We flew to Shanghai on February 4.
We spent a couple of weeks in Shanghai over the course of Chinese New Year. WW was sick for the last few days in Taipei and continued being sick for her first few days in Shanghai – and Chinese New Year is a time of year where basically everyone leaves the metropolis of Shanghai to return to their hometowns, and everything was closed, so our time in Shanghai was pretty chill and focused on family (and food).
WW’s parents joined us for a week over Chinese New Year and we had a full house in WW’s childhood home! There was a lot of whirlwind cooking in the kitchen, and decorating the house with festive paper cuttings and calligraphy.
We went to check out the flower market and saw lots of decorations. It felt a bit like Christmas.
Look at all the incredible food that WW’s mom, Ivy, and Seb worked on for days!!
WW – being back in Shanghai was pretty weird. I’d been back before, but it’s still been 10 years since I lived there. It feels like the structure of Shanghai is still the same, but everything else about it has changed. I felt like a stranger, not knowing what to do or where to go, and it made me a little bit sad! It’s great that my sister still lives there which gives me a reason to visit, but otherwise, as an international place, the community can be transient and none of my friends live there anymore.
On February 21st, we took the high speed rail to Wuhan!
Ivy had recommended it as the “City of Breakfast”, and you know we love to eat, so we were excited to go experience one facet of China’s incredibly varied food culture!
When we arrived in Wuhan, a giant snowstorm hit the city. Watching people attempt to clear snowy sidewalks from our hotel room in the morning, it became abundantly clear that Wuhan doesn’t deal with snow pretty much… ever. We saw crowds of people shovelling snow with garden shovels, brooms, and even a street sign (much more effective than the garden shovels). As we explored the city we encountered entire neon-vested teams dispatched to chip away ice from the sidewalk, which mystified us Canadians (why not just put gravel on it ???). Ubiquitous fleets of deliverymen on scooters were still present but barely maintaining forward velocity as they fishtailed through snow and slush, both feet on the ground, Flintstone-ing their way forward.
Needless to say, it was a unique time to visit Wuhan!
Snow!!!!!!!!
A shenjianbao vendor bravely continuing despite the chilly temperatures (and we were grateful because these were soooo good).
Frankly, the inclement weather made our food experience better as we were able to grab food at places that normally had long lines without having to wait at all. Some of the things we tried:
- some incredible 生煎包 shengjianbao from 阿宝生煎 (we’d had shengjianbao in Shanghai but these were smaller and came with a delicious spicy sauce on top)
- 麻辣小龙包 mala xiaolongbao which were soup dumplings but filled with Sichuan-peppercorn spiced soup that was numb-spicy and so delicious
- 面窝 mianwo which are hard to describe but they’re kind of like batter that’s fried on a big spoon that gives them a donut-like shape?
- 热干面 reganmian was a breakfast classic and every place had their own take on it, but it’s essentially spicy sesame noodles with tons of aromatics. We witnessed many people eating steaming bowls of these while walking down the street.
- 油饼包烧麦 youbingbaoshaomai was a fried dough that was then split open and filled with Wuhan-style 重油烧麦 “heavy oil” shaomai. It was carbs stuffed into carbs and we were into it.
We headed to Xi’an for a few days too
We stayed near the Bell Tower which was quite central to Xi’an, but also more importantly was very close to the Muslim Quarter, one of the biggest night market streets we had ever seen!
We also ate a ton in Xi’an but also managed to get out of the city to see the Terracotta Warriors, a must-do when you’re there.
These streets were never ending……
A classic Xi’an dish called 羊肉泡馍 which is essentially torn-up bread in lamb soup. It was much better than it sounds.
WW with her giant bowl of 裤带面 belt noodles
肉夹馍 roujiamuo is basically a meat sandwich. We ate a lot of these. These one was filled with hamhock and had quite the line.
In Xi’an we had so much amazing food. But here are some of our favourites:
- 羊肉串 lamb skewers with cumin and chili
- 肉夹馍 roujiamuo of sooooo many types: hamhock, cumin lamb with vegetables, cumin lamb skewer filled, and regular beef
- 羊肉泡馍 yangroupaomo – a torn bread soup
- roasted spicy potatoes
- pomegranate juice
- 擀面皮 ganmianpi super chewy noodles made from wheat gluten!
Finally we spent 4 days in Beijing!
Our last stop on our China tour was Beijing, where we started to slow down a bit after the craziness that was Wuhan and Xi’an. Turns out, Beijing is a lovely city to relax in. Jonny was particularly surprised to find that it is not some ultra-modern mega metropolis with huge skyscrapers, but rather a sprawling city filled with (relatively short) old neighbourhoods full of history and culture.
We opted to skip some of the major tourist destinations, although we got a lovely view of the Forbidden City from a nearby park. Although, of course we had to designate a day to go visit the Great Wall!
We had to get Peking Duck while in Beijing!
We spent a lot of our time exploring the Hutongs (a very densely packed style of street/neighbourhood that was prevalent in the Ming Dynasty – around 15th century).
No trip to Beijing is complete without a visit to the Great Wall!
We spend a day walking around the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. It is one of the more heavily restored sections, but it is quite stunning nonetheless!
Jonny attempting to use the camera to indicate the winding sections of wall that are visible in the distance and how they connect to the closer sections. Might need to fullscreen this one!
Turns out there are a ton of cats on the Wall!
For more photos, check out this post. After this, we’re off to Tokyo!
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Aw man the food looks so good!! Also Peking duck, miam 😁
Great photos! I have to go back to see all your adventures so far! Looks like you are having a great time
Wow! What a selection of food! I laughed at the snow bit in Wuhan.