Out and About in Shenyang

Learning from my disappointing experience, I bought a half papaya this time. More expensive, but I can see exactly how ripe it is!

Something tells me there’s an interesting story behind the name of this children’s clothing store.

Couldn’t ask for better!

Great weather for a bike ride down by the river.

“Let’s take away the delicious chocolate from a Kit-Kat, and replace it with a paste made from green tea. Customers will love it!”

I, like all sane human beings, love papayas. They are expensive in the US, relatively cheaper in Taiwan, and I thought that they were unavailable in northeast China.

So I was delighted to see them in the grocery store.

Fruit and vegetables are sold by weight. The way it works is that you choose your produce, then bring it to a weighing station.

I picked out a nice papaya and got in line. Of course, the woman that was in front of me was buying one of everything, so I had to wait a long time. But no worries. I anticipated eating my delicious papaya while I waited for the grocery store employee to weigh and label everything in the woman’s cart.

Finally it was my turn. I handed my precious papaya to the person at the weighing station. She looked at it, then looked at me with an expression like I had handed her a cow turd. She rolled her eyes and said: “This is the weigh station for vegetables. The fruit weighing station is over there!”

So, even though “over there” was five steps from where we were standing, the machine “over there” looked exactly like the one over here, and there was no one waiting in line behind me, I was kicked out of that weigh station and banished to “over there” with my cow turd papaya.

But that’s OK, I told myself. A little inconvenience and grocery story bureaucracy is a fair price to pay for a delicious papaya.

The fruit weighing lady didn’t give me any grief about my papaya, she just weighed it and slapped a price tag on it: Â¥7.23, or $1.20.

The only thing better than delicious papaya is delicious and cheap papaya!

Took it home, washed it, and cut it open. Looked like a great papaya!

Scooped out the seeds, grabbed a spoon, and started to eat my delicious papaya.

My delicious but not completely ripe papaya.

The layer of ripe papaya was about 1/2 inch deep, then it was hard, bitter, unripe papaya flesh.

So I ate the part that I could, and comforted myself that I probably got $1.20 worth of papaya enjoyment out of the experience.

They are finally putting the “convenience” into “convenience store” here in Shenyang. This is the first one that I have seen in town that is open 24 hours a day.

The store doesn’t sell hot dogs, baozi or microwaveable lunches like 7-11 does in Taiwan, but you have to start somewhere.

But the Darwin Awards should apply here.

There will probably come a day when seeing stuff like this in China doesn’t surprise me. I’m not there yet, though.

Buy your wife a gift certificate to this store = frying pan to the head.

A local newspaper, the China Daily, has been putting on cultural events for their “VIP Readers” (foreigners living in Shenyang). The last one that I went on was to the local Forbidden City. It was educational and interesting. When I saw the opportunity to go on the next outing, I jumped on it.

The Fairy Lake is a wetland, and is the largest lotus lake in China (apparently).

The event was co-sponsored by a local project of the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF). On the boat, as we toured the lake, a university professor that works on a local wetlands project gave a short talk about the role and importance of wetlands in local ecologies.

The event was co-sponsored by a local project of the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF). On the boat, as we toured the lake, a university professor that works on a local wetlands project gave a short talk about the role and importance of wetlands in local ecologies.

Then they fed us lunch. Lunch was a highlight of the trip, partly because of the good food, but also it was a chance to socialize with some of the other foreigners on the trip. I met an American wife of a German consular officer, who has served in several countries, including North Korea (“it was really nice” ?!). There were people from several German and French business and cultural offices. We talked shop, comparing our experiences with cultural affairs.

Then we got back on the bus and toured an expo park. The park attempted to “combine” different aspects of Chinese culture, including architecture, literature and agriculture. The combination was… interesting.

Then we got back on the bus and headed back to Shenyang. As we were leaving the city, there was the traditional ritual of saying goodbye. The bus stopped at the edge of the city, and city officials, our hosts for the event, were there at the city limits to say goodbye (or to ensure that we left their city?).

This outing wasn’t quite as educational as the last one, but it was nice to get out of the city, and I saw some parts of the Northeast that I hadn’t seen before. I also experienced the current state of the local highway infrastructure in the region. Development continues in that area, ’nuff said.