10Mar Thu – Eating Bessie the Cow, Donald Duck, Porky Pig, Yogi Bear, and even Bambi but not Rin-Tin-Tin or Lassie
Dog Soup
Today we took the train to Yanji for 2:00 pm appointment in Court. We arrived at the Courthouse about an hour early. We had not eaten lunch yet so we decided to eat in a Korean restaurant across the street. Chen wanted me to try something different. I thought I was going to try duck soup but lost in the translation was that I ordered dog soup.
I have decided that I can eat Bessie the Cow, Donald Duck, Porky Pig, Yogi Bear, and even Bambi. But I cannot eat Rin-Tin-Tin or Lassie. Even Willie the worm and Freddie Frog are ok, but not dog. Not knowing what it was, I ate silk worm. Later in the market and through a translator I found that I has eaten silk worm. They were available for purchase and cooking at home but this time I passed. There are many street vendors just outside the large indoor market in Antu. One day a street vendor was selling something moving in a bucket. On closer inspection, I saw the bucket contained small frogs that had just emerged from tadpoles. In the morning, the bucket was full. Later in the afternoon, the same bucket was nearly empty. I did not buy any frogs. On this trip, I have know that I eaten fish eye, ox Intestines, pork tongue, cow/ox tendons, silkworm, and broth from dog soup. There are probably many other food items not normally experienced by my pallet that I ate. The Chinese appear to eat everything that is editable. There are 1.3 billion people to feed.
Back to the dog soup - as instructed, I added spices, seasoning, and flavoring from the table to the soup. The soup included broth, vegetables, rice, and meat. I tried a couple of spoonfuls of the broth but I could not eat the meat. The taste was ok; I just could not eat Fido. Along with the soup, there was a bowl of plain rice. I added the mixture of spices from the table to the rice. It tasted good. Then I was told the spice mixture included dog.
A Win in Court
In court, neither the judge nor attorneys showed up. There were two women from their staff in the court. They made an announcement for the 30 or so people in the courtroom. The announcement was in Chinese, of course, so I could not understand it. All the individuals in the room pulled out their IDs. As their names were called, each individual walked up to a desk in the front of the court room, showed their ID, and pick up some official paperwork from the Court. These legal documents cancelled any employment contract and/or marriage contract, therefore, the individuals were released of any obligation they had on their contracts. The people walking out of court were happy that they had won their case. The court was processing 25 – 30 individual cases every day for weeks, may be for months. Many people from this area of China were involved in this scam from Korea.
Yanji Market
After court, we took the bus to a major market shopping area on Yanji. There are very few private cars on the street. My guess is 50%-70% of the people use public transportation – taxi and bus in small towns like Yanji and subways in larger cities like Beijing. 30% - 50% use bicycles and some motor bikes. Only 5% or less drive or ride in a private car. It is common to walk for blocks and miles each day. The buses are very crowded. On the bus, there is an attendant who announces in a loud voice the bus’s destination, assists passengers getting on and off, and collects money. The cost of a city bus is 1 Yuan or about 15 cents per passenger. Of course, no speaks English and all the signs are in Chinese only. Without a Chinese speaking person, local buses and trains would be impossible to use. Taxi would be useable only if your destination was written down on paper in Chinese for the driver to read.
The shopping area includes many street vendors, indoor markets (like American Flea Markets) where individual vendors set up their tables with products to sell. Also there are modern name-brand stores, and more modern department store like shops. As the stores are nicer and nicer, generally the price goes up but not always. In the modern department stores, the store has greater costs for packaging, floor space, bright lighting, and advertising so the price has to increase accordingly. We bought food for the train trip back to Beijing and for the hotel.
The northern area of China is very cold with snow on the ground much of the year. Refrigerators have limited use and freezers are unheard of. The stores have many variables of dried and pickled foods so they can be stored for a long time without the use of preservatives and without freezing or canning.
Bus Trip back to Antu
When we are ready to go back the Antu, we will have to wait 2 hours for the train which would arrive too late for us. The train costs 7 Yuan (~$1.10 USD). There are busses available leaving soon. The cost for bus is 13.5 Yuan (~$2.10) – nearly double to save 2 hours waiting. The railway system is operated by the government and provides very low cost transportation for its citizens. The buses are owned by independent operators. An individual can buy a bus, hire a driver, get a license, and begin transporting passengers. Trains hold 100 people per car and transport hundreds of people in trains of 10 – 18 cars long. The bus holds 52 people and runs more often but provides no food or toilets.
Once back in Antu, we have dinner with Chen’s family at the Mother’s farm house then return to pack to go to train. This morning we woke up at 6AM and the train departed at 10:30PM tonight. It has been a long day.
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