green tea red bean

The other day I was walking around Tianjin with some of my friends and we were really hungry but surprisingly couldn’t find anywhere to eat. I think we were around more of an industrial area of the city. The only restaurant we saw was a pizza place called Gold Pizza. Although we were reluctant to eating pizza in China, hunger eventually gave in and we settled on eating there. We ordered a “Supreme" pizza to share that had a very long list of toppings. From what I remember, it had a cheese filled outer crust, caramelized onions, chicken, beef, bell peppers, mushrooms, some kind of sweet bbq-like sauce, creamed corn, mayonnaise (I think) and a sweet potato rim (the yellow circle inside the crust). It sounds like an odd combination but the server recommended it to us and when we tried it, we were all surprised by how good it tasted. I especially loved the sweet potato filling. I had never seen anything like it before but one of my Korean friends told me it was a very popular thing to do back in Korea.

I was looking at all the pictures of food I’ve eaten and I noticed I seem to have an obsession with green tea and red bean!

Matcha green tea with red bean Frappuccino at 85 Bakery

Green tea popsicle with red bean filling

Green tea bread with red bean

I can’t remember exactly everything this little cake had inside but I remember buying it because it had something green tea^^

red bean filled bun

Green tea and almond cupcake!

Conclusion: I love green tea and red bean and in combination even better! :D I’m really going to miss seeing these kind of things back in the US.

The Unbeaten Path: Mission Accomplished

We spent the rest of the day exploring the small farm village. Mr. Wang showed us around. I don’t know how but when he came to meet us he was wearing a GT hat! He showed us around his house and the gardens where everything is farmed. He asked us if anyone was Japanese and then he started telling us some stories of how he fought in World War II against Japan.the gardens

We collected some vegetables to use for our dinner later that day.

some our hand-picked vegetables

刘新宇, a student from TJU that came with us was my roommate for the weekend

In the afternoon we had some group activities. This one was pretty funny. We were all taken along a path and then back to where we had started; then we were all blindfolded and the task was that as a group we all had to find our way back to that spot they had taken us. For the first part we could speak among ourselves but for the second part we were not allowed to speak so that made things a bit difficult but eventually we made it after agreeing on a silent language consisting of claps and squeezing shoulders.

At night I taught some people a card game called Sho Tai Ti which is a kind of Poker war. I think the name in English is Big Two. Our guide was watching us play and I asked him if he wanted to play, that I could try to explain the rules in Chinese since he speaks no English at all. He simply replied, “Wo kan, wo wanr.” which means I watch, I play so I gave him the cards and he won every single game after that!  He was really smart.

There were a total of four groups which included GT students, TJU students and even faculty. One of the great things about the program is that classes are pretty small, in fact we only have one classroom so it’s easier to connect with faculty. We even participate in the same activities and tours.

The next day we were supposed to go on another hike, the Challenge Hike but weather conditions did not allow us so we returned to Tianjin earlier than planned and that was the end of our weekend adventure along the unbeaten path!

The Unbeaten Path: The Great Wall

After our rappelling experience we finally set out on our hike towards the Great Wall. We were all pretty excited since we had heard from the other group that the view was amazing!

Alec, Morgan, Steve & James

For the first part of the hike we had to climb up some VERY VERY steep steps! The stairs felt almost completely vertical, I was very afraid of falling backwards. It was very exhausting but completely worth it once we got to the top. I still can’t fathom how they built this! Our guide told us the Great Wall was built by successive dynasties over a period of more than 2000 years and that the number of deaths is not known with certainty but I can only imagine the thousands of workers that must have died in the process.

The steps were all irregular in height. Some were HUGE while others were tiny, they ranged maybe a foot and a half to 3 inches tall.

For the next part of the hike there were no stairs. Believe it or not we went through all that path covered in trees to the guard tower you can see at the other mountain in the picture. This trail was more difficult than the stairs. Some parts were uphill while others were downhill there was never any flat surface and the ground was just gravel or broken steps so it was easy to slip down. We had to be really careful, otherwise we would end up sliding. Our guide kept encouraging us saying, “加油！(Jia You!)” which is kind of like saying Come on! or You can do it! although the literal translation is to add oil. He told us that anyone who climbed the Great Wall was considered a real man.

Group picture! Steve, Cathy, Alec, Liu Xin Lu, James, Morgan, Jonathan, Ahsan and me.

Daniel, Steve, James, Alexander, Harris, Jonathan & me

We returned to the farm village were we had started our journey the first day feeling very accomplished and ate a delicious meal prepared by the locals. Everything that was put before us had been grown or raised in the village.

The Unbeaten Path: Rappelling

The next day, everyone woke up extremely early because the sun hit our campsite directly so although it seemed as if it were already 10 am or so it was barely 4 am. I managed to sleep an hour more until 5 am when the sound of birds eventually woke me up again. After breakfast in the village we headed out to a damn for rappelling :D

The damn! It definitely looks scarier than what it really is.

getting our gear ready

This really reminds me of Harry Potter, a little at least, except the bridge is not made of wood.

Daniel, James, me and Alexander

Once we were geared up we had to climb down some stairs at the top of the damn and the guide would tell you to let go and start descending. I think the scariest part, and probably everyone would agree, was not going down but these stairs at the beginning and trusting to let go.

The Unbeaten Path: The River Hike

This weekend about thirty of us in the China Summer Program and some students from Tianjin University participated in a hiking adventure organized by ORGT called The Unbeaten Path. It was an amazing experience! The activity went from Friday to Sunday. We camped two nights in two different villages. Our journey started with a 3.5 hour ride from Tianjin to a farm village in Beijing where we had breakfast. We were divided into two groups, one would hike along the Great Wall and the other would hike along a river bank. We would meet at another village and the next day we would then switch and do the opposite. My group started with the river hike. Our hike was mainly a the river bank and had a great view of the mountains. When we were almost at the resort village we started seeing glimpses of the Great Wall. All I could wonder about was how thousands of years ago they could have built such a huge structure so high up in the mountains. There were parts that looked extremely steep and I couldn’t wait for the next day when my group would get the chance to hike along the wall. Once we got to the village, we built our tents in a nearby campsite and went out to explore the small village. At night we had a campfire and enjoyed playing games and talking. We had a nice discussion about all our different cultures and how each one has a different perspective. The next day with the Great Wall was even better! more to come…

 

 

 

 

We even had to dig our own “bathroom”. That was probably the most uncomfortable part of the trip but it’s all part of the experience!