Asia Trip Day 5: 1,000 Buddhas (12/23/17)

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For breakfast, the hotel had a buffet. Naturally, they had a variety of Chinese dishes, like vegetables, buns, and tofu. They had a station where they cooked up daan daan mein fresh. They also had the generic breakfast items like eggs, sausage, fruit, and coffee.


Afterwards, we walked around the hotel for a little bit. They had a table where you can use the special zodiac stamps. I was instructed how to coat the stamp with ink, and to lay the paper carefully over it and apply pressure. It took a lot of precision since sliding the paper or applying too much pressure would


We walked outside to a nearby bridge. The fog in the morning was very thick, making it impossible to see beyond ~100 ft. I think the air quality in China is generally more poor than other places, and there is a general smog anytime. However I'v read that China has reformed to become more environmentally conscious in recent days, and they've made changes and plans to drastically reduced their carbon emission.


For lunch, we returned back the restaurant where her grandfather reserved a table and had ordered many dishes. It was considered an early Spring Festival celebration, and it is tradition to eat lamb soup. Other dishes were roast duck, pork belly, pea shoots, and chili chicken.



They then took us to mountainside that had hundreds of carvings and statues in the walls, the reason why it is called the 1,000 Buddhas. The level of detail on each one was very impressive, as well as the fact that it was all carved in the mountain directly. There were some carvings that were really high or really large. Unfortunately there were some damaged pieces caused by theft. After then drove back to her parent's house.

My backpack was tearing a little bit, so I got it patched up for like $2

Noodles (left), red lotus roots (center), and Ma Po tofu (right)
Xuezhu and I then met with her cousin (the same as before) at a restaurant that her mom had a gift-card  for. It was a fancier, sit-down restaurant on the 3rd floor of some hotel-like building. They had the transparent, thick noodles that my mom would make for Chinese New Year that I liked. The seasoning was different and it was topped with bonito flakes, but its was good. I also ordered Ma Po Tofu to try the authentic version of the dish, however I found the black bean to be too strong and didn't like it too much. Despite the apparent higher-class, the service was really bad (no refills, they left food on a counter behind us instead of actually serving it, they forgot an order). Overall, I didn't like that place at all. Perhaps they were busier with other tables (there were private rooms for parties) or because there wasn't any tip incentive. 

Meanwhile, in Boston...



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