Pampering Parents

What did I get up to?

It was an incredible day in Zibo (淄博) - a recurring theme of today was the presence of amazing food and a massive amount of it.

The day started with a very Chinese breakfast, including tea-boiled eggs, rice porridge (粥 - "jook"), meat pie and some cakes. Myself and Zixiao left to explore the surrounding area and visit his local park, which was absolutely beautiful and picturesque.

At noon, we met with one of Zixiao's good friends from high school - "Mr. Liu". After walking around a bit more, we eventually found another one of his friends and we entered a Chinese buffet for lunch.

It was a huge contrast to the "buffet" of the sort found in London. It was a barbecue buffet, where the food was initially raw and we were expected to cook it on hobs incorporated in our tables. It led to weird and wonderful combinations of meat and seafood-heavy dishes.

After lunch we caught a bus to visit the History Museum of Qi Kingdom. The Qi state during the time of the Zhou dynasty in China had the present day Zibo as its capital (it was called Linzi at the time). It was inspiring to see how important the city was and still is to the present day.

We (Zixiao, Mr. Liu and I) then headed back to Zixiao's home, where we had an incredible meal professionally prepared by his parents. I really was in awe at the quality and sheer volume of the food which was consumed. Oysters were eaten, along with shrimps, home-made sausage, tofu, and squid among many, many others. I was constantly being prodded to eat more and try new foods i have never come across before. To wash everything down, Chinese white wine (apparently with over 50% alcohol content) was consumed along with the traditional Tsingtao beer and many more cups of green tea. I was completely full afterwards.

This has by far been one my best days since touching down on Chinese soil. I really did feel at home with the Wang family (if not slightly overwhelmed by the kindness and of course, the food). Watching Zixiao interact with locals, his friends and his family brought me great joy, as this is of course something I had never seen much of in halls in London.

The overall response from the locals of the city was extremely positive. With many people not having seen a foreigner before, there was the occasional fits of giggles from girls and requests to take photos, but smiles all round. I would love to spend more time here - I just wish my train back to Beijing wasn't at 10am tomorrow morning!

How has this helped me?

I have learned the great importance of maintaining good relations with my close friends. Zixiao was a truly incredible host, with himself, his parents and his friends bending over backwards for me countless times to make my experience just that little bit more pleasant. It made me seriously reconsider how I normally treat my close friends, and ask myself whether it is on a level of kindness anywhere near what Zixiao displayed to me today.