National Day in China

Yesterday, October 1, was National Day in China, which celebrates the founding of the People's Republic of China. Since we have a week of vacation, it is a normal time for people to travel to different cities or to return to their home towns. While it is normally a big holiday here, this year it is especially big because it is the 60th anniversary (1949-2009).

I was lucky enough to be invited by one of my teacher friends to her house to eat lunch with her friends and her mother. Of course, it was delicious (her mother is a very good cook) and there were dumplings, shrimp, fish, chicken soup, mutton, bamboo roots, and some other tasty vegetables and other things that I don't know the names of. My chopstick skills were put to the test, and I finally learned how to eat the shrimp here in a reasonable way. In the U.S., shrimp are usually small and in a ready-to-eat form. Here, they are usually bigger and still have shells, legs, and tails, and sometimes heads with beady little black eyes and feelers that stick out. Eventually I caught onto the trick and (very slowly) succeeded in de-shelling and eating them. In any case, the food was great and I enjoyed talking to everyone and seeing the apartment. After lunch we drank more tea and ate some pomelo, which is like a giant grapefruit that is sweeter and not as bitter.

On television, we watched a huge military parade in Beijing celebrating the 60th anniversary. There were many musical performances as well with singing and dancing, many of which were done in historical styles. Every complex dance move was perfect, every military goose step was in sync, and it was all done at such a huge scale that it was really incredible to watch. There were also a large number of fighter jets, tanks, and other military vehicles. Of course the most powerful officials were there too, and Hu Jintao (the current chairman) rode out into the parade in a luxury car and made a big speech. As usual, though, the scale of it all was really the most difficult thing to fathom. When it comes to big celebrations, the Chinese make them truly massive.

In the afternoon I ventured out to the center of Huzhou to see if there was much going on there. There were many more people than usual because of the holiday, and of course there were more street vendors, games for kids, people riding in pedal boats, old men fishing, young people shopping, and everyone eating at different restaurants and shops. As the sun went down, the special lights for the occasion were turned on and the entire park area was lit up by light blue Christmas lights and lights running along in tubes. It was pretty surreal, and big 20 and 30-story buildings were lit up too with their own special lighting. There was live music as well, but I was hungry so I went in search of food. After I got past the busy area where people sell pets on the street (baby mice, turtles, rabbits, and puppies), I found many street vendors with tasty looking food. After eyeing some skewered meat, I bought a few pieces and began to eat it. After I halfway through the first piece, I thought that it wasn't chicken, pork, or beef. It looked lighter and naturally long, not made up from other pieces of meat. Then I realized that I was probably eating part of a snake, but it was a very nondescript part without any outward signs of snake-iness (just a light meat). I also realized that the other funny-looking skewered meat sticks that I saw were probably snake tail kebabs.

Important Update: It wasn't snake, they are just strips of chicken or pork that look like they are from the same piece of meat. Also, the other things aren't snake tails, they are octopus tentacles. Another teacher told me that snake is basically not sold by street vendors as it is more of a special item. Apparently I was just nervous about the mysterious meat possibilities here.

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