I'm back from teaching creativity in China and am sorting through my photos - the country was full of amazing contrasts, colors and characters that really stimulated my artist's eye.  Let's start with the delicious food...

 

A vegetable on a pedestal!  Never before have I seen a sculpture of a vegetable.  It's bok choy, what the Chinese call white cabbage, which I love sautéed and in soups.  I took this shot in Shanghai at a shop, and the manager explained that in Chinese the word for cabbage sounded the same as the word for money so it was a symbol of prosperity. 
 

 

 

Shopping for fresh quality food is the first step to a great meal. The grocery store was an adventure - more fresh produce than in the chain supermarkets I know.  Teas and powdered spices, eels, and odd fruit so beautiful I had to take a picture. 
 
Chopsticks slow down your eating.  What I most enjoyed about China, besides the people I encountered and all the wonderful students and teachers at the University, was observing the lifestyle and comparing and contrasting it with the lifestyle I know in the New York Metropolitan area.  Beijing has about twice the population of New York and it was very busy and exciting. 
 
My guide in Beijing, Ming, shared a common saying:  "In Beijing people have high degrees, high tech, high salaries and hypertension."  Same as New York - I felt right at home.
 
The meal times are one time the Chinese slow down. It's hard to eat too fast with chopsticks, at least for me.  I got really good at chopsticks since I ate mostly in restaurants that served local Chinese food when I was in Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai last month.  It was a step up from Chinatown, New York, where dishes cater to American taste. 

 

 

 

My special host at Shaanxi Normal University, Sharon Crain, helped me order local dishes in Xian.  I loved that the restaurants had menus with pictures - even the Chinese ones with no English on the menu - so you know what you're ordering! Here we tasted dishes that were authentic, after all I really was in China!  People do share food from platters, just like in Chinatown. Eating mostly vegetables and fruit, I enjoyed a great variety of flavors, shapes and colors. 
 

I was not tempted to eat chicken feet, though my student guide in Shanghai, Fanny, assured me they are very nutritious.  Maybe next time! I did eat roast Peking Duck, one of the three things you're supposed to do while in Beijing (the other two are: see the Great Wall and shop, which I also did. (You can find photos on my blog at www.janetluongo.com.
 
Be well,

Janet