A Mei

In 1997, I was living in Hunan province, but spent the summer travelling around China, including my first time in Liuzhou. Everywhere I went, the same two songs were playing – I heard them literally a dozen times a day. The first was the truly execrable ‘Barbie Girl’ by Aqua, which for some reason the Chinese loved.

Second was the slightly better ‘Bad Boy’ by hugely popular, Taiwanese singer, 张惠妹, better known as 阿妹 or A Mei. Sung entirely in Mandarin except for the two words ‘Bad Boy’ in the chorus it is a catchy little number, but the thousandth time you hear it, it begins to grate. Just before writing this, I listened to it again for the first time in a long time and didn’t scream in pain.

Ms Zhang is not only Taiwanese, but is ethnically aboriginal to the island, unlike most residents who are Han Chinese who fled there after finding themselves on the losing side in the revolution.  In 2000, she managed to get herself “permanently blacklisted” in  mainland China by singing the Taiwan anthem at the inauguration ceremony for Taiwanese president, Chen Shui-bian. However, apparently ‘permanently’ means ‘for a while’ as, by 2004, she had returned to favour and was allowed to tour. Her popularity was never really dented.  Chen Shui-bian is serving a 19 year sentence for bribery.

All this comes back to me, as it has been announced that A Mei is now undertaking an AMeiZING world tour. I’m not sure what they mean by the world, but they are including Liuzhou. She will hold one show on July 28th 2012 at Liuzhou Sports Centre. Ticket prices range from 180元 to 1380元.

Official ticket outlets are:

莲瑭路28号现代收获大厦2单元1304室 (28 Liantang Road, Unit 2, Room 1304).

解放北路30号世纪联华超市 (Century Mart Supermarket on Jiefang Bei Lu (near the square).

北雀路21号世纪联柳北店 (21 Beique Lu)

潭中西路富丽家园世纪联华超市 (Tanzhong Lu West, Century Mart)

文笔路3号汽车京站瑞通大厦一楼瑞通旅游产业有限公司 (3Wenbi Road, Ruitong Building 1st Floor, Ruitong Tourism Company)

文昌路阳光100城市广场10栋1-4百光盛. 五粮液旗舰店(Wenchang Lu, 100 Plaza, Section 10, Unitsw 1-4, Wuliangye Wine shop.)

Click on image to enlarge

In a surprising move, the popular Nancheng Department Store (南城百货) – the supermarket under Liuzhou Square – has ceased trading. According to signs on the shop doors, this is because their lease expired on May 31st (Thursday). Why they couldn’t (or chose not to) renew it is not revealed.

I was in the place just hours before it closed for the last time and there were no signs of anything being amiss. I’m fairly certain, too, that the staff didn’t know what was afoot.

The big question now, of course, is what happens to that huge store? If it were to be taken over by RT Mart, there would be citywide celebrations, but with our luck it’ll probably turn into a mega cell phone market. After all, we are short of them.

Watch this space!

Friday food is a weekly article about one of the more unusual food items to be found in Liuzhou that week. This week, for the first time, a reader’s request.

Earlier this week, I was in Liuzhou’s Century Mart near the city square wondering how they get away with selling the tired, limp vegetation they only ever have on offer, wondering why the service is so appalling, and why the light years ahead RT Mart opened in such an inconvenient location. I had just come back from work and was a bit tired. Then, by the vegetable section, I bumped into an old acquaintance, also of the laowai persuasion.

We had a bit of catch up chat about nothing in particular and he noticed I was holding a plastic wrapped bundle of something, on the verge of dropping it into my basket.

“What are those things? I’ve always wondered,” he said.

What I was holding were these.

Sichuan single head garlic 独蒜

Rather disappointingly perhaps, they are quite simply, garlic. But a peculiar variety. This is single headed garlic from Sichuan province, known as 独蒜 in Chinese. It is garlic in every sense, but doesn’t usually split into cloves. (I have occasionally come across twins!)

Since discovering them a few years back, I have switched to using them rather than the more common version. For one, in flavour they are more like European garlic. I find regular Chinese to be very mild. And second, they save on a lot of chopping and mincing. One bulb is equal to about two or three cloves of the regular stuff. I don’t usually buy the stuff in the supermarket, but like I said, it was late and I was tired.

Single head garlic is available in all supermarkets and real markets.

Random Photograph No. 56 of photographs taken in Liuzhou which amuse, perplex or fascinate me.

Fish Feed

]]> http://liuzhou.co.uk/wordpress/2012/05/28/random-photograph-56-fish-feed/feed/ 2 http://liuzhou.co.uk/wordpress/2012/05/26/counterfeit-cab/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=counterfeit-cab http://liuzhou.co.uk/wordpress/2012/05/26/counterfeit-cab/#comments Sat, 26 May 2012 05:19:55 +0000 Liuzhou Laowai http://liuzhou.co.uk/wordpress/?p=4901

Latest in the long line of things to be faked in Liuzhou is this. A fake taxi.

All Liuzhou taxis have registration plates beginning with 桂 (for Guangxi), B (for Liuzhou), T (for taxi), then the number. The registration is both the vehicle licence and the taxi licence.

Liuzhou police recently stopped this “taxi” and discovered that the plate was faked. The 35 year old driver, a Mr. Zhang was arrested and confessed that he had been given the plates by “a friend”.

The penalty for this offense is up to 15 days imprisonment, a 2000 – 5000 元 fine, and what probably hurts most is that the vehicle is confiscated.

Ouch!

Source (Chinese)

]]> http://liuzhou.co.uk/wordpress/2012/05/26/counterfeit-cab/feed/ 0 http://liuzhou.co.uk/wordpress/2012/05/25/friday-food-28-bayberries/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=friday-food-28-bayberries http://liuzhou.co.uk/wordpress/2012/05/25/friday-food-28-bayberries/#comments Fri, 25 May 2012 02:00:26 +0000 Liuzhou Laowai http://liuzhou.co.uk/wordpress/?p=4886

Friday food is a weekly article about one of the more unusual food items to be found in Liuzhou that week. This week we are going back to fruit with one of my all-time favourites – Bayberries

Every May, these wonderful berries turn up in Liuzhou’s markets. Known locally as 杨梅, they are bayberries (although often mistranslated as waxberries).

They are simultaneously sweet and tart and I love them. Out of season they are sold dried in the confectionery aisle of your local supermarket, and they ain’t bad, but the fresh ones are the real deal.

Available now from every market, supermarket and street trader. Around ¥8 per 500g.

Bayberry street vendor in Liuzhou

你好

Thanks to a plugin from Sinosplice, I’ve added a new feature to the blog. From now on, when I use Chinese characters, to see an enlargement and the Pinyin for the pronunciation, you just need to hover your mouse over the Chinese and it should pop up. Hope this is more helpful.

You can test it at the top of this post.

I probably won’t go back and change previous entries to this system. There are just too many to do.

Back in the dark ages, when I was in high school, there were regular fire drills – usually once per term. They were not announced in advance so we never knew if they were real or not till it was all over. The point of the exercise was to get all the pupils out of the buildings quickly and assembled at pre-specified gathering points to be counted, all without panicking. I just remember it being a welcome diversion from maths class.

I don’t recall any fire drills at university, but I guess there must have been. There’s a lot I don’t recall from university.

Liuzhou Teachers’ College held a fire drill earlier this week. This was pre-annnounced and indeed the local dignitaries and those teachers and students not taking part gathered for the show. And quite a show it was.

College leaders, fire department and police chiefs etc watch the show

 First they set off some smoke bombs in classrooms in the main teaching building.

No smoking!

 and evacuated the students

 and everyone gathered in the open air for a cough and a splutter.

Well, nearly everyone. It turned out that some students had become “trapped” and needed rescuing. They waved their spare t-shirts which they had brought along specially in case of fire.

They were then duly rescued by a variety of means.

One poor chap was left to fend for himself by making a rope from the classroom curtains then abseiling down.

All in all, it looks a lot more dramatic than the rather tame fire drills we had, and a fine time was had by all. They may hold another in another 20 years.

There are no fire alarm activating switches, or any fire alarm systems anywhere in the college.

Source (Chinese)

Friday food is a weekly article about one of the more unusual food items to be found in Liuzhou that week. This week we are going herbal with Chinese Foldwing

Chinese foldwing

Chinese foldwing (Dicliptera Chinensis) is, as you’ve probably worked out, a Chinese herb. Known locally as 羊肝菜 (yáng gān cài),  literally ‘sheep liver vegetable’, it is also known as 猪肝菜 (zhū gān cài ) or ‘pig’s liver vegetable’  among several other names. Despite this liverish nomenclature, it is used in traditional Chinese medicine to ‘strengthen’ the  kidneys, as well as for colds and fevers and “men’s problems”, whatever they may be.

It is also used stir fried as a green vegetable or in soups.

Available  in markets and in Century Mart. Dirt cheap.

It got a bit wet last night.  I don’t mean it was just raining. This was real rain. No pussyfooting about deciding whether to rain or not. Not a bit damp. Not shall I take my umbrella? Your umbrella would have done no good.

This was a truly torrential tropical rainstorm battering the city from early evening till this morning. I literally saw birds fall from the sky under the onslaught as oceans descended on us and bounced back up again.

The temperature has dropped from 35ºC yesterday to a more comfortable 27ºC today and there is a fresher, ozone smell in the air. No doubt a delusion.

Not everyone is happy though. The city had to issue its first flood warning of the season. And I guess these people had better plans for their day.