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Antwerp Pages by irisbe
 irisbe's Antwerp Travelogues | | | |
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| Page Views: 1,932 Last Visit to Antwerp: February, 2002 I Live Here | China Town : finished by irisbe - last update: Jan 1, 2003 |
|  | before the official opening of China Town.
2 white lions at each end of the street (Van Wesenbeekstraat) are guarding the entrance.
Originally an iron gate was planned but due to the electricity lines of the tram it was not possible unless a huge investment should have been made, too much for a small community and the city was not willing to pay more then planned.
So an alternative was found in buying these lions. |
| | Bring in the lions!
Let the party begin! |
The dance of the dragon; The dance of the Unicorn | | |
As I told earlier... today China Town was made official!
So there were a couple of activities done! | | | dance of the dragon, China town |
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Every one enjoyed! | | |
Invitees from the Netherlands |
There is this little bakery at the left of the street that has different kinds of pasteries. Normally the Chinese start their day with some rice cooked in a huge amount of water to which they add a bit of meat or so. But as that takes some time and life is hectic in the Western world they sometimes take one of these pasteries for breakfast. There are many different ones, filled with chicken or fish, or ham or cheese. And one of them is filled with a 100 years old egg. This is an egg that is kept (burried) in a mixture of 3 kinds of ingredients, one is a kind of black coal. So after 100 days when you digg out the egg, the white of the egg became black and the yellow became green and it smells like very awfull smelling cheese '-) p.s. I didn't try that egg! no Way! uh! |
All kinds of specialities for sale! mmmmmmjammmie! |
And walking through this decorated street, sniffing all those nice scents of food mmmmmmmm we heas towards the restaurant. There are many Chinese restaurants of course, good ones for sure! But as we were with many people we had to go to a bigger one just around the corner..... |
As it was the official opening on the 8th of December these signs were put up all over the street saying "Welcome" in all different kind of languages and writings. |
A few streets away (past the Offerandestraat) they have their Kung-fu school...
we were invited to have a look | | |
when invited you first are given a very nice cup of tea.
you don't only get to taste it, you also learn a bit about tea, the philosophy of sharing tea with good company.
Did you know there are 6000 different types of Chinese tea?
And that each tea can be made in such a different way that they taste different? | | |
We had an excellent guide that afternoon.
Being married to a Chinese for 7 years and living among them, she knows a lot about their way of living, culture and habbits. | | |
And this young guy is the one who explained us all about tea, about Kung-fu, about Taoism, about so many things.
He is a great narrator and speaker (and fighter) and I am pretty sure he will get far in his life, he has all the abilities in him. | | |
We were offered all kinds of demonstrations of wheapon fights, of kata's.
This one is a duo fight using the tactice of the monkey fight.
Other ones are cranebird, tiger, (and one I forgot, shame on me!)
Pity my camera doesn't have a good flashlight so I had to do it without and not many pictures were well enough to be put up here. | | |
A sword fight demonstration
uuuch!!!
Well good news: everyone survived!
Applaus for the demonstrators! | | |
We all excercised with the chopsticks. But picking up a paper serviette is still much easier then trying to get a slippery mushroom to your mouth hahaha We had such a fun smuddering! |
ooooooh! sorry! the food was so good I almost forgot to take a picture of it! Here we had our meal half finished hehehe oh ... the name of this restaurant? ok! Wong Kee Van Arteveldestraat 3 2060 Antwerp Tel +32 (0)3 707 26 68 Closed on Fridays other days opened from 6 pm till 4 am and yes the food was terrrrrrrrrrible GOOD! another restaurant I once went too was the Sing Kee... very good as well! Bon apetit! (well I guess you got hungry and ran of to the kitchen by now) |
China Town has not only a public house for the Chinese where they can meet after long working days when all the other people are at home, they also have 2 temples.
One run by a female Sifu and another by a male Sifu.
Both are accessable for the two genders but praying is done seperate.
This one is the one run by the male Sifhu (master, the one who teaches others because his knowledge is bigger then the one of the others). | | |
When entering the temple for the weekly praying at Wednesday, the males will put on a gray temple cloth and the females a blue one.
This way every one will be equal.
This temple is especially a Tao temple
Taoism is the knowledge that is very busy with nature and the relation of all living creatures towards nature.
You also have the Boedhism that is more related to the knowledge of the place of the "self"
and you also have confusionism that is about etiquette. | | |
Every Wednesday fresh oranges will be offered to be given away the following Tuesday.
Why oranges?
Well for esthetical and practical reasons:
It looks pretty good, doesn't it?
and they last well for a whole week, as the offers are refreshed once in a week. | | |
A look in one of the biggest Chinese supermarkets in the area. Here you don't only find Chinese, but also Japanese, Philippine, Thai, Indonesian food. They have a big offer of different kinds of rices, of sauces... tea's... even silk cloths, all what you need in the kitchen, wok's, cups... name it they most probably have it! .....and it is cheap! |
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| irisbe's Antwerp Travelogues | | | |
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 Comments for irisbe about Antwerp | | | | |
timada Mon Sep 15, 2008 19:01 UTC
It's good to visit .... shopping tips...when you're out of money ! :-)) enjoy very much your Antwerp page . | nora_south_africa Sun Apr 20, 2008 03:52 UTC
great transport tips , thanx for the pics | Goldenboy Tue Mar 11, 2008 08:48 UTC
Happy belated birthday Dannie ;) How are you all there ... so you have a cute granddaughter then, congratulation!! | blint Mon Mar 10, 2008 12:53 UTC
Liked many of your local custom tips :) |
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