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Published: November 8th 2023
5th Aug: Didn't do much today as it was a travel day. Lazy morning before heading to the train station to get the train to Shantou. I found out what the problem with my bag was. I had an aerosol can of dry shampoo in there and it is over the aerosol limit of 150 ml. Well you learn something new everyday. I never knew that there a limit for these kind of things on trains in China. The train journey was fine. It took about an hour and fifteen minutes to reach Shantou. Stepping out of the train station and back into the heat was hard and I was sweating by the time I got to the bus stop, which was not far. I had to wait about 10-15 minutes for the bus, but it only took about 15 minutes to get to my hotel and the bus stop was right outside. When checking in I was happily surprised to learn that I get free breakfast with my stay. Score! The hotel has two buildings and I was in the older, cheaper one. The room was old and a bit worn but clean and would be fine for a few
days. I didn't end up doing anything of interest as after a rest I headed to a mall which was about a twenty minute walk away to stock up on some bits and pieces. I had a nice walk through an older neighbourhood and passed what I felt was Shantou's nightlife district as there were a few clubs around. I wasn't sure if they were clubs for the general public or 'clubs' catering to a more specific clientele.
Back at the hotel, it was time to order some dinner. There's a saying that you come to Shantou to eat not to see the (few) sights, so I was eager to try the local cuisine. The local food is known as Chaoshan Cuisine or Teochew Cuisine. Geographically speaking, Chaoshan covers the cities of Chaozhou and Shantou. The cuisine is a branch of Cantonese cuisine with its own style. After reading a few articles online, I had a list of delicious sounding dishes that I wanted to try. Would I have time to try them all during my stay in the city? I wasn't sure but I was determined to give it a good go. I found a few places specialising
in Chaoshan Cuisine and I selected one that had a high review score. I ordered Hao Lao (蚝烙), which is an oyster omelette and seems to be one of the most representative dishes. I also ordered something that was called something along the lines of Chaoshan Vegetables as I saw Chaoshan in the name and thought that I should have some vegetables. When the food turned up I eagerly dug in. I can see why Chaoshan Cuisine is popular. The dishes I had were very tasty. They were salty and greasy, perfect food to go with drinking or for a hangover in my opinion. The oyster omelette was really, really good. There was a bag of dipping sauce that came with it that tasted like perfectly seasoned fish and chips, it was like really salty vinegar and went perfectly with the coriander topped omelette. There were quite few oysters in the omelette and the ratio was good, not too many, but not so few you were hunting for them. The fried vegetables were also delicious. It was a mixture of tomato, potato, rice cake, cabbage, and bok choy all stir fried up with a scrambled egg. It was tasty and
I liked the different textures of the different components of the dish. Perfect! There was also a bag filled with white powder. Salt? Sugar? Msg? Crack cocaine? It was sugar. I wasn't sure which dish it was meant to be for and the idea of putting sugar on either on them didn't appeal so that was chucked in the bin, pronto. I have the feeling that while I like Chaoshan Cuisine, it will be bad for my diet.
6th Aug: I headed down to sample the free breakfast. I didn't have high expectations and the breakfast room was in the building I was staying in, so I expected it to be a bit grotty. The breakfast room was clean, sleek and modern. I headed over to get a cup of tea first and then settled in at a table by the window. Unfortunately the view was only of the car park, but it beat looking at the wall. I was surprised at the large selection of food on offer. I had left it quite late to come down with less than an hour to go before breakfast service finished, but there was still plenty of choice even if all
the buffet trays weren't chock-a-block. It was hard to decide what to have but I knew I could always go back for more so loaded my first plate up with bitter melon, stir fried greens, siu mai (open pork and shrimp dumpling), har gow (shrimp dumpling), veggie fried dumpling, cheung fun, some kind of minced pork and veggies wrapped in seaweed, something covered in rice vermicelli that had been deep fried, and a custard baozi. I'm not a fan of bitter melon so I don't know why I chose it. I think I keep forcing myself to eat it so that one day I will actually like it. The dim sum bits were nice, nothing was amazing, but some were better than others. The cheung fun was meh, but I liked the minced pork wrapped in seaweed and you can never go wrong with siu mai. The stir fried greens were the best thing on the plate. For my second plate I got some stir fried noodles, a tea egg, dragon fruit, and more siu mai and pork wrapped in seaweed. The noodles and the tea egg were average and the rest was better.
I was lucky I only
had a short waddle to the bus stop. I was heading to Shantou Old Town and there was a bus that would take me straight there. I read online that the bus would come about every 20 minutes. Not too bad if I had just missed one, however I ended up waiting about 50 minutes. The bus stop was in a bad position as it provided very little protection from the sun. I could feel myself burning as I stood there. The bus journey didn't take too long and it dropped me near to Shantou Old Town. The Old Town seems to comprise of two areas; Shantou Small Park in the centre of the old town area where most people come and is the shopping eating district and the outer part which is an ordinary neighbourhood with beautiful old traditional buildings. I headed into the Small Park area. There were a lot of other tourists around, obviously not put off by the heat or the scorching sun. I didn't know what there was to see or do here, so I happily just wandered the streets looking at all the old buildings and taking far too many pictures. Looking back on
my pictures, they really don't do the area justice as it was far prettier than I managed to capture. I loved all the old traditional signage with a mix of Chinese and English. I wondered how international the area had truly been back in the day when this was busy seaport. The area reminded me a bit of some of the streets I had wandered in Xiamen a good few years previously. There were plenty of places selling food and drinks but I was still too full from breakfast. I liked that while the ground floors of most of the buildings were in use, if you looked up some of the upper floors of the buildings were crumbling wrecks, with only the outer wall and window panes, some didn't even have roofs. There was also a few bits of street art. Some traditional style murals depicting life in times gone by and more modern ones welcoming us tourists to Shantou. I was surprised to see that both the new and old spellings of Shantou/Swatow/Swatou were used. As well as the main streets I wandered down the smaller side streets. I loved the lanterns I saw hanging from the buildings and
away from the centre of the Small Park streets it was a lot quieter. I think there may have been a couple of museums/open houses, but there was pretty much no English information so I didn't want to randomly just walk in somewhere to get shooed away. I wished I hadn't been staying so far away as I would have loved to have come back in the evening and see everywhere all lit up. If I ever return, that'll be on the to-do list.
I headed down to Xidi Park as it looked like it would give me some nice views of the river. I passed the Old Post Office building, which looked very grand. Since it was open to the public I went inside for a look around. I was hoping that it would have a plentiful supply of air conditioning, but I was sorely disappointed. The Post Office building was first completed on 27th January 1922 and was known as Anping Post Office. In the past it was the leading post office for the area overseeing operations in Shantou, Chaozhou, Jieyang, Meizhou and Shanwei and around 325 local post offices belonged to its jurisdiction. What a large
area to cover, especially back in the day, when transportation was nowhere near as quick or convenient as it is today. From reading between the lines, it seems that the building has been rebuilt and modernised over the years to make it safe and sturdy against the many adverse natural weather conditions the area faces. Inside there wasn't too much to see, only the ground floor was accessible to the public, and most of the explanations were in Chinese only so my walk around was rather quick. Across the road there was another building with a red star at the top of its façade. I liked the building, but it was surrounded by tour groups so I kept away. I liked walking through the older parts of the Old Town as it was quieter and the buildings still very beautiful. This part of the neighbourhood felt more local with a mix of shops and businesses catering for locals as well as tourists. I loved the contrast as the modern green city buses ploughed the old looking streets. I came to some kind of food street that was pretty dead. I presume most people are hiding from the heat and it
would be busier in the evening. While it did look to be a modern interpretation of how the area had looked in the past, it was well done and fitted in well. It was so hot I had to pop into another convenience store for another cold drink.
I made it to Xidi Park and once through the gates, the first thing I did was find a nice shaded spot on a bench under a large overhanging tree and took a rest there. I enjoyed alternating reading and people watching. There were a few people coming and going from the park and most made a beeline for a bench in the shade. Everyone was definitely feeling the heat. After a nice rest, I got up for a bit of a walk around the park. The park isn't big or fancy, but has a nice relaxed atmosphere. The park is located on the site of a former port. I'm not sure if the port was used for international trade purposes or just to ferry people across the West Harbour. I enjoyed watching the boats come and go across the harbour. There was a mixture of large, sleek vessels and smaller
more traditional boats. I also watched the traffic going across the bridge that spanned the harbour. There was also the Guo Fan Memorial Column, which comprised of bricks with different dates on them. I learned that the port was used for international trade as the explanation plaque said that Shantou Xidi Port was used from 1860 to 1948 serving sea routes to Southeast Asian countries. Millions of people made a living in this area and it also became a major distribution centre for Overseas Chinese and the monument is dedicated to the ancestors who left their homeland.
I headed out of Xidi Park and set off in the direction of Zhong Shan Park, which was about a 35 minute walk away. I retraced my steps. I passed an oldish abandoned looking apartment building, the ground around it seemed to be used a car park for the various coaches that brought day trippers to the Old Town. Looking up I could see that the apartment building wasn't fully abandoned and one unit was still occupied. I wondered what the people living there thought about being the only people left in the building. I retraced my steps, stopping for a cold
drink and then heading through the Old Town. I was surprised to see some houses that were basically shacks, they made such a contrast to the grander buildings of the area and highlights the massive wealth disparity in China. I came out the other side of it and headed along the streets to the park. I was tired by the time I got there so found a bench and rested for a while in the shade. I think I was a bit over being out in the sun, so only managed a quick walk around the park before heading home. It was a nice park and I enjoyed my walk around the lake. It was pretty and although there were quite a few people about it was very peaceful. I walked across some small islands in the lake and stuck to the shade of the trees. From the park it was a short walk to a bus stop that would take me nearer to my hotel.
When I got off the bus I ordered a milk tea for when I got back. The shop must be pretty close as when I went into the reception to pick up my
breakfast voucher for the following morning I saw the delivery driver with it. After getting my voucher, I headed upstairs for a rest and to drink my tea. I had ordered a guava milk tea and it was really good. I was still quiet full from breakfast, so didn't order dinner until quite late. Although I had loved all the grease in yesterday's meal, I wanted a bit of a change so ordered stir-fired beef with Chinese kale (芥兰炒牛肉 jie lan chao niu rou) and rice, and Jiazi Fish Balls (甲子鱼丸 jia zi yu wan). These were both Chaoshan dishes, which I was looking forward to trying. The beef and Chinese kale was nice. There was nothing amazing about it, but it had a nice flavour and while still being a substantial meal was somewhat lighter than what I'd eaten the previous evening. The Chinese kale just seemed like a generic leafy green vegetable, nice enough but not like the kale I am used to in the west. The fish balls were really nice. I was unsure what they would be like and had expected them to be like the processed style fish balls you get in hotpot, which while
not the most appealing thing, I felt like I had to try as a local dish. I was more than happy to find that the fish balls were nothing like that. They were a bit more like a deep fried fishcake. Crunchy on the outside and softer in the centre. They weren't overtly fishy, but were tasty and came with a lovely dipping sauce that had just the right amount of kick to it. I am eating like a king in Shantou.
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RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
Chaoshan/Teochew Cuisine
Yuuum! I haven't logged into TB for a while, and I know I have many of your blogs to catch up on - but the food photos in this one drew me right in! I don't think I know much about Chaoshan Cuisine, and given I love Cantonese food I think I will love this too. The old town architecture is pretty special too :)