Shenzhen Metro

This post is about Shenzhen’s Metro (subway).  It's China's 7th subway system.  The Metro is great.  Reasonably priced, very clean, ultra efficient, almost always on time, lots of stops (more always being built), no smoking, very modern, stops listed and spoken in both Mandarin & English, lots of cars/carriages, etc.  The nearest subway stops near my apartment are about 10 minutes away via a bus.  I have an electronic tong card which is great.  I can use it for both the buses and subway.  It’s refillable though you do have to pay a deposit for some reason to buy the card the first time.  You just swipe the tong card when entering and exiting stations.  The subway is mainly underground but there are parts where it’s above ground too.  It’s been open since ’04 and now has 5 lines.  Each of the 5 lines intersect all the other 4 lines at least once.  One of the down sides of the Metro is that they close fairly early; usually 11-12p.  A lot of buses stop early for that matter as well.  And as you can see from the pics below, sometimes the Metro is very crowded, other times not so much.  But it's usually more crowded than not, that's for sure.

Coco Park

The below pics are of Coco Park in the central business district of Shenzhen.  It’s about 45 minutes from my apartment.  Lots of expats and college kids hang out here.  One of the few places with lots of centralized western amenities and bars.  It’s a modern shopping complex right near a subway station.  It’s built partially above as well as below ground with a large open area in the center.  You can shop for clothes, stay at a hotel, go to the supermarket or go to the bars among other things.  There is a fairly good Indian restaurant here and the bar area gets crowded on weekends.  I have not been here a lot but the last time I went they had 2 for 1 beers for happy hour which was not bad.  Beers/drinks are expensive in China at western bars so 2 for 1 is not bad.  If I recall, I got Carlsberg, which I think was the cheapest draft they had.  Just like the States, I prefer my beer via draft if at all possible.

Yitian Holiday Plaza (Mall)

This is a quick blog just show you how modern China can be.  These are pics of a mall near my apartment that is attached to a subway station that I use often.  The mall is very large, clean, & ultra-modern.  There are many famous international brands.  There are also small shops, restaurants, cinema, and a supermarket.  There’s an ice rink inside, though I have not used it.  Pretty cool.  Also attached to the mall is an office building as well as a hotel.

Kingway Beer Garden

Bars/taverns are not common in China and when you do see them, they’re in the touristy areas and are very expensive.  But what China does have are ‘beer gardens’ which are basically large open-air, outdoor seating areas where the beer is served pitcher-style and the food is family-style and/or via skewers.  I live in the northern district of Nanshan and a beer garden I frequent is located in the district of Bao’an.  Bao’an alone has over 5 million people so you can get a feel of how large Shenzhen is.  The name of this beer garden is the Bao’an Kingway Beer Garden.  It’s around 35 minutes from my apartment.  Kingway is the local beer brewer and in fact, one of their breweries is right next door to the garden.  So at least you know the beer ought to be fresh!  As a side note, I’m actually going here tonight.  People usually play dice games on the tables (the dice are provided by the staff).  Sometimes there’s music or they show sports on the big screen.  But the main reasons I come here are twofold: one, it's cheap.  And two, I come for the bean curd skins.  They are bar-none my favorite food since I’ve been in China and this place serves them the best.  The spices on them are out-of-this-world (especially if you like garlic).  They are so delicious and so tasty.  I could eat these for breakfast, lunch, & dinner, they're that good.  By the way, the pics look empty as we had just gotten there when they opened.  They open around 4pm I think.  But beer gardens get busy as the night goes on, any day of the week.

Also, as you can see below, in addition to the bean curd skin, Laila and I ordered green bean and potato skewers too.  They are good as well.

Rice Noodle Dish

This past weekend I made another fairly good vegetarian dish.  I bought a few fresh rice noodle sheets (that I just easily tore into strips with my hands) at a local grocery store as well as some broccoli and tofu.  A couple of weeks ago my Chinese contact teacher took Laila and I to a Buddhist vegetarian restaurant with my fellow Chinese English teachers (the restaurant was really good by the way).  The restaurant also had a very small little grocery area where I bought pre-packaged vegetarian diced beef (I also bought fake ribs that I'll cook another day).  I added the beef, broccoli, tofu, & noodles to my wok.  I also added sesame seeds, onion powder, black pepper, garlic, chili garlic sauce, ma po tofu seasoning, oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, & sugar.  I cooked & mixed everything in my work for a few minutes after I had steamed the broccoli for a few minutes beforehand to get it slightly cooked as the broccoli takes longer to cook than the other ingredients.  It came out good.  I love these large white rice noodles.  They're great.  Was very tasty.  The vegetarian beef was good but not great.  It was already pre-seasoned and I probably would rather it not been.  I would have liked to have it absorb my own seasoning (which it still did).  But still good nonetheless.  Came out tasty...as did the leftovers the next day...

Tutoring

I have started tutoring English to the below children (Ellen & Jack) once a week for an hour.  I got this lead from a friend of mine in the same program.  I just started.  The mother wanted to do like an hour and a half or two hours.  I told her no way.  It's hard enough to keep them focused and on task for an hour.  She also wanted to pay me once a month.  I said no way to that too.  I insisted on being paid once a week immediately after the tutoring (that's how it's usually done anyway).  She agreed.  I make up my own lesson plans for my school classes but she really wanted me to be using English language books.  So she bought them (and bought me a teacher's edition) and I'll start using that this week in fact.  I tutor in their living room in a high rise that's not far from my apt (~ a half hr).  It's nice to have the extra cash and I charge a pretty good fee compared to my peers.  For the past several years I have been negotiating bodily injury (some severe - including deaths) claims with attorneys, so let's just say negotiating money with Chinese mothers is not hard for me.  But as I said before, the extra cash is nice.  I went out of town this weekend and last week's tutoring basically paid for the trip, so it's nice to have.  Ellen & Jack are good students.  Their English is OK for their grade level (I think Grade 1 or 2).  They just get a little rambunctious near the end.  I'm surprised I even got them to sit near the end for this shot...

 

This is an update….

The family that I tutor has just moved to Hongshuwan which is a nice neighborhood.   It’s about 30 min from my apartment.  They live in one of the hi-rises in pic two below.  I tutored them yesterday (another student has been added to this group which now makes it three) and afterwards, the parents invited me to a home-cooked Chinese vegetarian meal which was nice of them.  As usual, it was delicious.  I bought and brought over some cranberry bread/pastry things I got at a Western supermarket as a token of my appreciation.  But it’s sometimes the Chinese custom not to open gifts in front of the presenter until they leave.  So not sure if they ate or liked them.  But they asked me a lot of questions about America and what I thought about China.  I did mention to them that it was indeed a very big holiday today in America (Thanksgiving).  I mentioned it’s a very big holiday and that a lot of people have off from work and that there is no school.  I also mentioned the holiday encompasses lots of food, family, & football.  When I left, they gave me a large tin of Chinese tea made by Huang Shan Mao Feng.  It’s one of the most famous green teas in China.  I thanked them for it and they said it was their Thanksgiving gift to me since it was Thanksgiving Day and I was spending it with them.  Very nice these Chinese people…

The Peak

The next day, after the races the previous night, I went sightseeing before I had to head back that evening to China to teach the next day. 

I decided to go to The Peak, Hong Kong’s most popular attraction (it’s also on some of their $20 bank notes - as a side note, Hong Kong has best looking bank notes I have ever seen - so detailed & colorful).  But before I went, I decided to get an early lunch.  The Peak is located in the Central, downtown area and I went to a place nearby called Ebeneezers and got a falafel sandwich.  A falafel sandwich is probably my favorite sandwich and I hadn’t had one since my arrival to China, so I bought one.  It was very good.

The Peak has a funicular tram which carries both tourists as well as residents to the upper levels of Hong Kong Island.  It runs from the Central district to Victoria Peak.  The Peak has stunning views of Hong Kong’s skyscrapers and harbor and also has shops and restaurants.  To get to the Peak, the popular way to go is via the Peak Tram (which dates back to 1888).  You take the tram to the top of the mountain.  The tram can stop at intervals to let off residents who live on the mountainside.  The tram rises 1,300 feet above sea-level.  It is very steep and it feels like the buildings you pass are leaning.    At the top is the wok-shaped Peak Tower which was renovated a few years ago and is splendid.  There are also other buildings around it as well.  The Tower consists of many levels and has restaurants and shops in addition to its terrace on the top with 360-degree views.  There is also a mall next to the The Tower where I bought a book. 

After a few hours at The Peak, I went back downtown to hang out for a little while before leaving for China.  Right near The Peak terminus is St. John’s Cathedral, the oldest Anglican Church in the Far East (dates back to 1849).  I walked by and took some photos of the outside though the Church was hard to photograph as it was located in a very tight space and I couldn’t get a panorama view.  But the Church is incredible clean and very nice. 

I stopped for a few drinks and a snack downtown and then headed back to China.  I had to teach the next day, Saturday.  Ugh!!!  You see in China, the government forces you (students & teachers) to go back to school (even on weekends) after long holidays (they feel students need to make up the time off) which is hard to understand as I feel it kind of defeats having off in the first place.  So I would have to teach seven days in a row (Sat-->Fri)…