Sunday 30 September

Street scene with the full moon shining
 through the trees

Friday was the last day of teaching for a week, while the college, students and most of China have a week's holiday for the Mid-Autumn Moon festival.

Since ancient times, there have been many legends about the moon in China. For the Chinese, the moon is symbolized as being holy, pure, and noble. Over tens of thousands of poems describing the moon have been recorded.

Mooncakes
Photo: Miss Tam Chiak

The moon's round shape also corresponds to the cyclic concepts of Taoism, like the eight diagrams. That's why Chinese people are fixated on the moon and view round shapes as representing perfection.

Fancy some bean soup or
spicy deep fried crabs?

The college and surrounds are now like a ghost town, but the town is jumping. This is one of the two biggest Chinese festivals, the other being the spring New Year festival. These are times that Chinese families get together - and among other things, eat.

The all singing, all dancing kebab stall

I think that there here are a couple of very strong similarities between the traditional Chinese and Italian cultures – the importance of family and food.

It appears to me that the Chinese penchant for the huge variety of noodles and dumplings is rivalled only by that of Italians  pastas and sauces.

On the way, we passed a small street fair and a number of specialist food stalls, including one with two guys selling kebabs while dancing to unbelievably loud dance music.

Dumpling restaurant

Xue busily texting during dinner

For example , tonight I went into town with Xue Gong Ling , a student from Wenzhou I met while practicing tai chi in the park.

He is staying in college during the break because of the distance from his home town, and he invited me to dinner at his favourite dumpling restaurant.

We went into a part of Quzhou that I hadn’t been to before, near the main mall and went in to the restaurant. It was very simple and quite plain with a very limited menu – a few choices of dumplings and soups. He ordered some pork and some shrimp dumplings, and a light soup with very thin flat noodles and bok choy which was simple but good.

Dumplings and the dipping vinegar

Xue had a sort of fruit jelly dish. The dumplings were something else. They have to be eaten carefully, as they contain a scalding broth along with the filling.

Bite taken out of dumpling to release
steam

The idea is to bite off a small piece and let the steam escape and then eat it carefully without spilling it on yourself. I’m not sure how they make them with the liquid inside, but they do it somehow. This is very similar to what is commonly known as "Shanghai Dumplings".

Anyway it was a great night out, and another insight into Chinese culture in the area.

Saturday 29 September

The central gateway

The Beimen Street project

This entry is one in a series of small vignettes of Quzhou life and culture.

One of the more interesting areas is the Beimen Street district close to the centre of the city.

Although encompassing only a few blocks, it has many historical buildings, some of which were restored by the Quzhou Municapal Trade Association of the Building Industry as a special project  in 2009.

The sign in the photograph describes the project  in detail.

Cobblestone streets

Street sculptures of traditional life
and the timber buildings

To find out what it said, I set its translation as a  exercise for my 3rd year writing class, so now I now have quite a good translation – thanks to the students.

This area reflects the development of the early Qing Dynasty and the history of the early republic. The narrow streets, gateway and buildings reflect the architecture of the period.

It’s probably one of the few tourist attractions here. I was about to give up on finding any  tourist office or information centre where you can find information about the city, or even a map.

Street scene with modern
buildings in the background

A timber-fronted building

The northern gateway

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While searching on the internet,  I found the name of a Quzhou tourist  information centre and contacted them. When I called, a pleasant lady answered who spoke some English and invited me to their offices.

It was only a short taxi ride from the college on the same side of the river so off I went.

The office was the marketing section of  Quzhou tourism, and it provided a range of information – all in Chinese. They were very friendly and helpful ,though providing me with publications and a map, the first I’ve seen so far, but all in Chinese. However, they will be useful to help me identify interesting places to visit in the region. While there, I learned that this province was the home Mao Tse Tung and one of the homes of Confucius. More on them later.

Wednesday 26 September - A

The delegates and Party Sectretary
(green jacket) making dumplings

Dumpling making

Today was the first day of a 5-day visit from a delegation from a sister college in Red Wing, Minnesota.

They are visiting with a view to signing a cooperation agreement with Quzhou college.

The day was filled with events, not the least of which was to be a sumptuous lunch.

The activities began with dumpling-making (jiaozi), not to be confused with buns (baozi) in one of the rooms in the upper level of the canteen.

Me with some of my students during
the dumpling making session

Along with a group of 3rd year students we were shown how to roll the dough into small circles, fill them with a minced pork and scallion mixture, and fold them into shape. A lot easier said than done, but it was great fun.

A number of different and interesting shapes emerged during the process, and of course I showed them how to fold them into Italian capelletti (small hat shapes like tortellini). These were to be eaten for lunch.

I found that each level of the cafeteria is rented to different managers to maintain competition in both quality and price – a pretty successful strategy.

The servery at the 1st floor canteen
just before lunch

The manager of the cafeteria on the 2nd floor had brought in a chef from a restaurant in a hotel that he owns in the city. This meal demonstrated his skills, not only in cooking, but also in the presentation.

The accompanying photo of the cafeteria servery just before lunch shows the effort made to provide and present quality food for students and staff.

About halfway through our meal

A short while, later about a  14 of us (delegates, staff and 2 students) were ushered into a very elegant dining room for lunch. 

There was a huge round table and a massive lazy-susan in the centre. In addition to green tea, hot water and soy milk we had a selection of soft drinks Harbin beer (quite light in flavour) and a South Australian Merlot – very nice.

Cold sliced roast beef

Then the food started arriving. I will try a far as possible to list the dishes as they arrived, each one a few minutes after the other: Cold sliced roast beef, preserved fish, bean curd and egg wrapped in cucumber, roast chicken, deep fried sliced pork with spring rolls, a most delicious BBQ beef in rice crackers with possibly a Hoisin sauce, sweet and sour fish with chips (yes fish ‘n’ chips), a dish of braised prawns (closest thing to ‘traditional’ Chinese food in Australia) and battered prawns with caviar on a crisp & leaf, hamburgers (buns filled with a minced beef pattie), crab with egg (both in the shells and in the centre done differently), a cooked lotus root dish, eggs wrapped in foil and baked salt, a fish ball soup, a chicken soup,  a plate of braised seafood and celery with plum jam sandwiches, fried mushroom slices with braised asparagus (asparagus is thin and about 40cm long here), cooked lettuce (braised in a broth with garlic), and a dish of cooked yam covered with sweet sauce made with flowers. AND of course dumplings – steamed, fried and in a broth.

Its traditional for Chinese to show their generosity by the number of dishes served, and this one had to be near the limit. There was no way that all of this food could be eaten by the group, so I hope the staff enjoyed the remainder.

You can feast on some of the photos below.

Bean curd and egg wrapped in cucumber

Baked chicken

Spring rolls and deep fried sliced pork

Preserved fish

Hamburgers

Sweet and sour fish with chips

Battered prawns with caviar and
braised prawns

Fried mushroom slices with braised
asparagus

Crab with egg

BBQ beef in rice crackers

Cooked yam covered with
sweet sauce made with
osmanthus flowers

Braised seafood and celery with
plum jam sandwiches

You can imagine what it was like trying to take these photos with such delicious-looking food and a group of ravenous people eager to eat it.

Wednesday 26 September - B

The library atrium

The Red Wing delegation watching 

student activities

This entry is the continuation of the day’s visit by the delegation from Red Wing College, Minnesota.

In the afternoon there were a number of  organised activities for the students to demonstrate some of their skills and talents.

This was held in the library which has a large atrium and lots of natural light filling the building.

The activities included calligraphy, stocking flower-making (a Japanese tradition) and traditional Chinese watercolour painting – each delegate was presented with a bouquet of these flowers and a painting.

The tea-making ceremony

Stocking flower-making

There was also a demonstration of traditional tea-making by the Tea Art Society, a group of students who practice this art.

They use ‘pu-erh’ tea, a locally grown and processed tea, similar to oolong or black tea.

The ceremony involves washing and heating the cups with boiling water, and pre-washing the tea. Boiling water is poured over the tea and then poured off and discarded. The pot is then refilled with boiling water and the tea poured and served… and it was very nice.

The singers and dancers

Photos with the 3rd year
class monitors

Finally there was a singing and dance (as in break dancing) performance by some of the students.

It could have bee a bit cheesy, however the students were really enthusiastic and genuinely proud of showing off these aspects of Chinese culture.

Friday 21 September

Gan Su Restaurant with the outside
noodle boilers where I had dinner 

The noodle-maker drawing
noodles by hand

Things are settling into a bit of a routine now, and I taught the First Year classes for the first time today – they have had orientation for the last 2 weeks.

I am now teaching 5 days a week, 18 periods to 7 different classes. With the amount of class preparation required, and using 3 different textbooks, there is not a lot of spare time.

However the food adventure continues. I have been exploring some of the local restaurants and food stalls adjacent to the college. The evenings are full of the smells of cooking food and students carrying packages back to the dormitories.

The noodle-maker shaving
dough straight into the pot of
boiling water on the outside
of the restaurant

I have become a regular visitor to the Gan Su (near Xin Jian, western China) restaurant with the outside noodle boilers where I had dinner last week. This is mainly because they have photos of the dishes on the wall which I can point to – and of course their meals are great.

The very popular Kao Bin stall

There is one street food stall where they bake a flat bread (Kao Bin) in a type of tandoori oven. The soft wet pancake is stuck to the inside of the oven by hand,  and pulled off with long metal tongs when cooked a few minutes later.

They are very thin, and filled with a mixture of minced pork, a black preserverd vegetable, chilli, and dusted with chopped scallions (what we call echalottes or green onions). Because they are baked, they use very little oil and taste fantastic. It’s very popular and there is always a crowd waiting. Each one costs 2 Yuan, about 30c.

The cafeterias (both levels) continue to serve interesting meals. Although some I still haven’t attempted, like the mini snails, there are others which have been great.

It’s a bit like a lottery every day – you go and literally take pot luck. The other evening they had delicious small curried chicken kebabs (about 5 cm long) on a bed of steamed soya beans and a tasty shredded vegetable salad in a Vietnamese style (unfortunately including cucumber & corriander, two of my least favourite vegetables!).

Another selection from the breakfast
menu

The inside of the sesame ball

And the breakfasts. In this part of China the traditional breakfast is dumplings and they have an immense variety each day, not just dumplings, but other things made with dough such as pancakes and ‘pockets’. 

The photo shows another selection I picked up the other day – enough for breakfast and lunch.  They were: a scallion pancake, slice of a type of pizza, a wrap with potato noodles & vegetables inside, 3 mini baked dumplings with minced pork , a steamed pork dumpling and a sweet, deep-fried sesame ball. The sesame ball was made of a sweet clear glutinous dough (possibly rice flour) and sprinkled inside with some black stuff that I could not identify. Looked scary but tasted OK.

Sunday 16 September

Last night (Saturday) was an interesting night. I was invited by one of my students to go out with him and some friends for ‘dinner’.

This apparently was not a common occurrence and so I was a bit keen to go, and apprehensive at what the night would be like. I was told that we would go by taxi, and was a little surprised that we went straight into the middle of town.

The foyer and hostesses at KTV

 After some confusion about the location of the venue (it was new, and no-one had been there before) we made our way up to the 4th floor, into a foyer lined with white marble, blue lighting and hostesses.

After a short time spent waiting for some others to arrive, we were ushered into a small room with a u-shaped lounge, a LCD screen and a control panel. It was KTV! (Karaoke TV).

The group with my 3 friends at left:
Gong Ling Xue, Ada and Xu Liang

Shortly afterwards a hostess arrived with about 2 dozen stubbies of beer, some crisps and a couple of small plates of snacks, which she placed in a low table and then left. No dinner, we were going to sing! This not being exactly what I expected, and being quite hungry, I had my fair share (or a little more) of the snacks.

Selecting music at the control panel

I was a little relieved when the singing started and I realised that a quality voice was not a requirement – although some could sing, at least in the early stages. Around this time I sent a voice message to Frances about what was happening who replied “Don’t embarrass yourself!” As if!

Singing along

Anyway, I was pressed into singing a couple of the few English songs that were in the machine, and I must admit I also did some body movements and arm actions, but all very tastefully. The evening wore on, with people coming and going, beers quickly warming up to room temperature, and lots of general good humour.

Our taxi group. I'm the one on the left with
Xu Liang, Ada and Gong Ling Xue

I actually spent a lot of time trying to talk to various people in the group who wanted to know about me and Australia – particularly why the heck I was there!

However the music was very loud which made it quite difficult. After about 2 and a half hours, with the volume  of music and singing now up to the max, I decided it was time to go. The three students who accompanied me in also decided to leave, and so we all headed back to college together.

It was actually a great night and I was very grateful to them for being treated to a night out  in this way.