This morning Helen took us on a tour of Chen's Ancestral Hall built between 1888-1894, the largest, best-preserved traditional building in Guangdong Province, according to the pamphlet. Anyway, Helen tends to rush but knows how to fit in quality in a short period of time. She knows from experience that kids don't last long. The building was both a residence and a place of worship and consists of 19 buildings connected by courtyards . It is decorated with intricate carvings and also serves as a folk art museum. We got there just before the rush of tourists. She took us to see Master Chen who paints on rice paper both with traditional black ink and brush and by hand. Helen says this type of painting using the hand is only done in this province. Master Chen demonstrated his artistry and we bought a piece and Grama bought a couple of pieces of his art. Helen told him that Thomas is from this province and Master Chen then offered to give us his demonstration piece. He put Thomas' Chinese name on it in Chinese characters, the year of the rabbit, Guangdong province and his autograph. This was really awesome.
At first when we arrived Thomas was scared and didn't want to enter the building. Once inside and after meeting Master Chen he felt comfortable enough to walk around with me holding his hand. He liked to walk up and down the handicap ramps. Well, when I wanted to see some of the exhibits that didn't go over too well with Thomas. He decided to sit down and kick his feet in the middle of the walk way. If I was back in America, I would have let him go for it, but here in China I ended up picking him up and Grama Sunny gave him a cookie. Thomas won that round. Then Helen took us to another part of the building and we had a tea tasting. The tea lady made us tea using traditional pots and methods. We started with Jasmine and then Oolong. Helen explained that because of the hot weather the Cantonese people prefer Oolong tea and not green tea or black tea, but will have chrysanthemum tea at bedtime because it doesn't have caffeine. We also purchased a few items and Helen bought me some flowering tea. By this time we were hot and starting to wear out Grama Lou, so we headed back to the hotel. Helen asked us what we were going to have for dinner and if we were going to try Cantonese cuisine. She keeps trying.
After a nap time for everybody, we decided we would walk over to one of the Cantonese restaurants near the hotel and see if we could be brave enough to go inside. We got to the restaurant a little before 5 pm and realized once we entered that we were a little early for dinner but the hostess ran up the stairs ahead of us and turned on the lights. There was a fish aquarium and a water fountain and lots of red lanterns and round tables. We were seated and brought picture menus. The dishes were wrapped in plastic and the waitress unwrapped them and brought tea. We went through the picture menus and tried to look for anything we could at least recognize. John decided to order the eel, I picked a shrimp dish and mom picked an eggplant dish. The waitress asked if we spoke Chinese, no. She ran off and got a lady that spoke a little English. She took our order and told us what we were ordering and we got a choice of rice or noodles to accompany the meal. John also ordered a beer. When they brought John's beer it was a 20 ounce bottle. The waitress asked how many glasses and when John said just one she was
surprised he was going to drink the whole bottle. The food came fairly quickly, just as the restaurant was starting to fill. The eel came first. It was pretty good. All the food was really good. I was going to take a picture but forgot while eating and feeding Thomas. This turned out to be John's first time using chop sticks and managed fine. I also had Thomas sitting on my lap and was alternating feeding myself and then Thomas. Apparently, this was very entertaining to the people at the table next to us. When we left they all smiled and waved. I guess, I did a good job. Thomas sure downed the eggplant, noodles, and shrimp. I would have given him eel too but I didn't have a knife to cut it into smaller pieces. After dinner, a trip to 7-11 for sodas.
At first when we arrived Thomas was scared and didn't want to enter the building. Once inside and after meeting Master Chen he felt comfortable enough to walk around with me holding his hand. He liked to walk up and down the handicap ramps. Well, when I wanted to see some of the exhibits that didn't go over too well with Thomas. He decided to sit down and kick his feet in the middle of the walk way. If I was back in America, I would have let him go for it, but here in China I ended up picking him up and Grama Sunny gave him a cookie. Thomas won that round. Then Helen took us to another part of the building and we had a tea tasting. The tea lady made us tea using traditional pots and methods. We started with Jasmine and then Oolong. Helen explained that because of the hot weather the Cantonese people prefer Oolong tea and not green tea or black tea, but will have chrysanthemum tea at bedtime because it doesn't have caffeine. We also purchased a few items and Helen bought me some flowering tea. By this time we were hot and starting to wear out Grama Lou, so we headed back to the hotel. Helen asked us what we were going to have for dinner and if we were going to try Cantonese cuisine. She keeps trying.
After a nap time for everybody, we decided we would walk over to one of the Cantonese restaurants near the hotel and see if we could be brave enough to go inside. We got to the restaurant a little before 5 pm and realized once we entered that we were a little early for dinner but the hostess ran up the stairs ahead of us and turned on the lights. There was a fish aquarium and a water fountain and lots of red lanterns and round tables. We were seated and brought picture menus. The dishes were wrapped in plastic and the waitress unwrapped them and brought tea. We went through the picture menus and tried to look for anything we could at least recognize. John decided to order the eel, I picked a shrimp dish and mom picked an eggplant dish. The waitress asked if we spoke Chinese, no. She ran off and got a lady that spoke a little English. She took our order and told us what we were ordering and we got a choice of rice or noodles to accompany the meal. John also ordered a beer. When they brought John's beer it was a 20 ounce bottle. The waitress asked how many glasses and when John said just one she was
surprised he was going to drink the whole bottle. The food came fairly quickly, just as the restaurant was starting to fill. The eel came first. It was pretty good. All the food was really good. I was going to take a picture but forgot while eating and feeding Thomas. This turned out to be John's first time using chop sticks and managed fine. I also had Thomas sitting on my lap and was alternating feeding myself and then Thomas. Apparently, this was very entertaining to the people at the table next to us. When we left they all smiled and waved. I guess, I did a good job. Thomas sure downed the eggplant, noodles, and shrimp. I would have given him eel too but I didn't have a knife to cut it into smaller pieces. After dinner, a trip to 7-11 for sodas.
No comments:
Post a Comment