By: Erika Malaspina
Exploring Shangri-La
Before the camp started, our group took a trip to a local gym so we could work out. I wasn’t working out at the time and did not need to go to the gym, so I decided to tag along with our assistant program director Kalli as she wandered through downtown. We first stopped at an ATM, then wandered through all of New Town and Old Town. This was the first time I had really gotten a chance to explore the city of Shangri-La, since we had always been so busy doing other cool things. New Town was where our group had been before to buy snacks and grab a few necessities from town. All of the buildings there are relatively modern, and there is construction all over the place due to a recent beautification grant from the government. But walking into Old Town was like walking into a whole other world. All the buildings have wooden facades and identical sloped wooden roofs. The street is not big enough for cars to drive on, so people can walk about, making way for the occasional motorcycle. All the clothing and gadgets in the shop windows made for plenty to look at. It was a lot to take in.
After wandering through Old Town, during which we saw a very large white dog (I forgot to take a picture, unfortunately), we made it to our final destination: The Compass Cafe. The Compass Cafe is the only place in Shangri-La where you can get real American food, and lots of it. I got a latte and a piece of lemon pound cake. It was delicious. Afterward, Kalli and I took a taxi back to the gym to meet all the other ACE participants, who had been working out. During the taxi ride, the driver proceeded to question Kalli (in Chinese) as to whether or not she had a boyfriend, and had no problem telling her that the Tibetan men here were quite handsome.
The entrance to the wet market. It only looks like the space between two buildings, but it leads to so much more.
The other time I really got to explore Shangri-La was when our group took a trip to the wet market. We wanted to make a pasta and cookies for our CERS staff one night to thank them for all that they had been doing for us. In order to find most of these ingredients, we had to take a trip to the wet market. Since we had enough time, they decided to take the whole group of us to see it instead of just a few people.
The wet market was unlike any market I had ever been to. My Taiwanese grandmother used to tell stories of how hectic it was to buy groceries in Taiwan, but I had never really understood what she meant until I saw the market for myself. There was every kind of local food imaginable and more all displayed in the open in boxes and on tables. People were milling around the narrow passageways, sometimes nudging us out of the way so they could get by. Walking through the market, we were bombarded with a variety of smells, some of which were pleasant and some not as much.
The vegetable section was full of many familiar-looking vegetables and many alien ones. The most perplexing vegetable that I saw was the winter melon, which resembled a large cucumber. The spices section contained bags and bags of different kinds of peppers, powders, and teas.
The most interesting section of the wet market was the meat aisle. Instantly, you are hit with an overwhelming smell of raw meat. Table after table is covered in slabs of meat in different shapes and sizes. There was plenty of variety--pork, beef, chicken, yak, etc. And no part of the animal goes unused. Full chickens (head, feet, and all) hung by their ankles from wires in booths. Pig and cow heads were laying around the booths, clearly visible to people passing by. This was a bit nauseating at first, but there was so much else going on in the market that I didn’t really have time to process what I was seeing until later. Luckily, we got what we needed from the vendor and were able to move out of the meat aisle relatively quickly.
What I learned from my explorations of Shangri-La is that in Chinese daily life there are some surprising similarities but also many differences from American life. Old Town had that same sort of charm that small American downtowns possess. And I was surprised that I could find good American food in rural China. But I also learned that some basic things, like grocery shopping, are much different experiences in China. Sometimes you just have to embrace the pig heads and keep moving.
Exploring Shangri-La
Before the camp started, our group took a trip to a local gym so we could work out. I wasn’t working out at the time and did not need to go to the gym, so I decided to tag along with our assistant program director Kalli as she wandered through downtown. We first stopped at an ATM, then wandered through all of New Town and Old Town. This was the first time I had really gotten a chance to explore the city of Shangri-La, since we had always been so busy doing other cool things. New Town was where our group had been before to buy snacks and grab a few necessities from town. All of the buildings there are relatively modern, and there is construction all over the place due to a recent beautification grant from the government. But walking into Old Town was like walking into a whole other world. All the buildings have wooden facades and identical sloped wooden roofs. The street is not big enough for cars to drive on, so people can walk about, making way for the occasional motorcycle. All the clothing and gadgets in the shop windows made for plenty to look at. It was a lot to take in.
After wandering through Old Town, during which we saw a very large white dog (I forgot to take a picture, unfortunately), we made it to our final destination: The Compass Cafe. The Compass Cafe is the only place in Shangri-La where you can get real American food, and lots of it. I got a latte and a piece of lemon pound cake. It was delicious. Afterward, Kalli and I took a taxi back to the gym to meet all the other ACE participants, who had been working out. During the taxi ride, the driver proceeded to question Kalli (in Chinese) as to whether or not she had a boyfriend, and had no problem telling her that the Tibetan men here were quite handsome.
The entrance to the wet market. It only looks like the space between two buildings, but it leads to so much more.
The other time I really got to explore Shangri-La was when our group took a trip to the wet market. We wanted to make a pasta and cookies for our CERS staff one night to thank them for all that they had been doing for us. In order to find most of these ingredients, we had to take a trip to the wet market. Since we had enough time, they decided to take the whole group of us to see it instead of just a few people.
The wet market was unlike any market I had ever been to. My Taiwanese grandmother used to tell stories of how hectic it was to buy groceries in Taiwan, but I had never really understood what she meant until I saw the market for myself. There was every kind of local food imaginable and more all displayed in the open in boxes and on tables. People were milling around the narrow passageways, sometimes nudging us out of the way so they could get by. Walking through the market, we were bombarded with a variety of smells, some of which were pleasant and some not as much.
The vegetable section was full of many familiar-looking vegetables and many alien ones. The most perplexing vegetable that I saw was the winter melon, which resembled a large cucumber. The spices section contained bags and bags of different kinds of peppers, powders, and teas.
The most interesting section of the wet market was the meat aisle. Instantly, you are hit with an overwhelming smell of raw meat. Table after table is covered in slabs of meat in different shapes and sizes. There was plenty of variety--pork, beef, chicken, yak, etc. And no part of the animal goes unused. Full chickens (head, feet, and all) hung by their ankles from wires in booths. Pig and cow heads were laying around the booths, clearly visible to people passing by. This was a bit nauseating at first, but there was so much else going on in the market that I didn’t really have time to process what I was seeing until later. Luckily, we got what we needed from the vendor and were able to move out of the meat aisle relatively quickly.
What I learned from my explorations of Shangri-La is that in Chinese daily life there are some surprising similarities but also many differences from American life. Old Town had that same sort of charm that small American downtowns possess. And I was surprised that I could find good American food in rural China. But I also learned that some basic things, like grocery shopping, are much different experiences in China. Sometimes you just have to embrace the pig heads and keep moving.