After carefully selecting my images for this week’s blog, I realized they all share one common theme. All of them convey how I have encountered different aspects of Chinese culture on tour. Whether it’s through a bus window or during a ravenous search for street food, I happened upon some intriguing and foreign aspects of daily life here in China.
I have always been fascinated by cultures and a countries traditions, but in particular cuisine and food. So, upon agreeing to this tour I polished off my palate and decided to really absorb all the tastes of food that China had to offer.
Whether its walking down the street at night, waiting at the train station or simply standing outside a bank there is always someone eating something. Now as I mentioned in a previous blog, I am adventurous but I am no Anthony Bourdain or Andrew Zimmern. I wouldn’t last too long on the Travel Channel’s ‘Bizarre Foods’ however, I have put together a list of strange and bizarre foods that I have seen, touch, smelled and even heard, but taste, eh, not necessarily!
It’s that time of year again when the memory of former Riverdancer, Dr Eithne Walls, will be marked by her friends, family and former colleagues running the 2013 Flora Womens Mini Marathon to raise money for Dublin’s Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital’s Research Foundation. Eithne, a former Riverdancer and a Doctor at the RVEEH, was a passenger along with her friends and colleagues Dr Aisling Butler and Dr Jane Deasy on the ill-fated Air France Flight 447 which disappeared over the Atlantic on June 1 2009. Each June Bank Holiday since then her friends, family, and former colleagues in both Riverdance and the RVEEH have come together to run the Mini Marathon as a way of remembering Eithne.
After Zhengzhou, we were ready to brace the extreme cold of Inner Mongolia and arrived early afternoon to Hohhot. With temperatures as low as -21C, it was no surprise that the majority of the cast stayed indoors. Our talented physical therapist, Garrett Dockery fully embraced the weather however and went wandering. Not long later, he informed me he spotted a group of locals ice skating on the frozen pond and decided to join them..no bother to Garrett!
Browsing Panjiayuan Outdoor Antique market down in the South Chaoyang district and I was not prepared for the cold. Forced to duck in and out of jade and amber dealers’ booths to warm up, I braved the biting arctic winds. Although the weather was unwelcoming, the local dealers were not.
We have really been travelling far and wide since my last blog and I was extremely excited to experience Hohhot in Inner Mongolia. Preferably I would have ventured out more during my time there, but the cold air was intense,
Mr Whelan signalled the strong possibility that Riverdance will be performed in Limerick as part of one of the major events for the year, the draft programme for which is expected to be unveiled in June. “It would be absolutely my hope that that will happen and I have already approached my partners in Riverdance on this and I think we will make this happen,” he said.
James Greenan is one of the male leads with Riverdance, currently performing in China as part of the Riverdance Grand Theatre Tour. James was born in London but moved with his family to Co Cavan at the age of 11. A keen footballer, he took some persuading to take up dancing, but has never looked back since.
Distracted by Inner Mongolian sub zero temperatures, flights galore and simply trying to stay warm in our hotels, I have been somewhat slacking on my blogging and forgive me, but I am slipping back a fortnight and going to tell some tales of our adventure in Beijing.