Beijing - Tianjin - Chengde Day 5

We were leaving to Chengde, via Tianjin that morning. But before everything else, it was important to fuel up first ....

I'd given up on the cold and stale bread and went for the porridge ....

Hot pumpkin porridge was really soothing to the tummy .... 

I liked the condiments served together with the porridge too - black bean dace, pickled mustard strips; braised peanuts, pickled mustard stems, and garlicky cucumber; the salty and crunchy condiments were very pleasant to the bite. 

Bread with red beans

This sweet bread was freshly made, and was quite enjoyable too .... 

I tasted some stir-fried udon and fried rice and found both to be tasteless; heh ... I think you can tell that I enjoyed the garlicky cucumbers ..... 

The bus left the hotel at 8.00 a.m.; There were 14 of us left in the tour - the 12 of us from East Malaysia and a middle-aged Singaporean couple. Apple also came with us. According to her, her company had sent her to Chengde to look into accommodation for future tours to Tianjin.

Tianjin was Southeast of Beijing .... about 130km away .... so it only took a little more than an hour to reach there. Tianjin was really modern, and boasts of many high rise buildings. I liked it there ....

We were brought to Tianjin Ancient Street. We were given an hour .... so there wasn't time to explore the entire street. We only walked 1 section of the street. This was a pedestrian street lined with shops selling souvenirs, trinkets, tidbits. Though called Ancient Street, it had a very modern feel. Heh.

A symbol of good luck
The early sailors and fishermen used to hang red lanterns on their ship when they set sail .... for good luck and journey mercy ... 

We saw a shop selling thin floral scarves for RMB10.00. Cheap, but I wasn't going to buy. Until my friend C said they could be turned into tops. All there was to do was to sew 2 sets of buttons on each scarf. C asked me to buy 2 pieces and she would sew them for me. So I did. C herself bought 10 pieces .... she would transform them into tops and give them away as souvenirs. What a resourceful lady!

Over here, I also bought little phone charms. 4 for RMB10.00. Cheap, and I used them to hang on my thumb drives instead of my phone.

Next up was the Tianjian Food Street. Apple discouraged us to buy from the stalls - in case the vendors tried to cheat us by giving us counterfeit money as change, or in case they gave us fake products.

Instead, Apple brought us to one particular shop along the Food Street, where she said the quality of the products were guaranteed. There were many types of snacks such as dried/processed cuttlefish, shan zha 山揸, 麻花 snack. They were dried scallops used for cooking - selling for RMB380 per 500g. The 山揸 shan zha was really yummy - very flavourful and not sweet at all, and sold for RMB18 per packet. Despite that, I did not buy anything.

Outside the shop, along the Food Street, were many interesting food on sale ...

What a typical stall looked like ...

Ma Hua Snack 

It's Fried Dough Twist, flavoured with peanut, sesame seeds and sugar ... 

Pastries

Sesame Candy

Quite yummy, not too sweet 

Different types of cuttlefish 

Coated peanuts ...

I did not buy anything at the food street, except for 2 bags of Nougat ....  22 pieces in each bag, RMB10 for a bag.

 Nougat to share with my friends and family back home ...

A bit hard .... but milky, sweet, and nutty 

Not bad to eat .... 

Lunch was at an eatery here at the Food Street - since there were only 14 of us, we were split into 2 tables accommodating 7 persons each. The 5 of us colleagues sat together with the Singaporean couple. It was nice to get to know them .... 

There were so few of us, so the number of dishes served to us were also reduced .... 

Lunch
Egg drop soup, cucumber stirfry, cauliflower stirfry, steamed egg, pork stirfry, prawns stirfry, steamed fish, and dumplings

I liked the cuttlefish flowers atop the steamed egg - they were so tiny, but so tender and yummy; the other dish I liked was the prawns which were really sweet. Yums. The dumplings were called Goubuli 狗不理 - literally translated as "The Dog Doesn't Care". Apple told us of a story of a poor boy named Gou Er who apprenticed at a dumpling shop. Then he started his own business, selling steamed dumplings. Soon, business was brisk and he was too busy to entertain his customers ... and people called him "狗不理" - that he was too busy to mind them. The dumplings had pretty creases - 18 of them; I loved the pastry - dense, yet soft and aromatic ... the filling was juicy, but the taste and flavour was quite ordinary. 

After lunch, we said goodbye to Tianjin and drove to Chengde, Northeast of Beijing. Chengde was in Hebei Province. The journey was about 3.5 - 4 hours long from Tianjin, depending on traffic.

Scenic drive ... 

The Emperors came to Chengde in summer to escape the heat in Beijing, as the climate here is much cooler than in the capital. The Emperors would usually stay in Chengde from May till October each year .... and while he was in Chengde, he would hunt and train his army. Therefore, there's a villa here built specially for his residence, called Bi Shu Shan Zhuang 避暑山庄 The Imperial Summer Resort, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

We reached Chengdu at about 4.30 p.m., and Apple passed the baton to a local tour guide. Apple was running errands for the company - she said she was going to view some hotels for future tours ...

Anyway, our tour guide in Chengdu was a lady ... I can't remember her name, either. She was a Manchu, as of 90% of the people in Chengdu were. We were brought straight to dinner .... we all lamented that it was too early .... but then, there was nothing else planned in our itinerary. 

The Emperors, while in Chengde, enjoyed eating wild game - wild chicken and deer; hence, the tour guide made us fork out RMB20 each for an extra dish for that night's dinner. 5 of us agreed to try the meats .... 

Wild chicken and venison, marinated, grilled and served on a bed of onions

Suited my palate and I enjoyed the dish a lot; the venison did not taste gamey, and did not quite taste like the venison we ate back home; this one was soft to the bite; the chicken too, wasn't dry - nicely marinated ... and I even enjoyed the onions that had soaked up the juices from the meat .... 

Dinner

Mantou (very nice! dense and had the aromatic smell of flour), diced chicken & cucumbers, potato noodles (very nice! noodles were made from potatoes - springy and not starchy and nicely stirfried), pork and sweet pepper (I loved peppers), tomato and egg stirfry, pork belly braised with fermented cabbage (don't like), braised tofu, egg drop soup 

Since dinner was so early, we were bound to get hungry later on ... so with the mantou and the grilled meats - we made burgers ... heh .... made two pieces ... one for C and another for W.  :))

Putuo Zongcheng Temple a.k.a. Little Potala
Built by Qianlong Emperor in the 18th century
Saw this on the way to our hotel and stopped for a photo ....

We stayed at Juntai Caifu Hotel. It's located at a strange place - probably an industrial zone; we could see from our room windows many large tanks behind our hotel. Not sure what's inside .... Water? Chemicals? Petroleum? Should any one of those tanks exploded, chances were that we would all die ...

Juntai Caifu or Juntai Wealth Hotel

Since we were in the middle of nowhere, there was nothing to do and nowhere to go. And it was only 6.00 p.m.! We walked to a convenience store nearby .... bought bags of potato chips .... and then we went back to the hotel.

There was an atrium at Level 2, furnished with sofas, tables and chairs. We hanged out here .... ate our potato chips and drank Snow Beer which we bought from the hotel ....

Snowflake Beer 雪花

M's brothers found a supermarket near the hotel when they went for a walk and they came back with Cavendish bananas ... heh .... so potato chips, beer, banana, chit chat and lots of laughter. At 9.30 p.m., we retired to our rooms to sleep.