Places of Xiangyang: People's Square and Wan Da Plaza

People’s Square:

People’s Square. 人民广场 (ren min guang chang). There isn’t really a whole ton to say about this one, because I haven’t explored it to its full capacity. If I do, I’ll write more another time. The main reason why I ever go to People’s Square is because of a lovely Western bar that is over there called Pengyou Bar (translation: Friend Bar). Now keep in mind, bars in China aren’t ALWAYS bars where they just serve beer or have glitzy lights where you dance around. Most of the bars I frequented in Kunming are like Pengyou Bar, where they were run by Westerners or Western-minded Chinese and they serve Western style alcoholic drinks or Western beer. IN ADDITION, they are also a restaurant where Western food is served…it is at these places where you’ll find the best Western food in town: the best burgers, pizzas, salads, pastas, and depending on the place you’ll see other things too. In Kunming, there was a bar that specialized in Mexican food. Another place specialized in French food and served lots of French bread. Pengyou Bar’s specialty would be burgers and steak. It’s run by a Western-minded Chinese young lady who is native to Xiangyang, but has spent many many years in Beijing. She told me that when she lived in Beijing, she would always have a wide variety of choices for foreign foods there. If she wanted Italian she could get Italian, Indian, French, Mexican, and of course Chinese, she could get everything she wanted. But coming back to Xiangyang to live, she had a very VERY limited variety of Western foods, so she decided to start her own restaurant so she could eat more Western food. I am very grateful that she decided to do this because she serves the best burgers in Xiangyang. You take a bite of them and the juicy meat melts in your mouth. The only other place that has comparable burgers to hers is the Crowne Plaza, which I’ll talk about next, but their prices are a bit more expensive than hers. Oh, and also, she serves the best pizza in Xiangyang too (at least that I’ve tasted…so it’s possible somewhere else may be better). Her pizza is so good, the cheese is perfect, and the toppings aren’t fake meat like I’ve seen other restaurants try to put on the pizza. Sooooo good. So for now, that’s People’s Square’s highlight.

Wan Da Plaza:

Once more, not a whole lot to say about this one either. You'll know Wan Da Plaza when you see it because there's a big glaring gilded statue of Zhuge Liang placed right in the middle of it. The plaza consists of features such as a stadium, a small fun park for little children, several small bars and stores, the large Wan Da supermarket (where I get much of my stuff to cook food with...the name Wan Da is a Chinese cognate for the supermarket's original name "Vanguard"), and the looming Crowne Plaza Hotel. I've gone to this plaza for several reasons: to hang out with friends at the bars (remember what I mentioned about bars before...I'm there for the food and company, cuz I don't like beer), to go food shopping at Wan Da supermarket, and to have dinner at the Crowne Plaza Hotel (which is rare and expensive, but sooo much fun and so worth it). So here's a little bit about the place.

This is one of the main places Westerners stay if they ever had any random reason to be in Xiangyang. Or rich Chinese people who are more likely to have a reason to come to Xiangyang. But the Crowne Plaza’s claim to fame is, like Pengyou, their FOOD. Okay, I know I may be talking a lot about food in my posts, but really…it’s the rare person that can come and live in China for an extended period of time and not have cravings for any kind of hearty food. (Hearty food is not China’s specialty. Healthy is.) Don’t get me wrong, I love Chinese food…but I need some hearty Western meals every once in a while to hold me over. The other day (and my Jamaican friends and family will understand this reference) I was sitting in my apartment daydreaming of a nice plate of ackee and saltfish, all mixed together, with a piece of fried bammy (or some hard dough bread or a Johnny cake would do too) to eat it with.

Anyway, the Crowne plaza has a delicious variety of foods like the ones I mentioned offered at the Pengyou Bar. We tried these one day and they were SUPER GOOD. But to describe them would be repeating myself. What I WILL mention is what the Crowne Plaza has that is exclusively from Crowne Plaza. The Crowne Plaza has a smorgasbord of seafood which you can partake of ALL YOU CAN EAT style for 200 kuai. Now before you freak out at the price, 200 kuai is like $40/$50. I cannot tell you everything that it has because I have not tried it yet…but I know it has sushi, shrimp, and fish. We will go there for Thanksgiving so when that happens I’ll be sure to give you a full account…and if I’m not starving, I’ll remember to take pictures too.

That's the huge Zhuge Liang statue. As I mentioned in my earlier posts, Zhuge Liang is one of the key icons of Xiangyang, having spent some years here in his life. You can recognize him because he always carries a feather fan (that's it in his right hand). The Crowne Plaza is one of the large buildings behind him, to the right.

These guys have these kind of whip-like things in their hands. They swing it and whip it against the big spinning top thing that's on the ground, and that's how the top keeps spinning around. When it was warmer, these older men used to do it every night. I also saw some people cracking actual whips in the air. I guess it was their form of exercise, like tai-chi or the late-night dancing that the older Chinese women would do.

These are some pictures I took from the upper level of the mall that Wan Da supermarket was located in. Of course, you can see a McDonald's is here too.

Here's a view of the side of the stadium. I thought it was a cool pic with the sun in the background.

Here's the fun park. It was really dirty and some of the rides were rusty and didn't work. So, not really a big hotspot for people to go to. There were only a few people there.