Chinese friends

This is Yu Ling. She is a teacher at the Polytechnic and she used to be a Travel Guide in this Province. She has really reached out to us and was the one who came at 6am to ensure that we found the right way to the school bus in the mornings. She herself does not take the bus. The advantage for us is that she speaks excellent English and is more outgoing and friendly than other people we have met. She offered to take us to dinner one night saying that she wanted to make sure that we had the opportunity to eat wholesome good Chinese food. She met us from the school bus one Friday night around 5.15 (she lives about 20 mins walk away from us but she also has Friday afternoons off) and then proceeded to 'fill in time' as she said prior to meal time by taking us through a local market. Although we are using the markets there are many vegetables that we do not recognise or do not know how to cook. She was wonderful explaining everything and giving us tips on cooking etc. So much so that we now cook lotus root and bamboo root and lettuce (not the same as in Canada I might add) and she patiently answered all the questions we had been saving up for just such an opportunity.

When we had had our fill of eels and fish and odd looking vegetables she took us to a local family restuarant which she likes and frequents and proceeded to order a variety of dishes which were local or hous e specialties.
Start the meal with tea - this time white chrysanthemum tea.
Followed by cold dishes - a caramelized sweet lotus root which we loved but felt should have been saved for the end and a leaves and tofu mixed dish. very nice but hard to describe.
Then came lettuce root in a sesame oil and nut sauce - gorgeous and crunchy and then the hot dishes. Chicken soup with vegetables (we did not have the heart to tell her we were vegetarians and did the best we could) it was very tasty and creamy with mushrooms and bok choy then a specialty steamed perch presented in the most attractive way with the flesh fanned up in curls. of course this was accompanied by rice (mifan) and when we had finished along came the water melon to cleanse the palette. Mick wanted a chocolate cake but ..........he was out of luck.

She told us about the four great cuisines of China:
1. - Sichuan Cuisine which is hot and pungent
2. - Shandong Cuisine which is like Beijing Duck (some of you know it as Peking Duck)
3. - Zhejiang and JiangSu Cuisine which is flat and sweet and
4. Cantonese Cuisine which is fresh, tender and lightly seasoned. She thinks this is what most Chinese restaurants serve outside of China.

It also seems that the housing prices have sky rocketed here too. She told us how house/apt. prices have moved from 700 yuan per sq metre to 2000 yuan in about 5-7 years. Most parents, like hers, help their children get started by paying the down payment and I suppose with the one child policy of China that may be a little easier than at home.

This single child policy is still in force unless both parents are only children in which case they may apply for a second child and in some rural areas the policy is not strictly enforced - hence the students gasp when I told them I had three children.

We also learned from her that it is generally recognised now that these only children have been spoiled and that the situation needs to be addressed but she did not say how. When I am teaching in my classes with 54 of these spoiled brats I could give a few ideas!!!