July 31, 2010 - Guilin, Guangxi, China
"If you want to know the taste of a pear, you much change the pear by eating it yourself."
~Mao Zedong
~Mao Zedong
There are places in China, which I only accidentally come upon, where local people are too busy living their lives to bother the strange pale-skinned foreigner. Native Chinese will sometimes refer to foreigners as "barbarians," "ocean people," and/or "big noses." Within a major metropolis, side streets are lined with fresh fruit and flowers, the local noodle shop is stuffed with residents, women and men socialize at the hairdressers while a coterie of children play, unafraid of maniac taxi and moped drivers. Strangely, in the middle of my afternoon stroll through this harmony, a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). KFC appears to be more accepted as part of middle-class China than middle-class America. With the oncoming of another monsoon rain, I stepped inside for some fries. They were definitely not "Freedom Fries" in communication controlled Communist China.
KFC Statistics:
+ 1973, first KFC in Hong Kong
+ 1987, KFT opens near Tiananmen Square in Beijing
+ Today, over 2,000 KFC's in China
+ 2:1 ratio over McDonald's in China, whereas outside China it's the other way around
Dinner tonight was a little different. Meeting one woman from Germany and four men from Spain (lucky again, they all spoke English), we set out for a more traditional Chinese meal. These men were determined to eat snake while in China. Finding a neighborhood that specializes in presenting live animals to their guests before cooking them, we eventually came across a restaurateur who invited us into a dark, back room. There were two snakes in a small cage. The average snake sold for 700 Yuan (about $120 US) and 2,500 Yuan (about $350 US) for the endangered species. The men from Espana made a good decision to not order snake - not based on the high cost, but because they were also upset about the sale of an endangered animal.
Dinner tonight was a little different. Meeting one woman from Germany and four men from Spain (lucky again, they all spoke English), we set out for a more traditional Chinese meal. These men were determined to eat snake while in China. Finding a neighborhood that specializes in presenting live animals to their guests before cooking them, we eventually came across a restaurateur who invited us into a dark, back room. There were two snakes in a small cage. The average snake sold for 700 Yuan (about $120 US) and 2,500 Yuan (about $350 US) for the endangered species. The men from Espana made a good decision to not order snake - not based on the high cost, but because they were also upset about the sale of an endangered animal.
