When we returned to the apartment Doug fixed us blue berry pancakes with freshly made maple syrup.
We left for China around 10:30. Our first stop was an electronics mall in down town Hong Kong. Doug showed us his favorite place to purchase electronics and had them cash a check for him as well. Then it was a 45 minute drive the station where Doug parks his car when he takes the train to Shenzhen . The train ride was very smooth and only two stops. The interior of the train was very different. The train was probably a 12 car set but was entirely open on the inside. You could see all the way to the end of the train and it was just one big open area. We arrived at the Luohc Checkpoint and crossed the boarder in a mere 15 minutes. Form there it was off the Luohu commercial center (Luohu Shangye Cheng) a 5 story mall right across the street. We were instantly wrapped in the frenzy of Shenzhen, a wild city whose population has exploded to 7 million. Twenty years ago, Shenzhen was a series of sleepy fishing villages of 20,000 inhabitants. Each vendor in the mall had a small area filled with his specialty merchandise. There were shops with sunglasses, copy watches, cheap electronics, and tailors. We stopped by Doug’s favorite tailor Shanghai Fusheng Tailor Desigh CO. the tailors name was Yifu Sheng Sam. Then up to the top floor which was entirely fabric. How Rhonda found two pieces of wool among the vast selection in a mere 20 minutes was amazing. She is not a fast shopper. The price for the fabric started out at Y250.00 Chinese dollars but quickly went down to Y130.00 about $16.00 US. Everyone seamed happy with the deal in the end. We went back to the tailors to drop off the fabric. The shirts would be ready tomorrow.
We now went out on the streets. Shenzhen is a large city 6 million people. Doug says there are 100 cities in China with more than a million people, and 50 cities with more than 5 million. I guess that this is what impressed me the most One point three billion people are a lot of people.
The streets had a strange odor, a soured smell. Doug says it is the way then cook their food. The place was quite dirty. They throw everything on the ground. The shops seem to have no trash cans. Everything is thrown on the floor then at night it is swept in the streets. The streets are cleaned every night ready to go again in the morning.
For supper we go to a noodle shop where they make hand pulled noodles. It was quite a process here is something I found on the web as to how they make them.
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Hand Pulled Noodles
The Chinese were making noodles as early as 300 BC using several techniques. One of them is to dip a chopstick into a batter of flour and water. The batter has to be thick enough to adhere to the chopstick, but light enough to come off when the chopstick is flicked unto a pot of boiling water. The noodles formed by this technique are not uniform in size or shape.
The Chinese also make hand-pulled noodles (la mian) using a flexible dough that can be stretched easily. This is done by increasing the amount of water in the dough (approximately 1 cup of water for every 2 cups of flour). Cover the dough with plastic and allow it to rest at room temperature for at least 60 minutes to relax the gluten. The dough is placed on a countertop covered with plenty of flour and stretched until it looks like a long, thick rope. The rope of dough is folded in half, twisted, and stretched back to its original length approximately ten times. The twisting is done by holding one end of the rope in each hand while the center hangs down under the force of gravity and flinging one side against the other in a circular motion. The rope is twisted first to the right, stretched, floured by rolling on the countertop, and then twisted to the left, stretched, and floured again. This process creates a structure of soft dough fibers surrounded by dry flour that is necessary for being able to pull the noodles. Next, the noodles are made by pulling the dough, resting it briefly on the floured countertop, grabbing the two ends with the left hand, while holding the middle with the right hand. This process is repeated until the noodles are of the appropriate thickness. Each time, the number of noodles doubles.
Twisting the dough rope and pulling the noodles. To cook the noodles, drop them into boiling water and boil for approximately 2 or 3 minutes. Drain the noodles and serve them topped with your favorite spaghetti sauce, beef Stroganoff, or chicken cacciatore. You can also make noodle soup by adding the boiled noodles to a well-seasoned chicken soup.
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Doug had brought some Ragu Spaghetti sauce for us to eat on the noodles. It was very good. Doug tells us that after translating their menu in to English for them he decided that there were no vegetarian options except the noodles. As were enjoying our meal it was raining outside.
We walked around in the rain, found a kitchen store that Doug says has every thing. I bought two sushi boards made out of bamboo. Back on the streets I bought Kelly her Fu Dog for Y50.00 about $6.50.
We past stalls and stalls of dried shark fins. There were small ones and large ones. These might have contributed to the smell of the place. The streets had many smells and sounds, horns blaring from all directions. We saw some police coming down one street and all of the taxi drivers came running to the taxis’ I guess they were illegally parked, but they were interested in the bicycle taxis. They were bicycles with seats on the back that people were using to carry riders. They had a trailer behind their car, which they filled with bicycles. Later I noticed these taxi bicycles everywhere. You would see them pull up to a corner someone would get off and hand the driver some money.
We went back to the hotel around 7PM we had had it, the day was over for us. With the jetlag and the day of shopping and traveling we just went to bed.
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