Way out West (incorporating Way up North)

my china town...

I took a trip to Chinatown today, not so very different from Soho really, except that the locals are much friendlier and don't seem to be bothered if you don't speak the language. Even though it was a freezing cold day, the shopping experience spreads right out onto the pavement, offering a variety of foods from dried mushrooms to wind dried squid, pickled oysters to lizards on a stick.

















I stopped for a lunch of cold meats on rice, and could have been in Gerrard Street, the stream of chinese diners, and the thump of cleaver on duck is seemingly universal. When you step outside the door, however, the distant snow capped peaks of the Rocky Mountains remind you that you are in fact a long way from home.





















I also visited the Dr Sun Yat Sen garden, a valiant attempt to recreate a 15th century Chinese scholars' garden in the middle of a modern city. Although it was mostly frozen, it is very beautiful and tranquil, I could quite imagine how restful it would be when the spring comes.

posted by Lampy @ 1/14/2007 01:22:00 am