The Old Street

After visiting vastly populated cities such as Beijing and Dalian, it was hard for me to imagine what rural areas of China would be like.

We flew out of Chongquing on May 26th and after a long and scenic bus ride, we had arrived in the city of Haungshan. Haungshan is a small city surrounded by many rural villages, and offered a much different atmosphere from the previous cities we had visited. We spent a lot of time touring The Old Street, which was home to many family owned shops and eateries. Here is where I found one of my favorite dishes in China so far: Wonton Soup. I often complimented my wonton soup lunch with some delicious pan-fried dumplings. The food in the region was very good, and also offered interesting dishes such as snake and snakeskin. After our lunches, we had time to explore  the unique shops on the Old Street. I purchased a good amount green and chrysanthemum teas for 120 yuan ($20). Although a bit pricey, the loose teas were extremely fresh and tasty due to the minimal pollution in the surrounding rural regions.

On May 28th, we traveled about an hour out of Haungshan to Xinli’s home village. The village was in a  rural area composed of farmlands, rice fields, and small number of stores and houses. It was nice to relax in a quiet area with beautiful, green scenery despite the exhausting levels of humidity before the rain. Many of the villagers had solar panels and some houses, including Xinli’s old home, were split up into two separate buildings. In the streets, there were several villagers farming and transporting goods on small motorized vehicles. It was interesting to see the diversity in a region of China that was less economically developed.

We spent the evening in Xinli’s old home, where his mother had prepared a home-cooked meal for us. The meal was extremely tasty and I enjoyed almost all of the dishes that were presented. My favorite dishes consisted of fresh water shrimp, green beans, eggplant, and seaweed. I felt extremely welcomed by his family and they seemed very excited to have us for dinner. Having a home-cooked meal in the middle of rural China was a very unique and insightful experience. It was hard for me to imagine what rural China was like, but being immersed directly into the region really allowed me to appreciate the diversity of China.