That's Just the Way it is

We went to the Xuan Wu Lake this weekend. It was a beautiful day, Mister had just finished a soccer game, and an international food fair was being held at the lake. We were very much hoping "international" would include American cuisine (oh so adventurous, I know).

The lake is huge. There is a road that goes all around and in the middle of the lake. There are rock formations, statues, booths, and much more. It is usually a very peaceful place, but the food festival brought hundreds and hundreds of people.

Our first glimpse at the booths. It looks promising--almost like a fair in Provo!

It turns out, the food booths were about as international as Nanjing itself. There was plenty of Chinese food. There was KFC (sold out). There was nothing else.

Live chicken, anyone? $3/lb

On the "fresh" theme--some live crabs cooking away.

Pig tongue and ear. A woman told us it was very good. I think she could tell we didn't quite believe her.

Tang Bao (soup rolls) are delicious and pretty cool!

The ratio of Chinese food booths (many) to international booths (one) doesn't even really represent that of the Chinese to foreign population. There are 13,000+ expats living in Nanjing. That seems like a pretty big number, don't you think?? Well, it makes up a big 0.2% of the 7 million+ people living in urban Nanjing!

No wonder people get excited or take Miss A's picture when they see her. I can't think of anything in America to compare it to...even Utah has more diversity.

At the lake

Thinking about this, it makes so much more sense why things are the way they are here. Why the selection of food is different and smaller, why it is hard to find shampoo for my type of hair, why there is just one Indian restaurant and one Middle Eastern restaurant that we know of in the whole city, why it is so difficult to find deodorant for men and tampons for women.

Things are the way they are because, for the most part, they work. Chinese like certain foods, have very similar hair, eat at certain restaurants, and often (but not always) don't need deodorant. Majority rules on this one.

China isn't outdated or old-fashioned, the people just like what they like. Kind of like I like to eat cold cereal every morning. Wise choice? Not the best, but I get my vitamins and minerals and a mama knows what she likes!