Day Treasures of Weifang

Please note and appreciate the China-translation inspired post title. 

I tend to focus my bloggin' on adventures like weekend trips and find street markets and themes like food and fashion trends like The Chinese Roll Up. I was scrolling through my photos (as one does when they are avoiding work like learning trigonometry to teach to grade 10s or making a powerpoint on literary terms) and I realized that I have been somewhat overlooking the "banalities" of everyday life in my new home, Weifang. So, here I present you with some of the gems of daily life in Weifang. (Please note and appreciate the China translation inspired post title.)

This is Dora. Dora is essentially the greatest. She organizes all the administrative stuff at school, rents our apartments, calls our landlords, gets us cell phones/internet/residency permits... you name it, you ask Dora, it's done. I actually think that our school would fall to pieces without her. This is one of our first Dora adventures. We needed SIM cards. She took us to this lady in the white cap. The lady looked around and then pulled out this giant strip of SIM cards. Just as quickly, she tucked them back into her purse when the police rolled by. This is the type of local know-how that makes Dora amazing. Also, she's super sweet and kind. 

 Tai Hua is the downtown area of Weifang. Or, it's a shopping mall. All I know is that when I get into a cab and say Tai Hua, it takes me to this area. It's along the river and it's a pretty classy little area. Here we have some folk posing for a photo in front of what seems to be the nicest pagoda in Tai Hua area.

Nothing like a ride on your favourite golden crocodile. This is around RT Mart, the supermarket with the best imports section. This isn't sayin' much, but it is sayin' aged cheddar and butter.

 This is also just outside RT Mart. This is where we recently "discovered"a new sports bar. We thought we discovered it, but then every other foreigner in Weifang rolled in. I guess Carlsberg on tap is news that spreads like wildfire.

Here we have the corner store below Sinead, Joey, Randi, and Colin's apartment building which is super handy when you wanna stop by with a fresh fish for your friends.

 Something to love about China is how many people socialize on the sidewalks in the evening. As the colder weather sets in, shirts are more popular and not a Roll Up in sight! But the little foldable stools crowded around tables filled with cards games, Chinese chess, and local foods remain.

 These ladies meet for dancing with big hot pink fans in the evening. I haven't seen them since the weather started getting colder which is a bummer because there are very few things in life that can make you smile like a bunch of older ladies dancing to music with big fans.

 A friendly warning on the city buses. No Drinking. No Eating Burgers, No... Something. No Knitting. No Handguns. No Daggers. No Leaning Out The Window. No Fireworks. No Border Collies. I guess those are all pretty reasonable.

 Furniture and household goods market. You gotta drive a hard bargain here and dedicate an entire afternoon to locating the object you want. But, a deal is a deal.

 This baby is definitely on a better mattress than my bed.

 And this guy is ready to take off.

 The ladies were looking into fans. I was busy sweating and taking reflection photos.

 The river at Tai Hua. Weifang's idea of city development appears to be more shopping malls and high rise apartment buildings.

 Giant vase on a plaza. I can't read the plaque but I think it's pretty sweet.

 Pets or dinner? Hard to say... I think it's best not to think about it.

 Fruit vending on a moped.

 Crossing Sheng Li at night. The sloped roof in the background is the Kite Museum. I haven't made the pilgrimage yet, but it's on the list. I do live in Kite Capital of The World.

 Kites for Sale!

 Plants for sale!

And an adorable puppy! Puppies have all the luck here. And you don't see a lot of dogs. I don't like thinking about it and I don't want to extrapolate but I have to admit that it does leave me wondering at times.

 More socializing in the streets.

And more...

 I think this might have been in a barber shop, but I can't remember.

Yes, it's a bike friendly town!

 Sunset over Weifang. Seen from the top floor of a shopping mall. Sometimes you have to reassess your ideas of beautiful and just enjoy.

 Getting ready for a night of street meat.

 Colin and I should not be allowed to order food. You just want everything in your Thai Noodle Wok, and next thing you know, it's bigger than your torso. Yes, we did try to eat all this. And thank god we failed.

 Fresh moon cakes in the street! They are made with an eggy dough batter (I am guessing) and filled with sugary beans or sugary berries (also guessing). The thing about not understanding Chinese and trying foods you have never seen or heard of before, is that you still don't really know what they are. All I know is that I like 'em. I feel like that's enough until I am with someone that knows the score. It adds that element of surprise to your everyday life.

Jen with a giant spider. You have to watch out for this kind of thing when you walk between trees.

It's corn season! Bike lanes are multipurpose.

So there it is. Everyday life in China. These are those moments that make me realize that yes, I live in China. Fish tanks in convenience stores, ears of corn drying on the street, sidewalk socializing, shopping mall sunsets over smoggy cityscapes, manufactured riverways, fresh moon cakes, pirated SIM cards, red lanterns, and please No Knitting and No Fireworks on the bus.

Fill Your Belly and Fix Up Your Sole

On ambitious post-work afternoons, we try to tour the town of Weifang to see what delectable offerings we can find. On a now not-so-recent adventure, (yes, the blog has been neglected for the past three weeks due to actually having to work a lot), we found an amazing street market behind one of our apartment buildings… both dangerously close to my apartment building as well. As most of you probably know, or would have guessed, I do love a street market. There is just so much to love at a street market. This one is no exception: pick-up trucks teeming with produce, tarps covered with neat lines and piles of seemingly haphazardly selected products, bicycles laden with goods, even bicycles laden with goods in the process of being cooked, people slurping up noodles while perched on stools, and streams of people who are apparently just walking or riding through the alleyway en route to somewhere else.

I am not sure exactly what everything is called. This lady has several varieties of what I would call Chinese flatbread or pizza... but, there is no cheese. Basically, it's a very oily dough fried up with onions and garlic and maybe some tomatoes inside or on top. All I know is that it's sold by weight- and it's delicious.

Steamed dumplings are always a sure bet- even if you’d never be sure enough to bet on their contents. Most of the time they have some sort of pork in them, a lot of garlic, and if you ask for no meat, vegetables. One of my favourite things about the dumplings is that they are cooked in towers of bamboo baskets. It just has awesome aesthetic value. And they are tasty. And addictive. And serving sizes are enormous. To be fair, serving sizes are enormous for everything. I see it as a challenge.

This guy fries up a wok of wonder when you select all the ingredients. It’s situations like these where I can’t help but think of how much of a roaring success this would be back in Jianada. 

Same deal with this guy. He just shows a little more muscle. 

 

Let’s talk about the deep-fried. I think I love deep-fried as much as I love street markets. Magic happens when they are combined. At this table, you can take a look at the deep-fried items and buy them by weight (of product, not body-mass gained). The obvious choice is calamari and the famed Weifang radish ball. Then, she scoops them up and hands them over to her husband (I assume) and he drops them into that boiling vat of oil. No one can argue with fresh double-deep fried calamari. The red things in the picture are swirling fly swatters. Gotta keep the flies outta the fried. I appreciate this health measure.

Of course I was going camera crazy. I appreciate that this guy reciprocated. It’s not every day you see a giant white woman, with a giant white camera, eating a giant pile of calamari. Fair is fair.

 The street market is where you find the skills, like the skill of a man who has clearly been pulling noodles for several years. He has a mound of dough that he pulls a ball from, and minutes later, faster than your eyes can even keep track- he’s dropped the perfectly uniform and excessively long noodles into a boiling pot of water. He pulls the noodles and his wife cooks them up and serves you a steamy bowl for 4 RMB. You can sit at their shin-level tables on a rickety stool to really soak in the flavour of the food and environment.

 To really top off the experience, we encountered a shoe repair guy on our way out. Obviously my Birkenstocks have been around the bend a few times. And just days before I was lamenting their almost completely worn through heel (yes, one side only-  I walk funny), so when in Rome… I sat right down on the stool and waited while he cut a new piece of rubber for the sole. The whole process took a few minutes in part because they had to gawk at my foot size first- but I did leave with a repaired Birky for all of 3 RMB! He quoted two, but I decided to tip. This was about 5 weeks ago and the repair job is holding up. I think I paid 2 RMB for another 3 years of Birkenstock bliss. Between that and the calamari, the street market treats me well.

I haven’t tried all the foods at this street market… yet. You have to work up the courage to really just dive in. Because honestly, you never know. And, unfortunately, I am not at the point in my Chinese language development where I can understand the explanation.  At least I know where to fatten up and reinforce my soles.