Shenzhen is full of thieves, prostitutes and hustlers.

That  said, it has a bad side too.

An example of a bad thing is that my area of Shenzhen, Luohu, is all city all the time.

Buses, trains, taxis, malls, stores, shops, shoppes, strip malls, bars, pubs, clubs etc etc. (Sorry, got tired of what I was doing there.)

There’s not much in the way of parks or recreation or the outdoors. I hear there’s a mountain directly to the west of me, though I’ve never been here on a clear enough day to see it. In SZ you can basically see 10 city blocks in any direction and then it sort of fades out into a movie like backdrop of blurriness that  says: “there’s more stuff over there but it’s not really that important to the plot here”.

On Thanksgiving I decided to venture out to the countryside, to the cold weather, to a place that has history, culture, stereotypically good food:

Hunan.

Just say it to yourself. It sounds good. (Hoo-Nawn)

You’ve probably heard of Hunan because like Sichuan, restaurants in the US will often name their restaurant after a Province.

Don’t be fooled, it’s pretty much all the same food in most of them, but if you come to China and try to order something you really like to eat at Hunan Palace or Sichuan Garden they’ll have no idea what you’re talking about:

Well certainly they have Egg Rolls. Nope.

General Tsaos Chicken? Nope.

Sweet and Sour– Nope.

Hey you interrupted me there man. Ok sorry, try one more time.

Egg Foo Young. Nope.

Let me try one more time. Orange Chicken! Nop– Ok, well actually they do have a chicken dish that uses the dried orange peel (chéunpí) but I guarantee you its only vaguely similar to the delicious orange chicken of those United States.

In other words if you ate it you’d be like who put this hard inedible dry shit in with these pieces of chicken and bone and carrots and peppers?!

Well where is that dish from Mr China?

Hunan.

With that I found a cheap ticket and flew to Changsha, Hunan Province. After landing at an airport located on the top of a mountain (for safety, certainly) I took a long cab ride down the valley to Changsha where a friend of a friend was waiting for me with a room key to a hotel he works at.

Keep in mind my chinese is that of a 4 year old boy at this point. It’s amazing I can get around like this.

The town was dead. It was  cold. I wanted to eat hot pot.

We headed out in a cab and I was like “this town sucks”, when it’s a smaller city and I had come there for that reason.

I remembered this and sort of cooled my jets and was like “Ok, I can eat hot pot in a tent”

Upon sticking my head into one of the above tents the locals looked at me here like a complete freak. Girls in China will often look, whisper to a friend, smile and then giggle. Men will look at you like “I hope you don’t plan to stay long”.

First few tents were dog and fish only.

Friends reading, I have to tell you I will probably eat dog again. I just don’t care anymore.

Anyhow, tent #5 had lamb.

My new friend quickly ordered some beers and then told me that he wanted me to try something, which was like chewing tobacco but makes you sorta stoned and tastes like “ancient chinese herbs”. You know the taste.

It looks like this:

I look like this eating it:

Anyhow, i’m still here in Hunan and I  went to the famous tower at Yueyang (a very nice city integrated with nature) and I planned to go to Chairman Mao’s House to take some photos and goof off but my pictures are all coming out horribly with this fog and I sort of miss Shenzhen.

This dude likes to get stoned on herbs and eat hot pot. Not a bad dude.

Overall, I think Hunan would be a great place to visit and check out the sights, but just not in Late November.