On Shamian Island, there were many shops that catered to tourist. This is where we stayed at the White Swan Hotel. This island used to house the American Consulate. They decided to move it due to safety issues. On the day we arrived from Jaing Xi, we were starved for American cooking. Part of the problem was that if you did not have your translator, food was harder and more expensive to come by. It is hard to go to a restaurant, where no one knows English and order something. They all had pictures, but you did not know what kind of meat or whether it was spicy or not. Depending where you were, that mattered.
Our guide told us about the western oasis known as Lucy's. Lucy's is a Mandarin run business that serves western food, like Hamburgers. We ate our first meal here. It was good, but we found it to be pricey. It had movie posters and other paraphernalia hanging on the walls.
On our next trip, we went there again. The one thing that irritated us was when our 7 year old, who only speaks Mandarin starts ordering soda and refills. They actually gave her what she ordered. We put our foot down. We got our guide to assist with the ordering. We knew we were in trouble when they served her the refills. We knew they do not give refills in China. We could not understand why they did not ask the parents if it was okay to give it to her.
When we meet with fellow adoptive parents, they all mention Lucy's. I guess it was better for them than us. I'd rather eat at the Thai Chinese restaurant on the island. That's another story.
No comments:
Post a Comment