Brilliance Fresh City Shopping Mall

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No trip is complete without shopping, and we needed to stock-up on the latest in food and fashion if we were going to survive our week in Daxing, so we headed with Cecilee (Li Xi) and Jingkai (Jingkai He) to the Brilliance Fresh City Shopping Mall. Since it was my birthday, we also enjoyed some festivities. We had lunch at the grand opening of the Golden Hans. This fine establishment is a cross between a German Biergarten, a Brazilian Churascarria, and a Chinese Buffet--German on the walls, beer steins, sausage on a stick, and men in cowboy gear and Marlboro hats wearing face masks in commemoration of Swine Flu. That evening we returned to the compound for dinner on June, our host, who presented me with a beautiful cake and birthday noodles, and the team a wonderful meal.

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Photos

Brilliance Fresh City
The entrance to the shopping mall.

Golden Hans
Here's the team being served at the Golden Hans grand opening.

Birthday Fish
I was graced with this lovely plate of birthday fish, hand delivered by Cecilee. I passed it along to others, as it's always good to share.

Dinner
We were treated to an excellent dinner by June and the Deputy Chief Adjudicators back at the FLTRP...as if we could still handle it after the meal at the Golden Hans!

Cake
The cake the FLTRP had made for me was amazing. I was incredibly honored. The work was beautiful. The knife was large and intimidating.

Noodles are Hard
Apparently long noodles in broth, topped by an egg, symbolize long life for the birthday boy. I'm still trying to figure out how to eat noodles with chop stix.