We returned to Huangsha the day after our road trip to Baomo Garden, as I really wanted to visit 沙面岛 (Shamian Island). But well, 'we' is a generous term, as Miss XS refused to come with us, claiming that she'd been once before, and that nothing at Shamian Island was worth a return trip. Our relatives made several non-committal mmms when I informed them about my plan, and their eyes didn't exactly light with excitement. Ominous signs all round.
Instincts taught me to trust both Miss XS's and my local relatives' opinions, but I thought I should at least set foot on the island before coming to my own conclusions. So it was just my parents and I, though I had a sneaking suspicion that they were there to be supportive of my plans, rather than any genuine desire to explore the island.
Shamian wasn't always an island; it was once continuous with the mainland. Post-Opium war, the allied European forces seized the area as a concession, and created an artificial canal, forming an island to demarcate their war prize from the rest of China. In those troubled times, I'd heard that the European forces evicted all Chinese and barred them from setting foot on the land. Today, the area had been returned to China. Statues abound in the island, depicting smiling children holding up a golden key awaiting happier times to come. A tragic history surrounds this piece of land, and the decision to erect statues portraying happy families and peaceful children while making efforts to preserve the existing colonial-style European buildings seems to serve as a stark reminder to the Chinese government of what had been lost the last time China became too weak to defend itself.
If you're feeling parched, 雀桃奶茶 is a milk tea store recommended by my cousin-aunt's husband (whew, that level of separation in our relation!). It's available only in Shamian, and he mentioned that he preferred their milk tea over Hey Tea's concoctions. There's a Starbucks in the area, though hoping for great coffee in China is a little like expecting authentic dim sum in a rural Texan small town - your chances ain't looking great, skippy. Much like in Taiwan, we see coffee shops where customers ordered pasta, baked rice, or even hot tea, but not a coffee cup in sight on anybody's table. Barista culture isn't well-established in Chinese-speaking countries.
My favourite structure here was the remnants of the Soviet Union consulate. It was a red (hehe) building with a crumbling brick-lain facade, and decidedly not photogenic. Established in 1918, it was a little piece of history that we chanced upon, forgotten by the rest of the world. It was definitely not maintained in the least, though I wondered if the land was still technically Russia's. The other buildings, more celebrated online, were ... unremarkable. They weren't noteworthy enough to justify the effort of extracting my iPhone from my pocket - and that says quite a bit.
I'm not going to link to the many many blogs online lauding Shamian as a wonderland of European architecture, but for future travelers planning on coming to Shamian, a shot of reality is required - if you're expecting European structures in the majestic style of Gothic architecture, or am seeking the elegance of Renaissance-style structures, or sweeping buildings of the Baroque period, you're going to be disappointed. Shamian's architecture can be found in any country that had been colonised. There's a heavy use of stones and concrete, alongside the rounded arches of the doorways suggested a (I want to say pre-Gothic?) medieval style, perhaps where the colonisers don't feel entirely secure, and wanted buildings that can be fortified against a mob.
This isn't a slur on Guangzhou - there's a hundred and one things I love about Guangzhou, hence the reason why my family keeps coming so regularly. But Shamian really isn't what every tourist-blogger plays it up to be, and clueless exaggerations made by these folks come back to bite Guangzhou in the butt - one eventually assumes there's nothing more exciting in the area than (insert an insipid location bloggers hype about to make their trips seem fun). It is what it is, and perhaps Shamian remains standing today less for the admiration of tourists, but more for the locals as a continual reminder - 'never again shall we be humiliated like this'.
PS. Speaking on tourist-bloggers, don't even get me started on that Redtory structure; there isn't enough Photoshop in the world to make that construction look good.
We split ways after Shamian, my dad and I to 上下九 (shang xia jiu) - (see Part 3 for a quick word on this area), and Miss XS and my mom to 动漫新城. We met up in the evening before heading over to Pearl River at night, for our nighttime cruise with the rest of the family. A number of different cruise companies are in the area, and we booked ourselves on GZ Star (广州之星游轮有限公司). Security was tight in Guangzhou, and we had to show proof of identity before being allowed to purchase tickets. (I assumed that the additional information would be useful in the unlikely event of a ship capsize, and they needed to track the number of people on board?)
The nightview was rather charming, but we stood on the frigid deck for all of thirty minutes before heading back down below-deck, where it's warmer. Post-cruise, we headed off to Minghui Haiyun Restaurant for supper at 10pm (who knew that they even opened so late!), and had their signature fried carrot cake, which was astonishingly good. Sigh.
Our last day in Guangzhou was wistful - where did all the time go! I was intrigued by the 功夫茶 (kungfu tea) at dim sum the other day, and our relative offered to bring us to the Fangcun district to browse Yixing clay teapots. Before I knew it, he mobilised his personal friend, a tea connoisseur with over 300 tea pots in his collection, to help me pick one. Gulp.
I'm not going to link to the many many blogs online lauding Shamian as a wonderland of European architecture, but for future travelers planning on coming to Shamian, a shot of reality is required - if you're expecting European structures in the majestic style of Gothic architecture, or am seeking the elegance of Renaissance-style structures, or sweeping buildings of the Baroque period, you're going to be disappointed. Shamian's architecture can be found in any country that had been colonised. There's a heavy use of stones and concrete, alongside the rounded arches of the doorways suggested a (I want to say pre-Gothic?) medieval style, perhaps where the colonisers don't feel entirely secure, and wanted buildings that can be fortified against a mob.
沙面岛 (Shamian Island)
Closest metro is at 黄沙站. Cross the overhead bridge and follow the signposts.
We split ways after Shamian, my dad and I to 上下九 (shang xia jiu) - (see Part 3 for a quick word on this area), and Miss XS and my mom to 动漫新城. We met up in the evening before heading over to Pearl River at night, for our nighttime cruise with the rest of the family. A number of different cruise companies are in the area, and we booked ourselves on GZ Star (广州之星游轮有限公司). Security was tight in Guangzhou, and we had to show proof of identity before being allowed to purchase tickets. (I assumed that the additional information would be useful in the unlikely event of a ship capsize, and they needed to track the number of people on board?)
The nightview was rather charming, but we stood on the frigid deck for all of thirty minutes before heading back down below-deck, where it's warmer. Post-cruise, we headed off to Minghui Haiyun Restaurant for supper at 10pm (who knew that they even opened so late!), and had their signature fried carrot cake, which was astonishingly good. Sigh.
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Our last day in Guangzhou was wistful - where did all the time go! I was intrigued by the 功夫茶 (kungfu tea) at dim sum the other day, and our relative offered to bring us to the Fangcun district to browse Yixing clay teapots. Before I knew it, he mobilised his personal friend, a tea connoisseur with over 300 tea pots in his collection, to help me pick one. Gulp.
Many types of clay can be used to make Chinese teapots, though the best are crafted from zi sa (purple clay), found only near Yixing in the Jiangsu province. Like everything made in China, the goods eventually flows through Guangzhou before being shipped overseas, this time in the Fangcun district. This may have also been the largest commercial district I'd been to here; we drove for 20 minutes past hundreds of shops and strip malls before reaching meeting his friend, every one of those selling - you guessed it! - 宜兴 (Yixing) teapots. My head was spinning from the sheer expanse of the trade.
The prized yixing teapots are best suited for pu-er and oolong teas, and as we browsed through the shelves. With each teapot ranging from hundreds of yuan to tens of thousands, you wouldn't want to end up with a dud. The shopowner trotted out a basin of water for us, and our relative's friend started our lesson.
He frowned as I pick up a large teapot. The best yixing teapots are small, which serve up to three people, he commented. So bigger is not always better, and kungfu tea practitioners are meant to sample small portions of each successive brew and not gulp gigantic quantities down all in one shot.
The handle, the hole of the lid and the sprout, he instructed, are three points should meet on a straight line bisecting the teapot, and if one is slightly-off centre, it's not worth getting. The lip of the sprout must be fine and not thick, and ditto at the lid.
He removed the lid, and gently rapped the top of the lid with the teapot handle, producing a clear ring as he nodded with satisfaction. He ran a quick finger on the inner surface of the teapot. An inner surface that's rough-hewned produces a smoother tea, he said by way of a quick explanation.
A good lid should be seamless with the body of the teapot, and forms an airtight seal with the teapot. The lid shouldn't have space to rattle against the teapot when shaken. Obscuring the hole at the lid - he demonstrated to my amazement - should immediately cease the flow of tea out of the teapot, which only occurs when the seal between the lid and body is airtight. Who even knew two pieces of clay can fit so snugly to be airtight?
He gestured to the stream of water flowing from the sprout. A fine teapot should release a smooth stream from the sprout, without any turbulence for at least 20cm.
By this time, we'd commandeered the entire shop's table, and even the yixing teapot trader picking up his orders was listening in to our conversation. I finally managed to choose one teapot, and my dad picked up another. And then, was the all-important knowledge on how to treat your teapot before using, or 开壶, (as written below.)
The rest of the tea set is simple to assemble. The standards for the cups, the 公道杯, and the tray are not that exacting as for tea pots, and we left on our merry way a while later. Stuffing our purchases into our handcarry luggage, we left for 海韵烧鹅海鲜酒家 for dinner, and for my last roast goose of the trip before heading off to the airport.
Shop Location
Seasoning Your yixing Teapot
This is a four-step process meant to prep the teapot for optimal tasting notes in future brews. The addition of tofu counteracts the 热 or 'heatiness' from the clay. Sugar cane permeates the porous clay and sweetens tea in future brews. The last step brews the tea leaves of your choice in the teapot. Unlike porcelain tea sets, zisha teapots absorb the fragrance of tea that they are exposed to, and the builds up the fragrance of tea with each subsequent brew. On the flip side of the coin, because of how porous the clay is, tea connoisseurs only dedicate each teapot to one type of tea: one for pu-er, and another for oolong. Different sub-groups of oolong can hesitantly share a teapot, though purists might still prefer not to.
STEPS
1) Set the teapot in a rice cooker pot. Fill the tea pot and rice cooker with room temperature water, and let cook for 20 minutes.2) Drain all the water, and fill the teapot with tofu. Submerge the teapot again in the rice cooker filled with room temperature water, and cook for 20 minutes.3) Replace the tofu with chopped sugar cane. Repeat as per step 2.4) Replace the sugar cane with the tea leaves that you're planning to use the tea pot for. Repeat as per step 2.
5) The pot is now seasoned. Avoid brewing different varieties of tea leaves in the same pot.
