Macanese Mommy

My mother was born in Macau, currently a Special Administrative Region (SAR) in China that was formerly occupied by the Portuguese similar to how Hong Kong was occupied by the British.  Macau was a safe haven during World War II but became unstable during China's Cultural Revolution.   After enduring it's own period of unrest and dissatisfaction with the Portuguese government, it was formally returned to China in 1999.  Prior to that, Macau acquired its own type of Sino-European identity.  Today its national languages are still Cantonese and Portuguese--not Mandarin.

The hillside in the distance across the river is mainland China.   It's very close, but also quite far.  During World War II many Chinese refugees would attempt to swim across to sanctuary.   Most were shot and killed before they ever reached the other shore.  Thankfully, my family came by land.

Macau is not what it used to be having developed tremendously with it's gambling industry.  Although commonly called the Vegas of the East,  it actually draws in more revenue than its American counterpart.  Macau's no frill approach to gambling lures the true gamblers. Casinos are packed tightly together along the Cotai Strip without the excess of shopping esplanades, show venues,  and gimicky attractions that define Las Vegas.  Furthermore, it is in prime location to be easily visited by the neo-rich in China, neighboring international clientele, as well as Hong Kong which is about 45 minutes away by speedboat.

The round hotel with pink lights is the Casino Lisboa--the casino that started it all for Macau when it opened in the 1970s. Behind in blue lights is its recent and equally flamboyant extension the Grand Casino Lisboa.

This is Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro or "San Ma Lo" according to the locals which means simply New Street because no one could ever remember the Portuguese name.  This is the main street running through Macau's downtown.

In my opinion, there is not much to do in Macau but gamble unless of course you're taking a trip down memory lane with your mother. I tried to imagine what kind of funny, little town it must have been with the Portuguese and Chinese in her heyday. There are still some beautiful historic sites, but none so interesting to me as the site of their old house. It has since been demolished and paved over with apartments, however there once stood a European style house and courtyard on this block.

 My aunt Belinda--my mother's sister and her daughter Cheryl accompanied us on this visit. It was both Cheryl's and my first time in Macau. Below we are at one of the more well-known sites: the Ruins of the Church of St. Paul. It is one of the few examples of Christianity in China.  Before it was officially designated by UNESCO and blocked off, my aunt Belinda and mother use to pass through the wall daily to get to school.  They never thought it to be any more than just a wall; and in a way it's still just a wall.  The importance of things can be ironically arbitrary.

The A-Ma Temple is the namesake for the city of Macau.  According to legend, A-Ma was a poor girl trying to get to Guangzhou by boat, but was turned away by every wealthy junk owner until a kindly fishermen took her on board his boat. Soon afterward, a huge storm swept in to the harbor destroying all the junks but left the fisherman's boat untouched. When A-Ma got off the boat, she walked to the top of the hill and ascended to heaven. The fisherman built a temple in her honor on that spot. In Cantonese Macau is "Ou Mun", which means gateway of the bay.  When the Portuguese arrived they likely heard "A-Ma Gau" which means bay of A-Ma. (Lonely Planet)

Roast pigs are laid out in an offering to A-Ma and incense coils hang from the temple rafters.

As a SAR, Macau enjoys many privileges. This is a city park where suffrages and complaints are posted relatively without censorship.

We tried some of the local fare while we there. Ja Ja is a type of sweet red bean and coconut soup served warm. It tasted more Chinese than Portuguese.  ( Pardon the fuzzy picture. I will move on to a better camera one day!)

I'm not sure how authentic food court Macanese cuisine is, but when you're on time and budget restraints; it'll do.  Below is curry chicken.

And, last but not least we had to visit my favorite hotel: Wynn. While the hotel is still nice, it can't hold a candle to the Vegas original.  The modern elegance of the Wynn is still here with the signature array of tassels and lanterns.  However the Vegas design has a certain quirky wonderment about it that captures your attention, while Macau's approach seems to be business as usual.  Then again, people may go to Vegas for more reasons then to just gamble--Wynn Vegas does have an awesome buffet.

In the front of the Wynn there is an imitation of the dancing fountains of Bellagio.  We got there just as the fountains stopped but I still found it amusing how many parallels to Vegas Macau tried to capture on its own casino strip. Half way around the world and I still feel like I could be in the US.  Maybe it's another example of common ground? Different, but still fundamentally the same. 

Guangzhou: Goelia Concept 225

So much of Chinese design and styling is unnecessarily glamorous and ostentatious that it becomes uninteresting and artificial.  Chinese revel in the new and flashy.  The retail industry is intense in China and sales assistants are abundant and aggressive at promoting the latest products.  Having said this, I was pleasantly surprised to come across Goelia Concept 225 in Guangzhou which is essentially a clothing brand that took over an historic office building and transformed it in to part store, part florist shop, and part exhibition space. The building is lovingly preserved and retrofitted for it's new use.  Furthermore, they regulate the amount of traffic allowed in the store so it's always a comfortable browsing atmosphere.

Murals, mosaics, and stained glass define the entry stair well from the street.

On the second floor a florist shop has millwork made entirely of cedar wood. It makes the place smell great. Goelia paraphernalia (including post cards) is tucked away in a back niche. You can buy stamps at the cashier and mail them from the cute little store mailbox.

The theme for the exhibit was traditional Indian art and imports.  These sketches from the buyer inspired me to buy a sketch book on the spot. Whether I will make use of my purchase is another story.

I love these hand-painted suitcases reminiscent of The Darjeeling Limited.

Some other interesting amenities of the store was a reading room for customers to relax and check out the latest selection of books for sale as well as a private restroom with high-tech occupancy/vacancy signage.  All that's missing is a proper cafe or sweets shop and this place would be perfect.  

Reacquainting Myself With Chinese Food

A very high proportion of Chinese that immigrate abroad are from the Guangdong province. As a result, most Chinese food found overseas and especially in the U.S. has Cantonese undertones. I have been deceived all these years with flavors I thought to be universal in Chinese cooking. However, in the Hebei province, I might as well be eating in Russia or some other foreign land. It is so different. Everything is almost always a little spicy, seasoned or pickled cold dishes are common, wheat (noodles and bread) dominates over rice, hearty dumplings are often eaten as meals, and peanut sauce is as much a staple as Cantonese soy sauce.

UPDATE [5/17]: Below is lunch at the English teacher's office. The dumplings all have different  fillings like egg, rice noodle, and mushroom or celery and pork.  You can also request different colored skins just for kicks. The tin dish contains spicy eggplant.

Hot pot or xia bu xia bu is one of the more popular dishes that peanut sauce goes well with when mixed with garlic and cilantro. 

To be honest, I'm not a big street food person, but it is easier to order for me since I can see exactly what goes in to it.  I have still had some disappointments though, so I stick to the basics.  A typical late breakfast for me is usually fresh soy milk, man tou (a flavored bread roll), and a baked sweet potato.

Of course there are snacks too. These are candied crab apples and other fruit.

 These fresh apples at the market bear the mark of their orchard.  I thought the sticker was pretty nifty.

There is also a small population of Islamic Chinese in Qinhuangdao which I suspect might also be Uighurs.  I stumbled across them because they run some of the cleaner dining establishments that serve laghman or lamian in Chinese which means "pulled flour".   They go light on the grease and hardly ever use MSG.  Plus, it's amazing to watch while they pull a block of dough briskly in to perfectly formed noodles to be stir fried with a light topping of vegetables and meat.

Although by the coast, in Qinhuangdao red meat is an important staple to most meals. When my parents visited earlier in April, my mother had a hankering for lamb which is a common livestock in Hebei.  Below lamb slices are served lightly battered and fried with hot sauce and mustard.

At Shanhaiguan we stopped to get skewers of chicken, lamb, and beef tendon. To the right is a cold dish of almonds, cucumber, and tomato.  The soup in the forefront was a deliciously new combination of risotto-like dough pellets, egg, and tomato.

At first I tried to avoid Western food, but now I actually find it interesting to see the Chinese interpretation.  Below is a European inspired buffet establishment that brews it's own beer and also incorporates the Brazilian table-side meat carving service.  However, they don't have the red and green signal piece so you have to make sure to tell severs to skip you when you're stuffed or they relentlessly fill your plate.

Quakes and Quarrels

Natural disasters are an unfortunate occurrence of life, but for a nation ravaged by nearly two consecutive earthquakes with a simultaneous drought in the Southern province, it seems almost unfair. I am definitely late in this post about the Yushu-Qinghai Earthquake but it still warrants some thoughts. Despite Yushu county's remote location on the Tibetan plateau, rescue efforts have been swift with more than 11,000 soldiers, about 1,500 professional rescue workers and 2,800 firefighters and police specialists.  However, most volunteers are not accustomed to the high altitude of the area and become vulnerable to altitude sickness and shortness of breath.


According to a recent CCTV broadcast, local residents--although unskilled-- have been valuable assets in utilizing the area's resources and being immune to altitude sickness.  Interestingly enough,  the majority of locals in Yushu county are of Tibetan ethnicity and do not speak nor understand Mandarin  Chinese.  The earthquake's rescue efforts have become a test as well as an opportunity for the government to show its softer side in regards to  long-standing political and cultural tensions between the Han Chinese and Tibetans. 


I love the picture above because it captures the diversity of rescuers (Tibetan monks in red, Han Chinese government workers in orange). Let's hope that a common ground can be maintained for now.

Destination Dalian: Day 2

This is the above ground portion of Victoria Square; a 3 to 4 level subterranean shopping complex. It's a bargainer's dream but I wouldn't quite label it a black market because most of the shops are independent stalls that push more than just knock-off designer merchandise.  If you visit, bring a good supply of water and bread crumbs to leave a trail because the place is a sweltering rat maze from all the MR-16 light fixtures and schizophrenic interior layout.

On this particular day, I was hunting for a good carry-on travel bag. I liked these funky, vinyl ones (especially the metallic ones inside) but refrained from buying in favor of something less trendy and inconspicuous.

This is New Market Shopping Mall;  a department store style shopping experience.  There are very few walls. It appears to be inspired by the circus with different themes for each floor.  Below, the sporting goods section has a corridor that looks like a race track.

There is also Park Place, probably the prettiest of them all. Every store has access to natural light thanks to a glass curtain wall that encases the entire front facade. The stores are stepped back and face a 5-story atrium.

We had lunch at the top floor food court, but before that, here are shots of some swanky salons along the way.  They were definitely over the top, but I like the gilded, giant mirrors.

The lattice work on this window display below is my last spa project coming back to haunt me, but I like the simplicity of the wooden words balancing on the branch nonetheless.

Hot pot, huo gou or xiabu xiabu is popular in Northern China because it's cold.  However, the more the selection, the longer it takes me to decide what to eat.

Unfortunately, it was hazy and rainy when we went to the coastline, but Dalian's Xinhua Beach is a real estate developer's playground. Condominiums rise right next to convention centers, trolley tracks run in front of mansions, and an amusement park is thrown in along with the mix.