Day 26 of my China journey. My last day of being 21, one more day and I'll step into the adulthood forever, lol, jokes. Well, age doesn't really matter to me anymore, 18 sounds so long ago, 28 sounds not too far ahead of me. Looking forward to my last day at age of 21.
Interesting how we are destined to meet like this huh?? Two girls from two different ends of the world, German and Chinese; met at the beautiful country called New Zealand; became close friends; and now meeting up in China! We kept on saying, it's destined that we meet and become friends. It's just so cool!!!
Before coming to Nanluoguxiang, I did a little bit of research on Baidu (equivalent to Google in China). There are few very unique and interesting restaurants and bars in Nanluoguxiang. The first one we saw when we got there was Pass By Cafe. That's it, that's the one we picked on. The owners and creator of Pass By Cafe are a couple, and they were inspired by Tibet culture and food when they travelled there. They incorporated a lot of new ideas into some traditional food, western and eastern. The most famous dishes in Pass By Cafe are their Lamb Skewer Pizza and Gong Bao Chicken Pizza, both very typical Chinese-style dish but on a pizza; and also the wheatmeal milk tea (inspired by a drink the owners had in Tibet). I read online that sometimes the owners will bike to Tibet (for holiday etc) and sometimes will gather some loyal customers to go with them. How interesting?
Today something special will happen!!! Introducing: Eli!!!! Eli is the first friend I made when I started my postgraduate study in University of Auckland. She's German, but the interesting thing is that she flew to New Zealand straight from China. She graduated her bachelor in Germany and travelled to Jinan and Suzhou of China to study Mandarin and teach German. I was really lucky to have met her in July this year. Ever since then we've become really close friends. We always hang out together in Uni, studying 2 papers together, fighting the heavy loads of university work together, coffee together, getting angry and sad together. She's in China atm, visiting her old colleagues and her boyfriend (Shibaz) before going back to Germany for a white Christmas with her family. Then she'll be visiting her host parents in US before returning to NZ to finish her postgraduate study (with me, wakakakaka).
Interesting how we are destined to meet like this huh?? Two girls from two different ends of the world, German and Chinese; met at the beautiful country called New Zealand; became close friends; and now meeting up in China! We kept on saying, it's destined that we meet and become friends. It's just so cool!!! She'll arrive today at Beijing and taking off to Germany tomorrow afternoon. It was a pity that we didn't arrange the time better, otherwise I could invite her to my birthday dinner. But just to be able to see her is already enough for me! Her boyfriend Shibaz will come with her, both of them will stay at our flat for one night. Just can't wait to see her =)
Eli arrived at Beijing station (just behind my work) at about 4pm, and I got off work a bit earlier. As soon as I saw her, we were both so excited! It feels like we were friends for years, so nice and warm to see her again. Shibaz was a bit tired and I really felt sorry for all the nonstop talking between the girls, haha, must be tiring and boring for him. I took them home first to drop off their luggage, so that we can go out for a little walk and dinner.
After considerations and discussions, I decided to take them to Nanluoguxiang. Jordan was home today so I invited him to come with us. I think Nanluoguxiang is a wonderful place. The ancient architectures, traditional cultures, interesting mixture of shops and many more were all the reasons why I suggested Nanluoguxiang. Especially the old Siheyuan (courtyard houses) are a specialty in Beijing, and with the reduction numbers of courtyard houses, I think it'll be great for Eli to see it.
Before coming to Nanluoguxiang, I did a little bit of research on Baidu (equivalent to Google in China). There are few very unique and interesting restaurants and bars in Nanluoguxiang. The first one we saw when we got there was Pass By Cafe. That's it, that's the one we picked on. The owners and creator of Pass By Cafe are a couple, and they were inspired by Tibet culture and food when they travelled there. They incorporated a lot of new ideas into some traditional food, western and eastern. The most famous dishes in Pass By Cafe are their Lamb Skewer Pizza and Gong Bao Chicken Pizza, both very typical Chinese-style dish but on a pizza; and also the wheatmeal milk tea (inspired by a drink the owners had in Tibet). I read online that sometimes the owners will bike to Tibet (for holiday etc) and sometimes will gather some loyal customers to go with them. How interesting? I ordered a wheatmeal milk tea with entre salad of mango, papaya and chicken, garlic bread; then a large pizza with half lamb skewer and half gong bao chicken, to share with everyone. Jordan ordered a specialty pizza (literal translation from Chinese), with an English name called 'African pizza', lol don't see any association at all. This is a sweet pizza, mango, banana, curry and cheese pizza. Shibaz ordered spicy beef on rice, and Eli ordered pasta. This was a very relaxing dinner, we were all very relaxed and feeling lazy inside this warm and cosy restaurant. After dinner, we had a walk around the area and us girls finally had some time to catchup between ourselves. It was just so nice to see an old friend again, especially in another country, it made everything seemed extra precious.
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