In November 2012, I went to Fuzhou on a business trip and I put a couple of free afternoons to use by exploring the city. First stop, the nice West Lake, on the banks of which is located the modest Fujian Provincial Museum; second stop, the Three Lanes and Seven Alleys, one of those ultra-fake streets Chinese people like so much. |
Fuzhou seems pretty small when compared to most Chinese megalopolis and the distance between the several points of interest is not that great. When it’s 28° and a nice breeze is blowing, one could walk the whole afternoon. Which is actually what I did, leaving the hotel at 12:45 and getting back at 17:45, with no stop in between.
On the tourist map I’d found in the taxi from the airport was written that the entrance fee to the area was 120RMB, a sum I was not at all going to shell out, but for free I could have sneaked a peak from the outside. I arrived at the area to discover it was “under renovation”, Chinese for: we’re dismantling it to build it anew. The only sections open to public were the main alley and a few side streets. The main street was quite colourful and swarming with people, being as it was, it dotted with small shops and small bars, while the side alleys were deserted and half-abandoned, their only attractions being a few historical houses. |
As I mentioned, I was on a business trip, which means that we could sometimes eat at nice restaurants. One night we went to an amazing Japanese teppanyaki. We had our own private room and private cook and while waiting for the client, we ate enough salmon to feed the villages of a whole local valley. After the salmon, sushi, fish, oysters, mushrooms, chicken, rolled-up steak (nothing to do with a real steak but highly choreographic), all of which sprinkled with hot sake.
The young cook was clearly having the time of his life generously throwing around pepper, salt and soy sauce. Such manoeuvres proved useful when we wanted to prevent him from flooding our meal with oil – they have a tendency to oil-abuse here ‘round. When, at the beginning of the meal he entered the room carrying a 500gram block of butter, I looked at him in horror and asked what he thought he was going to do with that. The butter went back where it had come from. Unfortunately, when we gave a second round of orders, a new cook came into the room and when nobody was paying attention, he retrieved the butter and covered the fish with it. All that time spent in telling the other cook how we wanted what cooked how, wasted! We had to start the training all over again.
The young cook was clearly having the time of his life generously throwing around pepper, salt and soy sauce. Such manoeuvres proved useful when we wanted to prevent him from flooding our meal with oil – they have a tendency to oil-abuse here ‘round. When, at the beginning of the meal he entered the room carrying a 500gram block of butter, I looked at him in horror and asked what he thought he was going to do with that. The butter went back where it had come from. Unfortunately, when we gave a second round of orders, a new cook came into the room and when nobody was paying attention, he retrieved the butter and covered the fish with it. All that time spent in telling the other cook how we wanted what cooked how, wasted! We had to start the training all over again.
During a second escape I visited the Crow Mount (Wu Shan 乌山), a hill with some interesting trees just behind Mao’s statue. The various shrines and pavilions seemed to be just scattered around in no particular order or design but the hill itself is characterized by some strange trees (or at least they seemed strange to someone who’s never been so far south) and gave the whole area a fairytale feel.
Recap:
Where? Fuzhou 福州, capital of Fujian Province 福建.
How to get there? Train, plane, coach, ass, pick your favourite!
Costs? All the sightseeing I visited were free of charge, with the exception of an historical house; interior is not even worth mentioning, so it's the price. As the the Three Lanes and Seven Alleys 三坊七巷 must be well renovated by now, expect some charges for the main attractions.
Where? Fuzhou 福州, capital of Fujian Province 福建.
How to get there? Train, plane, coach, ass, pick your favourite!
Costs? All the sightseeing I visited were free of charge, with the exception of an historical house; interior is not even worth mentioning, so it's the price. As the the Three Lanes and Seven Alleys 三坊七巷 must be well renovated by now, expect some charges for the main attractions.