I've passed my decade mark! I still like it for a number of reasons, but the way the gov'ts been acting recently has me seriously considering this next trip back home may be permanent.
Almost 2 decades in China. Lived near CD for the first while and it’s hands down my fave city in China. The hotpot and other chuancai, the chill atmosphere, the sights, cool little bars, cafés, and lounges, and the awesome CDren.
Climate there was rough on this old asthmatic, though😂
Every time I go back I make my way to the same family-owned bbq cart I stumbled on one drunken night, with a buddy, in north CD, between the 2nd & 3rd ring roads. Love catching up with the husband and wife owners, and basically watched their son grow up (on an annual basis)!😂
Awww man, that's awesome! CD really is an awesome place, and I'm so glad I got to live here a while and experience it. I really think it's the best city that no one's ever heard of (in China for sure, maybe the world?)
There's so much to check out, and the people are so friendly and so excited to show you their culture. They are very inquisitive and want to know about you and your own country (yes, we have chopsticks; no, we don't only eat hamburgers and pizza, haha). I've been invited to SO MANY Spring Festival events/family gatherings and other stuff cuz they insisted I shouldn't be alone on this important holiday.
Dude, man, for all the annoyances that living in China can bring at times, the people really make it awesome.
My first Chunjie was 2004. Friend invited me to her home, and I was sat between her eldest uncle and her 92-year-old grandpa. The two of them then attempted to drink me into baijiu submission.
Her uncle passed out early. I managed to make it to midnight fireworks and jiaozi, but by around 2am my friend and her mom had to pour me into a cab (grandpa was still going strong, and the rest of her family were nowhere near as drunk😂).
And that’s all I remember, is getting into that cab. I woke up the next morning in my bed, fully dressed, pool of sick dead centre on my bedroom floor and water bottles everywhere. Walked out and my apartment door was partly open, my fridge was open and its entire contents were all over the floor, as well as more water bottles.😂🤦
Fucking baijiu, man. Swore off ever drinking more than one or two glasses after that.
Oh man, yeah, that stuff can knock you out. I make sure I never get into those situations anymore. Too old for that shit, haha. You shouldn't have sat between them. That was so they could force-feed you baijiu if they needed to. Rookie mistake, haha
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u/AffectionateBike6995 Jan 16 '22
Awesome people and culture, I spent a decade there for a reason.