A few photos from my most recent visit to China.

[Rick Lee]

This was my fifth trip there, and I stayed in and around Nanjing the whole time. So nothing really new. But still great and I can't stop thinking about my best meal - a $3 bowl of soup in a dingy alley in Zhenjiang, where I sat on a plastic stool at a cheapo folding card table. This was truly one of the best meals of my life - and I've had some good ones. We had gone to the Pearl S. Buck Museum and asked a security guard for a recommendation. What a great man that security guard was!



Random street scenery in Huai'an.





I love the irony of this library and its most prominent book:





Mike Rowe would be proud of the accountability.



More to come.

[PorscheGAL]

Love these! Thanks for the share.

What time of day is the street pic from? I just ask because there are lots of mopeds and cars but no pedestrians.

[ckelly78z]

[QUOTE=Rick Lee;10689754]

QUOTE]

Now that looks delicious even at 5 in the morning.

[zelrik911]

Whats in the soup? - or shouldn't I ask (tripe??) !

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by PorscheGAL

Love these! Thanks for the share.

What time of day is the street pic from? I just ask because there are lots of mopeds and cars but no pedestrians.

That was lunch time in Huai'an, former home of Zhou Enlai. There was a lot of car traffic, but that photo is kind of far from the main road.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by zelrik911

Whats in the soup? - or shouldn't I ask (tripe??) !

No tripe. It was shredded pork, noodles, cilantro, spring onions, some other secret stuff I didn't recognize and I put a spoonful of chili sauce in there to spice it up a little. The breadsticks were amazing and piping hot fresh.

[ckissick]

The best soup I ever had was a bowl of prawn soup in an old Mexican lady's backyard in Mulege, on the Baja peninsula. It cost a couple bucks.

[javadog]

That street looks like a ghost town. Where’d they hide all the people?

[TimT]

You can get some remarkable food in the unlikeliest places when in China...

My wife and stepson and I downing some noods... in Hefei, Anhui Province..

At the airport.. hand pulled noodles...
And check out the table and chairs.. rattan? Bamboo?



Was ircc a rich broth noodle, oxtail, bok choy etc..

[Jims5543]

I have that opinion anywhere in the world. Look for the little local joints to eat at, the ones away from it all that the locals frequent.

We recently did a weekend long road trip in Florida, while on the road trip we had 2 rules.

All back 2 lane roads and we had to find local joints, off the beaten path to eat at. Every meal was a delight.

We did the same in Ireland, we tried to stay off the beaten path and find local joints to eat, same results.

Same went for St. Lucia when we were there, a local gave us a list of local joints to hit up, never disappointed, we were intrigued by the different interpretations of Roti which is a local dish there.

Rick keep the pics coming man!! I love these kinds of threads. I find this fascinating. Thank you for sharing with us.

[Rick Lee]

Here's where the in-laws live.


This city just goes on forever. 8.5 million and I think they all live in these types of buildings that go on for as far as the eye can see. Then there are the suburbs, which also have 3-4 million people and then those suburbs have their own sub-suburbs with 1 million plus populations.

Great steamed buns with pineapple custard filling.


The calligraphy room at the in-laws' weekend getaway apt. complex.


Off with their heads!


Play-Dough sushi


Is this really problem at the Pearl S. Buck Museum that they need a sign banning firecrackers?

[Jims5543]

I like your style, I take pics like you. I have my share of family pics but I also like to take pics of what I am seeing around me, sometimes I will catch myself in a moment and then realize hell, grab a pic of what I am looking at in marvel.

My wife thinks it is a waste of time, since the pic has no one in it it cannot be a good memorable picture.

I am loving seeing the apartments on that street, it is fascinating to see how people live there.

Question, is that a guard gate to get on that street?

[VincentVega]

Great stuff RL, thanks for sharing

I'm dense, the thing resting on top of the bowl in the first pic is bread? fried dough?

[Rick Lee]

It's half a breadstick. They're normally twice as wide. I was just so wrapped up in eating, I had forgotten to take a photo. Mrs. Lee and her folks got a lot more photos than I did. I need to get them from her.

[Rick Lee]

Mrs. Lee and her mom view the world through a cell phone camera, which drives me crazy. The selfie stick makes me want to kill small animals. But once in a while they get a few good shots.

Mrs. Lee and the MIL.


These archery stands are pretty common there.


Some commie propaganda BS.


Not my thing, but they love eating crabs.


Looking at knives.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by Jims5543

Question, is that a guard gate to get on that street?

Oh yeah. Everything there is gated, just everything. It's kind of a pain in the ass. I don't get how they're so strict on this stuff, but you can walk through a metal detector, it chirps and you don't get stopped, and traffic laws and etiquette are just totally ignored. I don't get it.

[Rick Lee]

This is from a previous trip, but it's a great street snack. It's a tortilla with pickled seaweed, chili paste, cilantro and an egg. It was about $.30 the first time I was there and around $1 this time. But a great snack, always a line for these.

[tabs]

[QUOTE=ckelly78z;10689788]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

g.

Looks like the worms i would dump after eating a bowl of tasty Chinese soup.

[look 171]

We spend 4 weeks in China before moving on to other countries this summer. Man, that heat kick our asses. Food was great, but by the time we worked our way to Xi'an, the old capital and the start of the silk road, the food was just too spicy. One or two meals were fine (wife and kids do not do spicy) but day after day kick my ass too, just like the local food at Guilin, spicy as hell.

We had local private English speaking guides meet us at train stations and airports to take us around. They were damn good. Our xi'an guide suggest we go to the Muslim quarter and eat there for the experience. We stuck out like sore thumbs because there were no tourist but locals. Wow, I have never seen a Chinese man dressed with traditional Muslim attire, beard and all cooking on the sidewalk in front of his little shop. My wife decided upon this shop because it looked to be the cleanest, to have dinner. I spoke with my hands and was able to communicate with the owner that we don't eat spicy. We settled on his recommendation and the fish dish was damn good. The four of us walked out of there with our bellies busting. It was $20 US.

Got on a river cruise down the Yangtze to see the three gorges and the big old dam. That lock was freaking huge. My wife screwed up when she booked the attractions and I really wanted to see Chang-Kai Shek's home in Chongqing. The guide made it happened and to top it off, he's a history major and a real war history buff. My poor wife and kids were bored as hell that day, but I was goooood. Also visited General Stillwell's museum, the only museum for an American in all or China.

Too much to list or talk about on this one.

Rick, traffic signs are just a suggestion and there's no getting in line for anything. When we got to Hong Kong, it was a relief because we can communicate with people again. The attitude of the general public was huge and they all stop at red lights. People were very polite unlike China. I discovered in China, people are super nice once you get talking with them. They just don't talk to strangers at all, no too much. I did have a couple young men come up to me asking where we were from and wanted to shake my hand and try their English.

[look 171]