi Dumplings @ Tianjin Baijiaoyuan (Metro Line 4 Xidan) - Summer Palace (Metro Line 4 Beigongmen) – Dinner: Imperial Cuisine @ Najiaxiaoguan (Bus 696)

DAY 4: Take-out breakfast @ Huguosi Xiaochi - Hike the Great Wall from Jinshanling to Simatai (organized by Downtown Hostel) – Pack-Lunch: Chicken Wings from Tianfuhao – Dinner: Clay-pot Dishes @ Shaguoju (Metro Line 4 Lingjinghutong)

DAY 5: Breakfast @ Huguosi Xiaochi - Saturday Market at Panjiayuan (Metro Line 10 Jinsong) - Lunch: Quick meal @ Beipinglou or equivalent - Temple of Heaven (Metro Line 5 Tiantandongmen) - Last-minute Shopping at Wangfujing/Dongdan - Dinner: Peking Duck @ Dadong (Metro Line 2 Dongsishitiao) - Night Market at Donghuamen (Metro Line 1 Wangfujing) if legs permit

DAY 6: Brunch @ Huguosi Xiaochi or Heyizhai - Depart to Airport

HOTEL REVIEW

Searching for an authentic local experience as usual, we decided to skip formal hotels and stayed in one of Beijing's traditional Siheyuan courtyards, located within a tree-lined neighbourhood of Hutong alleys.

Hotel Review: YUEBINGE (Beijing Houhai Courtyard Inn)
Address: 89 Mianhua Hutong, Xicheng District, Beijing
Price: RMB 200 for double room, private shower/toilet, summer 2011
Website/Map: Booking page from CTrip.com
Directions: Yuebinge is a 5-minute walk northeast of Ping'anli station. Exit the station's northeast entrance heading north, and turn right at the first street (Huguosi Street). Turn left on Miaohua Hutong (first 4-way intersection). Yuebinge is 100m down the street on the left side, with a red door.

Like Kyoto's Machiya-turned-guesthouses, Beijing's Siheyuan guesthouses have become a mainstream choice for travelers. Once the predominant form of housing over most of Northern China, only 20,000 of these courtyard houses remain within central Beijing, mostly located in older, peasant neighbourhoods where land prices have suddenly skyrocketed over the past 10 years.

And as property prices rise, most guesthouses converted from these courtyards command prices of RMB 400 to 1000 per night as of summer 2011. A small handful of guesthouses / hostels still offer double rooms with private bathrooms for RMB 200 or less, and we chose the one closest to a subway station. Known in Chinese as Yuebinge (aka. Beijing Houhai Courtyard Inn), the guesthouse was attractive to us for several reasons:
- 5-minute walk to a subway station (Ping'anli Station on Line 4)
- 3-minute walk to one of Beijing's best eateries for traditional breakfasts (Huguosi Xiaochi)
- 20-minute walk to the live music bars at Houhai lake

All guest rooms faced the centre courtyard in typical Siheyuan fashion. Rooms were simple but contained the essentials of air-conditioning, satellite TV, and a spacious shower and toilet. No fridge though, which meant no spoilable food in the room and walking to the neighbourhood store for cold beer. The owner seemed to be willing to rent out his washing machine for a nominal fee, but most guests simply hand-washed clothes and used the guesthouse's clotheslines to air-dry for free.

One more piece of Mantou bun please! The owner just brought home this little puppy three days before our arrival, and the little guy hilariously attemped climbing into our room over the Chinese door sill and got his belly stuck while on top of the sill. He also seemed to have a fondness for our take-out breakfast items from the locally popular Daoxiangcun bakery.

Yuebinge's location makes it a good base to experience life in a typical "Old Beijing" neighbourhood, providing that you're not too picky about in-room amenities. Subway is just a 5-minute walk away to reach Beijing's major sights. The little Hutong alley outside the guesthouse is full of barbers, watermelon-selling vans, funeral clothing for the dead, and other interesting peasant shops. And most importantly, some of the city's best breakfast fare is literally around the corner at the famous Huguosi Xiaochi. It simply doesn't get much more authentically Beijing than this.

Navigating Past Fake Monks at Wutaishan

2011-09-10T20:54:00.000-07:00

A long time ago in a land far, far away ... there was a peaceful community of Buddhist monks nestled deep within a mountainous plateau in Northern China. Legends claimed the mountain's connection with a certain Bodhisattva, which sprang a little hamlet of secluded temples and monasteries below where the clear snow-fed river flowed. Well, at least that was the legend of how Wutaishan started.

But this is no fairytale, but a sad story of how money and greed destroyed the innocence of a remote thousand-year-old town. If you're planning a trip to Wutaishan, I encourage you to first do a little research about the town's current state. Despite all its past reputation as a genuine religious community and (or perhaps due to) its recent inclusion as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the new reality of the scams and schemes awaiting unsuspecting pilgrims may surprise you.

In fact the scamming is so rampant that many tourists, both domestic and foreign, get scammed before even arriving at Wutaishan. Many first-time visitors board taxis from nearby Datong, Taiyuan and Xinzhou and arrive at a small town with all the Wutaishan signages, hotels named Wutaishan Binguan or Wutaishan Fandian, and even an official train station named Wutaishan. Except this town was known as Shahe Zhen until a few years ago, and actually sits at the bottom of the mountain range, 50 km of treacherous mountain roads away from the monastic community. It would cost another RMB 40 on a 75 minute bus ride up the mountain.

The real destination is a mountain town known to locals as Taihuai Zhen, which sits in a lush green valley among the five sacred peaks (hence the term Wu Tai Shan, or literally Five Terrace Mounts). But before you arrive in town, the local government will charge a RMB 168 (actually RMB 218, as I'll explain) per-person toll for the privilege of passing through its gates, even if you're only stopping by for an afternoon. Fortunately China's oldest wooden structure (Nan Chan Si) is outside the gate, but expect to pay to see everything else.

And on top of the RMB 168, there is another compulsory RMB 50 to contribute to the town's environmental initiative of providing low-emission buses for all of its residents. Note that this fee is automatically added on top of the RMB 168 ticket, bringing the total cost of entrance to RMB 218 (CAD$33).

To make it even more confusing this RMB 50 fee applies even if you're driving your own car into Wutaishan and have no intention of using its buses! Once in town you will then enjoy "free," unlimited local transport on these green buses as you're now a local. According to one local we spoke with, the government made the mistake of purchasing a whole fleet of expensive new buses that no resident would pay to ride, and subsequently decided to turn it into a tourism cash grab.

Arriving is only the beginning. While it's true that prices at hotels and restaurants are typically two to three times the prices at the closest cities (Datong or Taiyuan), that's just a fact of supply and demand and should be expected in most popular tourist destinations. Taxis still prowl the street for any clueless tourist unaware of the "free" bus system, but that's not completely a scam either as they do have a service to sell. The real professionals though are the legions of fake monks, fortune-tellers and other scam artists too numerous to list.

It begins with trivial schemes in which individuals dress up in Buddhist monk attire to gain the sympathy of passers-by. Go to the steep uphill stairs on the paths towards Pusading and Dailuoding and watch the several monks with brooms. Look closely for a few minutes and you'll see that they will sweep the hardest when tourists walk by, even though there's really nothing to clean. Currently there's also a monk with one prosthetic leg crawling up the long stairs with tremendous difficulty, but when nobody is watching you'll see him on his one leg hopping around town. Not a bad way to earn wages better than many shop owners.

Higher up the food-chain are the fake monks and fortune-tellers who operate inside semi-legitimate temples such as the always crowded Wuyemiao (literally Temple of the Fifth Master-dragon). As one of the only temples on Wutaishan with no entrance fee, it has become a mandatory stop for domestic tour groups and thus receives thousands of visitors a day. Stand at a corner and you can watch these groups being herded into a small incense-filled courtyard behind closed doors. Incense boxes and the associated year-round prayers by resident monks are rumoured to cost up to of RMB 2000 each, though I fortunately cannot verify. If you speak any Chinese at all, this is a good place to pretend you don't.

But these intermediates only receive a commission out of the temple's huge profit. At the top of the food chain are professional entrepreneurs with their own fake temples, complete with their own dedicated teams of fake monks and other peripheral agents, each with their own specialized ... ahem ... expertise.

You may have watched a monk asking for a vacant seat at a restaurant table and striking up a conversation (which happened to the next table at our lunch spot). Or you may have met a random local who offered his own list of must-visit temples of Wutaishan. Domestic Chinese tourists often report stories of random monks offering words of wisdom, or blessings, or help to avoid some predestined calamity. Once the prey is led to a seemingly legitimate temple, the compulsory provision of service can come in the form of fortune-telling, spiritual guidance or the sale of personalized amulets. The lack of cash is no defense, as temples do have credit card readers.

That's not to say Wutaishan isn't worth a visit -- it has reached World Heritage Site status for good reasons and the architecture is stunning. But it's essential to do some minimal homework beforehand and plan out which temples to visit and which ones to avoid. Not all temples are scams and not all monks are fakes -- there are genuine monks who devote their entire lives to serve their religious and altruistic purposes in the community, and you can watch and talk to them (in Chinese) at legitimate temples.

The safest and most authoritative list of legitimate temples is the inventory of World Heritage buildings on the UNESCO website, which has a total of 9 temples listed: Xiantong Si, Tayuan Si, Pusading, Bishan Si, Shuxiang Si, Nanshan Si, Longquan Si, Jin'ge Si, and Foguang Si. Apart from Foguang Si, the other 8 are all located within the town of Taihuai (ie. within the tourist area requiring an entrance fee). Most temples charge a separate, nominal entrance fee of around RMB 5-10, though some smaller temples are free.

My own favorites include Xiantong Si (largest and oldest monastery complex in town), Tayuan Si (landmark white Stupa), Longquansi (spectacular carvings on a white marble Pailou gate at the entrance), Pusading (a.k.a. little Potala Palace). The long stairs to Nanshan Si and the popular Pusading offers nice sweeping views of the town, and if you're up for a stair-climbing exercise, skip the ropeway or the horses and climb the steep stairs up the Dailuoding hill.

Avoid questionable temples such as Wuyemiao (Temple of the Fifth Dragon-master) and Caishenmiao (Temple of the God of Wealth), or any other temple you haven't heard of for that matter. And don't buy goldfish or birds for release from vendors like this guy -- it only feeds his deep pockets and results in more birds being captured for this purpose.

HOTEL REVIEW

Hotel Review: XIN JING LUN (Wutaishan (Taihuai), Shanxi)
Address: Ming Qing Jie, Taihuai
Price: RMB 200 for double room, private shower/toilet, buffet breakfast, summer 2011
Website/Map: Booking page from CTrip.com
Directions: There is a chaotic open-air market on the side of the river, just south of and across the road from the major temple of Shuxiang Si. Walk south from the market into the quiet street of Mingqing Jie. Xin Jing Lun is the large hotel near the beginning of the street.

Unless you're content with staying at informal guesthouses with the rowdy Chinese travelers and pilgrims, you'll probably pay a small fortune for any proper hotel room within Taihuai town. In May 2011 the cheapest on CTrip.com for rooms within Taihuai town was the 3-star Xin Jing Lun. IMHO 3-star was really stretching it, but at least it was reasonably clean and the discounted RMB 200 price including a decent Chinese-style buffet breakfast was acceptable.

RESTAURANT REVIEWS

As a Buddhist community, Wutaishan is best known for two contrasting styles of cuisines: the Buddhist-inspired Sucai (vegetarian cuisine), and the peasant farmer's dishes known as Nongjiacai. Vegetarian cuisine is generally quite elaborate and mostly served at expensive specialty restaurants, while peasant dishes are often found in roadside eateries at more reasonable prices. In this article I'm reviewing one of each type.

Food Review: MIAO JI XIANG (Wutaishan (Taihuai), Shanxi)
Address: Ming Qing Jie, Taihuai
Hours: 11:00 to 21:00?
Website/Map: From Dianping.com
Directions: Find Xin Jing Lun hotel (reviewed above) on Mingqing Jie, and the restaurant is just half a block down the street.

We visited the original Wutaishan branch of the Miao Ji Xiang vegetarian restaurant chain that has now invaded Beijing. As in most Chinese vegetarian places, they specialize in dishes that look and taste like real meat but are made out of mostly bean curds and other vegetable products. While it's definitely not cheap, prices are reasonable as long as you stay clear of one local specialty -- a dried wild mushroom known as Taimo. (see next restaurant review below for Taimo)

The best dish was the above Hong Shao Yu (Red-Braised Fish), which actually tasted of seafood due to the clever use of seaweed to resemble fish skin. The meat, which was probably made out of mostly soy bean products, was surprisingly chewy and "meaty." The price of RMB 98 was not unreasonable, as long as you're used to the pricing of Shanghai or Hong Kong.

The ubiquitous Mogu Qingcai (Mushrooms and Greens, at RMB 26) cost about 50% more compared to the nearest cities of Datong or Taiyuan, but that's also expected as most fresh vegetables need to be trucked in from the bottom of the mountain. The mushrooms were thick, chewy and smothered in a good clear sauce, and we have no complaints.

Dao Xiao Mian, or Knife-Sliced Noodles, is probably Shanxi Province's most famous export to the rest of China aside from coal and vinegar. The noodles here were good and chewy, though it was also overpriced at RMB 12.

We originally wanted Zha You Gao (Fried Doughnuts) again after a memorable experience earlier that afternoon at Hengshan Fandian, but to our disappointment the doughnuts here had no fillings and we opted to order Nan Gua Bing (Pumpkin Cakes) instead. This also turned out pretty good.

You get the idea -- the food was actually decent for such a touristy town with little competition. Be warned though, that you should expect to pay Shanghai or Hong Kong prices.

Bill for Two Persons

Red-Braised Fish	RMB 98
Mushrooms and Greens	RMB 26
Knife-Sliced Noodles	RMB 12
Pumpkin Cakes	RMB 38
TOTAL	RMB 174(CAD$26.4)

Food Review: JIAN GUANG FAN DIAN (Wutaishan (Taihuai), Shanxi)
Address: Unknown
Hours: Unknown
Website/Map: N/A
Directions: On a North-South alley just north of the Shuxiang temple, on the way towards the Wuyemiao complex.

If you're a foodie and want a taste of Wutaishan's exorbitantly priced wild mushrooms, Taimo, at a reasonable price, you probably should hit one of these cheap, hole-in-the-wall peasant eateries serving Nongjiacai, or Farmhouse Cuisine. In fact I'm not even going to review the other dishes we had -- the exquisite Taimo mushroom was all we're after.

On our last night in Shanxi Province we again ordered its most famous dish, Guo You Ruo (Oil-Rinsed Pork), except this dish was made with Taimo in addition to the usual Yun'er mushrooms. It arrived with the refreshingly familiar smell of Aged Vinegar and a healthy heap of the reconstituted dried fungus. The same mushrooms were sold at souvenir shops for RMB 150 per 500g, and we were naturally curious about the taste.

To tell the truth it tasted remarkably similar to reconstituted Porcini mushrooms used extensively in Italy, with the same intense woody flavor that even the complex and strong Shanxi Aged Vinegar did not overpower. Even the unexceptional cooking (all the other dishes turned out too bland) here could not conceal the excellent aroma and flavors of the Taimo mushrooms. Average restaurant, but one excellent ingredient.

This little discovery wrapped up our culinary discovery of Shanxi Province and its uncanny parallels to Central Italian cuisine -- a wide variety of noodle / pasta shapes, the extensive usage of aged vinegar, and wild autumn mushrooms that taste amazingly alike. IMHO the Taimo mushroom is as good a reason to visit Wutaishan as any architectural or cultural attractions that the town's UNESCO resume may boast.

Bill for Two Persons

Oil-Rinsed Pork with Taimo Mushrooms	RMB 38
Homemade Tofu	RMB 14
Luohan Noodles (Large Bowl)	RMB 10
TOTAL	RMB 62 (CAD$9.4)

Camel Hoof and Other Delicacies - Datong Restaurant and Hotel Reviews

2011-09-02T17:52:00.001-07:00

I must clarify that I do like camels, especially the fluffy double-hump kind typically seen in Northern China. It's just that wherever I travel, my desire for exotic local fare takes over ...

Before I go on about the taste of camel hoofs, here's an overview of the food you can expect if you're visiting Datong. Northern Chinese cooking is described by many as "Nong You Chi Jiang," or heavy on the use of oil and sauces. Shanxi Province adds its own twist with the liberal use of Aged Vinegar to balance the oiliness, and its unparalleled varieties of rustic pasta. The City of Datong in northern Shanxi, almost bordering the open steppes of Inner Mongolia, takes the flavour further by using exotic ingredients with a nomadic influence.

Having limited time in Datong and wanting the best, authentic local cuisine, we consulted local opinion on Dianping.com (in Chinese) as usual and fixed our sight on three possible candidates: Lin Lao Lao, Yong He Mei Shi Cheng, and Lao Ye Miao. We ended up picking Lin Lao Lao as this was our taxi driver Pei Shifu's own recommendation as well.

Food Review: LIN LAO LAO (Datong, Shanxi)
Address: Dong Feng Hou Jie, Datong
Hours: 11:00 to 22:00?
Website/Map: From Dianping.com (Note review is for a different branch)
Directions: Walking out of the Train Station, walk along the main road (Wei Du Da Dao) for 10 minutes and turn right at Dong Feng Dong Jie. Dong Feng Hou Jie is a side street on the left. Or if in doubt, just ask the locals for Lin Lao Lao.

This restaurant turned out to be an excellent choice, as to this date my wife is still raving about the above Nan Shao Qie Zi, or Southern-style Sauteed Eggplants. Though not exclusively a Shanxi dish, these slightly fried eggplants were perfectly crisp on the skin, melt-in-the-mouth soft in the flesh, and coated with a thick, slightly sweet brown sauce. And the budget-friendly price -- RMB 16 (CAD$2.4) -- made it even better.

Next on the list was probably the most famous Shanxi dish of all -- Guo You Rou, or literally Oil-Rinsed Pork. Behind its somewhat unappealing name was actually a refreshing dish of perfectly tender, flash-fried pork seasoned with the province's characteristic secret ingredient, the prized Shanxi Aged Vinegar. Any residual oiliness in the pork was completely counterbalanced by the dark vinegar's sharp acidity and complexity, and did not taste heavy at all. Only RMB 18 (CAD$2.7) for such a well executed meat entree – and at one of Datong's best-known restaurants – this was certainly one of the best deals of our trip. But there's more.

The incredibly cheap pricing of every dish gave us the incentive to splurge, and my eyes became fixated on a certain exotic, authentically northern delicacy on the expensive end of the menu. This would become one of my favourite memories of Datong ...

Camel Hoof in a Red-Braised Sauce (Hong Shao Tuo Zhang). I apologize to any reader who may feel offended by my dietary choice, but I just couldn't resist as 1) it was an authentic local dish, 2) it's not an endangered species, 3) the locals must use the rest of the camel aside from munching on the hoof, and 4) I trust that it was butchered in the same manner as the locals carve their beef or lamb.

Each camel hoof is said to yield only one small piece of meat and tendon, and as a result there were only a few in this dish with the cheaper and more common beef tendons filling the rest of the plate. The camel hoofs were easily distinguishable – these were the tendons with an oval-shaped piece of soft, bulbous meat attached at the bottom of the hoof, hence the Chinese name of Tuo Zhang (camel's palm). The cooking style adhered to the Nong You Chi Jiang approach characteristic of the North, with a deliciously thick, heavy brown sauce smothering the soft and chewy hoofs and tendons.

It was a huge dish and I don't remember how I managed to finish it all (and this was after the eggplants and pork), so this must have tasted very good. I can't quite make out the decorative characters, though they kind of look like Si Bai Nian (400 years). The price was another absolute bargain -- in Beijing I can't imagine this dish selling for anything less than RMB 200-300, but here in Datong it was an unbelievable RMB 68 (CAD$10.3). How's that for splurging?

Following the local tradition we did order one pasta dish, a refreshing bowl of cold noodles named Qiao Shou Ban You Mian (Skilfully Hand-blended Hulless Oat Noodles). Once again the focal point of the flavours was -- what else -- Shanxi's famous Aged Vinegar. This was a good choice after all the thick sauces earlier in the meal.

We found Lin Lao Lao to be an excellent restaurant for its price -- the same meal in Beijing, with an order of camel hoof at the centre of the feast, would have easily cost RMB 300-400. Our meal of excellent and authentic Datong cuisine with large enough portions for 3 people, at a proper restaurant recommended by a local taxi driver, ended up costing only RMB 124 (CAD$18.9). Combined with the excellent hotel deal (see review at end of article) this made Datong an inexpensive and definitely worthwhile destination for us en route from Pingyao to Beijing.

Bill for Two Persons

Red-Braised Camel Hoof	RMB 68
Oil-Rinsed Pork	RMB 18
Southern-style Sauteed Eggplants	RMB 16
Skilfully Hand-Blended Hulless Oat Noodles	RMB 12
Draft Beer (Qingdao)	RMB 10
TOTAL	RMB 124 (CAD$18.8)

Food Review: HENG SHAN FAN DIAN (Hunyuan, Shanxi)
Address: Heng Shan Bei Lu, Hunyuan
Hours: 10:00-21:00?
Website/Map: Official Website (in Chinese)
Directions: You're probably going to the Hanging Temple by taxi if you need to refer to this review. Just ask your driver to go to Heng Shan Fan Dian for lunch -- it's one of the biggest hotel in the area.

Here's another restaurant recommendation by yet another local taxi driver. If you're visiting the spectacular but remote Hanging Temple, you'll likely need a lunch spot in the Hengshan area like we did. Recommended by our driver Yu Shifu, this is a reasonably-priced restaurant located inside one of the town's bigger hotels.

We treated Yu Shifu to lunch as per the Chinese custom when renting a taxi for a day, and asked him for his recommendation on local dishes. After my wife picked a meat entree of her choice, Yu Shifu completed the ordering with three outstanding dishes that we frankly had never heard of.

My wife picked the above Hu Pi Jiao Ji Kuai, or Tiger-skinned Peppers with Chicken Chunks, which I suspect is a Sichuan dish. This actually turned out surprisingly good even according to Yu Shifu, with a slight hint of chili on the deep fried chicken and some thunderously crunchy peppers. These large, meaty chunks of peppers were oil-fried to a crispiness akin to thick-cut potato chips, and did not last long on our table.

After that it was all Yu Shifu's choices of Shanxi peasant fare, starting with a large bowl of dark, mildly bitter vegetable aptly named Ku Cai, or Bitter Greens. I'm quite used to the bitter melon of Southern China which, as Yu Shifu explained, served the same purpose as Ku Cai does for the people of Shanxi. The bitterness is utilized to achieve the effect of Xia Huo, or "lowering the heat," in the Yin and Yang of the human body. Good for the prevention of acne, sore throat and intestinal problems, as Traditional Chinese Medicine theories say.

Next came a bowl of Wan Dou Mian, or Green-pea-flour Noodles. Prior to this trip I had been so ignorant of culinary traditions of the North and had no idea that green peas could be grounded into flour to make noodles. These noodles were smooth-textured and just slightly chewy, and were mildly flavoured with the local favourite Shanxi Aged Vinegar. This is just one more of Shanxi's famously extensive varieties of pasta -- we've tried to order a different kind everyday but still only managed to try eight or nine different shapes.

But Yu Shifu saved his absolute best recommendation for last -- another rustic Shanxi dish known as Zha You Gao, or Fried Doughnuts. These deep-fried balls of yellow millet flour came with two different fillings, one sweet with a red date paste, and one savory with cabbages and mixed veggies. Both were excellent -- I preferred the cabbage while my wife preferred the red date -- as the dough was crunchy but not too oily. We order the same dish twice in Wutaishan later but those was nowhere as good as this dish here.

Our meal for three people cost a reasonable RMB 67 (CAD$10.1), more than half of which (RMB 38) was due to the one dish that we picked. We probably should have just left all the ordering up to Yu Shifu.

Bill for Three Persons

Tiger-Skinned Peppers and Chicken Chunks	RMB 38
Bitter Greens	RMB 8
Green-Pea-Flour Noodles	RMB 12
Fried Doughnuts (Half Order)	RMB 9
TOTAL	RMB 67 (CAD$10)

Hotel Review: DATONG JIAHE EXPRESS HOTEL
Address: 1 Zhanqian Jie, Datong
Price: RMB 190 for double room with private shower/toilet, summer 2011
Website/Map: Booking page at CTrip.com
Directions: You can't miss it -- it's just right in front of Datong train station.

We booked this excellent new business hotel located at Datong's most convenient location -- straight in front of the train station. New clean laminate flooring. New IKEA-ish furniture. New modern shower room. Excellent sound-proofing with no noise from the trains. Decent breakfast buffet. Something of this quality would easily charge RMB 300 in most major cities (and perhaps RMB 400 in Beijing), but because this was backwater Datong, they charged only RMB 200. And walk-ins can probably get an even better deal too.

And it's not only conveniently located for public transportation, but it's also within walking distance to the Lin Lao Lao restaurant reviewed above. And the bathroom was by far the cleanest we've seen in China for hotels costing less than RMB 200. If I ever return to Datong by train, I know exactly where I would book.

And as a bonus, some of the funniest Chinglish translations can be found in the room service guide. If you can read Chinese, cover the above picture and let's see if you can come up with the original Chinese terms for:
- Was Set
- Power Word
- Wool Fabric

Datong - Three World-Class Sights in One Day

2011-08-27T00:08:00.001-07:00

Halfway between Beijing and Pingyao on our route was the city of Datong, home to one of medieval China's greatest monuments, the 1,500-year-old Yungang Grottoes. While the city proper may be described as a highly polluted and uninteresting industrial metropolis, its surrounding region packs enough world-class sights to fill one to two day's itinerary.

The logistic problem though is that the three major sights are somewhat far away from the city, all in different directions. Hiring a taxi (RMB 260-420 as of summer 2011, depending on how many sights) is well worth the time saved to fit everything within one day, especially if you can speak a few phrases of Chinese to tap into the driver's best restaurant recommendations!

So we pre-booked our taxi through email with a reputable company. The team of Pei Ge, Pei Shifu and Yu Shifu (speaks Chinese only; Email: bt6209@yeah.net, Cell: 13503528230, QQ: 825754066) has excellent feedback from the online community of Chinese backpackers (see Q&A in Chinese), and charges reasonable, standard rates for day- and multiday-trips. As of summer 2011 a 10-hour day-trip from Datong to Yungang Grottoes, Hanging Temple, Yingxian Muta, and back to Datong cost about RMB 420. Seeing Yungang Grottoes and Hanging Temple, the region's two most popular sights, cost about RMB 350. Hanging Temple and Yingxian Muta, which are somewhat closer together, cost about 260. Our trip, which includes all three sights PLUS driving us through a treacherous mountain road to Wutaishan for the night, cost RMB 700. In these times of rising gasoline costs (RMB 8 / litre) this is a reasonable deal.

1. THE 1500-YEAR-OLD YUNGANG GROTTOES

We started our morning with the Yungang Grottoes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a spectacular fusion of artistic styles between the Middle East, India and China back in the 5th Century. This isn't just a few statues in a cave, but a kilometre-long series of grottoes carved out of a cliff now containing 50,000 statues, some as tall as 5-storeys.

Official pamphlets won't allude to this, but the ancient artists behind these splendid grottoes were not precisely Chinese. The Xianbei people who carved out the grottoes were often described as "yellow haired" and "pale skinned" in medieval Chinese records, raising speculations that the largely Mongolic tribe contained at least some Caucasian ethnicity. It is no surprise that many of these early Buddhist sculptures hardly looked Chinese.

As many medieval Buddhist monks hailed from modern-day Afghanistan, some of the statues were given deep, Caucasian-like complexions that appear more Middle-Eastern than Chinese. The integration of Indian and even Hellenistic influences resulted in this rare relic at a time of rapid ethnic amalgamation in Northern China, about the same time as the fall of Rome in the Western world.

From the height of its glory as the dynasty's premier religious centre, Yungang Grottoes' significance diminished gradually over the next millennium towards its final abandonment and utter disrepair. Considering all the anti-religious movements, archaeological theft, vandalism and annual sandstorms endured for over a thousand years, the current state of preservation is rather fortunate. This could have easily gone the way of Bamiyan during the Cultural Revolution.

Some of the interior colours are so vivacious, even after 1,500 years of erosion by dust storms, that it's quite easy to imagine yourself inside one of India or Southeast Asia's rock-hewn temples, 5,000 km away to the south. For modern visitors it's difficult to visualize an ancient cultural cross-road to India right here in Northern China, in the middle of the traditional birthplace of Chinese civilization.

As sun-baked and erosion-prone as the semi-exposed caves may now seem, this was once the crown-sponsored temple of the Northern Wei Dynasty when Datong was the capital. Statues inside were originally protected under a series of roof extensions built into the cliff-face, though most of the wooden structures and even part of the earthen roofs have collapsed over the centuries. Now all that remains of the roof extension is a 4-level Qing Dynasty structure protecting grottoes No.5 and 6.

The provincial government currently has plans to extend the protective structure over a few more of the grottoes as a barrier against the annual springtime sandstorms bearing down from the Gobi Desert. Hopefully the governing body will get it right and avoid spoiling the authenticity of the scenery, though I'm not entirely optimistic considering how the government managed to screw up Wutaishan. And with the cost of entrance tickets rising almost every year, visit sooner rather than later if you can.

Yungang Grottoes are located about 30 minute's taxi ride northwest of Datong's city centre, though the stretch within city boundary seemed to be prone to traffic jams. Our taxi driver Yu Shifu picked us up at 08:00 and arrived at Yungang around 08:45, right around its official opening time. Though the actual grottoes took less than an hour for us, the rambling, brand new complex of souvenir shops and restaurants added at least another 30 minutes to navigate. Plan for a 2 hour visit to be on the safe side.

2. THE HANGING TEMPLE OF HENGSHAN

Advertised by Time Magazine as one of the world's Top 10 Most Precarious Buildings, the Hanging Temple (Xuan Kong Si) is another one of Datong's 1,500-year-old treasures and one of the most photographed sights of Northern China. This is an absolutely breathtaking spectacle that every visitor to Datong should see, though perhaps not everyone could summon the courage to enter.

Constructed at roughly the same time as the Yungang Grottoes, the Hanging Temple is a brilliant piece of medieval engineering from the 5th Century. To the awed observer underneath, the temple seems to be supported dangerously by a few lanky wooden poles jabbed vertically into the already near-vertical cliff side. If you still can't imagine, think of an apple pie fastened to the side of your fridge by a few toothpicks underneath.

Except the toothpick-thin support was a rather late addition only 600 years ago, and could be removed entirely without throwing the temple and its army of tourists down the treacherous cliff. Ancient engineers ingeniously reinforced the structure through a system of crossbeams inserted right into the rock face, safely securing it against earthquakes and cliff erosion for the past millennium and a half. Even Li Bai, China's most famous poet, gave his approval over a thousand years ago with an oversized work of calligraphy that is now engraved at the bottom of the cliff.

For entrance fees as steep as the drop under foot (RMB 130 for a crowded 20-minute walk!), visitors get the chance to confront their own worst feelings of vertigo inside the small wooden temple with the vertical rock face on one side and a heart-stopping plunge to the valley floor on the other. I've been to another so-called Top 10 Most Precarious Building at Meteora, Greece, and this one was definitely scarier.

It's actually not as intimidating as it sounds -- you just have to turn off your intellect and stop questioning China's safety standards on the wooden planks and railings, and at the same time hope that the lady at the entrance doesn't let too many zealous tourists enter the structure at once. There is no turning back once you enter, as the route is marked out in a one-way loop of the multi-level temple. Backtracking would be even more dangerous as you would need to squeeze past the oncoming queue along the precariously low railings.

The Hanging Temple and the surrounding Hengshan area are currently included on China's tentative list for incorporation into Mount Taishan's UNESCO World Heritage Site, and you can expect the number of visitors to skyrocket ... and the entrance fee to further increase ... if it becomes accepted. Shanxi Province now has three UNESCO sites and five on the tentative list -- this just shows the incredible richness of cultural heritage at this often overlooked corner of Northern China.

A tour of the Hanging Temple took us roughly an hour, with enough time to wander around the cliff bottom (but not too close!) to find the best photo spots. It did take a long taxi ride to get to the Hengshan area though – taking about 2 hours from Yungang Grottoes (or 1.5 hours from Datong's city centre) in mid-day traffic. Our taxi driver recommended a good and inexpensive lunch spot near the temple, which I'll try to review in the next article.

3. THE LEANING TOWER OF ... CHINA?

Another hour-long taxi ride from the Hanging Temple took us to the least well-known of Datong's incredible works of medieval engineering -- the Yingxian Muta (literally Wooden Pagoda of Ying County). Officially named Pagoda of Fogong Temple, this place is so amazingly underrated that most Chinese citizens outside of Shanxi Province have never heard of it. Even less people know that it is not only the world's tallest fully-wooden structure at 67m (220 feet), but also one of the world's oldest wooden structures at nearly 1,000 years old.

Like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, it is also tilting perilously to the point that visitors are now restricted to only the first two levels. Compared to the world-famous Italian landmark, the Wooden Pagoda is actually 10m taller, more than 100 years older and, unfortunately, currently leans further at a rumoured 6.5 degrees. It should have already achieved international fame, except for its remote location on the Loess Plateau, 70km south of the closest major city of Datong.

Travelers venturing this far are rewarded with a close view of the astonishing craftsmanship of the oft-vilified Liao Dynasty, whose architects designed the massive structure entirely out of wood joinery without any metal nails or fasteners. Unfortunately the pagoda has been showing symptoms of major structural distress for decades, and despite heated discussions for the past two decades, experts still cannot agree on a single plan to save this 1,000-year-old relic from imminent collapse.

At the time of writing there seems to be a serious bid by the provincial government to fast-track the Wooden Pagoda as a UNESCO World Heritage Site candidate. Visitors can only hope that this will result in quicker action to start saving the pagoda for future generations.

It was 16:00 in the afternoon by the time we left Yingxian, en route to our stop for the night at yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Buddhist mountain community of Wutaishan.

Traditional Cave Houses of Northern China

2011-08-24T20:13:00.001-07:00

When passing through the popular destinations of Pingyao and Datong, one very unique but often missed spectacle is the distinctive landscape of cave dwellings of the rural peasants. In this desolate land devoid of wood and other suitable building materials, local residents have perfected the art of carving underground housing out of their silty yellow earth over thousands of years.

Known in Chinese as Yaodong, these extraordinary cave houses typically consist of several semi-circular, interconnected chambers excavated out of vertical cliffs on the hillside. Along this 1000-kilometer stretch of the Loess Plateau from Gansu to Shanxi, an estimated 40 million people still live inside these traditional dwellings.

This rustic and symbolically Northern Chinese tradition has recently become a popular attraction in the domestic Chinese tourism market, which mainly focuses on the remote city of Yan'an where Chairman Mao's band of Communist rebels based itself out of a Yaodong community back in the 1930's. But unless you're particular interested in this so-called Red Tourism, spending a couple days just to travel to Yan'an and back hardly fits most itineraries.

But there is an easy and quick way to see an authentic Yaodong village in its original, unspoiled state -- simply head to Wang's Family Compound, which I assume is in your plan already if you're visiting Pingyao.

This rustic Yaodong village is ironically situated right next to the majestic Wang's Family Compound. Simply climb to the very top of the Compound and look downward towards the back, and you'll get this bird-eye-view of a Yaodong village in action. These may be common scenes in rural China, but note the simplistic three-chamber cave houses on the hillside forming this Siheyuan courtyard. This is one peculiar local custom you won't see anywhere outside of the Loess Plateau.

The more affluent may carve out an entire hillside of tens of Yaodong caves for a whole clan of extended family members. For instance Chairman Mao and his comrades lived in a 37-chamber group of Yaodong while leading their guerilla war against the Nationalists and the Japanese. If you want to find richest family in the village, simply look for neat, brick-lined facades and count the number of chambers.

Inside the caves the thickness of the walls provide excellent insulation against the region's scorching summers and snowy winters. Interiors characteristically consist of plastered walls and beddings placed on top of an earthen or brick hearth known as Kang, which provides a more comfortable sleep in a similar function to the Japanese Kotatsu.

The Yaodong tradition was so ingrained in the local culture that even the wealthiest Qing Dynasty bankers in Pingyao embellished their luxurious residences with Yaodong-shaped facades. Don't miss this unique architectural style if you're visiting Pingyao -- appreciate the false Yaodong in the bankers' courtyards, but head to Wang's Family Compound to see the real thing.

Ancient City of Pingyao - Part 5: Favorite Photo Locales

2011-08-19T20:53:00.000-07:00

I must first clarify that I am not a photographer. Whenever anyone asks about my pictures I always maintain that I'm a traveler first, a food enthusiast second, and a photographer last. But I must admit that I do enjoy photography as a medium for capturing the essence of my trips, for my eyes and for my tastebuds.

Since returning from Northern China I have added the ancient city of Pingyao to my list of favorite destinations -- it's just impossible to leave without a few good pictures for the desktop. This article is a collection of some of my favorite scenery within Pingyao's Ming Dynasty city walls. If these pictures appeal to your taste for vacation destinations, there are plenty of similar locales in my trips to Northern China and West-Central Japan.

The Ming Dynasty city wall at dusk. Picture was taken on a dark afternoon just after one of
Northern China's infamous springtime dust storms.

View towards the City Tower from the City Wall's South Gate. The 6 kilometre long perimeter of the
City Wall is by far the best location for panoramic views.

Pingyao's two-storey skyline. Note the tall walls with inward-sloping roofs designed to keep dust
storms out of the family courtyard.

One of the most picturesque Siheyuan courtyards I've ever come across. This was the inner-most
courtyard at Weihoutai, one of Qing Dynasty China's most successful draft banks.

While the majority of tourists flock to the Draft Bank Museum at
Rishengchang two doors down the street, the tranquil and ornately
manicured Weihoutai awaits the few visitors venturing in. This
is one of Pingyao's most underrated gems IMHO.

Peeking out the Xiulou (upper-floor) balcony of another Qing Dynasty draft bank, Baichuantong.
Traditionally this was the invisible prison for the master's unmarried daughters, who would
practice their embroidery by the balustrade until they were married off.

The highly symmetric roofline of Tianchengheng, yet another Qing Dynasty draft bank. By now you
can see how Pingyao established itself as the proverbial Wall Street of Imperial China with
its dozens of major draft banks, some of which opened branches as far as Moscow, Calcutta
and Kobe.

A view from City God Temple's main performance stage, which curiously faced inward rather than
streetside towards the public. Operas performed here were mainly for the eyes of the patron gods
of Pingyao, and not for men.

The main hall of Confucius Temple and its collection of well-wishing
amulets, laden with prayers to the Teacher of Ten Thousand
Generations, for RMB 10 each, to ensure success in upcoming exams.

The 300-year-old City Tower overlooking the main thoroughfare of Nandajie. Despite its dubious
reputation as an over-commercialized tourist zone, the main street is still utilized daily by
residents as their path to the world outside of the walled city.

Some of the most authentic scenes of Pingyao are often sadly missed by tourists staying outside of
the city. Locals come out at dawn to carry out their usual routines inside their ancestral
hometown, before disappearing back into their Siheyuan courtyards before the daily onslaught of
visitors.

An ornate sculpture of a Qilin motive at Confucius Temple. Like
many other prominent historical figures, Confucius had his birth
prophesied through the appearance of this mythical beast.

Intricate relief sculpture and stone plaque above a passageway. The Confucian teaching of Du Jing
(trustworthiness and respectfulness) is centered above the Three Friends of Winter (pine, bamboo and
plum), which in turn sits on top of the Three Stars of Good Fortune, Prosperity and Longevity.

One of the common sights in Pingyao is the locally popular roof charms in the shape of dragons. This
would be a rare sight for visitors from nearby Beijing, who traditionally shied away from the usage
of animal-shaped roof charms to avoid conflicting with the designs of the Emperor's own architects.

Imperial China's 2nd Grandest Residence - Wang's Family Compound

2011-08-13T10:17:00.001-07:00

Within day-trip distance from Pingyao lies China's most extravagant Qing Dynasty residence after the Forbidden City of Beijing. Absolutely colossal in size and shrewdly preserved during the Cultural Revolution, this once-private complex has opened to the public only in recent years, and is still fairly unknown to foreign visitors.

Wang's Family Compound, or Wang Jia Da Yuan, has remained under the tourism radar for decades, under cover as a destitute farming commune on the Loess Plateau. Even today most Chinese citizens outside of Shanxi Province have never heard of it, and only in the past several years has it slowly become a popular day-trip for visitors to Pingyao.

Wang's Family Compound was once the greatest of the great Jin Merchant family compounds in the region, all within 2 hours drive from Pingyao. The clans of Qiao, Qu, and Cao all had their own fortified complexes, with the Qiao's being the most famous thanks to the filming of several high profile TV dramas and movies, including Zhang Yimou's Raising the Red Lantern. But in terms of size and grandeur, nothing can beat the immense fortress of the Wangs.

The provincial government is starting to realize these compounds' potential as the next major attraction after its trio of UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Pingyao, Wutaishan, and Yungang Grottoes. And they're well on their way to becoming the province's next World Heritage Site, after getting on China's tentative list in 2006. That puts them in the same category as the village of Dangjiacun in neighboring Shaanxi or famous watertowns such as Wuzhen in the Jiangnan region.

For Wang's Family Compound the rise to tourism stardom has not been painless. You won't read this in any official tourism guides, but until the mid 1990's the whole fortress-like compound had been inhabited by a commune of local farmers, transplanted here in the 1950's when the Communist Party wanted to make a socialist statement of the region's most grandiose capitalist residence. Factor in the nation-wide destruction of priceless historical heritage during the Cultural Revolution, and you'll start to understand the dark history -- and the miraculous preservation -- of this beautiful walled town.

A much lighter experience awaits most tourists however, mostly arriving on organized tours flanked by an official guide with official, government-approved scripts. Independent tourists are few and far between due to a slight inconvenience of public transportation, as I'll explain in the Transportation section below. But the bigger problem is the lack of promotion outside of the domestic Chinese market -- my copy of Lonely Planet China has just one paragraph on it for instance.

This lack of coverage has good and bad sides -- we didn't have to squeeze through hordes of international tourists through its courtyards, but also lacking were signages, in Chinese or English, on many exhibits. In fact the whole idea of independent self-guided tourism is so new to them that there aren't even any official tourist maps, in Chinese or any other language, on how to navigate the maze of 1,118 rooms.

Thankfully there were only 1,118 rooms remaining and less on display to the public, out of an estimated 8,000 during the heyday of the Wang clan in the late 18th Century. Even so navigating through the complex was next to impossible without a guide, and we devised an unconventional but effective strategy -- simply climb to the very top of the cascading fortress to survey the entire compound, and work our way down in the reverse direction.

Visitors enter the main gate into the eastern complex known as Gao Jia Ya, into a web of interconnecting Siheyuan courtyards stretching all the way up the sloping fortress. A broad brick-constructed bridge connects to the western, even larger complex of Hong Men Bu, where visitors can reach the very top of the fort for a spectacular panoramic view of the Compound and the Loess Plateau in the background.

But the best view at the top was a living picture of the Yaodong cave dwelling village behind the fortress. These are peasant farmers who, like millions others living on the Loess Plateau in Northern China, have made homes out of man-made caves for generations. Oblivious to the daily onslaught of curious tourists above head, kids chase the house dog and newborn chicks follow the hen around the courtyard as in any rural Chinese village.

The Wang clan however has long vacated for decades, displaced by the commune of impoverished farmers under the regime of Chairman Mao. But Mao and the Peoples' Commune are long gone now, and nostalgic slogans such as the above "Learning for the Sake of Revolution" can only be found at the Confucius Temple just below the Compound.

How the Compound miraculously survived the Cultural Revolution would be a long and fascinating story in itself. Ingenious villagers camouflaged magnificent sculptures inside dirt mounds and concealed intricately carved window sills with mud fillings, plastered with Chairman Mao slogans. While Chinese youngsters today cheerily strike their V-sign poses beside these priceless Qing Dynasty artifacts, the elderly surely remember the difficult battle in preserving their own heritage, especially in this remote corner of rural China.

So while you admire the stunning architectural details at Wang's Family Compound, be appreciative of the national treasures that have survived to this date in front of your eyes. Understand the dark history behind the senseless mass destruction of cultural heritage, and don't allow humanity to make the same mistake again.

TRANSPORTATION
From Pingyao's long distance bus station (outside of North Gate) there is only one direct bus per day, departing at 08:40 and arriving around 10:00, staying for 2.5 hours, and heading back at 12:40 towards Pingyao. That's barely enough time in my opinion, as the Compound is bigger than most visitors can imagine before entering the front gate. And that doesn't even include the Confucius Temple outside of the Compound. The public bus is also not cheap, at RMB 34 per roundtrip.

Another option is to take the local train to the neighboring town of Jiexiu (40 minutes), then transfer to the local bus to Wang's. We didn't try it, but that's a more flexible and cheaper option if you desire more free time at the site.

We took the third option of joining the daily van transport organized by the Zhengjia Hostel, for RMB 50 per roundtrip. Reservation is taken at the front desk and the van conveniently takes off right in front of the guesthouse, saving a trip to either the bus station or the train station. There is at least one departure per day early in the morning, but during our visit the demand was high enough to have a second departure at 11:30. The length of stay at Wang's depends entirely on passenger consensus, which for our group was 3 hours. One big plus was that the driver was quite willing to drop us off at the breathtaking Shuanglin Temple on the way back, since it's practically on the route.

And of course, the fourth option of hiring your own taxi for the day (approx RMB 400) is always there. This offers the additional benefit of dropping by other attractions along the way, such as the underground castle at Zhang Bi village or Mianshan mountain.

Whichever option you take, there is so much around the vicinity of Pingyao to keep the curious traveler occupied for four or five days at least. The combination of the Ancient City of Pingyao, Wang's Family Courtyard, and of course the deliciously rustic cuisine of Shanxi Province would make a great side-trip from either Xi'an or Beijing. Or if you can spare the time, combine the three for a grand tour of Northern China. Both your tastebuds and camera will be thankful.

Ancient City of Pingyao - Part 4: More Food Reviews

2011-08-11T17:59:00.001-07:00

Although the best restaurants of Pingyao are generally located outside the City Wall, dining within the old city is probably unavoidable between spurts of sightseeing. If you can afford the time, definitely go outside where the locals spend their money (see previous article for my favorite Pingyao restaurants). But if you're in need for a quick meal between sights, this article is for you.

We tried out three different places within the old city. One wasn't even worth reviewing, one was passable and deserves a short review, and one actually turned out to be an authentic hole-in-the-wall eatery that, incredibly for Pingyao, doesn't overcharge.

Food Review: SAN GE DA (Pingyao)
Address: Cheng Huang Miao Jie, Pingyao
Hours: 11:00-20:00?
Website/Map: N/A
Directions: Starting from the City God Temple (Cheng Huang Miao), walk west towards the centre of town (towards Yamen). Just a few steps and you should see a metal car-barrier that blocks vehicle traffic during daytime. San Ge Da is on the right hand side, just past the barrier. Ask a local shopkeeper if you're not sure.

Here is my recommendation for cheap, authentic food within the Pingyao's old city. San Ge Da is yet another eatery recommended by Pingyao locals on Baidu.com's Tieba, and the only one within the City Wall. Most importantly it's right between the unmissable sights of Confucius Temple, City God Temple, and Yamen, making it supremely convenient for lunch in the middle of sightseeing.

I'm sure this is the first ever English review for this restaurant -- in fact I can't even find any Chinese reviews online. I don't have a photo of the exterior, but it's fairly well-known and any shopkeeper in the Confucius Temple / City God Temple area should be able to point you in the right direction.

Don't expect any decor -- it's family-run, basic and just a step-up from a roadside stand. But the food is authentic and filling, and they won't gorge you for RMB 40 for a dish of Pingyao Beef (it's RMB 28 here). The menu above has most noodles listed at RMB 5 to 10, and vegetable dishes are all RMB 8 (CAD$1.2) or less. That's definitely family restaurant pricing, located right beside some of Pingyao's most popular sights.

Cat's Ears (Mao Er Duo) is one of those authentic and unmistakable Shanxi dishes that every housewife can make. Behind the disturbing name is really a harmless, hand-rolled pasta in the shape of a pointy shell, typically boiled in soup, drained and mixed with various ingredients and sauces. This dish here was seasoned with Shanxi's famous Aged Vinegar, and was reasonably priced at RMB 8 (CAD$1.2).

As cheap, peasant cuisine seemed to be this eatery's forte, my wife ordered one of her favorite home style dishes, the simple and homey Beef Tripe with Cilantro (Xiangcai Chao Niudu). The slow-cooked beef stomach was perfectly tender and mildly seasoned (for us ... as we ordered non-spicy), though I'm sure locals would order it with chili peppers.

And they had my wife's favorite Chinese beer, the Xuehua Draft, at RMB 12 (CAD$1.8) for a large bottle. We also ordered a Sweet Glutinous Rice Wine Soup with Eggs (Laozao Dan Tang), which was also cheap but was substandard compared to the other dishes.

I won't make the unfair comparison between little San Ge Da and proper restaurants outside of the City Wall -- nor should anyone expect exceptional dining at such a run-down place. But San Ge Da operates very well within its niche, serving informal, reasonably priced, authentic local Shanxi cuisine right in the heart of the tourist district. When you've got only 45 minutes for lunch between seeing the Confucius Temple and the Yamen, this is definitely a smart choice.

Bill for Two Persons

Cat's Ears with Sliced Pork	RMB 8
Beef Tripe with Cilantro	RMB 20
Sweet Glutinous Rice Wine Soup with Eggs	RMB 6
Large Draft Beer	RMB 10
TOTAL	RMB 44 (CAD$6.7)

Food Review: XIANG ZHONG XIANG (Pingyao)
Address: Nan Da Jie, Pingyao
Hours: 11:00-21:00?
Website/Map: N/A
Directions: Start on Nandajie (South Main Street) and walk south of the crossroad with Yamen / City God Temple Street. The restaurant occupies an alley on the right hand side after a minute's walk.

This has got to be one of the strangest eatery locations I've ever reviewed.

Smartly named Xiang Zhong Xiang, or "Aroma from the Alley," this place is truly hole-in-the-wall in the most literal definition -- a total of 3 tables lined up inside a narrow alley with the owner hawking her local wine at the entrance. Prior to visiting Pingyao I had heard of this eatery's reputation as reasonably-priced, which turned out to be only half true. The whole pricing scheme was somewhat Jekyll and Hyde -- it can be a rip-off, or an excellent deal, or both, depending on what you order.

Most prices were clearly posted on a wall-sized illustrated poster and were very reasonable. Vegetable dishes were mostly RMB 10-18 and many meat dishes were below RMB 30. A few popular and well-known local specialties were not posted however, and were markedly more expensive. We ordered one such dish, the Stir Fried Pingyao Beef with Aged Vinegar, in the hope that it would live up to the price of RMB 48 (CAD$7.3). It didn't.

A better choice was the Long Chinese Yam, which was also relatively expensive at RMB 30 ($4.5) for a vegetable dish. The yam was seasoned, deep fried and smothered with a sweet sauce. Again we ordered non-spicy, but this was good with or without chili peppers.

It would have been safer to stick with cheap, common non-local dishes like this Stir Fried Indian Spinach, very reasonably priced at a mere RMB 10 (CAD$1.5).

One local practice that I picked up in Shanxi and Shaanxi was drinking beer out of ceramic bowls. The local Xinghuacun beer however was too watery for my tastebuds ... I'd opt for a bitter melon beer any day.

Bill for Two Persons

Pingyao Beef with Aged Vinegar	RMB 48
Deep Fried Long Chinese Yam	RMB 30
Indian Lettuce	RMB 10
Beer	RMB 8
TOTAL	RMB 96 (CAD$14.5)

EDIBLE SOUVENIRS

Most Chinese tourists won't leave Pingyao without taking home a few packs of the famous Pingyao Beef as souvenirs, and you may want try one pack as snack for your next long train ride. The cheapest prices -- with a wide selection -- that we found was at the two major supermarkets (Wanfulong and Jiajiali) just south of the Train Station. Prices were typically 1/3 cheaper than at the official Pingyao Beef store inside the City Wall, and we picked up the bite-sized individually packaged type (RMB 18.8 for 180g). Be warned that your urine may smell like Pingyao Beef the next day (no I'm not joking) ... but perhaps that's exactly the justification for trying.

But our favorite edible souvenir was the hand-pulled Dragon Beard Candy, freshly made in front of visitors at several stalls inside the old city. Now this was definitely not a local specialty, but the package that we bought at the stall on Xidajie (West Main Street) was the best we've ever tasted anywhere.

The thinness of the strands were amazing as you can see, and gave the whole candy a melt-in-the-mouth crunchiness that was better than any Dragon Beard Candy maker that we've tried elsewhere. With the green-tea-flavored pumpkin seeds inside the combination was simply perfect. I wish we bought another box before leaving.

Ancient City of Pingyao - Part 3: Best Authentic Food

2011-08-07T00:17:00.001-07:00

With rustic ingredients, generous use of aged vinegar and an amazing variety of pasta / noodles, the cuisine of Shanxi Province may sound almost Italian. The parallels are remarkable -- Shanxi's Aged Vinegar is as highly revered in the world of Chinese cuisine as Reggio Emilia's is regarded in Italian, and the noodles of Shanxi is well-known for its multitudes of hand-rolled shapes. Welcome to the land of inexpensive, wholesome, farm-inspired cuisine.

Pingyao possesses such a goldmine of excellent local food that even most domestic tourists haven't heard of. But first you need to venture outside the City Wall, through the Lower West Gate (northwestern gate) in the direction of the Train Station. Forget inferior and overpriced restaurants targeting the Lao Wai inside the old city -- head outside where the Pingyao locals wisely spend their money.

Food Review: ZHONG DU BIN GUAN (Pingyao)
Address: 1 Shun Cheng Rpad, Pingyao
Hours: 11:00-22:00
Website/Map: Official Site
Directions: Zhongdu Binguan is the grey hotel in front of the Train Station, on the main road running north-south. It's on the right hand side of the road if you're coming out of the Train Station. Walk inside, ask the concierge and you'll be guided to the restaurant.

This was the most satisfying meal we've ever had anywhere in China in terms of Price to Quality Ratio. Not only was the quality of food excellent, but the whole ambience and amazing service were provided at such a cheap bargain bottom price. You simply won't find this quality at this price in any major city, let alone Beijing or Shanghai.

First I have to explain how I found this place -- I followed a discussion thread by local Pingyao foodies on Baidu.com's Tieba (in Chinese), and marked down three most recommended and accessible restaurants in Pingyao. Zhongdu was at the top of the list.

Zhongdu Binguan is actually a hotel, but its restaurant is regarded locally as one of the best. In fact when we first came for lunch, the entire restaurant was booked for a wedding banquet and we had to return for dinner another day. Good thing I wore a proper jacket for dinner, as we were seated in ...

A private room with only one table -- ours. With the chandelier above the table and classical music in the background, this could have been any top restaurant in Hong Kong. And the most astonishing thing was ... our server, a barely 20-year-old local girl, served only our table and stood outside of our door the whole night, waiting for my next call of "Fuwuyuan!"

This whole experience was so grand that my wife started to worry about the pricing, as service of this echelon would easily accompany a HKD$5000 (CAD$625) meal in Hong Kong, or at least a RMB 2000 (CAD$300) meal in Beijing.

The food was just as excellent as the service, as the first course immediately treated us to the legendary taste of Shanxi Aged Vinegar. Modestly named Liangban Sixiaowan (mixed salad in four little bowls), the flavor was anything but modest -- this was in fact one of the best cold dishes of our trip. The complex flavor of the smoke-fermented, probably 10-15 years old Aged Vinegar brought out the best of the simple and fresh ingredients. Yun'er (cloud ears mushrooms) and Enoki mushrooms may be commonplace everywhere in China, but that remarkable complexity of quality vinegar put an unmistakable Shanxi signature on the dish. And this wasn't even the best dish yet.

Our favorite item was an even simpler dish that every Chinese housewife can make, the ordinary Mogu Qingcai, or mushrooms and greens. Any half decent restaurant can do lobsters or scallops satisfactorily, but to elevate the flavor of a cheap (only RMB 16!) vegetable dish to the star of the meal requires real skills. The sauce seemed abalone- or dried scallop-based (Zhongdu is also locally famous for abalones and sea cucumbers, for clients more affluent than us) and also contained a dose of ... no surprise there ... Shanxi Aged Vinegar. And all that was absorbed into the soft Shiitake mushrooms. This was truly an excellent dish.

But Shanxi cuisine's main claim to fame is its noodles, and we had a hard time deciding between the assortment of shapes, many strangely and incomprehensibly named in the local dialect. We ended up selecting something we've never heard of, a pasta dish called Balanzi, which roughly meant "stirred broken." It turned out to be a potato-wheat flour pasta, irregularly shaped, and stir fried in oil with green onions and a hint of chili for flare. Excellent pasta at an unbelievable price of RMB 8 (CAD$1.2)! -- this was up-market taste and service at streetside noodle house pricing.

Our only meat dish, relatively priciest at only RMB 30 (CAD$4.5), turned out to be the only slip-up of the night according to my tastebuds. I would have preferred the sauce on the pork knuckle to be much thicker and seasoned with more vinegar to balance out the oiliness, but perhaps that's just me.

With one cold starter, one hot vegetable entree, one meat entree, one pasta and a large beer (Chrysanthemum Beer from Yanjing) for two persons, the grand total came to RMB 88 (CAD$13.3). Now you understand why this is such a great restaurant, in terms of Price to Quality Ratio. I highly recommend this place to anyone visiting Pingyao.

But the story gets more interesting. We decided to leave a few RMB of tips on the table, which is acceptable in higher class restaurants in Beijing and expected in Hong Kong. Only we were stopped by the greeters on the way out of the hotel, and was chased down by one of the servers to return the money to us. When I explained that this was Xiaofei (tips), the girls just chuckled. To this date this remains one of my favorite memories of Pingyao -- a well-executed, well-served dinner in a private hotel room that cost less than RMB 90, and we weren't even allowed to leave tips.

Bill for Two Persons

Mixed Salad in Four Little Bowls	RMB 22
Mushrooms and Greens	RMB 16
Stir Fried Balanzi	RMB 8
Zhongdu Pork Knuckle	RMB 30
Large Chrysanthemum Beer	RMB 12
TOTAL	RMB 88(CAD$13.3)

Food Review: GUANG JU YUAN (Pingyao)
Address: Xiguan Dajie, Pingyao
Hours: 11:00-21:00?
Website/Map: None
Directions:From the Train Station, walk south on the main street for one block. Turn right at the traffic light. Guang Ju Yuan is a 2 minute walk down the street, on the right hand side.

Another restaurant highly recommended by Pingyao locals on Tieba, Guangjuyuan is one of the city's best noodle houses and a favorite lunch spot of students from Pingyao 2nd High School across the street. That doesn't mean it's only good for a quick and cheap bite though, as we arrived at 13:30, on a school day, to find the larger tables occupied by locals throwing a mini lunch banquet.

Guangjuyuan is all about pasta, as the words Mian Shi Guan (noodle house) on its full name implies. And this is exactly the purpose of our visit –- a taste of the best authentic noodles, at one of the city's best noodle houses, in China's premier noodle-producing region. All the noodles are hand-rolled of course, and most are unique to Shanxi Province and are found nowhere else in China. This is as good as it gets, if you're a fan of pasta dishes.

But first we had to follow the local tradition and start with a cold dish, in fact the most famous dish of Pingyao -- the renowned Pingyao Beef. This soft-textured, slightly salted meat is mass-produced in factories and really tastes the same everywhere, but the price here was cheaper (RMB 22) and the portion was much larger than inside the City Wall.

Moving onto hot dishes, this Zhima Qiezi, or eggplants in sesame, had chunks of soft, scaldingly hot eggplants enveloped in caramelized syrup and generously coated with browned sesame. No parent should have trouble coaxing their children into having more these veggies -- you could even call it a delectable dessert.

But the real focus of our visit was of course the amazing varieties of unique hand-rolled noodles. Through thousands of years, the locals of Shanxi Province have turned the curse of perennial droughts into a wide diversity of drought-tolerant, smaller-crop grains, and subsequently turned these grains into an extensive repertoire of pasta dishes.

The two of us only had stomach room for three pasta dishes. From your honest reporter, here they are:

The first was a cold appetizer named Wantu in the Pingyao dialect, which we jokingly called One-Two. Loosely translatable to "bald bowl," Wantu is made by pouring a semi-liquid wheat flour mixture into a bowl, steaming into a solid cake, then slicing into strips. Topped with a dressing of soy sauce, Aged Vinegar and chili pepper, the end product isn't quite as chewy as the next two pasta dishes, but was still an enjoyable appetizer.

The next pasta dish was simply weird to see and even more weird to pronounce. I have no idea what its name -- You Mian Kao Lao Lao -- means in the local dialect, though You Mian refers to the naked oat (or hulless oat) grain used as ingredient. These finger-rolled cannelloni-like pasta are stood up on their ends, steamed, and served with the two dipping sauces, vinegar or spicy tomato. The texture was incredibly chewy, and went very well especially with the vinegar.

The final pasta was another curiously named dish called Cuoyu'er, or kneaded fish. The shape was somewhat similar to the silver needle noodles (Yinzhenfen) of southern China, except it's made of a naked oat / wheat mixture which made it quite chewy. The pasta was accompanied by two sauces, minced meat and tomato, which we simply mixed together.

Which one was my favorite out of the three pasta dishes? Valuing chewiness in pasta dishes, I especially loved the You Mian Kao Lao Lao. But naked oat is more difficult to digest than wheat and may not suit everyone, so it's probably better for two or three people to share one steamer.

Bill for Two Persons

Pingyao Beef Slices	RMB 22
Eggplants in Sesame	RMB 18
Cold Wantu in Dressing	RMB 6
Steamed Hulless Oat Kaolaolao	RMB 14
Rolled Fish Pasta	RMB 5
TOTAL	RMB 65(CAD$9.8)

Food Review: PING YAO QIN GE DA GUO ZAI (Pingyao)
Address: Beiguan Dajie, Pingyao
Hours: 11:00-21:00?
Website/Map: None
Directions:From the old city's North Gate, walk straight north on Beiguan street. It's a little red eatery on the right hand side, within a 2 minute walk down the street.

I didn't bring the SLR camera and don't have a clear photo of how this restaurant looks. But this place is famous -- just walk outside the City Wall's North Gate and ask the locals, and most people should be able to point you in its direction.

With a long and hard-to-pronounce name, Ping Yao Qin Ge Da Guo Zai is another eatery recommended by locals on Baidu.com's Tieba. Probably the first franchise chain originating from Pingyao, its trademark still features the city's name with pride. This is as authentically local as it gets.

Qin Ge Da, in the local dialect, seems to refer to these personal-sized hotpots. As outsiders (myself included) have no idea what it means, the franchise also added the common term of Guo Zai (small hotpot) to the name. There were about 10 or 15 different varieties, all reasonably priced at around RMB 16-25 per pot which includes all the meat, veggies and noodles you won't be able to finish in one sitting. The locals must all be burning 5000 calories a day, as this is even more filling than it already looks.

I ordered a Chuan Jia Fu (Everything In), which was decent but contained too many bone-in chunks of chicken for my preference. The Shi Jin Su Cai (Assorted Veggies) that my wife ordered turned out to be a excellent choice, and at a cheaper price as well (RMB 18). But whatever you pick, it's hard to go wrong with a locally flavored, personal hotpot for RMB 25 (CAD$3.8) or less. Remember this place if you're planning to take a long-distance bus, as it is located at just 5 minutes walk south of the bus station.

Bill for Two Persons

Qin Ge Da (Everything In)	RMB 25
Qin Ge Da (Assorted Veggies)	RMB 18
Mushrooms and Greens	RMB 10
Yanjing Draft Beer	RMB 12
TOTAL	RMB 65(CAD$9.8)

Ancient City of Pingyao - Part 2: Hotel Review

2011-08-01T20:14:00.001-07:00

Staying within the City Wall will give you the chance to explore the old city in its tranquility after all the tour buses leave for the night. And if you're the kind of traveler who enjoys staying in a Machiya in Kyoto or a cliff-side room in Santorini, you won't want anything less than a Siheyuan courtyard in Pingyao ... and at a comparatively much cheaper price.

This guide is thus focused on traditional Kezhan guesthouses within the old city. If you're looking for modern hotels with excellent accessibility, Zhongdu and Juguangju are both reputable hotels located close to the Train Station. I've personally been to Zhongdu for dinner and the service was excellent.

Hotel Review: RUIYUSHENG (Pingyao)
Address: 89 Xidajie, Pingyao
Price: RMB 188 for double room with private shower/toilet, summer 2011
Website/Map: http://www.pyydt.com
How To Book: Through Ctrip.com
Directions: Enter the old city through the Lower West Gate closest to the train station. Ruiyusheng is approximately 5 minutes walk inside the gate on the main street of Xidajie, on the left hand side.

Just one of the many Siheyuan courtyard houses converted into Kezhan guesthouses, Ruiyusheng was our choice mainly for its easy access to excellent restaurants outside of the City Wall. In typical Northern Chinese fashion guestrooms on all sides face the courtyard, hence the term Siheyuan, or courtyard enclosed on four sides. When we visited in 2011, double rooms with private shower/toilet and double breakfast went for RMB 188 (CAD$29), and would probably drop to 60% during winter. At least that's the booking price on CTrip.com. Walking in and bargaining may get you a better deal if rooms are still vacant, which some were during our stay in May.

One major attraction of Pingyao's traditional Kezhans is the experience of sleeping on a farmhouse style Kang bed, with beddings set up atop an earthen or brick hearth. It's how hardy peasants endured Northern China's snowy winter for centuries, and it's softer and more comfy than it sounds. Traditional grain-filled pillows and windows decorated with paper-cut silhouettes added to the decor, while the toilet and shower were thankfully Westernized and modern.

Though the hearth is now sealed, some vestiges of old architecture still remains. The wall at the end of our Kang bed had a couple of antique-looking doors ...

... which opened to an excellent little nook for folded backpacks and cameras bags! You never know what you'll encounter at these Qing Dynasty houses.

Breakfast was as traditional as can be and tasted distinctively of Shanxi Province. Breakfast for two consisted of three warm or cold vegetables dishes, a few boiled eggs and steamed bread rolls, and a large pot of millet porridge to share. The vegetable dishes were often mildly spicy and always seasoned with a hint of Shanxi's famously aged vinegar. We always finished our entire pot of millet porridge every single morning, washing down the various dishes.

One breakfast dish stood out among everything else. The soy-based sauce in these Red Braised Cabbages was common anywhere in China, but it was the aged vinegar that added an extra layer of complexity and elevated the entire dish. This was one of the most memorable breakfast dishes on our 16-day trip.

Other dishes, mainly zucchinis, cucumbers and other miscellaneous veggies, were quite forgettable but did their jobs at supplying a good half day's energy for sightseeing.

We did see a couple things that we didn't like. Hot water was theoretically available 24/7, but the water pump was often turned off to save energy, and required a trip to the front desk to sort out. The bathroom floor drainage also could be improved.

Overall Ruiyusheng is still a decent choice for a traditional Kezhan within the old city, which seems to be getting more expensive every year. It's strategically located within walking distance to main sights inside the City Wall, as well as excellent restaurants outside. The main clientelle seemed to consist mostly of budget-conscious domestic travelers, so I'm not sure of the owner's English abilities. The one Polish guy I met didn't seem to complain though.

OTHER GUESTHOUSES

As previously mentioned our main reason for picking Ruiyusheng was its quick access to excellent restaurants outside of the Lower West Gate, near the Train Station. If you don't mind taking the local tricycle taxis, there are quite a number of similarly priced Kezhan guesthouses within the City Wall. The list of guesthouses under our consideration included:

Cheng Jia Lao Yuan - http://www.pycjly.com/
Wen Yuan Kui - http://www.wenyuankui.com/index.html
Hong Jin Tai - http://www.pyhjt.com/zxyd/index.asp
Heng Sheng Fu - http://www.179py.com/hotel/index.html
Guang Xian Yuan - http://www.pygxy.com
Shu Zhuo Yuan - http://www.pyszy.com
Chang Tai Yong - http://www.ctyhotel.com
Zheng Jia Youth Hostel - http://www.hotelpingyao.com
Harmony Gueshouse - http://www.py-harmony.com

Ancient City of Pingyao - Part 1: Practical Info

2011-07-27T20:30:00.001-07:00

This series of 6 articles is dedicated to Pingyao, where we passed through the ancient city gate in the summer of 2011 and spent four memorable nights within. I hope this will help non-Chinese-speaking readers navigate this spectacular and underrated corner of Northern China.

As a Chinese-speaking foreigner and food enthusiast, I feel that current English resources on the Internet hardly scratches the surface of this fascinating destination. Yes the Ming Dynasty streets are romantic by night and the city walls are impressive, but there is so much more depth to the city.

For instance the deliciously rustic Shanxi cuisine is rarely mentioned in English reviews of Pingyao. If you're remotely passionate about Chinese food, the whole Province of Shanxi is an immensely underrated region. We just had an amazingly executed meal of Shanxi cuisine at one of the city's top restaurants, inside our own private room with a dedicated private waitress, for merely RMB 88 (CAD$13) for two persons. To this date Pingyao remains one of my favorite memories of China, and I wish to make it equally enjoyable for the next guy.

INTRODUCTION TO PINGYAO

The ancient city of Pingyao, with its well-preserved Ming and Qing Dynasty streets nestled within mighty fortress-like walls, needs little introduction as a tourist destination. Internationally it has become famous as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a backpacker hangout. Domestically it is well-known as one of the two best-preserved ancient cities along with Lijiang in the south, and its relative proximity to Beijing (meaning 8 hours away by tour buses) makes it even more attractive for weekend trippers from the capital.

The good news is ... most visitors, especially tour groups, tend to rush through the major sights around Pingyao within a day or two at most. Stay for a few nights and you'll have most of the city's ancient quarters to yourself in the morning and evening.

SUGGESTED ITINERARY

Pingyao isn't small. The fortified ancient city alone easily takes two days of non-stop sightseeing to see it all, and that doesn't even include visiting the best authentic restaurants outside of the city walls. In addition the spectacular ancient temples of Shuanglin Si (incredible one-of-a-kind terracotta sculptures) and Zhenguo Si (one of the oldest wooden structures in China) will require short taxi trips to visit. You'll also definitely want to visit one of the merchant clan compounds, probably the Wang's Family Compound or the Qiao's Family Compound, which would take at least another half day. If you've traveled this far from Beijing just to see Pingyao, do yourself a huge favor and experience it all.

DAY ONE - Rishengchang - Armed Escort Museums - Lunch - Yamen - City God Temple - Confucius Temple - Dinner - Spend the evening on Nandajie street

DAY TWO - Other museums on Nandajie - City Wall - Lunch outside City Wall - Taxi to Shuanglin Temple and/or Zhenguo Temple and back - Dinner outside of City Wall

DAY THREE - Finish the rest of the Museums - Half-day trip to Wang's Family Compound or Qiao's Family Compound - See the real Pingyao outside of City Wall - Dinner outside of City Wall

TRANSPORTATION

The easiest way to reach Pingyao is by train via the provincial capital of Taiyuan in the north (2-3 hours by local trains). Taiyuan is now connected to Beijing through the high speed rail network, making Pingyao as accessible as ever.

Connecting to other major destinations take a little more planning due to infrequent service. Datong and the famous Yungang Grottoes are connected by several local trains a day, taking close to 7 hours. We took a bus to Taiyuan then a highway bus to Datong, a complex method which I do not recommend (long story). Luoyang and the Shaolin Temple are a 10 hour train ride to the south on slow local trains. Hancheng and the stunning Dangjiacun are a 5 hour train ride to the southwest, and the Terracotta Warriors of Xi'an is a further 2 hours from Hancheng by highway bus.

The train station is a 15 minute walk outside of the City Wall's Lower West Gate, to the northwest. The long distance bus station is a 10 minute walk north of the North Gate.

BEST AND WORST SIGHTS

You can educate yourself on all the major sights on Lonely Planet or Wikitravel. I'll keep this short and offer my own experiences and shortcuts.

City Wall - Climb up the stairs by the South Gate, where you'll get a panoramic view with the City Tower, the Confucius Temple and the City God Temple as backdrop. Walk east towards the southeast corner, then turn north. The entire wall has 72 towers and a circumference of over 6 km, so you may not want to walk the whole way. No bike rentals atop the wall like Xi'an, which is a bit of a shame.

Rishengchang - Very crowded but worthwhile -- visit early in the morning or late in the afternoon. The father of Qing Dynasty draft banks, Rishengchang was an integral part of Imperial China's finances and once operated as far as Russia and India. You'll get some fabulous photos of its courtyards if you can wait out the crowds.

Biaoju - There are several "Armed Escort Museums," two located on Dongdajie (East Main Street) and two on Nandajie (South Main Street). This is where you can try out all the martial arts training setups and exotic weapons you've seen in Chinese movies. Balancing myself on the Plum Blossom Stakes turned out to be much tougher than I thought.

City God Temple - Beautiful glazed yellow-and-green roof tiles set this temple apart from the ubiquitous grey in the rest of Pingyao. You need a tough stomach to appreciate the sculptures depicting the 18 punishments in hell.

Confucius Temple - Large, rambling complex full of well-restored sculptures and beautiful finishing touches around every corner. The Song Dynasty calligraphies brings visitors back to the days of the old Imperial Court Exams when the temple served as the regional educational institution.

Yamen - The local government office is best known for its court case reenactments, scheduled at 11:00, 13:00, 15:30 when we visited.

Er Lang Miao - WARNING: Avoid at all cost. This authentic looking temple on Beidajie (North Main Street, just south of the North Gate) sounds like a Buddhist temple (ie. ends with Miao), looks like a Taoist shrine (sports Chinese banners reading "Famous Shrine of Taoism" at the entrance), but is really neither. Numerous visitors have reported fake Taoist monks scamming people for money with questionable rituals, often charging several hundred RMB per offering of incense. Pretending to not speak Chinese nor English would be a good idea if you find yourself accidentally stumbling inside.

HOTEL REVIEWS

See Part 2 of this series. Don't miss the rare chance to spend a few nights in some of the most atmospheric traditional dwellings in China.

RESTAURANT REVIEWS

See Parts 3 and 4 of this series. As previous mentioned I consider Pingyao to be a greatly underrated destination for foodies. Once you venture outside of the city walls into the real Pingyao, there are plenty of choices for excellent food at absolute bargain bottom prices.

SIDE-TRIPS

Shuanglin Temple -- Protected as part of Pingyao’s UNESCO World Heritage Site is the spectacular temple of Shuanglin Si, truly in a class of its own with a huge collection of stunning terracotta sculptures found nowhere else. IMHO this is probably the most visually spectacular sight in the vicinity of Pingyao, and really shouldn’t be missed.

These are not your typical standalone statues, but thousands of extravagant figurines and relief sculptures that seem almost organically woven into the temple’s interior structures. No photos are allowed inside in order to protect the brilliant colours from the flashlights of marauding tourists, which is a bit of a shame.

The local bus stops quite a distance from the actual temple though (probably a 30 minute walk), and we opted to just hire a taxi from Pingyao for RMB 50 roundtrip, including the taxi’s RMB 10 parking fee at the temple. It’s a beautiful, largely uncrowded complex to spend time in the afternoon.

Wang's Family Compound - The largest residential compound in China outside of the Forbidden City, this family castle belonged to Shanxi's most successful merchant clan. It is so vast, so beautiful and so well-preserved that it's only a matter of time before it becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site. See my detailed review here.

Qiao's Family Compound - Another complex belonging to another wealthy Shanxi merchant clan, the Qiaos. Qiao Jia Da Yuan shot to national fame in 2006 when state-owned CCTV filmed a 45-episode drama of the same name in the complex. Most people would agree though, that Wang's is much larger and much more worthwhile for tourists.

Other Family Compounds - The Chang, the Qu and the Cao also have their family compounds open for exhibition, and are probably stately and picturesque as well, if you have even more time.

Zhenguo Temple - We did not plan to visit, but it is known to be one of the oldest standing wooden temples in China at over 1,000 years old.

Mianshan - Claiming a long history of 2,300 years, this complex of precarious-looking structures hugging the steep mountain side is really recently developed in the 21st century. The natural scenery may actually be worth it, though we didn't bother to find out. This is located in the vicinity of Wang's Family Compound, so a combined visit with a stay at Mianshan's new resort can be an option for those who have more time.

Zhangbi Castle - This is one place I really wish I had the time to visit. Zhangbi Castle's tunnel defense system is said to be so extensive and potentially dangerous that no one is allowed to enter without a guide ... but then that could just be a ploy to help out the guides. It is located on the way to Wang's Family Compound, and is quite possible to combine with Wang's on a day-trip if you don't mind hiring your own taxi (or find someone to split the cost) for the day.

The Hidden Valley of Dangjiacun

2011-07-21T21:27:00.000-07:00

There exists a beautiful medieval village in China, right on the tourist route between Xi'an and Pingyao, which somehow manages to escape the attention of international and even domestic tourists. In fact when I mentioned it to hotel and taxi operators in neighboring Shanxi Province, nobody had even heard of it. And these were people working in the local tourism industry.

I have no idea how the village of Dangjiacun can remain undiscovered by tourists for so long -- the folk architecture is rustically spectacular; the farm cooking is excellent and cheap (see detailed food review below); the people are friendly; and it's only a 20 minute taxi ride from the major train stop of Hancheng. Even the government recognizes this hidden gem, placing it on China's tentative list for submission as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Surviving the Sino-Japanese War, Mao's Cultural Revolution, and then the rapid urbanization of the post-Deng Xiaoping era, Dangjiacun is now recognized in the 21st century as somewhat of a living fossil. This is no open-air museum, but a living medieval village with a long line of original descendants still carrying out their ancient customs. For 25 generations and 680 years, the clans of Dang (hence the name Dangjiacun, or Dang's Family Village) and Jia have expanded their sphere of influence from here, and what started out as a small hamlet had grown into a well-known trade centre along this stretch of the Yellow River by mid-Qing Dynasty. Hundreds of traditional Siheyuan courtyards were constructed through six centuries, amazingly with more than a hundred surviving to this date.

Descending into the valley from the only access road above, the visitor would enter through a maze of cobblestone paths into an 18th century time warp. The medieval village is still very much alive with its intact water well system, two ancestral worship halls (one for the Dang clan and one for the Jia clan), a village school, a Fengshui tower housed within the school grounds, and old storehouses still storing coal sludge as a primitive cooking fuel. Private in-house bathrooms remain a novelty even in 2011, and a large communal bathhouse continues to serve the entire village daily. Villagers hand-drawing water from neighboring water wells is a frequent scene -- life hasn't changed much over the past 600 years aside from having a few solar water heaters on the roofs.

Successfully resisting the invasion of large-scale tourism thus far, the villagers have been amazing at minimizing the type of development that has forever tainted many such towns. The only dedicated tourism facility here is the ticket booth that hires out local Chinese-speaking guides -- this is where the commercialism ends. The temples and ancestral worship halls are still in use and are open for all to visit. The exquisite courtyards that double as exhibition areas are mostly still inhabited by the original descendants. As long as your visit doesn't coincide with the Golden Week holidays, you're unlikely to run into even a medium-sized tour group. And most amazingly, there are still no souvenir stores -- NONE -- as of 2011. This is almost unheard-of in China.

This raw beauty of a genuine living Northern Chinese village is what really distinguishes Dangjiacun from the likes of Pingyao and Lijiang. Compared to Pingyao's expensively restored and picture-perfect courtyards, most of Dangjiacun's courtyards and alleys remain in the original, pre-restoration state they have stood for centuries. Most villagers have not yet been converted to serving the tourism industry, and the usage of their houses remain mostly private. A few houses do welcome visitors into their private space to see their collections of spectacular relief sculptures and other relics for a nominal fee (RMB 2), but even more have "Do Not Enter" signs in Chinese to ward off curious visitors mistaking them for folk museums.

Each courtyards is typically occupied by one family with its own long history and traditions. Family doctrines passing down from the ancestors still occupy the most eye-catching locations in the courtyard, and I came across my favorite one here:

Pride should not be allowed to grow;
The desires should not be indulged;
The will should not be gratified to the full;
Pleasure should not be carried to excess

The level of sophistication here is far beyond what could be expected of a remote farming village in Shaanxi Province's countryside. As a community of no more than a couple thousand, it managed to flourish as a regional cultural and educational centre for several hundred years. Per-capita-wise the villagers had incredible success in the old Imperial Court entrance exams, and to this day calligraphy plaques are still raised with great pride above many houses to recognize the families' past glory serving the Emperor.

Walking down narrow alleys here also offers a real perspective on contemporary life in rural China, beyond what can be appreciated from TV or the Internet. Heating and cooking is still dependant on the highly-polluting coal sludge, often simply store-piled at a corner outside of the family compound. Internet has arrived at most households, while satellite TV is only starting to pop up on the roofs of a few affluent houses. The free market economy of Deng, Jiang and Hu is much welcome, though the old communism giants of Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Zhou are still plastered on walls and highly revered. And young kids, male and female, still run around wearing a unique type of open-bottom pants designed to ... ahem ... quickly get parents out of crappy situations in public in the absence of proper toilets.

But all this is bound to change. Dangjiacun shot to national fame in 2006 when China's Cultural Heritage department elevated it to the tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage, opening the door to precious tourism dollars for the relatively undeveloped province of Shaanxi. Where Dangjiacun now stands in terms of tourism development is probably where Pingyao used to be, a couple of decades ago. If the romance of Magome-juku or Telc appeal to you as a traveler, keep this underrated gem in your to-see list also. And see it soon, before the first hotels and souvenir shops roll in.

TRANSPORTATION
The small city of Hancheng, located just 20 minutes from Dangjiacun by taxi, is the region's transportation hub. If you're coming from Xi'an like we were, highway buses make convenient, comfortable and relatively fast connections to Hancheng, departing every 20-30 minutes from 07:30 until 18:00. Buses depart from Xi'an's East Passenger Transport Station (Chengdong Keyunzhan), cost RMB 65 as of 2011, and take only 2.5 hours (compared to taking anywhere from 4 to 7 hours by train) to arrive at Hancheng's New City Bus Station (Xincheng Qichezhan). Hancheng Train Station, located just a block away, is served mostly by the slow local trains but can be useful for making direct connections to Pingyao and Taiyuan in the neighboring Shanxi Province. We took train 1164, in a slow and crowded carriage full of migrant workers, towards Pingyao in the late afternoon.

From Hancheng you can easily flag down a taxi to get to Dangjiacun (RMB 30 in 2011). Large baggages can be left for the day at the luggage deposit on the right hand side of the Hancheng Train Station (RMB 2 per baggage). Once you get to Dangjiacun you won't find an official taxi stand, but our host was (and probably any villager who owns a vehicle would be) eager to drive us back to Hancheng Train Station in his old van. We paid him the same rate as taxi, which was much welcome.

ACCOMMODATION
With no hotels or even backpacker hostels in the village, Dangjiacun is as authentic and rustic as it gets. Spending a night here would mean staying in one of these beautiful Siheyuan courtyards and fully immersing into village life with a local family -- after all this is all they have. This also means ditching all the Westernized comfort that most visitors take for granted: all toilets, many being the squatting type, are shared; bathing takes place at the communal bathhouse; air-con and heating are rarely available, and meals are shared with the host family. As of summer 2011 rooms seem to cost around RMB 50, though they're likely even cheaper in the off-season. At the time of writing there is no way to reserve online -- have a Chinese-speaking friend (or hotel concierge) call 0913-5322776 or 0913-5322544 to make reservations.

Food Review: YI FEN LI (Dangjiacun village, Hancheng)
Address: Near entrance of village, Dangjiacun, Hancheng
Hours: 08:00-20:00?
Website/Map: None
Directions: Starting from the ticket booth, walk down to the square/parking area in front of the village. Yi Fen Li is the Siheyuan courtyard at the top left corner of the square.

We had one of the most memorable dishes of our trip right here in Dangjiacun, inside this virtually unknown eatery. At the time of writing I've never seen any other reviews in Chinese or in English, and I felt the need to give it the proper review it deserves.

Now it can hardly be called a restaurant -- frankly it's no more than a local farmhouse informally operating as a guesthouse and also serves Shaanxi Province's rustic farm cooking. It serves no more than a small number of simple dishes, but at least one of these dishes was executed as well as any formal restaurant I've visited anywhere in China.

Housed inside one of Dangjiacun's better preserved Siheyuan courtyards, Yi Fen Li is operated by a middle-aged couple named ... what else ... Mr. and Mrs. Dang. Several rooms in their courtyard can be rented as bed-and-breakfast for RMB 50 per night, and the family van doubles as a casual taxi for guests. All rooms were occupied by a production crew filming a TV soap opera during our visit, indicating that this was perhaps the most comfortable place to stay in the village.

No English menu was available, though the dishes were inexpensive even by Chinese standards. Vegetable dishes, typically salads of eggplants, cucumbers, spinach, or firm tofu, started from RMB 9 (CAD$1.4). Meat dishes including wild boar, pig ears, and yellow croaker fish cost around RMB 30 (CAD$4.5). Various noodles such as Saozi Mian (minced pork noodles), Zhajiang Mian (noodles with gravy), and Wonton were RMB 7 (CAD$1.1) for a large bowl or RMB 5 (CAD$0.8) for a small bowl.

This one dish was not only one of the best of our 16-day trip, but also one of the cheapest at RMB 9. Don't be misled by the picture -- the eggplant was actually purple but Mrs. Dang peeled the skin off before stir-frying it in garlic-infused oil. The most amazing thing about this warm salad of Suan Ni Qie Zi, or Eggplant in Minced Garlic, was the way it delivered a pronounced garlic flavor ... there was hardly any trace of garlic inside the dish! The way these simple and cheap ingredients were combined into this dish could only be described as perfection -- I have never tasted something this good costing as little as CAD$1.4.

Comparatively the Red Braised Pork Chunks (Hong Shao Da Kuai Rou) wasn't quite as amazingly delicious, but perhaps its magic was partially reduced as we asked for a non-spicy version. The chili peppers and Sichuan peppers still packed a tinge of heat and the taste was still decent, though I thought the pork was slightly dry.

To finish the meal my wife wanted some wonton, which turned out to be a huge heaping bowl of grape-sized hand-made dumplings with even more marinated five-spice tofu, seaweed and various vegetables. This RMB 7 (CAD$1.1) dish could easily serve as a meal on its own.

It was quite an enjoyable meal overall, especially considering the scarcity of choices within the village and the reasonable pricing. In retrospect I should have skipped the pork and tried a few more of their wonderful vegetable dishes. That would be my advice for any readers heading to Dangjiacun.

Bill for Two Persons

Eggplants in Minced Garlic	RMB 9
Red Braised Pork Chunks	RMB 30
Wonton	RMB 7
TOTAL	RMB 46 (CAD$7)

Best and Worst of Xi'an - My Opinionated Guide

2011-07-12T22:31:00.001-07:00

Intricate Roofline above the Ming Dynasty City Wall

This article is primarily written to document my own memory of Xi'an. But if you're heading to Xi'an as an independent, budget-conscious, or culinary-focused traveler, I'm happy to share my experience with you. Keep in mind that your own experience with the locals may be different, one way or another, as I traveled through China as a Chinese-speaking foreigner.

In May 2011, we kicked off our overland trip of Northern China with several memorable days in Xi'an. The criteria of our trip included:
- Focus on authentic local culture and food
- Did I mention EXCELLENT LOCAL FOOD?
- Basic but reasonably comfortable accommodation at central location
- Public transportation (best way to familiarize with the city!)
- Budget of RMB 350 (CAD$53) per person per day, including:
- Hotel - RMB 100 (per person in double room with private bathroom)
- Food - RMB 75
- Admission Tickets - RMB 100 per person per day
- Local Transportation - RMB 25 per day
- Other Spending - RMB 50
We actually ended up spending less than RMB 350 per day, but it's always better to allow for a little excess.

An Elegant Siheyuan Courtyard at Bei Yuan Men 144

READY-TO-USE ITINERARY

We had the luxury of spending three full days in Xi'an, but most travelers seem to plan for less. My recommendation in terms of itinerary, for 1-Day, 2-Days or 3-Days in the city are as follows:

ONE DAY
Day 1: Bell Tower - Muslim Quarter (brunch)
- Bus You7/You8/609/610/611/201/251 - Train Station
- Bus You5 - Museum of Terracotta Warriors - Bus You5
- Train Station - Bus 14 - Stele Forest - Walk to Wenchangmen
- City Wall - Walk to Nanmen - Bus 302/600
- Muslim Quarter (dinner)

Making an Ink Rubbing at the Stele Forest

TWO DAYS
Day 1: Same as above
Day 2: Bell Tower - Muslim Quarter (brunch) - Great Mosque
- Bus You7 - Small Wild Goose Pagoda - Bus You8
- Shaanxi History Museum - Walk - Giant Wild Goose Pagoda
- Bus You8 - Bell Tower - Muslim Quarter (dinner)

Raising the Red Lanterns at Bei Yuan Men 144

THREE OR MORE DAYS
Same as above, with the addition of one or more of:
- Bei Yuan Men 144 (a.k.a. Gao Family Courtyard)
- Drum Tower and Bell Tower
- Huashan mountain (take Bus You1 from Train Station)
- Hanyangling Museum (take train to Xianyang Station; transfer to local bus #5)
- sidetrip to Luoyang (2 hours on high speed train)

Face-to-Face with the Terracotta Warriors

ARRIVAL

Forget taxi in general, especially if you're arriving by air or high speed train. A taxi ride from Xianyang Airport to central Xi'an should cost upwards of RMB 200 as of 2011, and won't get you there much faster than shuttle buses in Xi'an's constant traffic jams.

If you're flying into Xi'an's Xianyang Airport like we did, the easy and comfortable way to get to central Xi'an is via Airport Shuttle Bus Routes A (Bell Tower) or B (Train Station), located at the curbside just outside the departure level. Tickets are sold at the makeshift counter beside the bus. Route A cost us RMB 26 in 2011, and took roughly an hour to reach the Bell Tower. Route A operates roughly every 20 minutes or so and is said to run from the first plane arrival until the last.

If you're arriving by a high speed train, the new Metro Line 2 connects the North Railway Station to the Bell Tower. If you're arriving by a conventional train at the old Xi'an Train Station, you can take Bus You7/You8/609/610/611 etc to the Bell Tower outside of rush hour. Bringing large baggages onto rush hour buses is not recommended, and a taxi would likely cost no more than RMB 20.

Illumination of the Drum Tower After Nightfall

GETTING AROUND

Xi'an Metro Lines 1 and 2 were clearly designed with commuters in mind and don't seem to specifically stop at any major tourist sights aside from the Bell Tower. Though it is possible to walk to the Small Wild Goose Pagoda from Nanshaomen, and to the Shaanxi History Museum from Xiaozhai, at the time of writing the bus system is still a hassel-free way of connecting between various sights. I hate to say it, but Xi'an hasn't been China's most important city for the past 1,100 years, and the extent of its metro system coverage simply can't be compared to Beijing's.

A Corner of the Vanishing Old Xi'an, Near the Southern Gate

Some of our favorite bus lines connecting between:
- Bell Tower and Xi'an Train Station: You7/You8/609/610/611/201/251
- Bell Tower and Stele Forest: 221/222
- Bell Tower and Nanmen (Southern Gate): 302/600
- Bell Tower and Xianyang Airport: Airport Shuttle Route A
- Bell Tower and Small Wild Goose Pagoda: You7
- Bell Tower and Giant Wild Goose Pagoda/Shaanxi History Museum: You8
- Train Station and Stele Forest: 14
- Train Station and Xianyang Airport: Airport Shuttle Route B
- Small Wild Goose Pagoda and Giant Wild Goose Pagoda: You8

Modern Towers Dwarfing the Once-Imposing Ming Dynasty City Wall

HONEST OPINION ON MAJOR SIGHTS

Everyone goes to Xi'an for the ancient Terracotta Warriors, but not everyone knows about Xi'an's rich heritage of Tang, Ming and Qing Dynasty sights. Here's my opinionated list of what to see, but more importantly, what to skip.

Cascading Roof Tiles at Bei Yuan Men 144

Bei Yuan Men 144 - Informally known as Gao Family Courtyard or Gao Jia Da Yuan, this Ming Dynasty residence is one of the lesser-known sights of Xi'an and my personal favorite. Its well-preserved architectural details are so photogenic that I've chosen a few pics for this article. But that's not the best part ... for only RMB 30 (CAD$4.5) you'll get the chance to see one of China's dying folk art forms, the leather shadow puppetry.

The puppet theater was performed in a little hall by two artists in their 60's, with one person playing both percussion and an Erhu-like instrument and the other controlling several marionettes simultaneously. Both were involved in the voice acting, which could be performed in Chinese or English depending on the audience. Only three spectators -- the two of us plus one local -- were in attendance and we were presented with the Chinese version of San Da Bai Gu Jing, a somewhat humorous short play derived from the Journey to the West.

An oasis of tranquility amidst the raucous Muslim Quarter, Bei Yuan Men 144 is also one of the rare sights remaining open at night (the signage advertised an extremely late closing time of 23:00). Don't miss it after an authentic Xi'an dinner at the neighboring Jia San or Hong Hong -- the dimly lit lanterns only makes the place so much more romantic at night.

City Wall - So many things to do and love. Climb up and down the stairs to the watch towers. Watch the locals practice Taichi fist in the morning. Rent a bicycle and circumnavigate the wall. See old Xi'an's unrestored ghettos from above. This is the best place to be on a sunny afternoon.

The 1,300-Year-Old Landmark of Xi'an - Giant Wild Goose Pagoda

Muslim Quarter - More important than the Terracotta Warriors on my itinerary. In fact we picked our hotel based on its proximity to the Muslim Quarter in order to have brunch and dinner here everyday. See my other three articles and you'll agree that it was the right choice.

Museum of Terracotta Warriors - A UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of China's most popular attractions. Getting to the museum can be a minor adventure in itself, as the square in front of Xi'an Train Station is infiltrated with all kinds of fake buses waiting to lure the uninformed tourist into their specialized Terracotta Warriors tours, complete with grossly overpriced lunchstops and mandatory souvenir shopping. The real official bus, numbered "You5" or "306," was somewhat hidden at the eastern side of the square. After getting to the Museum ticket counter, spend a few extra RMB to have the golf cart whisk you across the ginormous compound to the actual museum. The golf cart goes only one way, as the intention is to have visitors leave the compound from the back exit, through a long street of souvenir shops selling anything from clay warriors to wolf skin. The excavation sites and the museum are worth the trip though, and my favorite was the incredibly detailed bronze horses and chariot. Bring your good camera -- you'll need high ISO settings for the indoor excavation pits.

Small Wild Goose Pagoda (Xiaoyanta) - An 8th Century skyscraper dating from Xi'an's golden era as the most advanced city in the world. Constructed in an archaic style that appears more Indian than Chinese, this 13-level pagoda is so well-preserved, despite numerous earthquakes, that visitors can still safely climb 45m up its wooden staircase for a panoramic view of southern Xi'an. If you're choosing between the two Goose Pagodas to climb like we were, the Small Wild Goose is less restored, cheaper to enter (free to enter compound; RMB 30 to climb as of 2011), and much quieter compared to the bustling tourist town surrounding the Great Wild Goose.

Great Wild Goose Pagoda (Dayanta) - Xi'an's most famous landmark has suffered the same fate that plagues many of China's historical monuments -- the development of its surroundings into an amusement park atmosphere. Not quite as enchanting as the Small Wild Goose Pagoda, though the water fountain at its north square is probably the best place in Xi'an to people-watch.

Shaanxi History Museum - This has become one of Xi'an's main tourists attractions for several reasons: its proximity to the Great Wild Goose Pagoda (just two blocks away), its free entrance policy, and the fact that it is an excellent museum focusing on Xi'an's glorious past as China's ancient capital. The hour-long lineup for the free tickets was definite the WORST lineup we encountered anywhere in China, and only upon getting close to the counter did we realized that it's possible to skip the lineup by purchasing a Special Exhibits entrance ticket at another counter window ...

An Anonymous Pavilion at the Stele Forest

Stele Forest - Officially known as the Beilin Museum, this is not only an excellent place to see some of the best Chinese calligraphy, but also a great place to buy some ink rubbings for the living room. Don't buy the overpriced items inside the museum though -- head to the little street to the east of the museum for a larger selection of paintings and calligraphy at better prices.

Great Mosque - Unfortunately closed during our stay in Xi'an and thus became one of my major regrets, Xi'an's Great Mosque is one of those rare monuments documenting the fusion of cultures at this ancient crossroad. How many other places can you name that has a Chinese pagoda serving as a Minaret?

Hanyangling - A friend of ours rated this mausoleum to be more interesting than the Terracotta Warriors, but we just couldn't fit it into our itinerary. A state-of-the-art museum built to protect and showcase the on-going excavation of Emperor Jingdi's tomb, this relatively new attraction is best known for its smaller Terracotta figurines. It is located in the vicinity of Xianyang, and requires more than a half-day for independent travelers based in Xi'an.

Huashan Mountain - One of the most famous mountains in Chinese folklore, Huashan is best known within China for two things -- its ancient title as the most precarious mountain under heaven, and its new-found popularity as the fictional site of a showdown in Jinyong's popular martial arts novels. We considered spending a night at one of the basic guesthouses at the top for the famed sunrise, but it would have been quite a detour off our eventual route towards Pingyao. We chose to pass through Dangjiacun instead with no regrets.

Famen Temple (Famensi) - Skipped with no reservations. No sense in traveling a couple hours from Xi'an just to see a recent reconstruction of the ancient temple, no matter how famous in history it used to be.

Tang Paradise (Da Tang Fu Rong Yuan) - What you expect us to waste our time at some cheezy theme park?

ACCOMMODATION

If you're a serious foodie like we are, do your taste buds a big favor and book your hotel as close as possible to the Muslim Quarter. If you still need further convincing, see my Gourmet Guide to Xi'an here, here and here.

Super 8 Xidajie Hotel Where We Stayed

We narrowed our list down to two -- 2 star Super 8 Xidajie, and 3 star Shanxi Wenyuan Hotel. Wenyuan was closest to the Muslim Quarter, but we crossed it off since its cheapest rooms (RMB 250) were located in the basement with no windows. Super 8 on the other hand was hidden in a quiet side street off the main throughfare of Xidajie, and still within 5 minutes of walking distance to the Muslim Quarter. Double rooms cost a very reasonable RMB 183 (CAD$28) in 2011 ... but only if you apply for a free membership at Super 8 China and book from the Chinese site. Booking thru the international site cost RMB 218, still cheaper than Wenyuan.

No-nonsense Double Room at Super 8 Xidajie

The room was reasonably clean and decent-sized, with a simple bathroom, cable TV (mostly Chinese channels, except CCTV English). No fridge though -- we kept our beer cool under cold running water in the wash basin.

Spending an Evening at Bei Yuan Men 144

FOOD

Xi'an occupies a unique position in the world of Chinese cuisine. As the endpoint of the ancient Silk Road, Xi'an imported the spices and cooking methods of the Middle East and originated its own remarkable fusion of flavors here. For more than a thousand years, a sizable Chinese-Muslim community has settled here and developed its own secret recipes and dishes, many of them passed down in unassuming, 100-plus-year-old hole-in-the-wall eateries.

A taste of authentic Xi'an fusion cuisine, and not the Terracotta Warriors, was the real focus of our trip. There was so much I wanted to share with fellow foodies that I made it into a series of articles in Part 3, Part 2 and Part 1.

Xi'an remains underrated as a tourist destination, and tour buses tend to spend no more than a day and see very little beyond the Terracotta Warriors. But if you're an independent traveler, slow down and climb its ancient pagodas, bicycle its medieval city walls, and wander down the Muslim Quarter's narrow alleys for some exotic treats ... before more of the world discovers its charm.

Gourmet Guide to Xi'an - Part 3

2011-07-02T00:40:00.001-07:00

This is my third and last article on the fascinating food scene at Xi'an's Muslim Quarter, the birthplace of traditional Chinese-cross-Middle-Eastern fusion cuisine. For the past 1,500 years, delicate Chinese cooking methods have intermingled with the bold spices and ingredients from the Near East in this ancient capital of the Tang Dynasty. The result, for modern day foodies like myself at least, is an explosion of unique flavors hidden deep in the Muslim Quarter's 100-plus-year-old recipes and locally-famous little shops.

As usual, most restaurants reviewed are marked and numbered on the map below.

MAP LEGEND:
1.LAO MI JIA (stir-fried unleavened bread in mutton broth)
2.HONG HONG (Halal lamb skewers and fried rice)
3.BIANG BIANG MIAN (sheet noodles in specialty 3-in-1 sauce)
4.SUN JIA (meatballs and vegetables in spicy soup)
5.JIA SAN (soup dumplings and best plum juice ever)
6.SHENG ZHI WANG (cold noodles in sesame paste)
7.ZHAO JIA BAO (rose-honey flavored glutinous rice cakes)
8.QING ZHEN SHAO JI (Halal roasted free-range chicken)

5. JIA SAN -- EXCELLENT PLUM-HAWTHORN JUICE AND SOUP-FILLED DUMPLINGS

Food Review: JIA SAN (Muslim Quarter, Xi'an)
Address: Beiyuanmen 93, Beilinqu, Xi'an
Hours: 08:00-22:00
Website/Map: From Dianping.com (in Chinese)
Directions: See location #5 on my Xi'an Gourmet Map. Start from the Drum Tower and head north on Bei Yuan Men. It's on the right hand side.

Walking along the Muslim Quarter's main drag, chances are you'll come across a huge queue of locals and multi-national tourists alike winding in front of the colourful facade of a multi-level restaurant. This place has become so legendary among visitors, both Chinese and international, that it has probably become one of the famous landmarks of central Xi'an after the Drum Tower and Bell Tower. Call it touristy and overrated, but you can hardly get through the Muslim Quarter without making your way past the queue at the crowded Jia San.

Jia San has become incredibly famous for one simple dish -- its scaldingly hot, soup-filled dumplings in bamboo steamers, known as Guan Tang Bao Zi. The concept of a liquid soup filling inside a thin dumpling skin is of course not a Xi'an invention -- the Cantonese have their Kwun Tong Gau (the real traditional type that arrives in a steamer instead of a bowl!), and the Shanghainese in particular have successfully introduced Xiao Long Bao (known overseas as XLB Dumplings) to the rest of world. So what distinguishes Jia San's Guan Tang Bao Zi from the XLB Dumplings of Shanghai/Taiwan? That's what we're here to find out.

All of Jia San's floors were swarming with crowds when we arrived at 19:30 on a busy Saturday. We were promptly herded to second floor, to a rowdy, almost cafeteria-like dining hall with long stainless steel tables filled mostly by local families. The two of us shared a table with a 3-generation family on our right, and a young couple across from us. Everyone ordered at the counter and brought the receipt back to the table, hoping that meandering (and occasionally confused) servers would somehow spot the receipt and deliver the right items as they came off the stove. We almost had a receipt with two outstanding items snatched by a sloppy server -- do keep one eye on your receipt while you're staring down your mountains of dumplings.

We ordered three steamers of soup dumplings for the two of us, which seemed to be the norm judging by our neighboring tables. Everything arrived steaming hot as expected, and the only way to avoid scalding our tongues was to bite off the top of each dumpling to let the soup cool slightly. That simple task turned out to be a severe test of our chopstick skills as the dumplings skins were extremely thin and fragile (Note: both of us have been lifelong chopsticks users). One local middle-aged mom at our table watched in amusement as we perfected our method of employing a side-to-side rocking motion to peel the dumpling off the straw steamer mat and into a spoon -- she attempted to teach us her ways of air-lifting dumplings with her killer chopstick techniques, and failed miserably with juices leaking all over. At this point I noticed the first major difference between these Guan Tang Bao Zi dumplings compared to Shanghai's XLB Dumplings -- the dumpling skins are a little stickier and tougher to transfer to the mouth intact. Not sure if this is what we should expect, or if the chefs were just taking on a new apprentice.

Nitpicking aside, the essence of all soup dumplings is of course the soup stock, typically gelatinized with a pork-skin- or agar-based mixture and carefully wrapped inside the dough skin for steaming. Out of the three flavors we ordered, the unassuming San Xian (literally "Three Delicacies" -- pork, shrimp and leeks) turned out best with the leeks adding to the flavors of a decent soup stock. Considering the Chinese-Muslim roots of this restaurant, I actually had higher expectations for the lamb dumplings, which were frankly quite average. The ox tail dumplings, with the inclusion of some beef tendons, was a better choice.

The verdict? This may be somewhat unfair, but we can only compare Jia San's Guan Tang Bao Zi against the Shanghai-style XLB Dumplings that we've had in the past. Perhaps it was an off night for the chefs at Jia San, but I certainly expected more from one of Xi'an's most famous restaurant's most famous dish. Both the soup and the fillings were mostly above average, but I've had better XLB Dumplings, in and outside of China.

If this review ended with the dumplings I would have discouraged everyone from visiting. But as we discovered, Jia San's heralded dumplings, with all its accolades and fame, should really take a backseat to these two excellent items ...

Introducing our favorite dish at Jia San: Ba Bao Tian Xi Fan -- literally Sweet Rice Porridge with 8 Treasures. I can't figure out why this isn't more famous than the dumplings, as it is a wonderfully refreshing dessert in the fine traditon of Chinese sweet soups. I did not count the 8 treasures, but from memory there were all kinds of raisins, Goji berries, lotus seeds, lily roots, and of course traditionally flavored with the highly fragrant Osmanthus flower. For a mere RMB 4 (CAD$0.6) this was easily the best dish.

But that's still not our NUMBER ONE recommendation at Jia San, which belongs to a take-out drink known as Shan Zha Wu Mei Tang, or Hawthorn and Black Plum Juice. Virtually every single table ordered a few cup of these drinks, which seemed to be prepared and packaged in-house and sold to both restaurant patrons and pedestrians walking by for RMB 2 (CAD$0.3). This was by far the best plum juice both of us have ever had, with the hawthorn fruit adding a woody, unmistakably Chinese dimension to complement the sweet plum. In fact we made at least one more trip back to Jia San later that week, just to get another cup for take-out. It was that good.

To conclude, Jia San is worth the visit if you're coming to Xi'an, but not necessarily for its dumplings. My recommendations, in order of preference, are:
1. Hawthorn-Plum Juice
2. Sweet Rice Porridge with 8 Treasures
3. Soup Dumplings in San Xian flavor

Bill for Two Persons

Soup Dumplings (Lamb)	RMB 12
Soup Dumplings (San Xian)	RMB 12
Soup Dumplings (Ox Tail)	RMB 16
Sweet Porridge with 8 treasures	RMB 4
Plum-Hawthorn Juice	RMB 2
TOTAL	RMB 46 (CAD$7)

6. SHENG ZHI WANG -- COLD NOODLES IN SESAME PASTE

Food Review: SHENG ZHI WANG (Muslim Quarter, Xi'an)
Address: Dapiyuan 225, Linhuqu, Xi'an
Hours: 08:00 until sold out (~11am)
Website/Map: From Dianping.com (in Chinese)
Directions: See location #6 on my Xi'an Gourmet Map. Start from the Drum Tower and walk north to the Pailou (archway) at the end of Bei Yuan Men. Turn left on Dapiyuan. Sheng Zhi Wang is at the end of the block on the right side.

One of the favorite breakfast/lunch items of the Xi'an locals is a dish of udon-like noodles mixed with a addictively rich sesame paste, known as Ma Jiang Niang Pi.

The Niang Pi noodles (also called Liangpi or even Rangpi, depending on locality) is not exclusively a Xi'an invention -- multiple locales in Northwest China from Shaanxi to Gansu to Qinghai claim these ubiquitous noodles as their own. But what sets Xi'an's Niang Pi apart is the signature sesame paste Xi'an's Chinese-Muslims love. If you're fan of the deep aroma of ground sesame there's no better place than the Muslim Quarter, and within the Muslim Quarter there's no Ma Jiang Niang Pi shop more famous than the venerable, 100-plus-year-old Sheng Zhi Wang.

For a taste of Sheng Zhi Wang's sesame paste you have to arrive early, as the shop closes once its daily portion is all sold out. I once passed by the shop at 15:00 in the afternoon and found it closed, so it's probably safer to arrive before noon. The shop itself is quite simple: a handful of tables, a counter where the order is taken, and walls plastered with photos of various politicians and foreign TV crews visiting the place. There's no English menu, but you really don't need one since they sell only two items -- Ma Jiang Niang Pi (Cold Noodles with Sesame Paste, RMB 4), and Suan Mei Tang (plum juice, RMB 2).

This secret-recipe sesame paste was definitely the thickest and most flavorful I've ever tasted, complemented by more sesame oil and a heavy dose of chili paste. The noodles looked and tasted remarkably similar to, though wasn't quite as chewy as, the more familiar udon. While I ordered mine with everything on, my wife skipped the chili and it just didn't taste the same. For the full experience I recommend that you at least mix a small amount of chili into your sesame paste, whether you're a fan of spicy food or not.

Our authentically filling breakfast, drinks and all, cost a bargain-bottom RMB 10 (CAD$1.5) for two persons. As we were savoring the sesame paste, scores of sandal-clad locals emerged from neighborhood and lined up at the counter for take-outs. It's hard to go wrong with an authentic, tried and proven local favorite. It has been here for the past hundred years, and by its current popularity it is quite conceivable that it will still be standing for the next hundred.

Bill for Two Persons

Cold Noodles in Sesame Paste	RMB 4
Cold Noodles in Sesame Paste	RMB 4
Plum Juice	RMB 2
TOTAL	RMB 10 (CAD$1.5)

7. ZHAO JIA BAO -- ROSE-HONEY FLAVORED GLUTINOUS RICE DESSERTS

Food Review: ZHAO JIA BAO (Muslim Quarter, Xi'an)
Address: Mobile stall on Xiyangshi street, Xi'an
Hours: approx 08:00 until sold out
Website/Map: From Dianping.com (in Chinese)
Directions: See location #7 on my Xi'an Gourmet Map. Start from the Drum Tower and head north on Bei Yuan Men street. Turn left on Xi Yang Shi street. Look for a mobile stand with the lady in the photo below.

One of my wife's favorite memories of Xi'an was a luscious box of take-out dessert from this little stand in the Muslim Quarter.

Though it may look like just another anonymous vendor, this unassuming roadside stall is arguably one of the city's most influential eateries, and the object of constant visits from TV stations and magazines. In fact many visitors to Xi'an have tasted these desserts without knowing, as their workshop supplies many of the city's top restaurants, including the tourist favorites Lao Sun Jia and Tong Sheng Xiang. But to get it straight (and cheap!) from the one and only official outlet ... that's why we made sure to visit Ms. Zhao at her stall.

And Ms. Zhao here was well aware of her own fame, and asked whether we'd seen her on TV or on Internet. I assume she's also aware of the potential to hike prices, but her famous boxed desserts still remained at RMB 5 (CAD$0.8) per order as of 2011.

Zhao Jia Bao sells nothing but pounded glutinous rice desserts in two equally delicious forms -- the Zongzi with a sweet red bean paste filling and sesame crust, and the plain Liang Gao with red bean paste on top. Both are finished with a drizzle of the customer's favorite dressing -- we chose the traditional rose-honey.

The result was the most delectable, chewy glutinous rice cake topped with velvety creamed red bean AND swimming in rose-water-infused honey. It was easily one of the best desserts of our entire trip.

If you're as big a dessert fan as my wife, perhaps you too should visit Zhao Jia Bao's little stall on Xi Yang Shi street in the Muslim Quarter. Take note though that there's another dessert stall right next to it -- Zhao Jia Bao's stall is typically on the left (east) side.

Bill for Two Persons

Rose-Honey Liang Gao + Zongzi (half and half)	RMB 5
TOTAL	RMB 5 (CAD$0.8)

8. QING ZHEN SHAO JI -- HALAL ROASTED FREE-RANGE CHICKEN

Food Review: QING ZHEN SHAO JI (Muslim Quarter, Xi'an)
Address: On Bei Guang Ji street near Xiyangshi street, Xi'an
Hours: 08:00 until sold out (approx 16:00)
Website/Map: None
Directions: See location #8 on my Xi'an Gourmet Map. Walk north on Bei Guang Ji street past Xiyangshi street. It's a little stall on the left hand side.

One of our favorite discoveries in the Muslim Quarter was this little stall near the northwest corner of Bei Guang Ji street and Xi Yang Shi street. The shop seemed to have no formal name, and sold one and only one item. The most reliable way to recognize this stall, aside from comparing with the above photo, is to ask around (or to randomly look) for these super lean, yellow-skinned Qing Zhen Shao Ji, or Halal roasted chicken.

My wife has always been a huge fan of China's chicken for its tenderness of texture and its intense flavor, and came up with this great idea of wrapping a whole Halal chicken back to the hotel for dinner. Perhaps it's the bloodline, but there's something very special about the flavor of chicken bred in China. Compared to the meatier but relatively bland chicken I usually get in Canada and the U.S., China's chicken tend to be much leaner, with a softer, more delicate texture and a slightly gamey taste. It's always one of the must-order items whenever we visit China or Hong Kong.

If memory serves me right we picked the one on the left, a lean, golden roasted bird weighing slightly over 1kg. The price was RMB 18 per Jin, a Chinese unit of weight equivalent to 500g, which was not exactly cheap for an informal-looking roadside stand.

It was definitely worth it -- flavorful, very juicy, and definitely free-range judging from hardness of the bones. This was precisely why we booked our hotel as close as possible to the Muslim Quarter.

We also came across the perfect beer to wash down any oily food, a quaint local beer deriving its bitterness not from hops, but from Chinese bitter melon. This was widely available at local supermarkets for about 2 or 3 RMB.

Bill for Two Persons

Roasted Free-Range Chicken (RMB 18/500g)	RMB 37
TOTAL	RMB 37 (CAD$5.6)

9. ZI WU LU ZHANG JI -- XI'AN'S SPECIALTY PULLED PORK SANDWICH

Food Review: ZI WU LU ZHANG JI (Near Great Goose Pagoda, Xi'an)
Address: Cui Hua Lu 227, Yantaqu, Xi'an
Hours: 10:00 to 21:00
Website/Map: From Dianping.com (in Chinese)
Directions: Start from either Shaanxi History Museum or the Great Goose Pagoda's water fountain. Walk along Xiao Zhai Dong Lu to Cui Hua Lu (walk east from the Museum, or west from the Pagoda). Walk south on Cui Hua Lu for about 5 minutes. It's a little shop of the left hand side, just south of the primary school.

Even though I have only one photo of this place, I feel that I should give a brief review of Zi Wu Lu Zhang Ji, widely reputed to be one of the two or three best eateries for one of Xi'an's most famous dishes, a Chinese sandwich known as Rou Jia Mo. Besides, this is a great place for a cheap lunch for anyone visiting the Great Goose Pagoda or the Shaanxi History Museum, two of Xi'an's popular tourist attractions.

Considered THE quintessential fast food by Xi'an locals, Rou Jia Mo's popularity here probably eclipses all of McDonald's, KFC and Dairy Queen combined, judging from the number of Rou Jia Mo shops around every street corner. I chose this location for review due to its proximity from both the Great Goose Pagoda and the Shaanxi History Museum, and the fact that this location has two of Xi'an's best Rou Jia Mo shops competing side-by-side. If one burger isn't enough to satisfy your appetite, there's a Fan Ji Rou Jia Mo next door.

Photographed is a Youzhi (premium) Rou Jia Mo, a fresh-off-the-oven bun filled with a heaping portion of shredded pork meat and skin that had been slow-cooking in a decade-old soup stock for hours. So stuffed with meat that it's just impossible to avoid having juices dripping all over the plate, this version of Chinese burger was satisfyingly authentic, filling, but also very greasy. I followed the local practice of washing it down with a bottle of Ice Peak, an orange-flavored soft drink wildly popular in Xi'an.

I just realized that out of the 9 eateries reviewed in Xi'an, this is the only one of non-Muslim origin. If you come to Xi'an, remember to let your taste buds experience 1,500 years of cultural fusion between the Han Chinese and the Hui people (Chinese-Muslims).

Bill for One Person

Premium Rou Jia Mo	RMB 7
Ice Peak Soft Drink	RMB 1.5
TOTAL	RMB 8.5 (CAD$1.3)

Gourmet Guide to Xi'an - Part 2

2011-06-25T22:59:00.001-07:00

When I told my coworkers that my backpacking trip would start in Xi'an, I received mostly blank stares. But when I mentioned the Terracotta Warriors, everyone had at least some idea where I was heading.

It's unfortunate that most foreigners equate Xi'an with only the Terracotta Warriors. To the Chinese, Xi'an is synonymous with the most incredible, cheap and authentic fusion food – not from the 21st century fusion food craze, but from 1,500 years of inter-cultural mingling along the Silk Road. From here the Chinese exported their silk to the Roman Empire, and partially in return acquired Middle Eastern culinary traditions that evolved in Xi'an into a diverse repertoire of Muslim-Chinese cuisines and peasant dishes. GREAT FOOD, and not the Terracotta Warriors, was why I chose Xi'an as the start of my trip.

Here I'll continue with Part 2 of my review:

MAP LEGEND:
1.LAO MI JIA (stir-fried unleavened bread in mutton broth)
2.HONG HONG (Halal lamb skewers and fried rice)
3.BIANG BIANG MIAN (sheet noodles in specialty 3-in-1 sauce)
4.SUN JIA (meatballs and vegetables in spicy soup)
5.JIA SAN (soup dumplings and best plum juice ever)
6.SHENG ZHI WANG (cold noodles in sesame paste)
7.ZHAO JIA BAO (rose-honey flavored glutinous rice cakes)
8.QING ZHEN SHAO JI (Halal roasted free-range chicken)

2. HONG HONG -- HALAL MEAT SKEWERS AND FRIED RICE

Food Review: HONG HONG (Muslim Quarter, Xi'an)
Address: Beiyuanmen 106, Linhuqu, Xi'an
Hours: 11:00-22:00
Website/Map: From Dianping.com (in Chinese)
Directions: See location #2 on my Xi'an Gourmet Map. Start from the Drum Tower and head north on Bei Yuan Men. It's on the left hand side.

My personal favorite among all of Xi'an's gourmet offerings is the bite-sized meat skewers of the Muslim Quarter. While skewered meat is quite the ubiquitous fare at every market in Northern China, the intense competition among eateries here in the Muslim Quarter always ensures excellent tastes at reasonable prices. I'm not suggesting that you should hit any random roadside stand of questionable hygiene though -- my safe recommendation here goes to one of the most crowded eateries on the crowded Bei Yuan Men street.

Introducing Hong Hong, best known among Xi'an locals for its trademark Suan Cai Chao Mi (fried rice with pickled vegetables) and its cheap, addictive skewers. You can just smell the alluring aroma of charbroiled meat emanating in the air, even before walking through the door. Even at 21:30 on a weeknight, both of its floors were still teeming with locals and Chinese tourists alike vying for half a table. Expect to be seated on one side of a table across from a couple of locals, if you arrive in a party of two or less. Second floor of the restaurant seemed to be full of larger groups. As usual you can tell it's the right place when there are no English-speaking tour groups in sight.

My favorite skewer was only the number two best selling item on this night, according to a quick glance of our neighboring tables. EVERY TABLE STARTED WITH A FEW PLATES OF FRIED RICE, followed by skewers of each person's choice, and accompanied by cups of iced Suan Mei Tang, or plum juice. Well if that's what the locals do, it's good enough for us.

No English menu here -- just like the rest of the Muslim Quarter -- which is no surprise. Small skewers including charbroiled beef and tendon, beef tripes, tofu skin etc all cost a miniscule RMB 0.5 (CAD$ 7.5 cents) each, with a minimum order of 10 skewers. Large skewers such as lamb chunks cost RMB 1 (CAD$0.15), with a minimum order of 5 skewers. Then there are other barbecued items ranging from chicken wings (RMB 5) to a whole pomfret fish (RMB 20). Their famous fried rice, available in several different variations, cost RMB 8 a plate.

My favorite meat skewer by far is a Xi'an specialty, the perfectly tenderized, perfectly boiled, and perfectly spiced Shuan Niu Du, or flash-boiled beef tripe. It was easy to be instantly seduced by the aroma of sesame paste and chili peppers, whether you've ever had tripe or not, even before the plate landed on the table. These thinly sliced morsels came drizzled in a sesame-based sauce, and were so soft and yet chewy that I personally could have easily finished 30 skewers. Both my wife and I agreed that this was one of our favorite dishes in Xi'an.

As expected the skewers of lamb, beef and tendon were all heavily spiced with cumin and chili powder, as would be expected anywhere in Northern China. Interestingly both the beef and the lamb smelled of lamb, possibly as a result of the preparation process, and we could hardly taste the difference. My wife also ordered two skewers of chicken gizzard. Not bad, but nowhere as spectacular as the flash-boiled beef tripe.

This is the one dish that every table have come to order, the Suan Cai Chao Mi that prominently features in the full name of the restaurant, Hong Hong Suan Cai Chao Mi. I must admit that I did not expect to see fried rice this far north in China, deep in the noodle country of Shaanxi Province. But the fried rice did turn out quite good, boldly seasoned with cumin and chili oil, mildly spicy green peppers, diced onions, beef and of course, Suan Cai (pickles). The rice was a little oily if I were to nitpick, but that was really not a problem since everyone washed down the fried rice with a cup of iced Suan Mei Tang (plum juice) to quench the spiciness and cleanse the palate in the process.

Greasy, spicy and mouthwatering, this place had everything that a night-market fried rice stand was supposed to taste like, delivered in a family-run eatery setting in the Muslim Quarter's busiest section. Though next time I would probably skip the charbroiled lamb and simply order 30 skewers of beef tripe to go with the fried rice. As for the plum juice? I would just walk a little further down the street and get the amazing hawthorn-and-plum juice from the century-old local favorite of Jia San.

Bill for Two Persons

Beef Tripe Skewers x 10	RMB 5
Lamb Skewers x 5	RMB 5
Beef and Tendon Skewers x 10	RMB 5
Chicken Gizzard Skewers x 2	RMB 4
Suan Cai Chao Mi (Fried Rice with Pickled Vegetables)	RMB 8
Plum Juice x 2	RMB 4
TOTAL	RMB 31 (CAD$4.7)

3. BIANG BIANG MIAN -- XI'AN'S OWN UNIQUE NOODLES

Food Review: BIANG BIANG MIAN (aka Noodle King) (Xi'an)
Address: Nanyuanmen 80, Beilinqu, Xi'an
Hours: Unknown, but approx 10:00-20:00 according to my observation
Website/Map: From Dianping.com (in Chinese)
Directions: See location #3 on my Xi'an Gourmet Map. It's a 15 minutes walking distance south of the Muslim Quarter.

While fried rice remains somewhat of a delicacy to the masses of Xi'an, handmade, homey noodles remain the main staple food of common folks. But if your idea of noodles consists of long threads (or ribbons) of flour common all over East Asia ... well you need to visit Xi'an.

Xi'an's contribution to the world of noodles/pasta is its signature, extremely wide and long ribbons known generically as Ku Dai Mian (belt noodles), or as the commercially trademarked Biang Biang Mian. Nobody seems to have a clear explanation what Biang Biang means, though some say it's the sound of your teeth bouncing off the "al dente" texture of the noodles. There are several Biang Biang Mian outlets in town, and the one I visited is marked #3 on my Xi'an Gourmet Map, on Nan Yuan Men street near the centre of the city.

It's a small shop with 8 or so tables and walls covered with pictures and signatures of various local celebrities. There were no English menus though, which on the other hand also meant very cheap prices. Noodles were generally in the range of RMB 8-10 depending on size, and side dishes of marinated vegetables were RMB 10 each. Only one type of noodles was served, not surprisingly, though there were several flavors to choose from: Saozi (spicy minced pork), Zhajiang (meat gravy), Tomato and Eggs, or San He Yi (3-in-1) which was the combination of the above three.

Everyone ordered at the front counter then found a table at the back. As the shop was still busy at 15:00 in the afternoon, some random local dude walked in and sat at my table, ordering a bowl of 3-in-1 and a bottle of local beer served in a bowl.

The spiciness of hot chili peppers filled the air as my own bowl of 3-in-1 arrived. One can actually pick out the three flavors in the picture -- meat gravy from the 4 o'clock position of the bowl to 9 o'clock, spicy minced pork from 9 o'clock to 12 o'clock, tomato and eggs from 12 o'clock to 4 o'clock, and topped with a wallop of green onions, dried hot peppers and chili oil. The noodles were, just as the legends say, extremely wide, smooth and chewy. Imagine cutting very long strips of al-dente-boiled lasagne lengthwise, serving in a rich gravy sauce with minced pork and tomatoes ... wait that almost sounds Italianesque!

Although I should have asked for Wei La, or mildly spicy, the combination of gravy and minced pork was quite delicious and the noodles were wonderfully chewy. A mere RMB 8 (CAD$1.2) for a tasty, authentically Xi'an meal in the city centre, this was quite a bargain even by Chinese standards. I spent more on a bottle of yogurt at the supermarket after the meal ... go figure.

Bill for One Person

San He Yi (3-in-1) Noodles (small)	RMB 8
TOTAL	RMB 8 (CAD$1.2)

4. SUN JIA -- 100-YEAR-OLD SPICY SOUP WITH HALAL MEATBALLS

Food Review: SUN JIA ROU WAN HU LA TANG (Muslim Quarter, Xi'an)
Address: North end of Beiyuanmen, Lianhuqu, Xi'an
Hours: 6am until Sold Out
Website/Map: From Dianping.com (in Chinese)
Directions: See location #4 on my Xi'an Gourmet Map. Start from the Drum Tower and head north on Bei Yuan Men. It's on the right hand side towards the end, across from the entrance to Xiyangshi street.

Beijingers love their deep-fried dough and roasted meat sandwiches for breakfast, and the people of Hong Kong crave their rice porridge and macaroni in soup. As for Xi'an, one of the most popular and cheap breakfast fares is a simple bowl of Halal beef meatballs in a thick, extremely spicy soup known as Rou Wan Hu La Tang.

Take an early morning walk in the Muslim Quarter and let your nose follow a certain distinctive pungent spiciness. Chances are you'll come across one of many little shops with a large metal pot out front, and a middle-aged guy yelling "Hu La Tang!" This particular morning we sat down at the 100-plus-year-old Sun Jia on Bei Yuan Men street.

We followed the stream of locals to the big pot/barrel outside the shop and ordered two bowls of soup and one slice of bread -- after all that's all they sold for the past hundred years. The ingredient here seemed to be quite a mishmash of grape-sized beef meatballs, Chinese cabbages, potato cubes, carrots and zucchini.

But warned that this Hu La Tang was the spiciest of all things we tasted in Xi'an, a city well-known for its love of chili peppers. The key here is not the spiciness of the chili oil, but the numbing effects of a serious dose of Sichuan peppers. In fact not only my tongue, but my whole mouth was in a state of tingly, pins-and-needles numbness the whole time, which should sound familiar to fans of Sichuan cuisine. If you're a lover of all things spicy and hot, this breakfast is for you.

Bill for Two Persons

Hu La Tang (Meatballs in Spicy Soup)	RMB 3.5
Hu La Tang (Meatballs in Spicy Soup)	RMB 3.5
Tuo Tuo Mo (Roasted Bread)	RMB 0.5
TOTAL	RMB 7.5 (CAD$1.1)

Gourmet Guide to Xi'an - Part 1

2011-06-16T21:46:00.000-07:00

This series of articles is dedicated to the amazing varieties of mouthwatering cuisine of Xi'an, the home of China's Terracotta Warriors.

Xi'an's Muslim Quarter is widely known among Chinese travelers as a foodie mecca, where 1,500 years of cultural fusion with the Middle East has produced some of China's greatest peasant dishes and street snacks. The problem for Westerners though is that eateries in the Muslim Quarter typically have no English menus and signages. To help readers navigate the area, I've created the map below to indicate the location of the eateries in my review.

Navigating the Muslim Quarter should be easy -- go to the Drum Tower with this map and follow the crowds north on Bei Yuan Men, the main entrance into the Muslim Quarter. Many of Xi'an's best local dishes can be found within a 3-block radius.

MAP LEGEND:
1.LAO MI JIA (stir-fried unleavened bread in mutton broth)
2.HONG HONG (Halal lamb skewers and fried rice)
3.BIANG BIANG MIAN (sheet noodles in specialty 3-in-1 sauce)
4.SUN JIA (meatballs and vegetables in spicy soup)
5.JIA SAN (soup dumplings and best plum juice ever)
6.SHENG ZHI WANG (cold noodles in sesame paste)
7.ZHAO JIA BAO (rose-honey flavored glutinous rice cakes)
8.QING ZHEN SHAO JI (Halal roasted free-range chicken)

For the past 1,000 years the mecca of Xi'an's culinary tradition has always situated here in the Hui Min Jie, or Muslim Quarter. Here you'll find the authentic flavors that every Xi'an schoolboy has grown up loving. Nowadays fancy restaurants attempt, often unsuccessfully, to replicate these peasant dishes and over-charge tourists in the process. But in the Muslim Quarter you can still find Xi'an's best, filling meals at bargain bottom prices, mostly below RMB 20 (CAD$3) per person.

1. 100-YEAR-OLD MUTTON BROTH AT LAO MI JIA

Food Review: LAO MI JIA (Muslim Quarter, Xi'an)
Address: Xiyangshi 127, Beilinqu, Xi'an
Hours: 8am until Sold Out (~11am)
Website/Map: From Dianping.com (in Chinese)
Directions: #1 on my Xi'an Gourmet Map. There are two Lao Mi Jia side by side -- choose the one on the right hand side (east side).

The Yang Rou Pao Mo is an enormously filling meal in the form of a soup bowl, one (or two or three, if you insist) piece of hand-crumbled unleavened bread is happily bathed in a flavorful clear mutton broth. From its humble origins, this Xi'an specialty has been elevated to star status by two of the city's most venerable restaurants, Tong Sheng Xiang and Lao Sun Jia. But if you ask the locals (refer to www.dianping.com), nobody does it better than the 100-plus-year-old Lao Mi Jia, deep within the Muslim Quarter.

One problem for visitors ... there are two different Lao Mi Jia located right next to each other, and many unsuspecting tourists get it all wrong. Local gourmands opt for the one on the RIGHT side, named Lao Mi Jia Da Yu Pao Mo in Chinese. This is what the store front looks like -- take this picture with you if nobody in your group can read Chinese.

Before anyone gets turned off by the “gamey” taste of lamb/mutton, let me tell you that my wife does NOT even eat lamb, let alone mutton, in Canada. But there is something special about how the Chinese-Muslims prepare their goats that entirely softens the taste and still retains the full flavor and the tenderness. This dish is a MUST try, for anyone who visits Xi'an for the first time.

First you need to order, but there is no English menu in sight. No worries. Just walk up to the cashier and ask for a Yang Rou Pao Mo. They'll probably give you a You Zhi (premium) Yang Rou Pao Mo, with better meat and more ingredients in the soup. As of 2011, the premium cost us RMB 21 per bowl.

Next, take a free dish of Tang Suan (sweet pickled garlic) from below the cashier -- that's what the local lady sitting across from us at our table showed us. Peel the tough garlic skin off before you use it to cleanse your oily palate between scoops of Pao Mo.

After paying for your bowl of Pao Mo, you'll be given a bowl with a piece of flat, white unleavened bread (Mo). Sit down and crumble it, into pieces as small as you can manage, just like the locals do. The smaller the crumbs, the better they soak up the flavor of the clear broth. So get crumbly.

Bread all crumbled and fingers all hurting? Now take your bowl of crumbled bread into the kitchen, along with the little plastic tag with your order number on it.

Your crumbled bread will go into the old iron wok along with the shop's trademark slow-cooked bone-based soup stock for a quick stir fry. The mutton, which has been simmering in a separate pot for hours, should be eagerly waiting on the sideline. Your Yang Rou Pao Mo should be delivered to your table in about 10 minutes.

The end result is a steamy, mouth-watering concoction. The stir fried mixture of bread and bone soup stock goes into the bowl first, followed by glass noodles, Muer mushrooms, green onions and Jinzhen (golden needle) flowers. Then the slow simmered slices of tender, flavorful mutton go on top. Finally more soup stock is added to fully submerge all these magical ingredients.

The act of eating the Yang Rou Pao Mo is an interesting culinary experience in itself -- just watch how the locals do it. NOBODY stirs and mixes the soup, as that would turn the bowl of crumbled bread into a slimy porridge. The typical approach seems to involve chopsticks in one hand, a soup ladle in the other, chili paste in the ladle if desired, and the process of slowly working on the little mountain of crumbled bread and soup into the ladle with as little stirring as possible. When the tastebuds start to become saturated with the full flavor of mutton, the sweet pickled garlic from the earlier step would serve as a surprisingly refreshing palate cleanser.

Lao Mi Jia is one of those remarkable eateries that deliciously define Xi'an -- don't miss it if you're the type of traveler who enjoys good, authentic local food (which I expect you are if you're reading this far into this article). A wonderfully satisfying meal and a cultural experience at the heart of Xi'an's Muslim Quarters, all for a measly RMB 21 (CAD$3.2), may just be more interesting than the Terracotta Warriors. And while you're chowing down on the mutton, don't forget your free plate of Tang Suan.

Bill for Two Persons

Premium Yang Rou Pao Mo	RMB 21
Premium Yang Rou Pao Mo	RMB 21
TOTAL	RMB 42 (CAD$6.4)

Xi'an to Beijing Overland in 16 Days

2011-06-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

This is the index page of our overland trip from Xi'an to Beijing in 16 Days, with major focus on authentic local cuisine and culture (and sometimes culinary culture).

This trip spanned 1,500 km with stops in Xi'an, Dangjiacun (Hancheng), Pingyao and Wangjia Dayuan, Datong, Hengshan, Wutaishan, and finally to Beijing.

Beijing Food Trip - Part 5: Imperial Cuisine vs. Peasant Snacks
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Beijing Food Trip - Part 4: Legendary 200-Year-Old Eateries
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Beijing Food Trip - Part 3: Showdown of Two Peking Ducks
Click HERE to Enter

Beijing Food Trip - Part 2: Lamb Hotpot and Jiaozi
Click HERE to Enter

Beijing Food Trip - Part 1: Itinerary and Hotel
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Navigating Past Fake Monks at Wutaishan
Click HERE to Enter

Datong - Three World-Class Sights in One Day
Click HERE to Enter

Traditional Cave Houses of Northern China
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Imperial China's 2nd Grandest Residence - Wang's Family Courtyard
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Ancient City of Pingyao - Part 5: Favorite Photo Locales
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Ancient City of Pingyao - Part 4: More Food Reviews
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Ancient City of Pingyao - Part 3: Best Authentic Food
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Ancient City of Pingyao - Part 2: Hotel Review
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Ancient City of Pingyao - Part 1: Practical Info
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The Hidden Valley of Dangjiacun
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Best and Worst of Xi'an - My Opinionated Guide
Click HERE to Enter

Gourmet Guide to Xi'an - Part 3
Click HERE to Enter

Gourmet Guide to Xi'an - Part 2
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Gourmet Guide to Xi'an - Part 1
Click HERE to Enter

A Guided Hike to Canada's World Famous Fossil Site

2011-06-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

One very unique experience offered by the Canadian Rockies is the chance to set foot on one of the world's best known fossil sites, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in itself, led by a Parks Canada Guide. Imagine walking into a massive burial of prehistoric creatures 500 million years old, where fossils are so abundant that you CANNOT possibly take a step without stepping on some animal more ancient than any dinosaur. That is the uniqueness of the Burgess Shale fossil beds at Yoho National Park.

To put into context how famous the Burgess Shale is: I still remember reading about it in my high school science textbook, many years ago, where it probably discussed the Cambrian Explosion. In fact if you walk into a Cambrian (500 million years ago) fossil exhibit at any major natural history museum in North America, there's a good chance that many specimens came from Burgess Shale. This is the kind of place you read about in National Geographic, and I couldn't resist when I heard about this guided hike into the site, located just 2 hour's drive from Banff.

At the time of writing Parks Canada offers two different guided hikes to what is collective called the Burgess Shale fossil sites. Both hikes must be carried out under the supervision of a licensed guide, and both fossil sites are under constant video surveillance to ensure that no fossil is removed by visitors. Walcott Quarry is a 20km round-trip, 10 hour hike; Mount Stephen is considerably shorter (6km round-trip in 7 hours) but very steep towards the top. We signed up for the short and steep hike up Mount Stephen, thinking it would be relatively easier. Well ... it wasn't easy, as we're about to find out.

The hike has to be booked at least a day in advance, online or at the Visitor Centre in the town of Field, at the cost of CAD$55 as of 2011. Our hike started out very early, 7:30am in fact, in the town of Field where our guide Claudia assessed the group and gave a great introduction on the Burgess Shale and our upcoming hike. The atmosphere turned serious when she took out a large collection of old hiking/ski poles and made very sure that each of us would carry a pair before we set out. Everyone knew then that this would be no easy hike.

It was all uphill from the town of Field, with close to 800m of elevation gain to be covered in about 3 hours. The first 2.5 hours of the trail cut a winding path through a pristine forest of cedars and firs, with the occasional view point down towards Field. The steepness did not yet require hiking poles, which made us a little apprehensive. Somewhere along the trail we came across this serious-looking sign that we're about to enter a restricted area, and most importantly, that the removal of fossil is illegal.

In the final 45 minutes the trail became increasingly steep, to the point where we had to scramble with our hands at times (just look at the 40-degree slope in the picture's background). It was then apparent that poles would become crucial later when working our way downhill. But for now, we had arrived at the entrance of the famous trilobite beds of Mount Stephen.

The whole fossil site was a steep, barren shale quarry, situated right at the treeline at an elevation of 2000m. 1200m below the site lies the Kicking Horse River valley and the town of Field, and anywhere above the site is mountain goat territory. This is high, high up in the Canadian Rockies, and it's difficult to imagine that it used to be an ocean floor, back in the age of these fossilized creatures.

Claudia gave a lecture on paleontology at the only relatively flat spot at the site. At about 5 metres in diameter this was the only possible landing spot for helicopters in case someone in the group could not make it down by his/her own power. And given the steepness of the trail, that was a real possibility.

This was the gold mine that everyone in the group came to see -- a quarry of countless prehistoric fossils, all lying unclaimed at our feet. Our guide did remind us again though, that taking anything out of the quarry could get us prosecuted. Practically every piece of shale here contained the body or imprint of some prehistoric creature, and it was impossible to walk anywhere without stepping on, and possibly breaking, some fossil.

These beautifully complex trilobite shells were everyone's favorite fossil at the beginning. But after 30 minutes they had become so commonly found that one can hardly look anywhere without coming across a few new ones. In fact I personally probably broke a few just by walking around the quarry.

The discovery of fossils like this is what makes Burgess Shale one of the world's most important fossil sites. The preservation of shells and bones is common; having soft body parts and tissues preserved as fossils is very, very rare. Burgess Shale became a UNESCO World Heritage Site particularly for its excellent preservation of soft-bodied marine animals, such as this catepillar-like Aysheaia here.

After an hour's digging and lunch it was time to take the same trail downhill back towards town. This was the toughest part of the hike, starting with 30 minutes of descending a 40-degree steep narrow path of nothing but loose shale and eroded soil. See the slope in the background of the picture -- it was really that steep.

To make matters worse, two of the old hiking poles we borrowed weren't properly locking in position, making my wife very nervous on her way down. Thankfully our guide Claudia was kind enough to exchange one of her own poles with my wife, and to patiently teach my wife the proper way of using her poles as anchors on the downhill hike. We definitely wouldn't have made it safely downhill without her help.

At the end I kept wondering whether it would have been wiser to join that 20km roundtrip hike to Walcott Quarry. Yes it's much longer, but the elevation gain would be more gradual and the trail probably wasn't quite as steep. But we certainly have no regrets -- we were granted a rare opportunity to hike into one of the world's premier fossil sites, and came away with some great memories and a good story to tell. And even without the fossils, it's still a wonderful hike to a great panoramic vista at the top. It's an experience I fully recommend to my friends ... as long as they're reasonably fit and are not afraid of steep trails ...

Yoho - Banff's Scenery with a Tenth of the Crowds

2011-06-10T21:20:00.000-07:00

Most Canadians recognize the lake in this picture as a vaguely familiar scene ... or they think they do. That's Moraine Lake in Banff National Park right?

Show this to a Canadian friend and see if you get a similar answer. Except this is NOT Moraine Lake. Or Lake Louise for that matter. And this is NOT inside Banff National Park. Unfortunately this just illustrates how relatively unknown Yoho National Park is, even to Canadians.

Banff has its turquoise Rocky Mountain glacial lakes ... but so does Yoho. Jasper has its jagged peaks and awe-inspiring waterfalls ... but so does Yoho. Banff and Jasper are world-famous. But Yoho, neighboring Banff on the opposite side of the continental divide, somehow still manages to remain under the radar of most visitors.

Some tourists, especially tour bus groups, do actually visit Yoho without realizing that it's not part of Banff. Located less than 2 hour's drive from Banff and just about an hour from Lake Louise, Yoho is conveniently within day-trip distance for guests staying in Banff National Park. Only the absence of major hotels and resorts ensures its serenity -- next to Yoho's tiny settlements Banff would feel almost metropolitan.

That should be good enough reason to visit, especially for those visiting Banff but want to spend time outside the developed resort town of Banff. Lake Louise too noisy for your liking? Yoho's Emerald Lake is equally stunning, attracts perhaps a tenth of Lake Louise's crowds, and has cheaper canoe rental rates too.

One the first day we visited the park's three major attractions -- Emerald Lake (see photos above), Natural Bridge (also see photos above), and the 250m tall Takakkaw Falls pictured here. We then spent one more day joining a Parks Canada guided hike to see the fossil beds at Mount Stephens.

On this 15-day road trip we had already come across plenty of mountain sheep, deer, elk, moose and bison. I've lived in Western Canada for years, and for the very first time I finally came face to face with a hoary marmot, a fluffy, house cat sized rodent. This little guy was just one the opposite side of the road when we returned from Takakkaw Falls.

Lake Louise has its five-star Fairmont Chateau, one of the most recognizable man-made landmarks in Banff National Park. But not many people know that Yoho's Emerald Lake Lodge is usually ranked higher in many traveler polls (eg.Conde Nast).

After taking a walk through in the courtyard of these secluded lakeside timber lodges, we were definitely convinced that this is one resort well worth splurging when we visit next time, even at the rate of nearly CAD$400 per night in the shoulder season.

CHEAP PLACES TO STAY
This time though, we somehow ended up staying at three different guesthouses/hotels on three nights around Yoho National Park.

We booked our first night at Mount 7 Guesthouse, a spacious, homey B&B operated by a friendly couple in Golden, the closest major town outside of Yoho. The bedroom was clean and spacious, the slate-tiled shower room stylish, and the breakfast filling. We wanted to stay for two extra nights, but they were fully booked during our visit in late July. Our gracious hosts were kind enough to call around and book us into the two following hotels.

On the second night we moved to the Great Divide Lodge on the shore of Wapta Lake, as we wanted to be close to the town of Field for our early morning hike up Mount Stephen. This was surprisingly one of the cheapest hotels on our trip, which was quite a bargain considering its excellent location (10 minutes drive to Field). The room was nothing worth writing about, but that's okay for its price.

We moved back to the town of Golden on the third night in anticipation for a long drive back to Vancouver. This was easily the most memorable accommodation of our trip, a rustic log cabin nestled right above the town.

The Kicking Horse Canyon Bed and Breakfast was housed inside an authentically Canadian full timber cabin, which according to our hostess Jeanine was built mostly by her husband. I couldn't help but wonder whether the deer and bear trophies hanging on the walls were also shot locally. The decor here had all the character of a folk museum, and we toured the house as if it was.

The rooms were very spacious as well, and spotlessly clean of course. We would seriously consider renting out the entire lodge if we ever plan a family vacation in the area.

INFORMAL DINING
As a Canadian, I can honestly tell you that the Rockies isn't the right place in Canada to look for great culinary discoveries. Here we'd be satisfied with good value meals at informal, relatively inexpensive joints.

We stumbled upon White Tooth Bistro in downtown Golden (427 9th Ave N) and was pleasantly surprised by its good value. These mussels cost a reasonable CAD$13.5 per pound, which would be considered a good deal even in Vancouver or Calgary.

Seafood Linguine at CAD$16.75. Crispy tiger prawns, sweet scallops, smoked salmon and more mussels, simply seasoned with fresh tomatoes and olive oil. Again everything was well executed beyond what we were expecting at this price.

My wife's duck confit salad at CAD$13.25, also reasonably priced compared to Vancouver. The confit was sourced from Canards du Lac Brome, which seems to supply most Canadian restaurants here in Western Canada. According to my wife, the taste was nowhere as complex and concentrated as the confit served at her favorite restaurants in Quebec.

The other restaurant worth a mention was the Truffle Pigs Bistro in the small town of Field, the only real settlement within Yoho National Park. Within Field this is probably the only decent eatery, which also runs a general store and a lodging business upstairs from the bistro.

The meal actually started with a mistake on the part of the bistro -- I originally ordered a Beef Bourguignon, but somehow the order got mixed up and this pork tenderloin (CAD$25) arrived at my table. I'm normally not a fan of pork tenderloins, but this turned out to be one of the best dishes of the trip. The pork was perfectly and tenderly done, complimented by a simple and refreshing rhubarb sauce, crispy deep fried green onions, and good (but not excellent) gnocchi. As compensation for the mix up I was served a free beer, for which I can't really complain.

We wife ordered ... what's new ... more duck leg confit (CAD$25). The dish itself was well executed, but again we're not fans of confit produced by Canards du Lac Brome. Smaller suppliers in Quebec always seem to make much better confit.

My wife also ordered a seafood chowder (CAD$8), the flavor of which I don't really remember. This meal ended up a little more expensive than the other dinner at White Tooth Bistro, but it was still decent value considering its location inside a national park.

Crown of the North American Continent

2011-01-17T20:26:00.000-08:00

I first read about Waterton from the official UNESCO website, when I browsed through the list of World Heritage Sites in Canada.

Banff, Jasper and the Rocky Mountain Parks occupy their rightful position prominently on the list. The sites of Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump and Dinosaur Provincial Park are much lesser known, but Canadians should approve of their importance to the cultural and natural heritage of Western Canada. But most Canadians I knew, myself included, had never heard of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. How does this little-known southwest corner of Alberta make it to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites along with the likes of Great Barrier Reef and Kilimanjaro?

Curiosity was enough reason for a detour into the Waterton area during our 15-day roadtrip through the Canadian Rockies and the Alberta Prairies. Unlike our carefully preplanned week of outdoor activities in Banff and Jasper, our two full days in Waterton started with minimal pre-trip research and absolutely no expectations -- I knew there's a lake, there's a boat ride to the U.S.A. side of the lake, and that we should take our Canadian passport. That's all we knew, and the rest would come as discoveries.

A delightful first impression greeted us as we approached Waterton from the eastern prairies. Self-proclaimed as the Place where the Rockies meet the Prairies, Waterton Lakes National Park is surrounded by miles upon miles of cattle ranches, small lakes and river crossings. From here the Rocky Mountains extend south into Glacier National Park, the American half of the World Heritage Site.

The only form of public transportation linking the Canadian to the American side of the Waterton Lake comes in the form of a 45-minute trip upon a classic 80-plus-year-old wooden boat, which makes several trips a day to the Goat Haunt Ranger Station at the northern tip of Glacier National Park. Frankly speaking there isn't anything spectacular about the boat trip -- it's all about the hiking in the pristine wilderness surrounding the lake.

The most famous hike is known as the Crypt Lake Trail, once voted as Canada's best hike and famous for its breathtaking scenery, as well as its narrow cliff-side paths and the crawling through a narrow tunnel. We chose the easier and more popular Kootenai Lakes Trail, a 4km (each way) path through the rainforest into one of the park's prime moose habitats.

It was Day 10 of our trip through the Canadian Rockies, and so far we had run into bighorn sheeps, elks, several species of deer, American bisons, and even a hoary marmot ... but no moose. In fact we later learned that moose sightings were so rare in the Canadian Rockies that the native tribes considered it a fortuitous omen. The prospect of viewing one of these gentle giants in its natural habitat was the main goal of our hike, and after about an hour things started to look up as we came across a moose footprint in the mud.

We arrived at the Kootenai Lakes around 12:15 after an easy, but mosquito-plagued 75 minute hike. Time for a picnic lunch on the lakeshore, and then ...

The owners of the premises decided to come out for lunch as well. Not one, but a family of three moose came out of the woods and started diving into the lake, probably to graze on the underwater vegetation. An antlerless cow moose started first about 150 metres from our lakeshore position, then a HUGE bull moose with ginormous antlers came out a little further away. These moose behaved almost like seals, spending most of their time foraging underwater while resurfacing only to breath and spy on the surroundings.

A third moose, a younger bull moose with a smaller antler came out and stayed for an extended period of time. As I made my way through the forest to find a better position for pictures, the cow moose likely spotted me and started to make loud groans to warn her child. With the huge bull still in sight, that was as far as I was willing to push my luck on this day.

As it turned out this family of moose shared their pristine, glacial fed lake with quite a few neighbors. Beavers apparently inhabit the Kootenai Lakes, as indicated by these freshly fallen trees bearing their teethmarks. A black bear was also seen foraging around on the lake shore on this day, according to the elderly couple who watched the moose with us. So this is really prime wildlife-watching territory, on-par with Jasper National Park, according to our experience here in mid-July.

Taking the boat back to the Canadian side of the park brought us to its most famous landmark -- in fact one of the most photographed hotels in North America. The Prince of Wales Hotel is a grandiose historic hotel modeled after the finest mountain chalets in the Swiss tradition back in the 1920's, and at the time of our visit, commanded a peak summer rate of CAD$259 in their simplest room with lake view.

Walking through the extravagant hotel lobby for a few quick pics was of course free. The structure is a designated National Historic Site after all, and the period decor with the panoramic view of the lake all make for excellent photos. Afternoon tea cost CAD$30 at the time of writing, a considerable bargain compared to other Canadian landmarks like Victoria's Empress Hotel.

But it was drifting way too far from reality when a male concierge dressed in a Scottish kilt came up to the curb to meet the red limousine. Kitschy and nostalgic, there's no mistaking that this was once North America's best attempt of a posh European resort. Now it's a relatively unknown jewel buried at a remote, yet spectacular corner of the continent.

A remarkably underrated National Park for all its natural wonders, Waterton is a refreshing departure from the gradual commercialization of other Canadian Rockies parks (ie. Banff). Towering peaks and beaming glaciers, abundant wildlife viewing opportunities, and entire mountain sides carpeted with wildflowers are just some of the scenery we came across.

But stay clear of the hordes of deer roaming the townsite! You've been warned!

Further Reading:

Crown of the Continent - an excellent resource of the National Parks of Waterton and Glacier, created by National Geographics

Official National Park Website - Official info on park services, trail conditions etc.

Glacier National Park Website - Official site of the American half of the World Heritage Site, including information on the Kootenai Lake and Crypt Lake trails

Waterton's Official Tourism Site - excellent list of activities and accommodations

Waterton Cruise - The historic tour boat connecting the Canadian side of the lake with the American side

Outpost Motel - the hotel where we stayed, very cheap (CAD$70 in peak summer season), very clean, but located 40 minutes away in Cardston

Waterton-Crowsnest B&B - List of bed and breakfast accommodations in the surrounding area

Alpenwood Guesthouse - An inexpensive little B&Bs in the surrounding area

Great Canadian Barn Dance - A family accommodation and a uniquely Canadian experience, if your visit happens to coincide with the weekly barn dance

Canada's (Almost) Unknown World Heritage Site

2011-01-14T21:20:00.000-08:00

This page is dedicated to what I feel is one of Western Canada's most underrated destinations.

In my mind it ranks among little-known gems like Gokayama and Telc -- world-class destinations in their own unique ways, yet somehow remain under the radar of 99.9% of tourists.

Unlike most obscure and unheard-of destinations, this place is not entirely unknown (being a UNESCO World Heritage Site) or inaccessible (being only 2.5 hours from Calgary). So how does Dinosaur Provincial Park still manage to remain undiscovered by the masses?

First, most foreign tourists, and even Canadian tourist outside of Alberta, have never heard of Dinosaur Provincial Park despite accolades from UNESCO.

Second, even though most Albertans have heard of it, only a fraction would actually visit.

Among those who visit, even fewer would stay for the magnificent sunset that brings the best out of the amazing landscape.

Finally, among those who do stay for the sunset, few would get inside the restricted areas of the Park where the most stunning views are exposed.

You get the idea.

For us this is one of our favorite memories of Alberta, if not of the entire Western Canada. And I hope that after reading this article, you too will appreciate the unique charm of this region and add this to your trip of Western Canada.

For two-and-a-half magical hours we were guided into the restricted areas of Dinosaur Provincial Park, containing some of the world's greatest concentration of dinosaur fossils, to quietly enjoy a spectacular sunset in the surroundings of the most extraordinary Badlands landscape.

Many of our favorite photos of our Canadian Rockies and Prairies road-trip came out of this small-group tour organized by the Provincial Park. Aptly named the "Sunset Tour," this short trek started in the final hours of summertime daylight when the warm colors of the sun intensified the dramatic beauty of the Badlands' sandstone formations.

I can find no words to satisfactorily describe the stunning, raw beauty of one of the most dramatic Canadian landscapes. The setting sun lent its warm, orange palette to these ancient sandstones while casting long slivers of dark shadows upon the rocks, underneath which thousands of once-terrifying reptiles sleep in permanent tranquility. Only a handful places like this can be found anywhere in the world, and this is likely the most accessible.

The tour is typically run from 19:00 to 21:00, though our enthusiastic guide volunteered to lengthen the tour, to everyone's delight, to give us more time to photograph and soak up the atmosphere of the sunset over a strangely romantic landscape.

Something with the appearance of a dead tree-trunk caught the eyes of my wife, who brought it to the attention of our interpretive guide. Well it's dead for sure, but it wasn't a tree-trunk.

It turned out to be a fossilized dinosaur leg bone, as explained by our guide. After a short lesson on fossil identification and understanding what we've been treading upon, it was almost impossible not to step on fossil fragments for the rest of the tour. It is this amazing concentration of Cretaceous reptilian fossils that led to the park's inclusion as a World Heritage Site.

This was the moment we all eagerly waited for, and at the same time wished that time would stand still for us. The sun descended beyond the prairie horizon under a brilliant canopy of blood red. This was our own favorite sunset, which we found to be no less spectacular than the famous sunset at Oia village in Santorini, widely considered to be one of the world's best. And the romance in the air would become even more climactic ...

A full moon started rising above the rock spires over the eastern night sky, at the same time that the sun flirted with the western horizon. Nobody spoke a word -- there was only the awed silence, with the occasional howl of coyotes far in the background.

The planned 21:00 end to our tour stretched to 21:45, largely due to our accommodating guide who voluntarily gave up her own time to show us more of the park's incredible scenery. On the way back we even stopped again for one more photo of wildflowers swaying under the moonlight. Thanks Cory for the great tour!

The Sunset tour can be booked online at the Dinosaur Provincial Park's official website, at the cost of CAD$25 as of 2010. If you're planning a visit to the Canadian Rockies (ie.Banff), combining these beautiful Badlands with the magnificence of the Canadian Rockies would make a an excellent trip to cherish for years. The Dinosaur Provincial Park is located near Brooks, only a 3.5-hour-drive from Banff and is an excellent overnight trip from Banff or Calgary.

A day-trip from Banff or Calgary is not recommended, as you'll want to wait for the warm, golden lighting of the sunset upon the Badlands' dramatic landscape. That means you may want a place nearby to stay for the night ...

ACCOMMODATIONS AROUND DINOSAUR PROVINCIAL PARK

Several options exist when it comes to accommodations around Dinosaur Provincial Park.

CAMPING INSIDE THE PROVINCIAL PARK
The provincial park has a large number of campsite spaces, which are rarely fully booked aside from public holidays (eg. Canada Day long weekend, Labour Day long weekend etc). Spaces can also be booked ahead of time at the park's official website.

STAYING IN THE CITY OF BROOKS
The nearest town is Brooks, a 40-minute drive to the southwest of the park. The main drag (2nd Street West) has a few chain hotels (Best Western, Holiday Inn) that tend to overcharge about $150 for a double room during the summer peak season.

A 96-YEAR-OLD HOTEL HIDDEN INSIDE THE VILLAGE OF PATRICIA
This is probably the first photographed review of Patricia Hotel anywhere on the web -- I've searched everywhere online prior to our trip and couldn't find anything.

The village of Patricia is the closest thing to a proper community in the vicinity of Dinosaur Provincial Park, just a 10-minute drive to the southwest. Boasting a grand total of 2 streets, this little hamlet has just one commercial establishment that multitasks as a greasy-spoon cafe during breakfast, the local retiree's hangout in the mid-day heat, a watering hole after a day's hard work on the farm (the pub is even named the "Water Hole"), and at night transforms into a rustic hotel for the odd traveler passing by.

Dating from 1915, the hotel is said to be the oldest remaining structure of a once-thriving farming and ranching community. Back in the early 1900's Patricia was an important stop along the old wagon trail connecting to Calgary, but was relegated to obscurity when horse-drawn wagons gave way to the Canadian Pacific Railway built 20km to the south. The newly incorporated town of Brooks quickly became the region's urban centre, while Patricia diminished to an anonymous hamlet at the edge of the Badlands.

How do we know all this? Well it's all according to an older gentleman we met there at breakfast, who is probably as good a source of information as any. I'm not sure if there's anything such as a town archive to keep records for this village of perhaps 50 permanent residents.

While the hotel doesn't look quite 90+ years old, the first floor is a genuine western bar dating from at least the 1950's. One corner of the tavern features an old-fashioned "steak pit" where the locals gather for a grill-your-own-steak dinner at the barbecue. During the pheasant hunting season the tavern is also home to the local hunter's association, and award plaques on the wall immortalize the valiance of the village's greatest hunters. One of which reads:

PPH&MD Rubber Ducky Awards

YEAR 2002. Recipient Jordan Given.

Accidental discharge of firearm while racing after his dog. On a further confession was guilty of spray painting his dog with a different kind of discharge brought on by over indulgence at Joe's bar the previous evening.

That's pure Canadian humour ... an old-fashioned western pub just can't get much more authentic than that.

As of summer 2010 the rooms still retained a lot of old-fashioned western decor from the 1950's. No air-con, but the sheets and the en-suite bathroom were very clean. Its peak summer season rate of CAD$66 was the best deal we found on our 15-day trip across Alberta.

RECENT UPDATE: It seems that Patricia Hotel is finally dipping its toes into the Internet era with a new official website. No email address given yet -- hopefully that will come in time.

A World Class Museum in the Middle of Nowhere

2010-12-14T21:04:00.000-08:00

A 90-minute drive northeast of Calgary, between the prairies and even more prairies, lies a medium-sized town that one of my coworkers call, in a humorous and slightly condescending way, "Dino Village."

Now that's not all condescending -- even the town's own official website is currently titled "Town of Drumheller - Dinosaur Valley," so there's a bit of truth in the humor. The town is actually one of the booming natural gas producing areas in its own right, though to virtually every visitor the main reason for the detour has to do with the region's rich fossil deposits, culminating inside a huge, well-organized and truly world class museum -- the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology.

Anyone who has ever taken a multi-day roadtrip anywhere in North America has the right to be skeptical of the word "museum" -- thousands of roadside "museums" exist for the purpose of showcasing anything from an old granny's collection of sewing machines to the amazing world of perogies. But Royal Tyrrell is one of the best in Canada, hosting 10 million visitors in its 25 year existence and granted royal status by the Queen. That's quite an accomplishment considering its location in a relatively remote region in southern Alberta, nowhere close to the main highway connecting Calgary and Edmonton. Visitors don't come this far unless there's a real good reason.

But why on earth would the government of Alberta invest in a world class museum in the middle of nowhere, as opposed to Calgary or Edmonton? Well here's the uniqueness of Royal Tyrrell -- the museum is situated right in the middle of one of the prime fossil-producing areas in North America, and some of the fossil displays were excavated within short distance of the museum. That includes the famous Albertosaurus, a smaller, but equally terrifying, Canadian version of the T-Rex.

Almost all exhibits were excavated from within Western Canada, with many coming from local sites in southern Alberta. Hadrosaur skeletons like the one pictured here can be found in the vicinity of Drumheller, while a near-complete nesting site had been found further south in Devil's Coulee.

Walking into any jewelry shop in Alberta and you'll find a uniquely Albertan gemstone with a wildly colorful, iridescent opal-like appearance. One of the rarest gemstones on earth, Ammolites (with an L) are organic gemstones made of fossilized shells of ammonites (with an N), a now-extinct group of molluscs that roamed the Alberta seas in the Mesozoic Era. If a fingernail-sized piece on a pendant costs upwards of CAD$500 (see Korite.com) in local jewelry shops, this 3-foot-diameter shell here must be near priceless.

Aside from serving as an interpretive museum to the public and raising public awareness to Alberta's rich fossil records, Royal Tyrrell is renowned in the academic world as a premier research centre for paleontology, complete with an excellent backyard for fieldwork. The Horseshoe Canyon, just a few kilometers to the west of the museum, contains some of the most abundant Mesozoic fossil beds in Canada.

Fossils excavated from the field are transported back to the lab for preparation and cleaning. To provide visitors with a real-life demonstration of the daily work in a paleontology lab, one of the museum's resident technicians set up a curator station with a working sample to explain the whole process of removing the surrounding rock to expose the fossil.

But what really sets this museum apart from most fossil exhibitions I've visited is its focus on interpretation and public education. For visitors staying for more than a couple hours, the museum provides a wide variety of hands-on learning programs ranging from fossil casting for kids to guided hikes to a nearby dinosaur quarry. We ran out of time, but I seriously considered joining an excavation clinic where participants learn to extract replica dinosaur bones in a simulated quarry environment.

Taking public education a step further, the museum even offers accredited paleontology courses within the local school district for high school students working towards their graduation. That's miles ahead of typical museums focusing on academic research and exhibition.

Well, even a world class museum is still a museum. The best way to really appreciate Southern Alberta's natural heritage is to walk among the outlandish rock formations of the badlands. Just outside the museum is a short, well-marked interpretive trail taking visitors through the moonscape-like layers of fossil-yielding sedimentary rocks. One word of advice though ... come back an hour before sunset for the most dramatic colors and contrasts. The above picture was taken around noon and does not do any justice to the beauty of badlands scenery at sunset. Just compare the above picture with those taken at Dinosaur Provincial Park at sunset in the next post and you'll be convinced.

Our 2,000 km Drive across the Alberta Prairies

2010-12-13T01:29:00.001-08:00

A lazy summer road trip is one of those luxuries rarely allowed for people like myself, one of millions of slaving city folks drowning in daily work in Canada. So when we decided upon a Canadian Rockies trip this past summer, we slowed down to let our eyes, and my camera shutter, fully appreciate a very Canadian landscape that I never had the chance to experience -- the great vastness of the Alberta Prairies.

Oil pumpjacks are undoubtedly one of the integral images coming of Alberta's landscape, but that's gradually changing with biodiesel-producing canola fields spreading across the prairies, and giant wind turbines popping up along the foothills in southern Alberta.

Old-fashioned working ranches still dominate much of the landscape in southwestern Alberta, which remains the centre of the province's beef cattle industry today. A succulent cut of prime rib from Alberta's Black Angus beef is one of my own favorite Canadian dishes.

Another ubiquitous sight during Albertan summers, these gigantic rolls of hay bales typically weight several hundred kilograms each. To many visitors few images better evoke the allure of rural life than an endless ocean of golden hay bales basking under the sun, but here in Canada once in a while we do hear about people being seriously injured or killed by the crushing weight of these bales when not handled properly.

Among the joys of road-tripping are the unexpected discoveries outside of the original itinerary. Due to my own ignorance I had never heard of Fort Macleod prior to stumbling into this movie-set of a town. Situated at the convergence of ancient Blackfoot Indian encampments and the wagon trails of the Canadian Old West, Fort Macleod was once one of the important settlements in southern Alberta back in the 1910's.

Nowadays the historical main street, Colonel Macleod Boulevard, still illustrates the frontier town's former glory through the careful preservation of its sandstone buildings, some dating back to the late 1800's. Built in 1912, the Empress Theatre in the previous picture is Western Canada's oldest continuous operating movie theatre and still features Hollywood's latest flicks on a nightly basis. Pictured here is the now closed Java Shop restaurant, of Brokeback Mountain fame.

"R.G.Mathews Real Estate." The building itself is over a century old, and this Mathews fellow was said to have moved out of the town by 1920. The structure, like most of the old town centre, is protected as a Provincial Historic Area to preserve all the architectural details and signages from early 20th century. This was a pleasant discovery both my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed -- the romantic atmosphere for her, and the photogenic scenery for myself.

But our real reason for driving through Fort Macleod was to visit one of Canada's lesser-known UNESCO World Heritage Sites, an ancient Blackfoot hunting ground known as Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. Over these very cliffs hundreds of thousands of American bisons plunged to their deaths, driven by the ingenious strategies and teamwork of the indigenous hunters. A modern interpretive centre provides the background information for inquisitive visitors, but it's seeing the actual cliffs that completes the haunting experience.

Through our 21st century eyes we may call it animal cruelty, but for the previous thousands of years it was simply the reality of survival. This was the ultimate test of wits between man and nature, with grave consequences for the defeated. A botched hunting season could lead to the decimation of a tribe through the long Canadian winter, which provided incentive for entire societies to dedicated their resources to refine the hunting process to an art form. Traps and decoys would be carefully set up, and actors would cover themselves in animal grease and skin to smell, look and move like wolf packs or bison calves in the eyes of the hunted. In today's terms this was a battle plan that combined a nation's expertise on animal behavior, logistics, meteorology, strategic planning, training and execution. Anyone remotely interested in the history of the First Nations People shouldn't miss this place.

After visiting the somber monument of life-and-death in the prehistorical era, a two-hour-drive to the northwest would transport the visitor to a more romantic time of cowboys and Indians, Mounties and outlaws. The Bar U Ranch National Historic Site is the last remnants of a mighty ranching empire that once boasted tens of thousands of cattles and fed much of Western Canada.

The small number of buildings surviving to this day are exhibited as part of an interpretive program, complete with historical furnishings, hands-on demonstrations, and a horse-drawn carriage ride to transport visitors around the site. The syrupy smell of fresh oven baking permeated the cookhouse in this picture, where a talented staff made cookies and pies for our tasting using hand tools and an antique wood-burning oven and stove.

If you have read this far and are intrigued by some of these sights and experiences, I must say that these were only the little side-trips while we visited the real star attractions of southern Alberta -- Waterton National Park, Dinosaur Provincial Park and Drumheller. Those will be shared in the next several posts.

Banff's Spectacular Sub-Alpine Meadows

2010-11-05T23:45:00.001-07:00

After reviewing 1,500 pictures taken in the Canadian Rockies, this emerged as my personal favorite.

Now this place is certainly not world famous like Lake Louise, or a Canadian favorite like Moraine Lake, or possess the eye-catching turquoise blue of Peyto Lake. To me this is a breathtaking location that strikes the right balance between the spectacular beauty that everyone expects of the Canadian Rockies, with the ruggedness and hidden power of nature that can catch anyone by surprise.

Where's this place? It is a sub-alpine plateau of 2,200m elevation, an enchanted kingdom of 360-degree panoramas, summer wildflowers and wildlife, yet easily accessible through a shuttle bus service.

While locals rate it as one of the best hiking grounds near Banff, it seems to have remained under the radar of most visitors. Some tourists are deterred by the lack of public road access, but richly rewarded are those willing to pay for the privilege of arriving at some of the most photogenic alpine scenery anywhere.

This mountain-top is known locally by two names, depending on the time of year. From November through early May, cable gondolas whisk skiers and snowboarders to the Canadian Rockies' largest ski resort known as Sunshine Village. But from mid-June to late September, gondolas give way to a shuttle bus and the mountain transforms into a hiker's wonderland known as Sunshine Meadows.

10 metres of annual snowfall melts away in the early summer, revealing a well-maintained network of trails and footpaths that wind past lush green meadows and emerald-colored lakes. Hiking season is short and dramatic, beginning with residual snow in June, an explosion of wildflowers in July and August, and the brilliance of Autumn foliage in September.

There are two ways of getting to Sunshine Meadows -- either hike uphill for 2 hours from the base of the winter gondola, or take a 15 minute shuttle bus ride. Regular price for the shuttle bus is $26, but at the time of writing you can apply for a free Travel Alberta Card prior to your trip and get a 15% discount by simply flashing your card.

Wild creatures large and small inhabit this pristine plateau. Not only is the meadows known to be one of the prime grizzly bear habitats in Banff National Park, the entire mountain seems to be a giant colony of hundreds of thousands of ground squirrels. This one in particular wanted to make friends with my water bottle.

It was also the beginning of wildflower season when we visited in mid-July, with fascinating alpine flowers of every color springing from the snow-irrigated wetlands along the trails. Bright red Indian Paintbrushes and bushy Western Anemones were most prominent during our visit in mid-July.

If you can time your visit in August, Sunshine Meadows organizes a Wildflower Week every year with guided interpretive hikes and photography workshops. Even if you can't, the brilliant hues of alpine lichens and a plethora of wildflowers are there to guide you along the trails all summer.

The main trails range from easy to moderate in difficulty, and a trail map can be downloaded from the official site. We rode the 11:00 bus to the Nature Centre at the top, took the Rock Isle Trail to the Rock Isle Viewpoint for a picnic around noon, hiked up to the Standish Viewpoint after lunch, then looped around the lakes on the Garden Path Trail before returning to the Nature Centre in time for the 16:30 bus down the mountain.

This easy 10km hike was certainly our most memorable in the Canadian Rockies, though the more adventurous may prefer to use Sunshine Meadows as a launching point for serious hikes along the Continental Divide. Regardless of your fitness level, just remember to bring your camera -- it's just impossible not to come home with satisfying pictures.

Photo Sequence of a World Famous Road - Canada's Icefields Parkway

2010-10-03T23:37:00.000-07:00

This is a photo sequence of one of the world's most scenic roads, a heavenly 230km along the continental divide of North America, passing majestic glaciers, brilliant turquoise lakes, and sweeping valleys cutting between the wild jagged peaks of the Canadian Rockies. If I have only one day to bring an friend from overseas to see the best of Canada, this would be my pick.

And it's not only my pick -- National Geographic has it listed among the 50 best drives in the world, as well as the Top 10 ski trips in the world; Lonely Planet ranks it among the world's top 10 cycling trips; UNESCO protects the entire surrounding area as a World Heritage Site. Welcome to Icefields Parkway.

0km from Jasper
Our journey started from the Jasper Townsite. Pictured is the Jasper Information Centre, one of the finest pieces of rustic Canadian architecture and a National Historic Site in itself. Constructed of cobblestones and timber nearly 100 years ago, the relatively small structure originally housed a plethora of park functions, including a fish hatchery in the basement. Most visitors no longer arrive at the rail station across the street, but the old building still serves as the town's most recognizable landmark.

31km from Jasper
The Athabasca Falls is the first of several major waterfalls and canyons along Icefields Parkway. Glacial water originating from the Columbia Icefield carves a narrow canyon through the soft limestone here to continue its way towards the Arctic Ocean.

Dramatic flowing lines were once scribed on these limestone walls by the mighty Athabasca River, which has since carved out a new channel underneath. A well-maintained trail now leads visitors through these passages, ending at the other side of the rocks with a sweeping view of the river valley.

55km from Jasper
A 15 minute drive to the south, the turbulent waters of the spectacular Sunwapta Falls plunges down another chasm and will eventually join the Athabasca River. Just below these waterfalls is the launch point of a Class 3 white water rafting course, a 2-hour journey costing less than CAD$100.

100km from Jasper
At the legal speed limit of 90km/h the entire drive from Jasper to Banff can theoretically be covered in less than four hours. It took us no less than eight -- and it was eight hours of breathtaking scenery and short hikes launching directly from the roadside. Pictured is a view of North America's continental divide from a roadside pullover with no name.

103km from Jasper
The 300-plus-metres-thick Columbia Icefield marks the boundary between Banff National Park and Jasper National Park. Directly accessible from the side of the highway is the Athabasca Glacier, one of the six toes of the icefield and the most visited glacier in North America. If you've come this far to the Canadian Rockies, don't miss the chance to set foot on the ice pack. Please see our Athabasca Glacier page for a quick glimpse of what you may see on a guided hike up the glacier.

160km from Jasper
A 40 minute drive into Banff National Park leads to yet another spectacular valley. The Mistaya River carves a winding path through stratified layers of limestone and creates a narrow slot canyon on its way towards Edmonton, and eventually the Hudson Bay.

175km from Jasper
At about 100km north of Banff the Icefields Parkway starts entering the heart of lake country. The pictured Lower Waterfowl Lake is just one of hundreds of lakes in the region, all endowed with the brilliant turquoise waters that made the Canadian Rockies famous.

182km from Jasper
This well-signposted trail starting from the roadside is one of the most popular short hikes in Canada -- which leads to one of the best viewpoints in Canada. We had to contend with hordes of multi-national tourists on the 20-minute hike, but the view, 300-metres above the brilliant Peyto Lake and its magical surroundings, alone makes visiting the Rockies worthwhile.

Aside from boasting one of the most breathtaking views in the Canadian Rockies, this viewpoint area, known as Bow Summit, is also famous as the highest point along the Icefields Parkway at 2,069m. Time your visit in July to September if possible, as the best and brightest colours are typically brought out by when summer's glacial melting peaks.

192km from Jasper
Yet another brilliant turquoise lake alongside the highway, Bow Lake is the source of the Bow River that flows through Banff and Calgary. This trademark opaqueness of blue and green is caused by what the local guides call "glacial rock flour," a suspension of microscopic clay particles filtering out part of the blue from the visible light spectrum.

232km from Jasper
At the southern end of the Icefields Parkway, the world famous Lake Louise and the classy Fairmont Chateau beckons with its well manicured garden and the unbeatable view of the Victoria Glacier across the lake. In better weather we would have loved a romantic excursion on the emerald-coloured lake in one of these bright red canoes, rentable for about CAD$45 per hour. Hiking up to the Lake Agnes Teahouse is also a popular option in good weather, but on this day we opted for the leisurely Lakeshore Trail.

248km from Jasper
A 16km turn-off from Lake Louise village leads to an unbelievably blue lake, mysteriously opaque and bright and gracefully set beneath a series of majestic peaks. The view of Moraine Lake and the Valley of the Ten Peaks is one of the most-photographed locations in all of Canada, with obvious reasons -- the lake really is as blue as pictured above, and it is well-known locally as the image on older $20 banknotes. Do not expect a serene mountain surrounding when taking your obligatory photo though, as we had to hike past hundreds of tourists to the top of the rockpile for this shot.

260km from Jasper
Although the "Icefields Parkway" designation officially ends at Lake Louise, the highway keeps pointing southeast for another 56km before finally reaching Banff. Visitors have a choice of 2 roads -- the newer, faster throughfare of Highway 1, or the old, winding and more scenic Highway 1A, also known as the Bow Valley Parkway. The Bow Valley Parkway is supposed to be one of the prime wildlife-viewing areas in the Canadian Rockies, but we saw nothing bigger than squirrels along this road. The best wildlife-viewing area on our trip IMHO was Maligne Lake Road in Jasper National Park.

288km from Jasper
Banff, the mother of all Canadian resorts, awaited at the finish of our 8-hour-drive through the magnificent mountain scenery above. This would serve as our homebase for exploring the surrounding area for the next three days.

What better way to celebrate a great alpine drive than warming our hands around a bubbling cheese fondue in Old World tradition? Fairmont Banff Springs hotel's German restaurant, the Waldhaus, featured an excellent Gruyere fondue with generous shavings of black truffles for CAD$56 for a two-person serving. The pungent flavors of truffles was heavenly to my tastebuds, though my wife found it to be somewhat overpowering. This was one of the three best meals on our 15-day trip.

Up Close and Personal with Athabasca Glacier

2010-10-02T15:16:00.001-07:00

This may be the closest to an Antarctic landscape that one can visit and photograph, without actually going to Antarctica.

It has so many elements befitting the most exotic of expeditions. Crystal clear glacial water carving deep blue streaks through a barren, lifeless world. Incredible blue caves born within virgin ice deposits untouched for millenia. Bottomless crevasses waiting to devour the inexperienced (or unequipped). The only things missing are a few penguins, or perhaps an old Roald Amundsen camp.

But no, it's only the Canadian Rockies ... no more than a couple kilometres from the highway in fact.

The Athabasca Glacier is one of the major attractions of the Jasper National Park, and is one of the most accessible glaciers in the world. It's so easily accessible that a visitor centre has been built across from it, next to the highway connecting Banff and Jasper.

Half a million visitors every year would admire the glacier from the comfort of the visitor centre's viewing deck, several hundred metres away. Those who desire to see it up close would typically board a giant Snowcoach to a mechanically flattened, carefully manicured parking area in the middle of the icefield. This makes the icefield safe, sterilized and accessible to virtually anyone, but it also shields the visitor from the natural ruggedness of the ice formation, the chutes and crevasses, and the icy blue creeks.

The raw beauty of the glacier is normally reserved for experienced mountaineers -- numerous deaths have resulted from unsuspecting visitors falling into crevasses and sinkholes, and Parks Canada discourages going across the safety barriers at all. For inactive 9-to-5 office people like myself, the only (relatively) safe way is to join an ice walking tour led by experienced guides.

We joined a small-group tour organized by Athabasca Glacier Icewalks, taking us up the lower third of the glacier on a 3-hour hike. We booked two months ahead online, but the tour is also bookable at the visitor centre if spaces remain available. More than 20 people showed up when we visited in mid July, and the group was split between two guides to keep group sizes manageable and participants safe.

Arriving at the height of summer (both Vancouver and Calgary hit 30 degrees Celsius that week) we greatly under-estimated the bone-chilling cold of the Rockies, even in July. I showed up in a flimsy windbreaker, jeans, light walking shoes, and my wife wasn't any better equipped. Luckily all necessary clothing and equipment were provided by our guides, including 3-in-1 waterproof jackets, waterproof pants, waterproof hiking boots of various sizes, fleece toques and gloves, but most importantly, crampons to provide traction on the ice surface.

The 300 metres or so of elevation that we gained in our 3 hour hike was much slower than I anticipated, not because of any extraordinary physical demands or steepness of grade, but because of the slipperiness of the surface. As we zigzagged our way up the glacier, every step was taken with the apprehensiveness of treading through an enormous uphill skating rink with winding creeks and bottomless abysses.

The 6km long Athabasca is only one of the many glaciers flowing out from the 300km2 Columbia Icefield, situated on top of the continental divide of the North American continent. The icefield is claimed to be one of the hydrological apexes of the North American continent, meaning that ... and I did NOT personally attempt this ... if you take a piss at the top of the icefield, your fluid would possibly split and drain into the Pacific Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, and the Hudson Bay.

At the midpoint of our hike we came across one of the metal poles pounded vertically into the ice sheet by scientists to measure the movement and health of the glacier. At the beginning of the tour we learned that the glacier had already retreated 1.5km over the past century, but it was only a trivial piece of statistics ... until we witnessed the evidence first hand. A thickness of 3 metres had already melted between April and our visit in July, and even more would dissipate before the start of winter.

That's the cold reality facing every visitor in this age of global warming. The Athabasca Glacier is currently retreating at a rate of 10 metres per year and accelerating. Some alarmists even go as far as predicting its complete disappearance within the next century, though not every scientist agrees. The only thing we know for certain is that by the time of our next visit, whether it will be next year or after several decades, the mighty glacier will be a smaller remnant of its current self.

Visiting the Athabasca Glacier was one of those rare, deeply haunting experiences for me as a traveler. Do I absolutely need to take long flights to faraway destinations every year? What will be my own carbon footprint in my lifetime, and how much of that will contribute to glaciation shrinkage in the Rockies, the submersion of the Maldives, or the breakup of the Bering Sea ice packs?

These questions are too heavy for a lazy midsummer roadtrip, yet it pains me as a Canadian that one of our great natural treasures may not even last the entire 21st century. I seriously debated whether I should even promote the Athabasca Glacier as a tourist destination here, but arrived at the conclusion of yes -- if only to heighten each visitor's awareness of his or her own carbon footprint. Perhaps our glacier will breath just a little easier with each carpool trip we take, until we as a human race can find a solution to global warming.