In January 2024, Joanne and I went to China! We went to Macau and Zhuhai.

As always, these pictures are available in full resolution and are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 license.

1 Thursday, 2024-01-04: Arrival in Macau

We arrived in Hong Kong international airport at 13:30 via Hong Kong Airlines flight 607.

No time to sightsee in Hong Kong; we immediately took the bus to Macau.

1.1 Coloane, Macau

We went to check out the old city.

1.2 Dinner: Pearl Dragon

We went to the Michelin starred Pearl Dragon for dinner. It’s really good.

1.3 Nighttime stroll

We went for a nighttime stroll to take in more sights and eat dessert.

2 Friday, 2024-01-05: Extreme Macau sightseeing

2.1 Breakfast: fast food

We had a traditional breakfast at Cafe de Coral.

2.2 Sightseeing

We walked around randomly. Since Joanne has been to Macau many times, she led the way.

2.3 Lunch: A random cafe

For lunch we went to a random spot frequented by high schoolers.

2.4 Macau Grand Prix Museum

It was a really nice museum and quite empty.

2.5 More sightseeing

This time we stuck to the old alleys to look at the old buildings. Despite their crumbling exterior, they are very expensive!

2.6 Dinner: Apomac

For dinner we went to the Macau Retiree’s Association — Associação dos Aposentados, Reformados e Pensionistas de Macau, or Apomac for short. They serve traditional Portuguese food.

And with that, our Macau trip is over. Onto Zhuhai!

3 Saturday, 2024-01-06: Arrival in Zhuhai

To be exact, our humble abode (Joanne mom’s apartment) is in the relatively suburban district of Doumen. We spent much of the Zhuhai leg of the trip hanging out with cousins and friends.

After eating homemade breakfast, we got a coffee and second breakfast at a rather fancy spot.

Then we had lunch at home.

In the afternoon, we got a massage at a random massage location and went for a walk.

3.1 Dinner: Hakka food

For dinner we went to Hakka Big Goose Bay (客家大鹅湾), a recently opened hakka restaurant.

For dessert we went to Yitian Dessert and got the pistachio mousse.

4 Sunday, 2024-01-07: Earth oven

First we got some coffee.

Then we had earth oven-cooked chicken, mantis shrimp, and other delicious foods with some of Joanne’s friends.

For dinner, Joanne’s cousins came over and we all had dinner together at Joanne’s mom’s place.

5 Monday, 2024-01-08: Doumen specialties

On this day we explored Old Doumen, Jintai Temple, and some specialty Doumenese cuisine. After homemade breakfast, we headed out!

5.1 Lunch: Claypot

For lunch we got claypot food at a mall. It was pretty expensive by local standards since we didn’t have coupons.

5.2 Doumen old street

The Doumen old street is an old street that they renovated while maintaining the look of the old buildings. It has a bunch of old restaurants serving local desserts and snacks. We had a douhua and some pickled vegetables but it was mediocre.

5.3 Jintai Temple

Then we went to Jintai Temple. I created the Wikipedia article for this temple.

5.4 Old area

5.5 Dinner: traditional Doumenese

We got some traditional local specialties with Joanne’s friends.

6 Tuesday, 2024-01-09: Downtown Zhuhai

6.1 Breakfast: homemade wontons.

First we had homemade wonton.

Second breakfast: Egg pudding.

6.2 Downtown Zhuhai

First we took the cable car up to Jingshan Park (景山公园). As its name implies, it has a nice view of the city.

Then we went for a bike ride along the Lover’s Road.

6.3 Dinner: Seafood and barbeque

We went to Liu Qiao Barbeque (柳桥炭烧). It is run by a skilled chef from Harbin, specializing in both barbeques and fresh seafood sourced from the clean northern waters. The chef is also skilled at preparing the delicious sauces and powders for the barbeque.

Without a doubt, the arctic surf clam was the star of the show and some of the most delicious food we’ve eaten on this trip. It was exquisitely tender and jellylike.

The foot of the clam is black when raw, but turns characteristically red when cooked.

Most arctic surf clam served in the US is cooked — rubbery and flavorless. We’ve never had the raw one before, but it was amazing. We also had a briefly poached one that was even better than the completely raw one, even more tender and sweet.

The restaurant has a number of other amazing seafood such as king crab, but we didn’t have the chance to try that. We’ll have to return at some point!

7 Wednesday, 2024-01-10: Various Zhuhai places

7.1 Lunch: homemade

First we woke up and had homemade lunch.

7.2 Xiashan Park

We went to Xiashan park (霞山公园).

7.3 Random walking around

7.4 Dinner: at a cousin's house

From Joanne’s cousin’s house, we could see a huge bridge under construction in the distance. It’s the Huangmao Sea Crossing bridge (黄茅海跨海通道)!

8 Thursday, 2024-01-11: Shunde

8.1 Shunde

Shunde is known for the largest paifang in the world in Shunfengshan park.

8.2 Dinner: Shunde sashimi

Shunde is known for shunde yusheng, or raw freshwater fish.

Warning: consuming raw or undercooked freshwater fish may pose an extreme health hazard due to the risk of parasites.

Anyway, it was pretty delicious. The fish was sliced into small slices of less than a millimeter thick each, so each slice was transparent. It is then mixed with a bunch of condiments including oil, onion, dill, dried orange peel, pickles, ginger, carrot, garlic, and chili. It was amazing!

9 Friday, 2024-01-12: Wudong and downtown Zhuhai

9.1 Lunch: Beef hotpot

I went to meet Anson, a friend who lives in Foshan. We had beef hotpot at Wudong, a village dedicated to eating beef.

9.2 Dessert: Matcha cakes

We then went to downtown Zhuhai where we got matcha dessert.

9.3 Yuanming Xinyuan

The Yuanmingyuan is a famous palace. The “New Yuanmingyuan” (圆明新园) is a new replica of it.

9.4 Dinner: Hotpot

We had hotpot in a themed place in a mall where all the servers dressed up as construction workers and had scheduled dance performances.

10 Saturday, 2024-01-13: Flight back

Anyway I got food poisoning. Not sure if I got it from the shunde raw fish or the beef hotpot, but extreme diarrhea and fever were had. Two visits to the ER ensued.

In the ensuing days I recovered and stool tests revealed no parasites or ova.

Oh well, until next time!