Burt Wolf's Table: The Island of Formosa - #224

BURT WOLF:   The island of Formosa...  where some of the most interesting temples of China show us how the teachings of Buddha and instructions of Confucius have changed the way the Chinese cook.  We'll see how seventeenth- century Europeans came here to control the spice trade, and accidentally influenced the course of Western art.  We'll take a look at the story of tea, and learn some great-tasting and easy recipes.  So join me on the Island of Formosa for Burt Wolf's Table.

The time period between the fall of Rome and the beginning of the Renaissance is often described as the Dark Ages.  From the point of view of food, much of that time period could also be described as the Dull Ages.  The ancient Romans had a big spice trade going with Asia ... and they used an enormous amount of spice in their cooking.  But with the fall of Rome you also see the fall of those commercial systems that brought the rare spices from Asia to Europe. 

With the Renaissance you find the real awakening of the interest in spices.  And those spices became so rare and so important that many of them were worth their weight in gold.  Every spice trader in Europe was looking for a direct deal with the suppliers in Asia.  But getting one wasn't so easy.

Between Europe and the spices of India and China lay the vast Muslim world.  The Islamic nations controlled the spice trade, and the European nations felt a constant frustration over the issue.  Every European monarch was interested in eliminating the Arab middleman ... and that is precisely why the Portuguese government sent out Vasco DeGama and the Spanish sent out Fernando Magellan, and of course, Christopher Columbus.

The first great European explorers were the Portuguese ... their navigators were charting distant oceans long before everyone else.   And they were the first Europeans to really start doing business in Asia.  They sailed along the coast of China and made a series of early charts showing the mainland, and the island of Taiwan. 

They gave the land the name Formosa which is Portuguese for “beautiful island” ... but they never actually set foot on the territory or considered building a colony.  The Portuguese ran their business out of Macao in the same way the Spanish ran theirs out of Manila.  The real action was in the Chinese coastal cities.

But then in 1602 the Dutch set up the Dutch East India Company with the express purpose of getting a piece of the spice action from the Portuguese and the Spanish.

One of the locations that the Dutch used to develop this trade was Fort Zeelandia ... it was constructed in the 1620's on a protected sand bank along the southwest coast.  The area was called Taiwan which means “terraced bay” ... and the Dutch began to use that word to describe the entire island. 

The site of the fort is at the edge of the present Taiwanese city of Tainan.  One of the original walls is still standing.  The bricks were held together with a mixture of sugar syrup, rice and oysters.  Makes a nice recipe, and a great wall.  It's thirty feet thick and high in complex carbohydrates. 

There's a small museum on the top of the hill that will show you what the fort looked like in its good old days.

Having come from an agricultural nation, the Dutch were quick to spot the high quality soil locally ... and set up a system of farms.  They were able to grow and successfully export wheat, ginger, and tobacco.  They also had a thriving trade with the mainland in sugar and porcelain. 

During the 1600's, the Dutch East Indian company exported fifty million pieces of porcelain to their customers back in Europe.  The center of the Dutch trade in Asia was right here on Fort Zeelandia ... and they used this fort to make an enormous fortune for their shareholders back in Amsterdam.

When you look at the amazing canal houses that stand in Amsterdam today ... the great furniture inside them ... or the fabulous art of the 1600's from people like Rembrandt or the VanLoons ... you're looking at things that came from the wealth created in Asia.  And to a particular extent, with the aid of Fort Zeelandia.

The bay that fronted on Fort Zeelandia has silted up ... and the fort now sits on the edge of the city of Tainan. 

Tainan is the cultural center of Taiwan and for over two hundred years it was the island's capital.  The local government has followed a policy of preservation that presents the visitor the a unique look at Chinese tradition and lifestyle.

Tainan has also had a long history as a gastronomic center.  One of Tainan's most famous dishes is called dan-dan noodles.  The recipe was described to me as combing the best qualities of pasta bolognase and noodle soup in one dish.   And that turned out to be pretty accurate.   Here's how it's prepared by the chefs in the kitchens on the Grand Formosa Regent.

First, the sauce is made by heating some oil in a wok ... adding a little chopped fresh ginger ... a few mushrooms ... and a cup of ground pork.  A little soy sauce ... a pinch of cinnamon ... a half cup of chicken stock.  That simmers for thirty minutes.  Then into the restaurant for the final presentation.

Pre-cooked noodles are heated and turned out into a serving bowl ... the shrimp on top ... a touch of soy sauce ... the pork sauce ... a little cilantro ... and the chicken stock.

Once upon a time in the not-too-distant past I actually made my chicken stock from scratch ... but as time’s winged chariot has drawn on I have reorganized my priorities.  And quite frankly, homemade chicken stock just doesn't have the thrill that it used to.  These days I use canned chicken stock ... it's pretty good ... and it's a lot faster ... one tip, however, that I'd like to pass on.  I do not store my canned chicken stock in a cabinet at room temperature.  I keep it in the refrigerator.   I take them out and open them up just before I'm gonna use the stock.  The cold air has turned the fat in the stock to a solid ... and you'll find it floating on top ... spoon it off ... and you'll have saved yourself at least a hundred calories.  And those were fat calories too.  Easy thing to do ... and quite healthful.

Of all the philosophies and teachings that have been developed in China ... none has been more powerful than the work of Confucius.  He was born in 551 B.C. during a period of political and moral chaos.  The ruling dynasty was crumbling, and petty factions were at war throughout the country.   Confucius wanted to reestablish the ethical principals that had guided much of China during an earlier time. 

He spent his life trying to teach people that true happiness could only be found in acts of generosity and the promotion of peace and friendship.  By the time he died at the age of seventy-two, over three thousand students had been trained in his teachings.

He wrote a series of books that recommended the proper behavior for just about every situation that might come up in life.  He told his students to be tough with themselves but easy- going and benevolent with other people.

He believed that the government was designed for the benefit of the people ... not the benefit of other government officials.  What an amazing concept.  Too bad no one has heard of Confucius in Washington. 

From the second century B.C. until 1905, the teachings of Confucius were literally the official body of moral and intellectual information for China.  He established what is known as the Five Cardinal Relationships ... and explained how each should be handled.  They cover the relationships between the individual and the government ... between husband and wife ... parent and child ... older and younger siblings ... and friends.

(GONG SOUND)

Today, some two thousand five hundred years after Confucious lived ... the people of Taiwan still follow his teachings ... and hold a giant birthday party for him each year on September 28th.

I'm particularly interested in that celebration because my birthday is also on September 28th ... and my Chinese name ... Wu Bor Da ... is associated with travelling scholars.  Two fortuitous facts that get me a lot of extra mileage when I'm working in China.  Though I must admit that the first time I heard of Confucius was in one of the old Charlie Chan movies when he was theoretically quoted by the great philosopher/detective Mr. Chan.

Chan would wait for a key moment in the film ... and then say something like ... “old Chinese philosopher Confucius say ‘to hide stone, place stone with other stones.  To hide man, place man with other men.’  We must look for killer in crowd.”

(GONG)

Confucius was clearly one of the world's great thinkers when it came to morals.  But it was also a big deal when it came to meals.  Many of the texts associated with him have large sections that are devoted to the proper preparation and consumption of various foods.

He was also an expert on the gastronomic hygiene of the time ... and particularly interested in the relationship of good food to good health.  Many historians actually give Confucius credit for the devotion of Chinese cooks to fresh ingredients.

And nowhere is that Confucian devotion to freshness more pronounced than in the area of seafood.  If it is at all possible, the Chinese chef will select his seafood while it is still alive.  And that way he can determine its true level of good health.

Most of the original Chinese immigrants to the island of Taiwan came over from the main land province of Fukien.  They started arriving over 400 years ago and they have come to represent a major portion of the present population.  Their ancestral province is famous for its seafood cookery.   And this dish of squid with sesame oil is an example of the Fukienese influence in Taiwanese cooking.

Chef Lee starts this recipe by heating a cup of vegetable oil in a wok.  In go two cups of squid that have been cut into bite-size pieces.  Two minutes of cooking ... and they're drained of the oil.  And all of the oil is removed from the wok except for two tablespoons’ worth.  Those are reheated.  Then in go a few garlic cloves, some fresh minced ginger, coarsely-chopped red bell pepper, and some sliced bamboo shoots.

A few moments of stir-frying and the squid comes back into the wok.  A tablespoon of sesame oil is added.   A little more stir-frying.  And then the final ingredient.  A cup of basil leaves.  One more minute of stir-fry and the dish is ready to be served.  It's turned out onto a warm serving dish ... and heads for the table.

It's usually pretty hard to find fresh bamboo shoots in the average North American market.  But if you have a market with an Asian section you ought to be able to find canned bamboo shots.  They come whole and chunked and sliced and pre-minced.  When you get them home, separate the bamboo shoots from the liquid that they come in in the can.  Give them a wash under fresh running water.  Any bamboo shoots that you don't use in the recipe should be stored in a glass jar tightly closed in the refrigerator.

You change the water every couple of days; the bamboo shoots will last for about two weeks.  Traditionally, bamboo shoots are used to lighten a recipe and that's what they're doing in this dish.

There are a number of Chinese folk legends that tell the story of the origin of tea.  They all describe it as an accident in which a tea leaf drops into someone's boiling water ... and they seem to date the drinking of tea back some four thousand years.  After the Chinese scholar Lu Yu published his book on tea in the year 780 A.D. ... tea became the most important beverage in Asia. 

Yu told his readers that tea would temper the spirit ... calm and harmonize the mind ... arouse thought ... prevent drowsiness ... and enlighten and refresh the body.

They also believed that tea would break down the protein and fat in a meal in a way that made that meal more digestible.  Obviously, in those days there was nothing like our federal Food And Drug Administration requiring scientific proof for all medical claims on food.  If there had been, it might have been a very small book with maybe one lovely page that contained the Chinese tea equivalent of “good to the last drop.”

Tea also appears to have the ability to remove stains and grease from various surfaces.  That is why in an old traditional Chinese restaurant ... you may see a waiter pour the remaining tea out of a teapot onto the surface of the table and the wipe it up to remove the grease.

Sunpoling is the tea producing area of Taiwan ... and though Sunpoling translates into English as “pine bluff” ... there are no pine trees in the district.  Just rolling hills covered with bamboo groves and giant palm trees that were planted to shade acre after acre of tea plants.

Sunpoling produces some of the finest tea in the world.  Part of its success comes from the unique climate in the region ... and part from the unusual soil.  But there's also an ancient tradition of exceptional craftsmanship that follows the techniques that have always resulted in the highest grades of tea.

The pickers move through the fields, selecting only those leaves that are at the perfect point of growth.  In the center of the district is the village of Sunpoling.  The main street of the town is literally lined with shops selling tea that was grown in the nearby fields.  Shop after shop ... street after street.  And each one offering a service called “old folks’ tea” that takes a full hour to perform.  It's called “old folks’ tea” because these days it seems that only old folks and television food reporters have the time to enjoy it. 

Actually I could qualify for the service based on my chronological age but I'm gonna use my press pass instead.

Their finest teas come from little leaves that are grown on the top of mountains.  If you want to taste it you can probably get some in a good shop in a Chinatown.  The manufacturers of tea in Taiwan do an enormous export business with their fellow tea lovers in Chinatowns all over the world.  But if you get to Sunpoling you can get it wholesale.

There are over four thousand species of crab ... all appear to be edible.  And Chinese cooks have known this for over four thousand years.  The succulent taste of the crab's meat has attracted the Chinese cook ... but he's also been drawn to the crab because of its visual beauty.  Many of the most popular crab recipes of China present the crab whole in order to show off its dramatic appearance.

This recipe steams the crab over fried rice ... the flavors blend together and the dish is sent to the table in the steamer basket.  It tastes as good as it looks.  First, the rice is prepared by heating two tablespoons of vegetable oil in a wok.  Half cup of shrimp go in ... a few sliced mushrooms ... quarter cup of ground pork ... a little soy sauce ... a few shakes of white pepper ... a half cup of chicken stock ... two cups of pre-cooked glutinous rice ... and a few minutes of stir-frying.

A leaf is used to line a Chinese steamer basket and the rice goes in.  The crab goes on top.  The basket is covered and the ingredients are steamed over hot water for six minutes, at which point it's ready to serve.

Glutinous rice is a round-grain rice which gets very soft when its cooked.  But also develops a glutinous surface that makes the individual grains stick together.  In Chinese cooking it's traditionally used for stuffings and desserts.  In this recipe it's used very much the way we would use stovetop stuffing in Western cooking.  The rice is cooked and instead of being placed into something ... it's served as a bed by itself. 

What's particularly interesting about this recipe is that the rice stuffing is used as a base on top of which the crab is steamed.  So the flavor of the cooking crab is added to the rice.

I tested this recipe substituting shrimp for the crab and it worked quite well.  I also tested it with regular long-grain rice instead of the glutinous rice, and though obviously I lost the glutinous quality it still tasted wonderful.

When you're buying whole crabs in the market make sure they're alive and moving about.  That's the only way to be sure that they're fresh.

The people of Taiwan have managed to blend together three philosophies and an assortment of folk religions in order to produce a body of beliefs and customs that appear to satisfy the spiritual needs of the community.

Two of these systems ... Taoism and Confucianism were developed in China during the sixth century B.C.  The third, Buddhism, also began in the sixth century B.C. but was imported to China from India.

Buddhism is based on the life and teachings of Siddhartha Gautama. Siddhartha is though to have been born about five hundred and fifty B.C. in a small town in Nepal.  He was a local prince and lived in great luxury.  But in his twenties he left his family and their palace in search of spiritual enlightenment.  For years he wandered the countryside, avoiding all material comforts.  At one point he began a long meditation under a fig tree ... and eventually found the enlightenment that he had been searching for.

From then on he was known as the Buddha ... the Enlightened One.  And he traveled about teaching his philosophy.  His teachings revolve around the Four Noble Truths.  The first is that all life contains suffering.  The second is that the suffering comes from desire.  The third is that if you can get rid of the desire you can get rid of the suffering ... and if you do that you end up enlightened.  And fourth, enlightenment is available to everybody.

Buddha rejected the difficult life of the ascetic, but he also opposed the pursuit of pleasure for its own sake.  He recommended what he called the Middle Way.  The same trade routes that brought Chinese spices, silks and potteries to the west brought Buddhist monks to China. 

For centuries Buddhist monks had been vegetarians.  And they introduced vegetarianism as a formal food style to China.  But the idea of a mostly vegetable diet had been around in China for a long time... not as a basis of a religious principal but out of simple necessity.  China's always been short on land for cattle ... and poultry and fish were not the easiest things to come by.  So vegetables were always on the top of the shopping list.

These days there's a constant stream of scientific information that clearly shows that a diet high in fresh vegetables is better for our health.  As a general rule you should get fifty percent of your daily calories in form of complex carbohydrates from fresh fruits and vegetables.  And Buddha knew it all along.

The vegetarian diet of Buddhist monks may have gotten started out of necessity, or it may have originated in the Buddhist philosophy of “responsibility to all living things.”  Most likely it was a little bit of both.  The result, however, is that the kitchens of Buddhist temples have some of the world's best vegetarian cooking. 

An example of this style is this dish of sauteed eggplant with basil.  Chef Lee starts by heating a cup of vegetable oil in his wok ... then in go two cups of eggplant that have been cut into bite-sized pieces.  Chinese eggplant is thinner than our traditional North American variety.  If you can't find it in your local market, you can substitute our standard eggplant and the recipe will still work fine.

A minute of cooking and the eggplant is drained from the oil.  All the oil is then removed from the wok except for two tablespoons.  In goes a quarter cup of green onion.  A sliced clove of garlic.  A few pieces of red pepper ... a little soy sauce ... a touch of sugar ... and an ounce of chicken stock. 

The eggplant returns, followed by a quarter cup of basil leaves ... another movement of stir- frying and it's ready to serve.

The eggplant is a native of Southeastern Asia where it has been cultivated for over four thousand years.  It probably got its start somewhere near or actually in India and moved east from there to China.  It shows up in Chinese paintings and recipes somewhere around 600 B.C., and was a common ingredient in cooked dishes.  But it was also eaten raw as a fruit.

In the the thirteenth century it became one of the foods that was specifically recommended as an offering at the shrines of royal Chinese ancestors.

It was also used as a cosmetic.  At that time it was fashionable for Chinese women of social standing to stain their teeth black ... and they used the skin of the eggplant to do the job.  About fifteen hundred years ago, Arab traders brought the eggplant from Asia to the mediterranean area ... and it looks like the Spanish were the first people in Europe to take a real interest in eggplant cookery.

Most of the eggplant dishes that we see in North America today come from countries that border on the Mediterranean Sea.  The French like to slice it and grill it.  Or make it into ratatouille.  Whatever the eggplant recipe, it usually tastes better if you start with young, thin plants.  As they get bigger and older they lose their best texture and taste.

Of all the Chinese seasonings, the single most important is soy sauce ... it's made from fermented soy beans ... wheat ... yeast ... and salt.  There are two types.  One is called dark soy sauce ... the other's called light.

The light sauce is thinner and is used for delicate dishes and as a dipping sauce.  The dark sauce is a bit darker in color ... thicker, and has a slightly sweeter smell.  It's used to give a dish a rich color and for marinating.  Both forms of soy sauce have the ability to tenderize meat and poultry and no matter which form you use, if you're gonna store for any length of time, store it in a glass container with a tight closing lid.

And as the great chefs of Taiwan point out to me over and over again ... never substitute Japanese soy sauce for Chinese soy sauce ... it won't give you the same flavor and it's politically incorrect.

The Sung emperors ruled China from the mid-900's to the middle of the 1200's.  It was a time of peace and prosperity, which gave the royal families an opportunity to devote a considerable amount of their time and money to eating and drinking.  Thousands of people worked in the imperial kitchens and produced meals that offered hundreds of different dishes.  This was going on every day. 

Not only did the cooks do the cooking for the royal family, their guests and the supporting staff ... but they also prepared the dishes that were offered at the temples to appease the gods and honored ancestors. 

If it's true that a nation must decide between guns and butter, then a period without war could easily raise the national cholesterol level.  And that seems to be what happened with the Sung dynasty.  Their imperial court was right smack in the middle of a fabulous agricultural area near the port of Shanghai.  If you could catch it, raise it, grow it or import it ... a Sung chef would make a deal with you.

It was also the time when the first Chinese cookbook was published with very specific amounts to the ingredients.  It was written by a a Madame Wu, and because the Chinese had already invented printing, it had a pretty good distribution.  In the West we had to wait until the 1800's before we got a cookbook with really specific amounts.

It was during the last years of the Sung dynasty that Marco Polo showed up in China and took note of what was going on in the Asian kitchen.  His accounts give us a second and confirming opinion as to the opulence of Chinese food at the time. 

After the Sung rulers came the Ming dynasty.  And they just made everything bigger and better.  They even established a ministerial position to oversee court banquets.  This was also the time that European trade began to pick up.  Spanish and Portuguese ships sailed into the neighborhood and introduced an entirely new collection of foods, including potatoes, corn and chili.  I was quite surprised to find out that the hot dishes of China, including those from Seczhuan and Hunan, got their heat from chili peppers that had come from South and Central America with European traders.

(GONG)

Before I shove off for my next report I wanted to say a few words about my Chinese pronunciation.  Actually, I want to apologize.  I thought it would be more interesting for me to use my limited Chinese vocabulary rather than the words that have been invented to make life easier for English speaking tourists.  But if you speak Chinese and from time to time my pronunciation has made your ears hurt ... bow chen.  Which means, “sorry about that.” 

I hope you'll still join us next time ... as we travel around the world ... looking for good things to eat and drink.  From Taiwan, the Republic of China ... I'm Burt Wolf.

Burt Wolf's Table: The Food of China - #216

BURT WOLF:  The Republic of China.  A stronghold of traditional Chinese culture.  A place to look back at over 6,000 years of art, history and food.  We'll discover what the Chinese people do to keep hungry ghosts in the supernatural world, visit a traditional market and cook up some easy and great-tasting recipes.  Join me as we sample the food of China at Burt Wolf's Table.

(MUSIC)

BURT WOLF:  The original inhabitants of the Island of Taiwan arrived here some 10,000 years ago.  About a quarter of a million of their descendants remain on Taiwan and are called the Aborigines.  They maintain their traditional music, dances, costumes and customs.

Chinese contact with the Island goes back to about the year 200 A.D.  At that point in time the Kingdom of Wu sent about 10,000 troops over to check out the neighborhood.  I had to get the word “Wu” in because that's my Chinese name.

Anyway, since then, there have been pretty regular migrations from the mainland.  Different ethnic groups for different reasons.  Most often, however, it was to escape persecution or in search of better economic conditions.

During the late 1800s foreign trade between Taiwan and British and American businesses became a major enterprise.  European missionaries showed up and competed for areas of influence in the same way as the trading companies. 

Through it all, however, the Chinese managed to hold onto their culture and keep the island for themselves.

The most significant event in modern Taiwanese history took place in 1949 when Chaing Kai-Shek and over 2 million of his followers left mainland China and moved to Taiwan in order to avoid Communist domination. 

They brought a high level of entrepreneurial skill and transformed the island into one of the world's most successful industrialized nations.  Today Taiwan's standard of living is higher than any other Asian country with the exception of Japan.  And in two very interesting aspects of life, the people of Taiwan have a better existence than the Japanese.  They have more living space and they eat more food.

When Portuguese traders first saw the island of Taiwan in the 1600s, they called it Formosa, which is Portuguese for “beautiful.”  And that is an excellent description.  The island has a rugged beauty that is quite extraordinary.  Much of the land is covered with majestic mountains that look just like classical Chinese landscape paintings. 

There are over 700 miles of picturesque coastline with some amazing rock formations that are unlike those found anywhere else in the world. 

The natural beauty of the island has made it a favorite spot for hikers and campers.  Taiwan is also, in many ways, the most authentically Chinese society on Earth, continuing the traditions that began thousands of years ago with the stories of the legendary Yellow Emperor.

The National Palace Museum houses over 600,000 works of art from every major period of Chinese history.  Porcelains, paintings, ancient bronzes.  Taiwan also has a full range of buildings in the classic Chinese architectural styles.  The roofs are often the most interesting, with ornate detail provided by the most skilled craftsmen.  They're alive with mythological heroes who have reputations for bringing good luck and preventing evil.

The dragon is a symbol of strength, intelligence and good luck.  The pagoda represents a stairway to Heaven.  You'll often see the depiction of a magic gourd designed to capture and hold onto evil spirits.  Kind of the original Ghostbuster.

Some of their buildings are truly astonishing.  Taiwan is also very busy preserving classical Chinese theatre and music.  Every day throughout the island, people are practicing the arts that have made Chinese culture the longest-running show on earth.

And much of the art is available for purchase.  From its very beginning, the story of Taiwan has been a story of trade.  The artists and craftsmen of Taiwan produce their work for a very appreciative audience.  The result has made the island a favorite spot for shopping.

The Taiwanese capital city of Taipei is today's epicenter of Chinese Gastronomy.  This city, more than any other city in the world, offers the resident or the visitor the widest selection possible of Chinese food... food from all of the great regions of China.

There are, however, a couple of dishes that you should not miss.  These are the classics of Chinese food and their preparation is better and more interesting right here. 

My favorite is Peking Duck, an exceptional dish that is made by inflating the duck with air between the meat and the skin which produces a space for the fat to drip out...  then tightening the skin with boiling water, coating it with sugar water and then roasting it.

The duck is served with a sweet sauce, green onions and fresh pancakes.  The making of Peking Duck is an art form, and some of the finest artists are found in Taipei. 

Another must is Dim Sum.  The words mean “point to your heart,” suggesting you eat to your heart's content.  When you sit down, tea is brought to your table.  All around you there are rolling carts with small portions of food:  steamed buns, baked dishes, fried specialties.  You point to what you want and you eat 'til you've had enough.

You might also include a taste of Shark Fin Soup.  It's said to have the ability to revive a man's youthful strength.  You also owe yourself a bowl of Dan Dan Noodles.  It's reminiscent of a perfect noodle soup topped off with a spicy marinara sauce.  Excellent stuff.

Finally, any of the traditional hot and spicy dishes.  They're usually prepared in Taiwan with the height of gastronomic skill.

It is a longstanding tradition in classic Chinese cooking to serve at least one soup at every meal.  Very often at the end of that meal.  At breakfast, it is always a simple rice recipe called Congee.  At lunch and dinner you can select from some 10,000 classic soup recipes.  Talk about over-choice.

An old favorite in the Chinese restaurants of North America is Chicken Egg Drop Soup.  Here's how it's prepared by Chef Kow at Taipei's T’sai Fun Schwei Restaurant.

Two cups of chicken stock go into a hot wok to heat up.  A little salt and white pepper are added in.  As soon as the stock comes to a boil, the chef pours in two eggs that have been well beaten.  Just to see if it worked as well without the egg yolks, I tested the recipe with egg whites only.  No problem in terms of taste and texture.  As a matter of fact, when I tasted the two side by side, they were virtually identical. 

The hot chicken stock turns the eggs into solid strands and it's soup.  Into a serving bowl, a few slices of scallion, some chopped cilantro on top and it's ready to go.

A group of scientists have been studying the history of Chinese cooking and they have been able to document their work as far back as 5,000 B.C.  The result is a food tradition that has been going on longer than any other eating system that we know.

From the very beginning, the Chinese believed that there was a direct relationship between food and health.  What you ate at any particular moment in time, determined your health at that particular time.  A couple of hundred years ago they set up a group of general rules that are quite fascinating.  Fascinating because our medical research today is proving that these rules are correct.  Take the ancient concept of fan and t’sai.

The word fan is used to describe grains and starches.  T’sai is the word that is used primarily for fish, meat and poultry, mixed with fruits and vegetables.  A properly balanced Chinese meal combines specific proportions of Fan and T’sai.  The result is a 7,000 year old recipe that gives the eaters about 70 percent of their calories from complex carbohydrates in the form of grains, fruits and vegetables, and about 30 percent from meat, fish or poultry mixed with the fruits.

And most of the time, that last thirty percent is low in fat.  Sounds pretty modern to me.

The ancient Chinese system of balancing Fan foods,which are primarily grains, with T’sai foods which are usually meat, fish or poultry, makes much of  Chinese home cooking extremely healthful.  Lots of complex carbohydrates, very few saturated fats.  It's a great way to eat.

An excellent example of a recipe using the Fan and T’sai balance is Cantonese Shrimp and fried rice.  Chef Kow uses a 2,000 year-old recipe as he cooks in Taipei's T’sai Fun Schwen Restaurant. 

Vegetable oil is heated in the wok to a proper temperature of 375 degrees, which is ideal for frying.  Then in goes a half cup of ham that's been cut into small cubes, and a half cup of shrimp. 

Those cook for twenty seconds, then they are drained of the oil.  The wok is back on the heat with about a tablespoon of hot oil inside.  In go two beaten eggs.  As soon as the eggs are solid, a cup of pre-cooked cold rice goes in.  That's stir-fried for a minute.  Then the shrimp and the ham return.  A little salt and pepper, a quarter cup of shredded lettuce, a quarter cup of sliced green onions, and that's it.

(MUSIC)

BURT WOLF:  For thousands of years the Chinese have believed that the universe follows the principles of Yin and Yang.  Yang is hot and masculine.  Yin is cool and feminine.

It's believed that when Yin and Yang forces in your body are out of balance, you're in for physical and emotional  problems.  One of the ways of correcting that balance is the use of food.  If there's too much Yin in your body, then you start eating foods that are high in Yang.  If there's too much Yang in your body, you eat foods that are high in Yin.  As a result, there are extensive lists of foods that are high in Yin and others that are high in Yang.

Yang, the masculine foods, include chicken, chilies and ginger.

Yin, the feminine powers, are found in cabbage, seafood and spinach.

To eat more than you need or to waste food is a vice of major proportions.  The Chinese believe that you should stop eating when you are only 70 percent full.

I don't know how you tell when you are precisely 70 percent full so I'm implementing a program by reducing the size of my food portions by 30 percent.  The math works and I think the meal does too.  You know, in North America, the size of restaurant food portions is much bigger than it has to be and we tend to overeat in restaurants.  So sharing that restaurant food or bringing some home for later makes good sense.

(MUSIC)

BURT WOLF:  It was during China's Tang Dynasty in the 600's that a group of herbal pharmacologists decided what was good to eat in terms of health.  The cosmic forces of Yin and Yang set the recipes and told you what you should eat and when you should eat it, and the proper amounts, in order to achieve internal harmony.

Chef Yeh at Taipei's T’sai Fun Schwen Restaurant demonstrates a recipe in perfect Yin / Yang balance:  Beef with broccoli.  Some oil is heated in a wok, two cups of broccoli are cooked for five seconds and taken out.  Water goes into the wok to heat up and the broccoli goes back in to cook for thirty seconds more.  The water gets drained, the broccoli goes back in, a little salt, then off to be plated.  Oil goes into the wok, two cups of beef cut into bite-sized pieces.  Thirty seconds of cooking and it’s drained, then back into the wok.  Slices of green onions, carrots, red peppers, mushrooms, bamboo shoots and chopped garlic, a little oyster sauce.  The beef returns, thirty seconds of tossing and turning and its ready to go into the ring of broccoli.

According to Chinese folk religion, the world that one goes to after life is very similar to the world one lives in during life.  And many of the same needs exist.  Food, clothing, money, all are required in the other world.  And it is the responsibility of the remaining family members to send those things along to the deceased.  Fortunately they can be delivered in symbolic form.  There's a special spirit money that gets transferred by burning, and similar substitutes for just about everything else.  Every year during the seventh lunar month, which usually falls in August and September, there is a Festival Of The Hungry Ghosts.  It's your last chance to properly feed and care for your deceased family members.  Miss this and you are letting hungry ghosts loose in the world.  And the fewer hungry ghosts in your town, the better off you are.  During the festival period, everybody makes a great effort to feed their own ancestors, as well as any hungry ghosts that just may be wandering around.  As you walk through the cities of Taiwan these days, you'll actually see plates set out in front of homes and businesses to feed these ghosts.  It's thought if they are not fed properly, they will group up in bands and cause an enormous amount of damage as they search for sustenance.  On the other hand, if they are well-fed, they feel content and return to the other world without causing any trouble.  Sounds like a great idea to me.

People who are knowledgeable in the art of feeding hungry ghosts tell me that chicken recipes are always popular with beings in the supernatural world.  So after you find out who you're gonna call, here's the recipe for what you're gonna cook.  It's chicken with a lemon sauce.

Almond coated chicken with lemon sauce is one of the classics of Chinese cookery; it's a combination of different textures and flavors and shapes that show you what a Chinese recipe is all about. 

Chef Kow at Taipei's T’sai Fun Schwen Restaurant starts by sprinkling a little salt on two chicken breasts that have had the skin and bone removed and the fat cut off.  Two egg yolks are then added; I tested the dish with four egg whites instead and it worked just as well.  A little cornstarch is added as a thickener.  And a half cup of sliced almonds.  The chicken is turned around and around until it has a good coating of the almonds.  Some vegetable oil goes into a hot wok.  As soon as it gets to a temperature of 375 degrees Fahrenheit, in goes the chicken.  Two minutes of cooking and it's drained away from the oil.  The chicken goes onto a cutting board, where it's sliced into bite-sized pieces, then onto a serving plate... at which point the lemon sauce goes on top.  The lemon sauce is actually a very simple mixture.  You just put together a little lemon juice, white vinegar, sugar and cornstarch; that's it.

One of the things that accounts for the worldwide reputation of the Chinese cooks of Taipei is their ability to get the freshest and the highest quality ingredients on a reliable basis.  The relationship between the local farmers and the markets make that possible.

The Nanmen Market in Taiwan's capital city of Taipei is a traditional Chinese market.  And though Taipei has all the modern supermarkets you would expect to find in an industrialized metropolis, this old-style marketplace is still very popular.  One reason for its continued success is the enormous selection of fresh vegetables that come in daily from the local farms.  Vegetables are very important to the Chinese cooks of Taiwan; almost every Chinese dish includes at least one vegetable and it's extremely unusual for any meat, fish or poultry to be served without some vegetables as part of the finished dish.  On average, a typical family style meal will include five to seven different vegetables, and they are all very well prepared. 

The soggy, tasteless and overcooked vegetables which were so much a part of the food of my youth never had a chance here.  A Taiwanese mother never has to say “eat your vegetables.”  And unlike many other parts of the world, Taiwan is devoting more of its land to vegetable farming, not housing developments.  As consumers here earn more disposable income, they confirm their society's ancient love of good vegetables and demand even higher quality and greater variety.

When I came to this stand I was really surprised; I thought I had discovered somebody in Taiwan baking American bagels.  They even do a sesame seed version.  But in talking to the owner, I discovered that this was a bread developed in the Ming Dynasty in the 1500's by a famous general.  He wanted his troops to be fed all of the time.  So he had this bread baked, put a hole in it, and then would give it to the men on a necklace.  They'd wear it around their neck.  And whenever they were hungry they'd pull one off and eat it.  Fortunately the general did not have access to smoked salmon or cream cheese, or he might have ruled the world.  (taking a bite)  Pretty good.         Richard Vuylsteke is an American editor and journalist who's been based in Taiwan for a number of years.  His special area of interest is food and he makes the Nanmen market scrutable. 

RICHARD VUYLSTEKE:  Ah, this is a good place to stop.  These are things that are used in all Chinese cooking.  But the ...  baitai, or the Chinese cabbage ...

BURT WOLF:  Bok choy is like Chinese cabbage.

RICHARD VUYLSTEKE:  Bok Choy, Chinese cabbage. 

BURT WOLF:  Right.

RICHARD VUYLSTEKE:  Ah, the mushrooms, both these style of mushrooms are very popular to use. 

BURT WOLF: What's that? 

RICHARD VUYLSTEKE:  Ah, this is ... this is something that I think Americans have seen, Europeans have seen, in its later form, this is loofah gourd.

BURT WOLF: Loofah gourd ...

RICHARD VUYLSTEKE:  Loofah gourd...

BURT WOLF:  ... and you use it as a food?

RICHARD VUYLSTEKE:  Yeah.  When it’s young like this, you cut it in small pieces, they're great in soup, great in soup.  Inside's white, very ... very tender taste.  But you let it dry out, then it becomes a sponge.  The inside fiber of this becomes ... has a nice spongy coarse sponge kind of feel to it.  They re-use it many, many times. (LAUGHS)

BURT WOLF:  So in a way it's really efficient --  anything you don't eat goes into the shower for later.

RICHARD VUYLSTEKE:  That's right, that's right.

BURT WOLF:  This is a great looking thing.  What is this little baby?

RICHARD VUYLSTEKE:  This is an East Indian lotus and it's a major symbol of Buddhist imagery.  The lotus plant grows in the mud.  Stem comes up through the water, the flower comes out below the surface of the water.  It's not spoiled by the mud, it's a pure beautiful blossom. Like the Buddha right?  Pure, clean, unsullied, above the sludge and mud of everyday existence.  The Buddha rises above it all.  And quite frankly the taste rises above it all too as far as I’m concerned.

This is winter melon.  The whole vegetable is three feet, four feet, five feet long, fifty pounds, maybe more.  So you buy it by the slice obviously.  Big slices for big families, small slices for small meals and families.  Used in soups, primarily.  A very delicate soup ... soothing soup, I might add.  When the white part is cooked, it becomes somewhat transparent; it's very popular here.

BURT WOLF:  There are over a hundred different vegetables available in this market, and the home cooks of Taiwan use them all.  That gives them a great variety of vitamins and minerals.  Variety is the spice of life, but it is also the key to good nutrition.

A good place to put some of those fresh vegetables  to perfect use, is in this recipe for chicken with cashew nuts and a spicy sauce.

The rules that govern what a proper Chinese recipe should be, go back for thousands of years. They really have searched for the right balance and contrast.  And in the area of texture, the Chinese are the absolute masters.

A good example is this recipe for chicken with cashews.  The Chef at Taipei's Regent Hotel heats a little water in a wok, then in goes a half cup each of bamboo shoots, celery, carrots and mushrooms; they cook for a minute and they're drained.  The wok is cleaned and some oil goes in.  A cup of cashew nuts are fried for fifteen seconds.  A boneless skinless chicken breast cut into bite- size pieces cooks in the oil for thirty seconds.  The wok is cleaned out and in goes a quarter cup each of sliced green onion and red pepper, plus a few tablespoons of garlic.  The other vegetables return.  A tablespoon of Chinese chili paste, the chicken, a teaspoon of sesame oil, a half teaspoon of cornstarch mixed into water to thicken things up.  The cashew nuts come back, everything heats up for another half minute, and its ready.

Chinese food is probably the most well- travelled cuisine in the world.  As a matter of fact, Chinese food has been available on a high level to so many people in so many cities around the world, that there has been very little interest in Chinese home cooking, except in the Chinese communities.  But in 1960, all that began to change.  Since then there has been an increasing interest in Chinese home cooking in the western home kitchens.

Our supermarkets offer all of the basics in terms of Chinese ingredients, and there are really only a few items that are needed in the area of condiments.  Chili sauce or paste made from crushed fresh chile peppers; it'll last for a year in the refrigerator. 

Hoi-sin sauce made from soybeans, flour, sugar, salt and garlic.  Gives food a sweet peppery flavor and a reddish brown color.

Oyster sauce is made primarily from ground oysters. 

Sesame oil from roasted sesame seeds is a flavoring agent, and sesame paste is also a general flavoring agent.  Star anise, which has a licorice like flavor, and of course soy sauce. 

Those are only seven different ingredients but they should give you just about all the flavors that you need to give a dish its Chinese taste.  Remember though you're not going to use them every day, so buy them in small quantities.

Tea is not an ingredient, but it is clearly the single most important element in Chinese gastronomy, and some of the world's finest examples are produced here in the mountains.

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The mountains of Taiwan are wrapped in mist and gently heated by the sun.  The result is a warm and moist climate that is perfect for growing tea.  Tea is a basic part of Chinese culture and goes back in Chinese history for hundreds of years.  Tea to the Chinese is very much like wine to the French.  Very serious stuff.  They want to know what variety of bush was used.  Where on the island it was planted, what time of year was the leaf plucked?  How long was the leaf allowed to dry in the sun after harvest?  Did it go inside for fermentation, and for what period of time?  Was it crumpled by hand or by machine?  Was it baked? 

And to think there was a time in my life where the only question I could ask about tea was, is it loose or in a bag?

The Chinese attribute some interesting medical benefits to tea.  They take it at the end of their meals because they think it breaks down fat, reduces the pressure on the liver and helps with digestion.  They feel that the high vitamin C content in green tea helps prevent illness and improves your physical and mental energies.

The medical claims for tea may not be scientifically proven at this point in time, but there is such a wide body of folklore in its favor that it’s something to think about.  Especially if you consider its real purpose is to give us a few moments of quiet relaxation in our very busy and confusing world.

So what we have we seen here in Taipei in connection with eating well?  Okay:  the ancient idea of balance between fan, made up of grains and starch and t’sai, made up of meat, fish, poultry fruits and vegetables.  It reminds us that more than half our daily calories should come from complex carbohydrates and that our saturated fat intake should be as low as possible.  There's also the Chinese belief that you should stop eating when you are seventy percent full.  A good way to start doing that is to reduce portion size.  Vegetables: they're one of our best sources of important vitamins and nutrients and the greater variety we eat, the better off we are.

The Ancient Chinese sage Kwan Su lived some two thousand seven hundred years ago.  And he had some interesting observations about life.  He said that to a ruler, the people were heaven, but to the people, food was heaven.  It does really remind you of what the actual priorities in life are, doesn't it? 

Please join us next time as we travel around the world looking for things that taste good and make it easier to eat well.  I'm Burt Wolf.

Burt Wolf's Table: Taipei - #201

BURT WOLF:  The Taipei Chinese Food Festival -- an annual event that brings together the superstars of Chinese gastronomy. It's the place to get a look at the relationship of food to Chinese  culture. We'll also learn some of the easiest and best tasting recipes in Chinese cooking and tour Taiwan's beautiful northeast coast. So join me at the Taipei food festival at Burt Wolf's Table.

WOLF:  The idea of a food festival goes back for thousands of years.  They began as annual street fairs where farmers, merchants, producers and traders displayed their products in the hope of getting new customers.  These are the opening ceremonies for the Taipei Chinese Food Festival on the island of Taiwan. Because of China's extensive interest in food and food's symbolic relationship to Chinese culture, this is not just another trade show. This is a major social event where the skills of master chefs are on display.

WOLF:  Chang Hung Yu is one of the chefs at Taipei's Lai Lai Sheraton Hotel. He's demonstrating the Chinese technique for making noodles by hand. He holds the world's record in this event, having made eight thousand one hundred and ninety two strands of noodles in four minutes.  His noodles are so thin that he is actually able to thread one through the eye of a needle. He certainly has this skill sewn up. Chef Munusami is making Indonesian pancakes. The objective is to get the dough as thin as possible. You should be able to read a book through it, or at least watch television. His footwork is fantastic; the second most difficult part of this recipe is picking out the right music. Dick Clark would love this. Give it a ninety-five; you can dance to it and you can eat it too. 

WOLF:  Carving is probably the most important skill demonstrated at this festival.The chef at the Howard Plaza Hotel has made this flower arrangement, but he's made it from vegetables. 

WOLF:  The chefs from the Lai Lai Sheraton constructed some of the most spectacular presentations; shrimps as birds returning to a nest of lotus nuts; a peacock that spreads its feathers into cold cuts (not exactly your standard delicatessen style). The Gallery is an art gallery with a restaurant.  You can sit in a Chang dynasty chair and watch the shrimp sail by in a three- masted watermelon. The Regent Hotel's display included a detailed farm village made of flour.

WOLF:  They also showed a group of eggs that have been emptied of their whites and yolks through a pinhole and refilled with jello.   And if you think that pickling your watermelon rind is too much trouble, check this out.

WOLF:  The Howard Hotel built its area in the style of a traditional Chinese house. In the center is a mythical being:  half-dragon, half-turtle, with smoke coming out of it's nostrils. They tell me it's a symbol of good luck, and entirely constructed of sugar.  Extra good luck for dentists.

The Dream Of The Red Chamber is the greatest and the most important of the classical Chinese novels.  It was written during the middle of the 1700's and it tells the story of two lovers who unfortunately come to a tragic end. It's a huge novel. There are nine hundred and seventy five different characters wending their way through the narrative, but when you read it you get a perfect picture of what life was like in China during the time period -- especially when it comes to food.  There are one hundred and ninety seven different scenes in the novel that deal with eating or drinking. They even have a cookbook with just the recipes from the stories. The Dream Of The Red Chamber became the theme of the Taipei Chinese Food Festival, with chefs creating many of the dishes described in the book. There are a number of general themes that run through the Red Chamber recipes. One is the desire to have attractive presentations for a single serving. This dish, made up of a whole crab steamed in a bamboo basket, is a perfect example. There's also a great interest in foods that illustrate the delicate skills of carving and shaping. This one is called a Red Goose. The emphasis on knifework is also carried out in the table decorations. These flowers are actually carved from sweet potatoes, carrots and pumpkins. This one has flowers cut from onions. Chinese respect for the older generation is presented in the novel and also in the recipes. This pork dish is boiled to tenderness with the specific intent of making it easier for older people to chew. The Dream Of The Red Chamber is clearly the most important novel in Chinese literature, but it also the basis of an entire school of cooking. It is the only work of fiction that comes with a companion cookbook and a team of culinary professionals who travel around the world teaching the recipes of the dishes described in the original works.  Many of those recipes are for soups which were and still are an essential part of every Chinese meal.  This beef soup prepared by Chef Kow is an excellent example.  Chef starts by heating four cups of water; then in goes a cup of chopped beef.  That cooks for two minutes and the beef is removed from the wok and doused with water. It's a technique that greatly reduces the fat and calorie content of the meat.  Next, two cups of beef stock go into the cleaned wok. The beef returns, plus a quarter teaspoon of cornstarch mixed into a little water. Everything is brought to a boil. Two beaten egg whites are stirred in, and as soon as the egg whites are cooked, the soup goes into a serving bowl.  Some chopped broccoli or other green-colored garnish goes on top. 

Chinese children, like children all over the world, start eating with their fingers. After awhile the spoon is introduced.  At about the age of four, chopstick training begins. Chopsticks appear to have been developed specifically for use with a type of rice prepared by the Chinese. The Chinese word for chopstick actually means something like “fast helpers.”  Great description. The meal at a Chinese home starts with everybody receiving a bowl of rice. This is the real food of China. The  meat, fish, poultry, vegetables and fruits are almost considered as a relish. You receive the bowl with two hands as a mark of respect. All of the other foods come to the table in big serving dishes. You pick out the piece you want to munch and you put it on your rice bowl. It is impolite to go poking around in the serving dish. Pick your targets carefully. What you touch you should take. If you take a piece that is too big and you can't finish it in one bite, bite what you can and put the remainder down on your rice bowl. You can come back to it later.  The rice bowl is held up near your mouth and the chopsticks help you cover the distance between the two. It is a disaster to leave any rice in your rice bowl at the end of the meal. It means that you did not know how much food you needed from the beginning -- and that means waste.  And waste is unacceptable in Chinese culture. 

A dish which would be almost impossible to waste, based purely on it's irresistible flavor, is this wok-fried chicken with pineapple. The idea of putting meat and fruit together in the same recipe is pretty unusual in today's Western cooking but in earlier times it was standard operational procedure. Recipes from the ancient Romans to the Renaissance regularly combined meat, fish, poultry and fruit but the masters of this art are the Chinese.  Chef Kow at the Regent Hotel in Taipei makes the point with wok-fried chicken and pineapple. First he makes the sauce.  A little water is heated in the wok, a little ketchup goes in.  Don't laugh.  Ketchup was invented in China.  A little vinegar, and a little sugar.  That cooks together for thirty seconds and it's held aside. Bite- size pieces of skinless, boneless chicken breast are mixed with egg yolk or egg white and dipped into cornstarch. Some vegetable oil is heated. The chicken goes in; two minutes later, a half cup of  pineapple pieces are added plus a half cup of green peppers. Thirty seconds of cooking and everything is drained and held aside.  Quarter  cup of green onion, quarter cup of red pepper go into the wok;  then the ketchup mixture. The chicken is back. Thirty seconds of cooking and it's ready for the plate. 

WOLF:  Experts on Chinese food tell me that the supernatural spirits of the other world have a special affinity for chicken recipes and that this is definitely a dish for the deities, very important to Chinese cooks.  Popular Chinese folk  religion is a blend of Taoist ideas, Confucian custom and Buddhist beliefs. It a recipe designed to meet the everyday needs of the people. Perhaps the best place to see these forces interact is the Island of Taiwan. They have over ten thousand Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian places of worship. They're busy places, filled with the smoke of incense and the clicking sound of the wooden divining blocks;  interesting piece of equipment.  If you have a question for one of the deities, you stand in front of the diety's statue, ask the  question and throw down the blocks. If the blocks are one up and one down the answer is yes, both down the answer is no. Both up means “I don't get it; please rephrase your question.”  It's an okay system, but I was hoping for something where I could get a more detailed response. So I  could ask  questions like “how do you make love last?”

Nevertheless, the temples have a very big following and almost everyone who comes in here has a food offering for one of the deities.  But the gods here are very practical.  They don't actually eat the food.  They just inhale the essence of the food.  So the food sits here for a little while and then the people who brought it in actually get to take it home and eat it.  It's a wonderful system, and everybody gets satisfied and the deities are never overweight.  What a wonderful example for all of us.

The Chinese folk religions of Taiwan believe that the human world and the supernatural world exist right next to each other.  And the people who live in the human world are responsible for sending the supernatural  beings what they need in the form of offerings.  When it comes to food, you can learn a lot about the supernatural being by taking a look at the food that's being offered. 

If  the relationship between the person offering the food and the supernatural being is very close, then the food offered is very common, the kind of stuff that the person making the offering would normally eat at home.  If you're making an offering to a deceased relative that you knew, you'd send along foods that are fully prepared and ready to eat.  If it's a processed food it might still be in the manufacturer's package.  The common food shows the closeness of the relationship.

If you're making an offering to a very important god, the food will be totally unprocessed.  A whole pig, raw, or a vegetable ripped out of the ground with its roots still hanging on.  Not the kind of food that you would find on your dining room table.  The reason that the food is offered in an unedible form is to show the distance between the human making the offering and the deity on the receiving end.  It shows the god's power to feed himself.  Moo shu and McDonald's for the mortals, an unprocessed diet for the deities.  I guess somewhere along the line the gods learned that the less a food is processed, the more nutrients remain in.

Though I think even the most powerful god in Chinese folk religion might make an exception to his or her normal eating pattern for a dish of sliced pork with spicy garlic sauce.

In proportion to its size and population, China has very little land available for farming and even less for grazing cattle.  As a result, when Chinese cooks talk about meat, they usually mean pork.  Pork is found in many soups and main dishes and as a stuffing for rolls and dumplings.  One of its easiest presentations is in a recipe for pork with spicy garlic sauce.

Chef Yeh of Taipei's Regent Hotel starts the dish with a piece of lean pork that has been steamed, but you could just as easily make the dish with a loin that has been roasted.  Most important point is that the pork should be free of all visible fat. 

The pork is cut into a block with a four-inch by one-inch side, and then to half-inch thick sheets.  Each sheet is then rolled into a little cylinder and placed on a presentation plate.  And a sauce is made by mixing together a little bit of chopped garlic, some sugar, a little chili oil, some chili paste, and a tablespoon of soy sauce, plus some red wine vinegar.   The sauce gets spooned onto the rolled-up pork and the dish is ready to serve.

The annual Taipei Chinese Food Festival always includes a series of competitive events designed to test the talents of the young chefs.  The contest that draws the biggest audience is the hour-long ice-carving classic.  Each team gets a uniform block of ice and 60 minutes to do their thing.  Electric chain saws are used to cut the block into the general shape of the sculpture.  The gloves are safety gloves designed to protect the carver from the blades. 

Once a basic outline has been formed, the artist gets into the detail using the traditional tools of a wood carver.  Being picky is central to an ice carver's personality.  They prepare for the event by designing the work and cutting a prototype.  Once they have the major pattern, they practice the sculpture over and over again, so they can reproduce it within the time limit.  They constantly readjust the form to get the best results for the time allowed.  It's a chilling challenge, with the prospect of success often melting away right before your eyes.  Just as this event was ending, the unicorn lost one of its front legs.  It was reattached with a fistful of shaved ice and a blast of butane fuel, which comes out so cold, that it fuses the ice together.  Shaved from the agony of defeat.

The Taipei Food Festival also conducts a competition in napkin folding.  The fashion for fancy napkin folding started in the 1500s.  It was considered an art form, and the people who did it were paid big bucks.  The more elaborate the folding, the more impressive the table.  Napkins were folded into birds and flowers and boats.

Here at the annual Taipei Food Festival, napkin folding is elevated to a competitive sport on the level of the Olympics.  For over 300 years, napkin folding was considered a respectable profession.  But in the late 1800s, it fell out of fashion.  It was considered too pretentious.  The leading commentator on good manners said it was like wearing a ring over a glove.  Well, excuuuuse me.

The idea of the table napkin goes  back at least as far as the ancient Romans.  They would use two of them.  One went around their neck, the other was held aside to clean their hands.  When they'd go off to someone's house for dinner, they'd bring along at least one napkin of their own.  Not that the host didn't have enough napkins to go around.  They would use their napkin to bring home the extra food that was offered to them at the end of the meal.  It was kind of showing up with your own doggy bag, but at the time it was considered quite polite.

During the Medieval period, napkins were huge, the size of bath towels.  You'd put them over your left shoulder and clean your hands on them as the meal went along.  During the 1800s, the napkin took up residence on the lap.  Napkins never became a big deal here in China.  It was always thought of as kind of weird to have something on your lap that kept getting dirtier and dirtier as the meal went on.  They went for small cloths that were moist and warm, and you'd clean your hands on them as the meal progressed, and they would change them throughout the meal. 

During the mid-1800s, tens of thousands of Chinese laborers left China to find work in the United States and Canada.  The primary task was the construction of the transcontinental railroads that stretched across each country.  The Chinese workmen had their own camps and their own cooks, cooks who did their best to reproduce the recipes of their homeland. 

Very often, as a section of track was finished in an area of the country that a worker liked, he would drop out of the construction crew and look for work in a local town.  Very often that work was in a restaurant.  When he had saved up enough money, he would leave that restaurant and open up one of his own.  At that point, he would return to the cooking of the regional province of China from which he came.

Since most of the Chinese workers who came to North America during this period had come from the area of Canton, most of those original Chinese restaurants served, or at least tried to serve, traditional Cantonese dishes.   They didn't have most of the ingredients that they were accustomed to using in China, and they didn't have the real equipment that they had used back home, but their skill level was high enough to develop a local following.  And that is why almost every town in the United States and Canada has ended up with at least one Chinese restaurant. 

Of all the cultures on our planet, the Chinese are probably the most preoccupied with eating and drinking.  The great Chinese scholar Lin Yutang once wrote that “no food is really enjoyed unless it is keenly anticipated, discussed, eaten, and then commented upon.  Long before we have any special food, we think about it, rotate it in our minds, and anticipate it as a special pleasure to be shared with some of our closest friends.”

In Taiwan, food is part of almost every conversation.  If you meet a friend and you want to know how he's doing, you use the phrase, "Tsai fon le mayo," which actually translates as "Have you eaten lately?"  If you're curious about someone's profession, you use a series of words that translate into English as "What is it you do to eat?" 

Food is constantly used as a metaphor to tell a story or make a point.  A great Taoist teacher explained the role of government by saying that a country should be ruled the same way you fry a small fish.  Don't turn things over too much, keep the heat low, and be careful and delicate.  If that  scholar were with us today, and looking at the United States, and its national debt, he might add that it's a good idea to be able to pay for the fish before you buy it.

Food is also a basic part of Chinese art.  Some of the most important paintings deal with people eating or drinking or preparing food.  It's also central to Chinese literature.  There are poems about recipes and short stories that revolve around long meals. 

Only ten percent of China's giant land mass can be used for farming.  So for centuries, hundreds of millions of Chinese have depended on their ingenuity to get the food they needed; and when they got the food they needed, they had just as challenging a time finding some fuel to cook it.

As a result, the Chinese kitchen evolved a cooking style where most of the foods are cut into small, bite-size pieces that cook very quickly over intense heat.  The majority of dishes are made to order.  The first row of chefs do all the cutting and preparation of the ingredients.  Their primary tool for cutting, grinding, beating, and moving the components is the cleaver.  And for their cutting surface, the all-time favorite, a cross-section of a tree.  What could be easier to obtain, or more efficient?  They pass the prepared foods to the senior chefs who work at the wall of woks.

The intensity of the flame is controlled by a lever that is level with the cook's knee, and he uses his leg to adjust the heat.  The dishes are stir-fried quickly and sent out to the dining room, and you're ready to start again.  An extraordinarily efficient system. 

Given the difficulty of acquiring and preparing foods throughout the long history of China, it is all the more amazing that the Chinese have been able to develop one of the world's truly great cuisines. 

The waters around the island of Taiwan have been an ongoing source of seafood for thousands of years.  And seafood cookery has been a hallmark of Taiwanese cuisine as far back as the aborigines, who were the island's original inhabitants.  The Chinese chefs who do the cooking of the island these days have continued the tradition.  Chef Kao of the Regent Taipei demonstrates a classic dish of shrimp and orange sauce.

First the sauce.  Quarter cup of Rose's lime juice goes into a hot wok.  Plus a quarter cup of white vinegar.  Half cup of orange juice.  Three tablespoons of sugar and the juice of half a lime.  That cooks for a minute and the sauce is ready. 

Some water is heated in the wok and two cups of jumbo shrimp are blanched for 30 seconds and drained.  The wok is cleaned and some vegetable oil goes in to heat up.  Then the shrimp go in for 10 seconds of cooking.  The oil goes out of the wok and the shrimp go back in for 20 seconds of stir-frying.  Then onto the serving plate; the orange sauce goes on top, and a garnish of chopped orange.

The northeast coast recreational area is one of the most beautiful parts of Taiwan.  There's an extraordinary array of wildflowers covering mile after mile of hillside.  And a coastline that displays some of Mother Nature's more unusual designs.  The constant pounding of the surf has created a pattern of rectangular rock formations that are called bean curd rocks, because they remind people of the blocks of bean curd that are found in the local supermarkets.  There's also a series of mushroom-shaped stones that look like chessmen...  chessmen set out on a giant board and playing against the incoming sea. 

The honeycombs are also quite fascinating.  For many years, this part of Taiwan has been famous among Asian rock climbers.  If you're a beginner at this rather challenging sport, you can take advantage of the professional guides who will show you the ropes, so to speak. 

Boat tours present a dramatic view of the coastline.  There's a sizable collection of marine life, a major attraction for divers.  Trains come up regularly from the capital city of Taipei, making the area an easy day trip.  Lots of beachfront, camping facilities, bonfires every night, an international sand castle competition with instruction classes for first-timers.  Wind-surfing, wave-surfing and paragliding for the more adventurous, and magnificent walking paths for people who enjoy moving their bodies in a more subdued environment.  There's very little snowfall on Taiwan, but that doesn't seem to have prevented the development of a major skiing resort. They just use the grass instead.  And when the monsoon season begins, and the big Pacific breakers start coming in, the serious fishermen start coming out.  Quite a place.

Chinese food has the longest documented history of any cuisine on earth.  It goes back over 6,000 years.  And from the very beginning, the Chinese have always believed that there is a direct relationship between what you eat and your overall well-being.  And now 20th Century scientists are telling us that much of what they've been saying is absolutely true.  What an encouraging piece of news. 

Please join us next time as we travel around the world looking for things that taste good and make it easier to eat well.  I'm Burt Wolf.

Origins: Hong Kong - #120

Every place in the world has a series of things that give that spot a special character... and make it different from every other place.  When you look at the ORIGINS of these things, you often end up with a better appreciation of the territory -- and that makes it a lot more interesting to visit.  And sometimes, these ORIGINS help us understand why we live the way we do.

For hundreds of years, Canton has been the capital city of southern China.  It sits on the banks of the Pearl River, which empties out into the South China Sea.  At the mouth of the river, about eighty miles from Canton, is the little island of Hong Kong.  People have been living on Hong Kong for over six thousand years, and until the middle of the 1800s it was a quiet place with a small population that made a living from the sea.

But that is no longer the case.  These days Hong Kong is one of the busiest and most modern cities in the world.  And perhaps because it is physically so small -- only seventeen square miles -- it loves the idea of being big in every other way.

It has the busiest container port in the world.  It is the world’s largest exporter of clothing, watches and fashion jewelry.  It is one of the world’s largest banking centers.  It is building the world’s largest airport.  It has the world’s largest Chinese restaurant, which you might expect, but it also has the world’s busiest McDonald’s.  It has constructed the world’s longest outdoor escalator.

Hong Kong is also one of the world’s top centers for trade.  Which is only fitting, since Hong Kong’s growth began as the result of a trade war between England and China in the middle of the 1800s.  And trade has been the source of Hong Kong’s growth ever since.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  During the 1700s and 1800s the English were buying teas, silks and porcelains from the Chinese and paying for them with silver... with so much silver that they began to run out of reserves.  They needed to find something to sell to the Chinese to get their silver back.  And what they found was opium.  They found it in India which was a British colony at the time and they forced it on the Chinese.  They centered their opium dealings in the Chinese city of Canton.  The Emperor of China hated the drug trade and declared it illegal.  He even tried to have it stopped by sending a letter to Queen Victoria.  Listen to this: “I am told that in your country opium smoking is forbidden under severe penalties.  This means you are aware of how harmful it is...so long as you do not take it yourselves, but continue to make and tempt the people of China to buy it, you will be showing yourself careful of your own life, but careless of the lives of other people, indifferent in your greed for gain to the harm you do to others; such conduct is repugnant to human feelings and at variance with the Way of Heaven.”  And what did Queen Victoria do in response to this letter?  Zip.  Nothing at all.  Her drug trade continued as before.

So the Emperor ordered a blockade of the port of Canton.  He cut off their food and water and demanded that the English hand over their opium stores.  After six weeks, Captain Charles Elliot of the Royal Navy surrendered 20,283 chests, with 150 pounds of opium in each -- altogether over three million pounds of narcotics.  The British withdrew from Canton and took refuge at the mouth of the Pearl River on the island of Hong Kong.  The British government in London responded to the Chinese by sending in the marines.  The English attacked China in what has become known as the Opium Wars.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  The Chinese were no match for the English.  And they very soon agreed to give Hong Kong to the English and to open up their ports to the opium traders.  Nice little business for the British as long as you skip over the fact that they  were inventing the international drug trade.  Ah, but those were the bad old days, and now Hong Kong is living in the good old days.  Days in which Hong Kong is a global financial center, and the collective high comes from economic success.  Opium is out. Adrenaline is in.

But where does all this economic success come from?  What are the origins of Hong Kong’s wealth and power?

Hong Kong has no vast agricultural areas.  Hong Kong has no wealth of raw materials.  Hong Kong has no reserve of valuable minerals.  It would seem that Hong Kong has none of the things that traditionally make a community wealthy.  But Hong Kong does have two things that make up for everything that’s missing.  The first is a unique geographic position.  Hong Kong is at the crossroads of Asia and it is the commercial entrance gate to the Chinese mainland.  To take advantage of its geography, Hong Kong has built itself one of the most modern ports in the world.  It handles over ten million containers each year, which makes it the busiest container port in the world.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  The second thing that Hong Kong has is a population with a cultural tradition that loves “efficiency.”  Efficiency is basic to the Chinese character and it comes out in everything that is a basic part of Chinese life.

For thousands of years the Chinese have cooked in woks.  A wok is easy to make. Easy to store.  Easy to use, and most important, it is very efficient in terms of fuel.  Most Chinese recipes are masterpieces of gastronomic efficiency.  Lots of well-balanced nutrients for the least cost.

The Chinese junk is an amazing example of efficient nautical design.  Easy to build, it carries a large amount of cargo space and makes almost perfect use of the local winds.  The Chinese also invented the magnetic compass, which was certainly a great step toward more efficient travel.

And with all due respect to Mr. Gutenberg and his bible, the Chinese had movable type centuries before the Europeans.  They also invented paper, which gave them the original prize for efficient information storage.  And next time you open up your wallet, please bear in mind that it was the Chinese who came up with the idea of paper money.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  So, Hong Kong has a harbor that’s ideally placed for trade and a population with a five thousand year old history of efficiency.  What do you make with those two ingredients?  Well, you end up with an economy based on bringing something into Hong Kong, efficiently changing it to make it more valuable and then shipping it out of Hong Kong at a price that makes money.

Made-to-measure clothing is an important part of Hong Kong’s tourist economy.  A shirt or suit made to your own precise measurements is at the top of the shopping list for many tourists.  And there are over four thousand tailors in Hong Kong ready to meet the demand.

The most famous tailor in Hong Kong is Sam’s.  He certainly has the most famous clientele.  Sam feels that a good tailor must never talk about his clients.  For Sam, inside leg length is a privileged communication and I agree.  But if you look around the walls of his shop you can get a pretty good idea of the people Sam keeps in stitches.

BURT WOLF:  Now, when I’m looking for a suit and I want to be able to tell a really good suit from a not so good suit, what do I look for?

MANU “SAM” MELWANI:  Well, you look at the first -- you look at the quality of the fabric you buy from.  After buying the quality of fabric, you look at then, the stitching.

BURT WOLF:  The stitching... how can I tell good stitching?

MANU “SAM” MELWANI:  Well, before you go for the quality, you look at it, right, if it doesn’t fit you, it’s not worth at all to look at it...

BURT WOLF:  Okay, it has to fit right when I first put it on...

MANU “SAM” MELWANI:  First look at it according to your shoulder, according to your neck, if the suit is away  from the collar it’s just not worth it at all.  Once the suit fits you...

BURT WOLF:  Right...

MANU “SAM” MELWANI:  ...then you go for the hand stitching, buttonholes, all these, like this...

BURT WOLF:  Real buttonholes...

MANU “SAM” MELWANI:  That’s right...

BURT WOLF:  Okay, hand stitching...

MANU “SAM” MELWANI:  All the way....

BURT WOLF:  Oh, stitching all the way down in here....

MANU “SAM” MELWANI:  To hold the shape of the lapels so it doesn’t go off...

BURT WOLF:  I never noticed that.  So there’s stitching in here to hold the shape of the lapel.

MANU “SAM” MELWANI:  So that it doesn’t wear out.

BURT WOLF:  Oh, that’s very nice...the jacket is perfect.  I will try on the pants now, but I’ll do that privately.

Perhaps most important these days in terms of Hong Kong’s economy are the financial services.  In most cases these are Western commercial concepts that the people of Hong Kong have adapted for the needs of an Asian population.  Information services, investment banking, insurance, accounting.  And they are constantly developing new and more efficient ways of doing business.

The Chinese words Hong Kong mean “Fragrant Harbor,” which is a perfect description of the place.  No matter what happens to it, it always comes up smelling like a rose.  Hong Kong has also been described as being like a rubber ball -- the harder you throw it, the higher it bounces.  And it appears that at the heart of Hong Kong’s ability to bounce back are two things: a population that can easily adapt to change and a government that supports business as the world changes.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  The government believes that if someone wants to start a business he’ll probably  know enough about that business to make the venture a modest success.  And it is their job to do everything they can to help that person become successful.  They also believe that everybody is going to pay their taxes and they believe that for two reasons.  First of all, they feel that people are basically honest.  And second, they feel that they’ve kept the taxes here in Hong Kong so low, that it costs more to cheat them than to pay them.

Because Hong Kong has been faced with an extraordinary level of change, it has mastered the techniques of transition.  The key word is flexibility.  They know when it’s time to make a shift.  If you have a small factory that is making typewriter keyboards and typewriters are no longer a growing business, but computers are, it’s time to shift to computer keyboards.  No problem.  No rigidity.  They’ll make the change tonight.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  During the 1970s when China introduced the series of economic reforms, Hong Kong money started moving into the mainland, and Hong Kong itself began to lose some of its manufacturing jobs.  Now, in most parts of the world that would have led to a recession.  But not here.  Hong Kong just shifted gears and went from an economy based primarily on manufacturing to an economy  based primarily on services.  Particularly services in banking and insurance.  Hong Kong also became a point of entry for foreign corporations who wanted to do business in China.

The whole town is constantly involved in finding a dynamic state of balance, literally from minute to minute.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  Everyone has come to realize that change by itself is really nothing to fear, and that more often than not change just creates new opportunities for profit.

For over one hundred and fifty years Hong Kong was a commercial outpost of England.  A center for entrepreneurial operations.  A hotbed of capitalist activity.  And since the middle of the twentieth century, all this free enterprise has been going on right in front of the world’s largest communist government.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  On the surface, it would appear that mainland China and Hong Kong were in conflict -- capitalism versus communism.  But that is a western view, and Hong Kong and China are in the east.  The world of the Taoist.  The masters of flexibility and integration -- the combiners of opposites.

Hong Kong has become the commercial window on the world for the mainland, and Beijing likes to keep that window open with the money blowing in.  Hong Kong is Beijing’s banker.  The Hong Kong investment community is China’s main source of foreign currency, currency that is very much needed.  On the other side of the coin, the Bank of China in Hong Kong is the second largest bank in the city and one of the three banks that issue Hong Kong’s money.  A capitalist city bringing money to a communist country and a bank owned by the communist country issuing currency for the capitalists.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  Inscrutable -- like so many marriages that work.  And Hong Kong works for the mainland in other ways.  Hong Kong is Beijing’s communications center, source of investor funds and technical know-how, gateway for tourism, and trade base from which the mainland deals with the rest of the world.  It is the school where Beijing is learning about free enterprise and putting those lessons to practice in the provinces that are nearest to Hong Kong.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  The majority of the business community in Hong Kong believe that China and a number of other Asian countries are developing in ways that will transfer the economic centers of the world from Europe and America to Asia.  They also believe that Hong Kong will become the transfer agent.

In 1841, England took Hong Kong from the Chinese Emperor by force.  In 1982 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher went to Beijing to discuss transferring control of Hong Kong back to China.  Suddenly the residents of Hong Kong were confronted with a future in which Hong Kong would lose its status as a British colony and be handed over to a communist government.

And a lot of people got very nervous.  The stock market took a dive.  Highly inflated property values dropped.  Capital flew out of town.  Large corporations began thinking about moving their headquarters.  And thousands of people decided that they were going to immigrate to some other country.  At one point, Hong Kong was losing over 40,000 people a year.  But that has all changed.  Hong Kong, as it has done for decades, quickly lost interest in panic and settled down for a closer look at what was really happening.

The Buddhists believe that in every event there is a Teaching, and if you understand the Teaching, the event, no matter how negative it may look on the surface, will eventually produce something good for you.  So the question for Hong Kong became... what is the Teaching?

Guy Lam is a mechanical engineer.  But he is also one of the most respected attorneys in Hong Kong.  His specialty is international law.  Guy was born in China and raised in Hong Kong, but when he wanted an education, he left.

GUY LAM:  Well, I was eighteen, and I was at an age of going to university.  And going to school in the colonial system, any higher education is a very difficult task.  The British make sure there are only so few spaces at the university level.  So it is quite common for people between the age of eighteen after secondary school to go to university elsewhere, such as U.K., U.S., and Canada.  And I went in Canada.

BURT WOLF:  During the early ‘80s when it became apparent that Hong Kong was going to be given back to the Chinese Communists, lots of people left.  Why did they do that?

GUY LAM:  The fear of Communism.  It was a nightmare in China, I would say, in the last century or so.  So, with that as a background, it’s understandable many Hong Kong Chinese would not want to be part of nightmare; and therefore, they left.

BURT WOLF:  You came back.  Why?

GUY LAM:  We realized the nightmare was not so much of a nightmare after all.  It was actually an opportunity.  With China opening up -- which was never expected -- with Hong Kong prospering from the opening up of China, I would say Hong Kong is more like California during eighteenth century, nineteenth century when it first joined the U.S.  The “Wild West”?  Now this is the “Wild East.”  The land of opportunities.

BURT WOLF:  What role do you think Hong Kong is going to play in the future?

GUY LAM:  Well, I think Hong Kong will inevitably be the widow to the world for China, and in fact is has been, even though it’s not part of China yet, it has served as such purpose.  If you compare the industrialization of China in the last ten, twenty years to that of the U.S.S.R., China prospered, and U.S.S.R. -- the former U.S.S.R., now Russia -- went down the pipes.  The difference, one major difference, is Hong Kong.  China has Hong Kong to bring to it the finance expertise, legal expertise, the capital, whereas Russia has none.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  Over ten percent of the people who left Hong Kong have returned, and each year there is a net inflow of over 100,000 people a year.  In the end it was a pretty traditional teaching for the people of Hong Kong -- in this case, change was merely a shifting of the earth that allowed people to find gold in a new place.

In spite of being part of China, Hong Kong looks very western, and in many ways it is.  But when you get up close it becomes quite clear... this is a Chinese culture, outside and in.  And everything that is traditionally Chinese is very important to the people of Hong Kong.

Take for example the practice of fung shui.  Fung shui is a Chinese Buddhist art that adjusts a building so it stands in proper relationship to the spirit force of life called the Ch’i.  The man in charge of making the adjustment is called a geomancer.  This is Raymond Lo, who’s one of the master geomancers of Hong Kong.

RAYMOND LO:  Geomancy is a study of how the environment is affecting the well-being of people.  So, basically, we talk about how the landscape will generate a kind of prosperous energy and then we have to measure directions and we also have to measure time.  So, in fact, it’s a science which talks about how you can prosper at a particular time and space dimension. 

BURT WOLF:  How do you do it?

RAYMOND LO:  Basically, you have to use a very important tool.  So this is the ancient Chinese compass.  So because we need to measure direction accurately we have to apply this instrument.  So it’s not much different from an ordinary compass.  You see that it’s a magnetic needle pointing north / south.  But it has got a lot of information which tells you the implication of different directions or you can say what kind of Ch’i, the word Ch’i is very fashionable, so all the information there tells us that if you measure a building facing this direction, what are the implications?  What is the implication of that tree in relation to that building, the implication of that road, in relation to that building.

The Bank of China Tower has been a controversial subject in the fung shui circles in Hong Kong mainly because it was built with a lot of sharp edges.  Pointing, one of the sharp edges is believed to be pointing to the back of the Hong Kong governor’s house.  So, in Chinese fung shui principles basically we prefer very harmonious kind of shape.  Like we prefer circles, we prefer regular rectangles, and sharp edge is usually considered as a source of hostility and horror.  So there are people who consider this to be responsible for the conflicting relationship between the British government and the Chinese government since the building was there in about 1985.

BURT WOLF:  I’m going to watch out for all the pointed buildings near my house, that’s for sure.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  Hong Kong’s Regent Hotel has excellent fung shui. Very early in the planning stage a geomancer was consulted.  And he pointed out that the great dragons of Kowloon who lived just up the road from here, would pass through this spot each day on the way to their bath in the harbor.  The very spot where they entered the water was where the Regent was about to be built.  And that would have been bad fung shui.  Actually, very bad fung shui.

The solution: glass.  It appears that dragons don’t mind going through glass.  They come in straight through the front doors.  There’s one door for each dragon.  Then they cross the lobby and enter the bay through forty-foot-high windows.  The geomancer also pointed out that dragons often control the flow of wealth and it would be a good idea to place the check-in area and the cashier alongside the dragons’ path.  The owners of the hotel did just that and the hotel has been successful ever since.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  And the geomancers do pretty well too.  They get paid about two dollars per square foot when they’re working on a private apartment and a major commercial building can bring in a fee of well over one-hundred thousand dollars.  The moral of the story is clear -- a clean dragon is a happy dragon.  And good fung shui can help you clean up.

And if you would like to clean up your plate, the Regent Hong Kong can help you with that, too.  Their Shanghai Club restaurant is one of the most well-respected and romantic spots in town.  Today, Chef Cheung Kam Chuen is going to prepare a dish of Fish with Eggplant.

The wok is heated; in go two cups’ worth of eggplant, cut into strips.  Thirty seconds of cooking and the eggplant is drained.  Fresh oil goes in, then a filet of grouper that has been cut into sticks that are an inch square and about three inches long.  They were dipped in beaten egg and then rolled in cornstarch prior to their arrival in the wok.  They stir-fry for a minute; the wok is cleaned and reheated.  Then in goes some garlic, ginger, red chili pepper and chili sauce.  Hot stuff!  The fish comes back, the eggplant returns, a half-tablespoon of sesame oil goes in, plus a half-tablespoon of soy sauce.  A little stirring, followed by a teaspoon of cornstarch that has been dissolved in water.  Then it’s into a serving bowl with a garnish of cilantro and scallions.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  That’s a brief look at some of the stories that make Hong Kong the unique place that it is.  But what happened to Captain Charles Elliot of the British Navy, where this story began?  The man who took Hong Kong from the Chinese emperor in 1841 and had the original vision of this place as a commercial center?  What happened to Captain Charles?  Well... the Lords in London didn’t think that he had made such a good deal with the Chinese.  They wanted more.  And so they banished him to the most insignificant political post they could think of.  They made him British Consul to Texas.  Yeah, I know, it’s hard to find people who appreciate your work.  And yet,  you have stood with me during this program and that makes me feel appreciated.  And I hope you will stand with me again during our next program as we travel around the world.  I’m Burt Wolf.

Origins: The Traditions of Hong Kong - #112

Every place in the world has a series of things that give that spot a special character... and make it different from every other place.  When you look at the ORIGINS of these things, you often end up with a better appreciation of the territory -- and that makes it a lot more interesting to visit.  And sometimes, these ORIGINS help us understand why we live the way we do.

Hong Kong is a small island just off the southern coast of the Chinese mainland.  It’s a model of free enterprise.  A bustling metropolis.  And one of the world’s most important financial centers.  But it is also a focal point for traditional Chinese history and culture. Chinese music. Chinese art. Chinese theater. And Chinese food. And that unusual blend of western high-tech with Chinese high-touch has made Hong Kong the most important tourist destination in Asia.  Over ten million visitors come to Hong Kong each year.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  Hong Kong is made up of four distinct areas. First of all, there is the original island of Hong Kong that the British took away from the Chinese in 1841.  And right across the harbor is Kowloon, the tip of the mainland which the British took away from the Chinese in 1860 in order to fortify the harbor and protect the British navy.  And right behind Kowloon are the New Territories and surrounding the whole place are 235 out-islands.

The north side of the island of Hong Kong, facing the mainland, is the home of the central business district.  The best way to see the place is to hop on one of the double-decker trams, sit up top and up front and see the city.  But don’t take your tram ride during the morning or evening rush hours.  The traffic is unbearable.

Next -- a ride on the funicular railway to Victoria Peak, the highest spot on Hong Kong island, from both the geographic and social viewpoints.  This is the place to live in Hong Kong.  If you are at the top of your game, you live on the top of the peak.

Hong Kong is also the home of a district called Western.  It was the first place settled by the British in the 1840s, but they soon moved out and left it to the Chinese who were moving in to get work.  Today Western is a typical, colorful, urban Chinese community.  It’s the place to see the most traditional Chinese craftsmen at work. Mahjong set makers.  Chop carvers.  Jade workers.  Fan makers.  Potters.  And eggroll bakers.  It’s also the neighborhood of the Chinese herbalists.

Ladder Street is lined with some of the city’s oldest buildings.  It’s thought to have been constructed with these broad stones in order to make it easier for men carrying people in sedan chairs to make it up and down the hill from Hollywood Road.  The sedan chairs are gone, but Hollywood Road is still here and it’s a great spot for antiques, furniture, snuff bottles, and porcelain.

WINNIE CHAN:  The road is named Hollywood is because the second governor, Sir John Davids, named this road according to have a home in England called Hollywood Tower, so he named this road Hollywood Road. 

BURT WOLF:  So it’s not about movies at all.

WINNIE CHAN:  Oh, no.

BURT WOLF:  It’s about somebody’s garden in England.

WINNIE CHAN:  Yes, that’s right.  When you look at the jade carving, the carving itself is very important.  Even though I give you a piece of best jade, and if you mess up with the carving, it’s not worth much.  You know, the carving itself is very important.

BURT WOLF:  It’s like cutting a diamond.

WINNIE CHAN:  Like cutting a diamond.  Burt, look at this -- a headdress.  Ladies’ one.  The blue one is the enamel, and then the pearls, and then the green one is jade beads.

BURT WOLF:  That’s gotta be for a special occasion.

WINNIE CHAN:  Yeah...Wealthy, wealthy people.

BURT WOLF:  You don’t wear that when you’re shopping.

WINNIE CHAN:  No.  And snuff bottles here.  And different carving, and colors, and all that.

BURT WOLF:  More lions.

WINNIE CHAN:  Yes, that’s right.

BURT WOLF:  Keep out those evil spirits.

WINNIE CHAN:  Oh look!  Here, a huge basket.  In olden times, the groom... the bride’s family carried the dowry to the groom’s home and they put everything in it...

BURT WOLF:  Silks and...

WINNIE CHAN:  ...food, and money, and gold, and all that.  Lunch.

BURT WOLF:  Lunch?  Did someone say lunch?

The island of Hong Kong is also the site of Wanchai, known also as the “Wanch,” and it’s home to one of Hong Kong’s great markets.

WINNIE CHAN:  Right, Burt, this is one of the oldest Chinese bakeries.  And you can see, first of all you can see all of these colored ones on the top there.  Those are all the wedding cakes.

BURT WOLF:  You give those to someone who’s having a wedding...

WINNIE CHAN:  Yes...

BURT WOLF:  ...or you get served that at a wedding?

WINNIE CHAN:  Well, give it away, it’s a sort of announcement, especially, it’s given out by the bride’s family to say that my daughter is marrying out now...

BURT WOLF:  Do the colors mean anything special?

WINNIE CHAN:  Oh, yes, these are all the lucky colors, you know, yellow is represent wealth and power; pink, basically, red is happiness, you know.  And they have very different stuffing inside.

BURT WOLF:  So if I get one of those, it’s somebody telling me that their daughter is getting married?

WINNIE CHAN:  You don’t normally get one.  You normally have a set. 

BURT WOLF:  Oh, I get a whole set...

WINNIE CHAN: Yes, yes...

BURT WOLF:  Oh, that’s very nice...

WINNIE CHAN:  Yeah...that’s right.

BURT WOLF:  Beats those little cards.

WINNIE CHAN:  Yeah, that’s right.

Hong Kong’s commitment to its Chinese heritage is expressed throughout the society.  The population continues to take part in all of the traditional Chinese holidays and follows the customs associated with paying respect to ancient gods and ancestors. This is the Man Mo Temple.  It was built in the early 1840s.

WINNIE CHAN:  First of all, we come to this very beautiful door.  And years ago when very important people would go through the door...

BURT WOLF:  Ah, so the rich and famous go through the door, the rest of us go around it.

WINNIE CHAN:  That’s right, the rest of us go around it.

BURT WOLF:  Ah ha, okay.

WINNIE CHAN:  The temple is for Man and Mo, two gods.  And the civil god controls the destiny of the civil servant.  And Mo, it’s actually marshal and we also named him the god of the war.  First of all we’re going to get some incense and then we do bison [sic], that means worship the gods. 

BURT WOLF:  Let’s get some incense.

WINNIE CHAN:  Right.  The money in the donation box and I’ll just help myself to have a pack of incense.  That’s always come in three sets, three sticks in one set.

BURT WOLF:  Why?

WINNIE CHAN:  It represent the heaven, the universe and the hell.  Once you offer, you offer to God, human being and evil spirit...

BURT WOLF:  Three levels...

WINNIE CHAN:  Three levels... so come around here...

BURT WOLF:  Is there different power for the different sizes?

WINNIE CHAN:  Well, of course, the biggest one is the better one...

BURT WOLF:  Well, looks like I’m in deep trouble already....

WINNIE CHAN:  Okay, now, communication with God is a private matter.  So, you have a question, doubt in your mind, you bow and you say your prayer.  You don’t have to sing out, you just say it to yourself, and then, whatever wishes you want.  And after you finish your prayer, you can put the incense on here...

BURT WOLF:  And I bow three times?

WINNIE CHAN:  Well, uh, any, any, it’s not necessary...

BURT WOLF:  Depending on how much I have to ask....

WINNIE CHAN:  That’s right...

BURT WOLF:  Okay...

WINNIE CHAN:  Okay, I just want to show to you there are different incense about us and if some of the family, people, worshippers want to have a blessing they normally burn a bigger one.  One of these big ones last for two weeks.

BURT WOLF:  So these circular ones are incense....

WINNIE CHAN:  Yes....

BURT WOLF:  And you light the end and it slowly burns around.  For two weeks? 

WINNIE CHAN:  The big one is for two weeks, all right, and the smaller one maybe ten days and you normally write your wish, happiness, successful business, write it on the red tag underneath it, yeah...

BURT WOLF:  So that will burn there for all of those days expressing that wish for the family.

WINNIE CHAN:  That’s right.

BURT WOLF:  I’ve never seen incense like that, that’s very interesting....

WINNIE CHAN:  Yes, yes, very different, very different.  Okay, well, the last, last not the least, last things we put a bit of donation in it, and you can drum, and the bell, and that will bring us good luck.

BURT WOLF:  I put the donation into here...

WINNIE CHAN:  Right...put the donation in...

BURT WOLF:  And then I take this three times...

WINNIE CHAN:  Yeah...And the bell...

BURT WOLF:  That ought to do it!

WINNIE CHAN:  Right, you will have a fortune year coming...and then...

BURT WOLF:  That’s it?

WINNIE CHAN:  That’s right.

Across the harbor from the island of Hong Kong is Kowloon, which is on the mainland of China.  The distance is only a mile and you can cover it by car in the harbor tunnel, but the most interesting way to make the passage is on the Star Ferry.  These ferries have been running up and back on Hong Kong harbor since 1898, and these days they run every few minutes.  And at 25 cents per ride it’s one of the best transportation deals in the world.

The word Kowloon means “nine dragons.”  The folklore that goes along with the name tells the story of a boy emperor in the Sung dynasty who was forced to this tip of land by the invading Mongols.  While he lived here, he noticed that the peninsula had eight hills.   He called them the eight dragons.  An adviser to the emperor pointed out that an emperor was also a dragon and so he included himself and called the place “nine dragons,” Kowloon.

Kowloon has a land surface of only three square miles, but it’s the center of Hong Kong’s “shoppers’ paradise.”  The place to start is at the Chinese Arts and Crafts Store in Star House.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  In China, tea is very important, but the equipment that the tea is made in is just as important.  Particularly the pot. 

Now this is the jade department.  Jade is very important in Chinese culture because jade is thought to have the power to lengthen your life and to keep away evil spirits.  When you’re buying jade, if you’re lucky enough to be doing that someday, you want to look for jade that has a deep green color and the color should be very even.  Here are two pieces.  Here’s a really deep green color, looks great, even.  This one is bigger, but less expensive because it doesn’t have the depth of color and it’s not even.  I guess you’ve got to assume that the deeper the color the more expensive the jade, the more evil spirits it will keep away. 

This is the department of traditional Chinese clothing, it’s ready to wear, I mean, the clothing’s ready to wear.  I’m not sure that I’m ready to wear it.  Dresses look fine --certainly would fit in any western wardrobe.  Red’s a very important color.  It means good luck.  And I think all of the women’s clothing here is nice.  The men’s clothing, it’s a little trickier.  This is a traditional men’s garment, it looks very comfortable.  I’m not exactly sure where I would wear it.  And I’m afraid that if I wore it once, it’s so recognizable, they’d know it when I wore it a second time.  They have an area where they reproduce the clothing of the emperors.  Very nice.  Only emperors were allowed to wear gold, so they wore it as often as possible.  This is actually an ensemble, you have the whole outside garment, those are the boots and the belts that go with it and the hat.  Hat’s very important, it’s a big deal emperor’s hat.  You wear it like this.  The tail in the back spins you into the wind.  If you’re an emperor it’s important to know which way the wind is blowing.  I can also wear it this way, it’s a fabulous fly-swatter during the summer or in southern countries, and, as a triple threat it works as a wonderful salad bowl which you can then move around the table with this end.  I always like multi-function things you know.

And then there’s The Golden Mile on Nathan Road.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  The third area making up greater Hong Kong  is known as The New Territories, and it’s just up the peninsula from Kowloon.  And though it isn’t visited very often by tourists, its worth the half hour trip just to take a look at the nightly fish market in the small town of Sam Tung.  And finally, there are the Outlying Islands, a good place to see what this area actually has looked like for the past six thousand years.

Observers of the Hong Kong scene are quick to describe the community as addicted to commerce.  But the real addiction for the people of Hong Kong is Mahjong. Mahjong is a board game played by Chinese all over the world.  It originated during the Sung Dynasty about a thousand years ago.  In the beginning it was played with cards but these days small tiles are used.  Chinese characters are engraved on the blocks and the game is similar to gin rummy.  Get your matching suits together and get out.  Each player also has a pack of one hundred betting chips which are assigned a value by the players. Millions of dollars change hands at Hong Kong mahjong games each year.  It’s a game that is noisy, fast and, to the eyes of a westerner, a bit aggressive.  It is sometimes used to test the strength and intelligence of a newcomer to a group, a new employee, a merger partner, or a prospective bridegroom.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  I learned about Mah-Jong when I was six years old.  I have no idea why, but every Thursday night my mother and three of her friends would play Mah-Jong.  The game wasn’t particularly important to me but on Mah-Jong nights she would serve a bowl of chocolate-covered raisins, a big bowl, and that made Mah-Jong special.  Now these ladies play a far superior game to anything that went on in my mother’s house, but they only serve tea.  It’s just not the same for me.

Hong Kong is a wealthy city.  It has the world’s third-highest per capita gross national product.  It has the largest gold reserves in Asia.  It has the largest per capita ownership of Rolls Royce cars.  It also has an appetite that goes along with its assets. Hong Kong is the world’s largest importer of cognac.  It is one of the world’s leading consumers of protein.  And it has the world’s highest per capita ratio of restaurants.  In Hong Kong, there is one restaurant for every eight hundred people.  Whatever it is that you want to eat or drink, this town will get it for you.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):   But when all of the fads and fashions of international gastronomy have been pushed off to the back burner where they belong, and it’s time to settle down to some good eating and drinking, Hong Kong’s heart is Chinese and Hong Kong is home to some of the best Chinese cooking in the world.

The majority of the people who live in this city are of Cantonese heritage, and Canton is a part of China with an ancient reputation for good food.  The Cantonese kitchen is based on fresh foods of high quality that are prepared in ways that preserve their original appearance and natural flavors.

Barbecued meats... minced beef and egg flower soup... crabmeat and sweet corn soup... steamed shrimp... pan-fried boneless chicken with lemon sauce... baked salted chicken... sautéed diced chicken with chili... grouper filet with a sweet corn sauce... and broccoli with crabmeat.

These are the kitchens of Hong Kong’s Regent Hotel.  The executive chef is Cheung Kam Chuen, and today he’s going to prepare a couple of traditional Cantonese recipes.  The first is a dish of chicken with asparagus and macadamia nuts.

Vegetable oil goes into a wok, and as soon as it’s hot, a cup of macadamia nuts are added and sautéed for a minute... then drained.  Next a cup of sliced asparagus is sautéed for a minute and drained.  Then a cup of sliced carrots are blanched in water -- and drained!  The wok is cleaned... fresh oil goes in... and as soon as it’s hot, a cup’s worth of chicken is cooked and drained.  The chicken is skinless and boneless, and has been cut into bite-size pieces and marinated in an egg white for ten minutes before it arrived at the wok.  The chicken returns to the wok... a few slices of scallion... some minced garlic... a teaspoon of cornstarch that has been dissolved in a little water, and a little hoi-sin sauce goes in.  Then the rest of the ingredients return to the wok, heat up, and get plated.  The chef has a plating assistant who stands by to make sure that everything sits on the plate properly.  Ahhh, what luxury.

Next, the assistant will be plating the chef’s recipe for stir-fried beef with vegetables.  A cup of water and a little sesame oil are heated in a wok.  A cup of celery slices are added.  Then a cup of carrot slices.  Thirty seconds of blanching and both ingredients are drained.  Some oil goes into the wok, followed by a cup of sliced beef.  The beef is stir-fried for a minute and then drained from the oil.  This recipe is quite draining!  Some minced ginger goes into the wok.  The beef returns, a little chopped garlic, and the vegetables return.  As soon as everything is hot, the dish is ready to serve.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):   But of all the gastronomic contributions of the Cantonese, perhaps the most significant is dim sum. Dim sum translates as “a point on the heart” or “touching the heart.”  And what does the touching is a collection of small foods designed to be taken with tea.

The best way to experience this tradition is to visit a restaurant that specializes in dim sum.  This the Ocean City restaurant in the New World Center, and it is one of the world’s great presenters of dim sum.  A dim sum restaurant should be huge, well lit, packed with eaters, noisy and somewhat chaotic.  Carts carrying steam baskets and dishes of food are wheeled around the tables by women.  Each basket or dish contains a particular food.  As they move through the restaurant, they describe the food on their trolley.  The diners yell for what they want, and the servers serve.  Each dish has a specific price, and each table has a card.  Your card is stamped for each dish that you take.  At the end of the meal, the waiter adds up the stamps and you find out what your meal cost.  You can eat as much or as little as you like.  But if you want to eat dim sum at its best, it’s important to get to the restaurant early.  If the place opens at noon, try and be there about fifteen minutes before.  The food will be at its point of perfection and you will get a table for the first round of service.  The later you come in, the more limited the selection.  Dim sum is at its most magnificent on Sunday morning, when it is a traditional family meal... a gastronomic bedlam, and lots of fun.

Sunday Morning in a Hong Kong family-style restaurant is the real stuff -- authentic Chinese food in a traditional setting, which is not always easy to find in a city that is continually modernizing itself.  There is, however, at least one more bit of genuine Chinese gastronomy that you might want to experience, and that is the night market on Temple Street.  Temple Street is just off the Golden Mile of international shops on Nathan Road, and the joint starts jumpin’ about 7 PM.  The street is free of automobile traffic and lined with food shops.  The authoritative technique for selecting a shop is to head towards the one that appears to be doing the most business.  I have used this system in a number of Asian street markets with considerable success.  My total inability to speak Cantonese has not been a barrier to good eating.  I point to what I want and it gets cooked for me.  Cooked is the operative word in this relationship.  These days, eating raw food, anywhere in the world, is like playing Russian roulette.  It’s just a question of time ‘til you get hit.  Properly cooked food is usually safe food.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  The offerings on Temple Street may be a bit uneven, but the experience is always interesting.  And if you have found this experience interesting, I hope you will join us next time, as we travel around the world.  I’m Burt Wolf.

Gatherings & Celebrations: The Moon Festivals of China - #118

The Chinese moon calendar was developed thousands of years ago and based on careful observations of the sky.  The calendar controlled agriculture, and agriculture controlled almost everything else.  Plant and harvest at the right time and everyone has a chance to eat.  Plant and harvest at the wrong time and everyone starves.  There’s an ancient Chinese saying that makes the point: “We must look to heaven for our food.”  The regular arrival of the new moons signaled the busy times and the slow times for farmers.

Eventually the slow periods were marked with gatherings and celebrations.  And we’ve come to the Republic of China to take a look at them -- gatherings and celebrations that are based on the movements of the moon. New Year’s and the Lantern Festival come along when the winter weather made field work difficult. The Dragon Boat Festival comes after the first harvest, and the Mid-Autumn ceremony follows the last harvest.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):   The moon calendar tells the people of China when to have their celebrations.  But what actually happens at those events is mucb more the result of the traditions of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism.  In the west we tend to think of those as organized religions, but in reality they are much more like a general set of instructions to help guide you to a happier life.

Buddhism is based on the life and teachings of Siddhartha Gautama.  Siddhartha is thought to have been born about 550 B.C. in a small town in Nepal.  He was a local prince and lived in great luxury.  But in his twenties he left his family and their palace in search of spiritual enlightenment.  For years he wandered the countryside, avoiding all material comforts.  At one point he began a long meditation under a tree... and eventually found the enlightenment that he’d been searching for.  From then on he was known as the Buddha... the Enlightened One.  And he traveled about teaching his philosophy. 

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):   His teachings revolved around what are called the Four Basic Truths.  First, all life contains suffering.  Second, desire is the cause of the suffering.  Third, if you can get rid of desire you get rid of suffering, and you end up enlightened.  And fourth, enlightenment is available to everybody.  He did not agree with the difficult life of the ascetic, but he also disliked the idea of the pursuit of pleasure just for the sake of pleasure.  What is recommended is what is called the Middle Way.

Taoism had its beginnings in the ancient Chinese culture that goes back in history for well over 4000 years.  But its formation into a philosophy appears to have taken place during the 6th century B.C., and it’s attributed to a man called Lao Tzu, which literally translates as “the old master.”  He was the keeper of the royal archives in the court of the Chou Dynasty.  Eventually, however, he got fed up with the Government and decided to leave the country.  When he came to the Western border, the guards recognized him as one of the wise men of the court and would not let him pass until he wrote down the sum of his wisdom.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):   So the old man sat down, penned a five thousand word manuscript, handed it to the border patrol,  headed off, and was never heard of again.  It’s not a religious text the way we use that phrase in the west; it’s really a short poem about moral philosophy.  It talks about the force which is in each of us, and yet greater than all things put together.

Of all the philosophies that have been developed in China, none has been more powerful than the work of Confucius.  He was born in 551 B.C. during a period of political and moral chaos.  The ruling dynasty was crumbling, and petty factions were at war throughout the country.  Confucius wanted to reestablish the ethical principles that had guided much of China during an earlier time.  And he spent his life trying to teach people that true happiness could only be found in acts of generosity and the promotion of peace and friendship. 

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):   By the time he died at the age of seventy-two, over three thousand students had studied with him.  He also wrote a number of books that told you what the proper behavior was for just about any situation that you would encounter during your lifetime.  He told his students to be tough with themselves but easy-going and benevolent with other people. 

He believed that government was designed for the benefit of the people... not the benefit of other government officials.  From the second century B.C. until 1905, the teachings of Confucius were literally the official body of moral and intellectual information for China.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):   Gods, ghosts and ancestors play major roles in the festivals of China, and in the most positive ways.  When you pay your respects to an ancestor, you thank them for the life they have given you, but you also help them with the life that they are having in the other world.  It connects you to the past.  And because the same rituals are taught to the children in your family, it connects you to the future.  And it is this sense of connection with the past and the future that is so valuable to the people who take part in these festivals.

Here in the Republic of China, as in Chinese communities around the world, one of the major occasions in the year is the Tomb-Sweeping Festival, which takes place on the 5th of April.  It’s a day when all the members of a family, both young and old, pay their respects to their ancestors.  This is a private Buddhist cemetery just outside of Taipei.  It’s called the North Sea Paradise Treasure Tower.

This is the time of the year when the Chinese visit their family tombs and make ritual offerings.  Most often they burn incense and sacrificial paper money. This is not the real stuff, but a special printed form that is believed to turn into real money as the smoke from it passes up into the heavens.  It’s the ultimate technique for the transfer of funds.  The family cleans up the graveside.  The area is swept and manicured, fresh flowers are set in place, and sometimes a new bush is planted.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):   Very often an entire meal is placed on a tray and offered to the ancestors.  The specific dishes on the tray are usually chosen because they were great favorites of the dearly departed. One of the nice things about gods and spirit ancestors is they don’t actually eat the food.  They inhale the aroma.  And they expect you to take the leftovers home and make them part of your meal.  They feel that your eating of the remaining foods is actually an additional tribute to their memory.  Works out nicely for everybody.

The ceremonies are usually performed before dawn or during the early morning hours. The spirits of the departed are thought to sleep during the night and therefore “be at home.” And you want to catch them with your offering before they set out for the day.

It’s a time to remember those who have passed on and yet be able to take pleasure in the continuance of the relationships.  To stop and think about the essential aspects of life and death, and at the same time enjoy the simple elements of a family outing. 

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):   There’s nothing morbid about these events.  They’re actually designed to connect the present generation with their past in a warm and tender way.  Everybody gets involved in a series of tasks, and by caring for their ancestors in the other world, they also express their hope that their spirit ancestors will care for them while they are in this world.

I asked Chef Ip at the Grand Formosa Regent to put together an example of a typical family meal... the kind of meal that would be enjoyed by all the members of the family, and yet also be a mark of respect to their ancestors.

The first dish is minced seafood on leaves of lettuce.  The recipe starts with one cup of oil going into a heated wok.  As soon as the oil is hot, in goes a cup each of minced shrimp and minced scallops.  There’s a minute of cooking, after which the seafood is drained away from the oil and held aside.  The wok is cleaned and reheated.  Then in goes a half cup each of minced mushrooms, celery, and water chestnuts, plus a half cup of pre-cooked sausage meat.  A minute of stir-frying and the seafood is returned to the wok.  A cup of minced bamboo shoots go in.  Another minute of stir-frying.  A half teaspoon of salt and a half teaspoon of cornstarch are added.  Then two tablespoons of soy sauce and two tablespoons of oyster sauce.  As you can see, the chef measures with the tip of his spatula so all the amounts that I’m giving you are really just my best guesses.  A minute more of stirring, at which point the mixture is divided onto six iceberg lettuce leaves that have been trimmed into neat circles.  A garnish of chopped macadamia nuts and they are ready to be eaten out of hand. 

The remaining lettuce is used to prepare stir-fried lettuce, which will be served at the meal as a side dish.  A wok is heated.  A half cup of chicken stock goes in.  Then two tablespoons of oil, and a head of lettuce that has been cut into two-inch pieces.  A half teaspoon of salt and a half teaspoon of cornstarch are added.  Everything is stir-fried for a minute, or until the lettuce is cooked through but still firm to the bite.  Then the lettuce is drained from the cooking liquid, placed on a plate and flavored with a little soy sauce.

Chicken fried rice is one of those traditional Chinese dishes that makes a little meat go a long way.  The chef starts by heating his wok and pouring in a cup of oil.  As soon as the oil is hot, which means a temperature of about 360 degrees Fahrenheit, in goes a cup of chicken cut into pieces that are about a half-inch by a half-inch.  They’re stir-fried for thirty seconds and then drained away from the oil.  The wok is cleaned out and three eggs are scrambled on the hot surface.  Three cups of pre-cooked white rice go in. The rice for this recipe is usually cooked a day or so earlier and kept in the refrigerator.  It’s actually still cool when it goes into the wok.  The rice is stirred up and heated.  Then the chicken goes back on.  A half cup of cooked peas.  A half teaspoon of cornstarch and a half teaspoon of salt are added.  A teaspoon of soy sauce in mixed in.  And finally a cup of thinly sliced lettuce.  A little more stirring... and as soon as everything is warm, it’s onto the plate.

And this is a very interesting dish of beef with ginger and bell peppers.  The cooking starts with a half cup of chicken stock being heated in a wok.  Then in go red, yellow and green bell peppers, each of which has been seeded and sliced into one-inch cubes.  Then ten pieces of marinated ginger. 

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  The ginger that he’s using is the standard fresh ginger, which has been soaking in a mixture of five parts white vinegar to one part sugar.  Has a great sweet taste.

All that stir-fries for two minutes.  Then everything is drained from the cooking liquid and placed into a dry wok, where it is stir-fried for a minute.  Then the ingredients are taken out of the wok and a half cup of oil goes in.  As soon as the oil is hot, two cups of beef are added.  They’ve been marinating for a half hour in a mixture of two eggs, a quarter of a tablespoon of cornstarch, and a half cup of oil.  The beef is cooked for two minutes and then removed from the wok and drained away from the cooking oil.  The beef is then returned to the empty wok.  A quarter of a cup of Chinese vinegar is added.  Then a quarter of a teaspoon of cornstarch that has been dissolved in a quarter of a cup of water.  A half cup of chicken stock is added.  A moment of cooking.  Then the beef goes onto a serving plate, followed by the peppers and the ginger.

All of this cooking took place in the Grand Formosa Regent, which is one of the outstanding hotels in Asia.  It’s smack in the middle of Taipei, which makes it very convenient for its guests. The central core of the building is an atrium lounge.  The hotel is particularly famous for its restaurants, which have become popular with the residents of Taiwan.  It’s usually not easy for a hotel to get the locals as regular customers, but the chefs at the Regent are some of the most talented cooks in the city.  It’s a perfect home base if you’re visiting Taiwan for the Moon Festivals.

The fifth day of the fifth lunar month -- usually June or July -- is the date for the Dragon Boat Festival, which is one of the most colorful celebrations in the Chinese year.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):   And it comes with a great story.  During the Warring States Period, which was around 300 B.C., there was a great poet who was much beloved by the people.  He was also an adviser to the Emperor by whom he was not so much beloved.  At one point he became so depressed over the state of his country that he clasped a giant rock to his chest and threw himself in the river.  The local people jumped into their boats and rushed out to save him, or at the very least to find his body and give him a proper burial.  When they couldn’t find him, they began throwing rice into the river, in the hope that the sea creatures would eat the rice and not their beloved poet.

The custom of eating filled dumplings made with glutinous rice and wrapped in bamboo leaves is a reminder of the rice that was thrown into the river. Originally, only rice was cast into the water, but about two hundred years later a ghost arrived and identified himself as the great poet. The ghost expressed his appreciation for the annual offering of the rice, but pointed out that very often the rice was stolen by the monster who caused floods.  The ghost asked that the rice be wrapped in leaves and tied with five-colored string, both of which were not on the monster’s diet. 

The dragon boat races that take place on this day commemorate the search to save the great poet. They also demonstrate the Chinese devotion to cooperation and teamwork. Each boat has a helmsman, a drummer, twenty-two oarsmen and a flag catcher.  Two boats compete in each race. A process of elimination eventually produces a winner.  And teams comes from all over the world to take part in the races.

The dragon is the most important creature in Chinese mythology. It controls the fall of rain and all the waters on Earth which are essential to the survival of life.  The dragon heads and tails only go on the boats for the races. Once they are set in place, a Taoist priest brings them to life by burning incense, setting off firecrackers, dotting the eyes of the dragons with paint, and burning sacrificial paper money.  Some folks also believe that all the noise and the confusion caused by the boat races scare off any evil spirits in the river.

Like many important festivals throughout the world, the particular date for the events on Earth coincide with things that are happening in the heavens.  The story of the great poet’s death takes place at the same time as the summer solstice, the day of the year with the most amount of sunlight... which gives everyone a chance to add in some additional ritual.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):   The summer solstice is the hottest time of the year in China; it’s considered to be a period when life is out of balance and therefore dangerous.  As a result, over the centuries an assortment of protective customs have been developed.

At night, paper lanterns float down the rivers, symbolically releasing wandering spirits from Buddhist purgatory. The Dragon Festival is only a single celebration, but it kills off many evil spirits. The Chinese have always made a little go a long way.

The summer departs and autumn arrives... autumn which brings with it one of the biggest full moons of the year.

The ancient Greeks thought that marriages that took place at the time of the full moon would last and be prosperous.  For centuries, the English believed that insanity was a permanent condition, but lunacy only occurred during a full moon.  Almost every early culture has a collection of mythic stories that center on the spirits of the moon.  Most of our oldest calendars are based on the movements of the moon.  And the Chinese lunar calendar is still at the heart of their most important gatherings and celebrations.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):   Ancient Chinese legends tell us that the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the birthday of the Earth God.  The growing season has come to an end and the harvest is about to begin.  People take this time to thank the God Of The Moon and the God Of The Earth for the good things that have happened to them during the past twelve months. Of all of the festivals in China, the Mid-Autumn Festival is the most nostalgic and the most poetic.  And many of the stories that surround it deal with the rabbit in the moon. The Chinese, like the early Europeans, saw a rabbit in the moon, not a man.

The most important Chinese folk story about the moon is said to have taken place about 4,000 years ago. Hou Yih was a skilled archer and a master architect. One day, ten suns appeared in the sky. The emperor called on Hou Yih to shoot down the nine additional suns, which he promptly did. As a result, his fame came to the attention of the Goddess of the Western Heaven,  who commissioned him to build a jade palace for her. He did such a magnificent job that the goddess rewarded him with a pill that would give him everlasting life.  But she warned him not to take the pill until he had completed a year of prayer and fasting. Hou Yih returned home, hid the pill and began his prayers.  Hou was married to a woman whose incredible beauty was matched only by her awesome curiosity. When she discovered the pill, she swallowed it -- and was immediately drawn up to the moon. The legend states that her beauty is greatest on the night of the Moon Festival. 

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):   If you feel that the story is a little bit too much like Eve in the Garden of Eden, and you’d like to have something where the woman was not the cause of the problem, there’s a second version.  In that one, Hou is an evil and demonic ruler who gets his hands on a bunch of pills that will give him eternal life. The queen saves the kingdom by taking all of the pills, but that sends her to the moon.  She was a devoted and sacrificial person.  At any rate, you do get the Moon God as the patron god of family happiness and good will, and autumn is always marked by families looking at the moon.

It’s also a time for lovers to be together and to pray for continued togetherness.  The moon becomes a symbol of their desire for unity.   The food associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival is the moon cake.  A round pastry stuffed with a sweet filling, they are a symbol for the togetherness of the family.  It is a common practice to give moon cakes to friends and relatives.  In ancient China, this custom was once utilized to start a revolution. 

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):   During the 1200’s the Mongols were able to take control of most of China.  A Chinese warrior, however, by the name of Chu Yuan-chang decided to start a revolt against them.  He sent the secret message as to when the revolt was to begin by hiding it inside moon cakes.  And it worked.  The Mongol invaders were overthrown and the moon cakes became more popular than ever.

It is also the day for eating pomelo or grapefruit.  The Chinese word for grapefruit is yu, which sounds like the Chinese word that means protection.  The hope is that the Moon God will protect the family. 

Food is always an important part of a festival. In the Republic of China it’s so important that it has been given its own celebration: The Taipei Chinese Food Festival, an annual event that brings together the stars of Chinese gastronomy. The idea of a food festival goes back for thousands of years.  They began as annual street fairs where farmers, merchants, producers and traders displayed their products in the hope of getting new customers. These days it’s a major social event where the skills of master chefs are put on display.

Chang Hung Yu is one of Taipei’s leading chefs, and he’s demonstrating the Chinese technique for making noodles by hand. He holds the world’s record in this event, having made eight thousand one hundred and ninety-two strands of noodles in four minutes.  His noodles are so thin that he is actually able to thread one through the eye of a needle.

The Taipei Food Festival always includes a series of competitive events designed to test the talents of the young chefs.  The contest that draws the biggest audience is the hour-long ice-carving classic.  Each team gets a uniform block of ice and sixty minutes to do their thing.  Electric chain saws are used to cut the block into the general shape of the sculpture.  Once a basic outline has been formed, the artist gets into the detail using the traditional tools of a woodcarver.  They prepare for the event by designing the work and cutting a prototype.  Once they have the major pattern, they practice the sculpture over and over again, so they can reproduce it within the time limit. They constantly readjust the form to get the best results for the time allowed.  It’s a chilling challenge, with the prospect of success often melting away right before your eyes.

The Festival also conducts a competition in napkin folding.  The fashion for napkins in fancy shapes started in the 1500’s.  It was considered an art form, and the people who did it were paid big bucks.  The more elaborate the folding, the more impressive the table.  Napkins are folded into birds and flowers and boats.

Of all the cultures on our planet, the Chinese are probably the most preoccupied with eating and drinking. The great Chinese scholar Lin Yutang once wrote that “in China no food is really enjoyed unless it is keenly anticipated, discussed, eaten, and then commented upon.  Long before we have any special food, we think about it, rotate it in our minds, and anticipate it as a special pleasure to be shared with some of our closest friends.”

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  And I thank you for sharing your time with me as we took a look at some of the great festivals in Chinese culture.  And I hope you will join us next time as we travel around the world looking at the gatherings and celebrations that mark the passages of our lives.  I’m Burt Wolf.

Travels & Traditions: Hong Kong - #808

BURT WOLF: Hong Kong is a small island just off the southern coast of the Chinese mainland. It’s a model of free enterprise. A bustling metropolis. And one of the world’s most important financial centers. But it is also a focal point for traditional Chinese history and culture. Chinese music. Chinese art. Chinese theater. And Chinese food. And that unusual blend of western high-tech with Chinese high-touch has made Hong Kong the most important tourist destination in Asia. Over ten million visitors come to Hong Kong each year.

The north side of the island of Hong Kong, facing the mainland, is the home of the central business district. The best way to see the place is to hop on one of the double-decker trams, sit up top and up front and see the city. But don’t take your tram ride during the morning or evening rush hours. The traffic is unbearable.

Next -- a ride on the funicular railway to Victoria Peak, the highest spot on Hong Kong island, from both the geographic and social viewpoints. This is the place to live in Hong Kong. If you are at the top of your game, you live on the top of the peak.

Hong Kong is also the home of a district called Western. It was the first place settled by the British in the 1840s, but they soon moved out and left it to the Chinese who were moving in to get work. Today Western is a typical, colorful, urban Chinese community. It’s the place to see the most traditional Chinese craftsmen at work. Mahjong set makers. Chop carvers. Jade workers. Fan makers. Potters. And egg roll bakers. It’s also the neighborhood of the Chinese herbalists.

Ladder Street is lined with some of the city’s oldest buildings. It’s thought to have been constructed with these broad stones in order to make it easier for men carrying people in sedan chairs to make it up and down the hill from Hollywood Road. The sedan chairs are gone, but Hollywood Road is still here and it’s a great spot for antiques, furniture, snuff bottles, and porcelain.

WINNIE CHAN: The road is name Hollywood is because the second governor, Sir John Davids, named this road according to have a home in England called Hollywood Tower, so he named this road Hollywood Road. 

BURT WOLF: Ah ha so it’s not about movies at all.

WINNIE CHAN: Oh, no.

BURT WOLF: It’s about somebody’s garden in England.

WINNIE CHAN: Yes, that’s right. When you look at the jade carving, the carving itself is very important. Even though I give you a piece of best jade, and if you mess up with the carving, it’s not worth much. You know, the carving itself is very important.

BURT WOLF: It’s like cutting a diamond.

WINNIE CHAN: Like cutting a diamond. Burt, look at this -- a headdress. Ladies’ one. The blue one is the enamel, and then the pearls, and then the green one is jade beads.

BURT WOLF: That’s gotta be for a special occasion.

WINNIE CHAN: Yeah...Wealthy, wealthy people.

BURT WOLF: You don’t wear that when you’re shopping.

WINNIE CHAN: No. And snuff bottles here. And different carving, and colors, and all that.

BURT WOLF: More lions.

WINNIE CHAN: Yes, that’s right.

BURT WOLF: Keep out those evil spirits.

WINNIE CHAN: Oh look! Here, a huge basket. In olden times, the groom... the bride’s family carried the dowry to the groom’s home and they put everything in it...

BURT WOLF: Silks and...

WINNIE CHAN: ...food, and money, and gold, and all that. Lunch.

BURT WOLF: Lunch? Did someone say lunch?

The island of Hong Kong is also the site of Wanchai, known also as the “Wanch,” and it’s home to one of Hong Kong’s great markets.

WINNIE CHAN: Right, Burt, this is one of the oldest Chinese bakeries. And you can see, first of all you can see all of these colored ones on the top there. Those are all the wedding cakes.

BURT WOLF: You give those to someone who’s having a wedding...

WINNIE CHAN: Yes...

BURT WOLF: ...or you get served that at a wedding?

WINNIE CHAN: Well, give it away, it’s a sort of announcement, especially, it’s given out by the bride’s family to say that my daughter is marrying out now...

BURT WOLF: Do the colors mean anything special?

WINNIE CHAN: Oh, yes, these are all the lucky colors, you know, yellow is represent wealth and power; pink, basically, red is happiness, you know. And they have very different stuffing inside.

BURT WOLF: So if I get one of those, it’s somebody telling me that their daughter is getting married?

WINNIE CHAN: You don’t normally get one. You normally have a set. 

BURT WOLF: Oh, I’ll get a whole set...

WINNIE CHAN: Yes, yes...

BURT WOLF: Oh, that’s very nice...

WINNIE CHAN: Yeah...that’s right.

BURT WOLF: Beats those little cards.

WINNIE CHAN: Yeah.

BURT WOLF: Hong Kong’s commitment to its Chinese heritage is expressed throughout the society. The population continues to take part in all of the traditional Chinese holidays and follows the customs associated with paying respect to ancient gods and ancestors. This is the Man Mo Temple. It was built in the early 1840s.

WINNIE CHAN: First of all, we come to this very beautiful door. And years ago when very important people would go through the door...

BURT WOLF: Ah, so the rich and famous go through the door, the rest of us go around it.

WINNIE CHAN: That’s right, the rest of us go around it.

BURT WOLF: Ah ha, okay.

WINNIE CHAN: The temple is for Man and Mo, two gods. And the civil god controls the destiny of the civil servant. And Mo, it’s actually marshal and we also named him the god of the war. First of all we’re going to get some incense and then we do bison, that means worship the gods. 

BURT WOLF: Let’s get some incense.

WINNIE CHAN: Right. The money in the donation box and I’ll just help myself to have a pack of incense. That’s always come in three sets, three sticks in one set.

BURT WOLF: Why?

WINNIE CHAN: It represent the heaven, the universe and the hell. Once you offer, you offer to God, human being and evil spirit.

BURT WOLF: Three levels.

WINNIE CHAN: Three levels... so come around here.

BURT WOLF: Is there different power for the different sizes?

WINNIE CHAN: Well, of course, the biggest one is the better one.

BURT WOLF: Well, looks like I’m in deep trouble already.

WINNIE CHAN: Okay, now, communication with God is a private matter. So, you have a question, doubt in your mind, you bow and you say your prayer. You don’t have to sing out, you just say it to yourself, and then, whatever wishes you want. And after you finish your prayer, you can put the incense on here...

BURT WOLF: And I bow three times?

WINNIE CHAN: Well, it’s not necessary.

BURT WOLF: Depending on how much I have to ask.

WINNIE CHAN: That’s right.

BURT WOLF: Okay.

WINNIE CHAN: Okay, I just want to show to you there are different incense about us and if some of the family, people, worshippers want to have a blessing they normally burn a bigger one. One of these big ones last for two weeks.

BURT WOLF: So these circular ones are incense.

WINNIE CHAN: Yes.

BURT WOLF: And you light the end and it slowly burns around. For two weeks? 

WINNIE CHAN: The big one is for two weeks, all right, and the smaller one maybe ten days and you normally write your wish, happiness, successful business, write it on the red tag underneath it, yeah.

BURT WOLF: So that will burn there for all of those days expressing that wish for the family.

WINNIE CHAN: That’s right.

BURT WOLF: I’ve never seen incense like that, that’s very interesting.

WINNIE CHAN: Yes, yes, very different, very different. Okay, well, the last, last not the least, last things we put a bit of donation in it, and you can drum, and the bell, and that will bring us good luck.

BURT WOLF: I put the donation into here.

WINNIE CHAN: Right...put the donation in.

BURT WOLF: And then I take this three times.

WINNIE CHAN: Yeah...And the bell.

BURT WOLF: That ought to do it!

WINNIE CHAN: Right, you will have a fortune year coming...and then.

BURT WOLF: That’s it?

WINNIE CHAN: That’s right.

LITTLE ISLAND

BURT WOLF: People have been living on Hong Kong for over six thousand years, and until the middle of the 1800s it was a quiet place with a small population that made a living from the sea.

But that is no longer the case. These days Hong Kong is one of the busiest and most modern cities in the world. And perhaps because it is physically so small -- only seventeen square miles -- it loves the idea of being big in every other way.

It has the busiest container port in the world. It is the world’s largest exporter of clothing, watches and fashion jewelry. It is one of the world’s largest banking centers. It has the world’s largest Chinese restaurant, which you might expect, but it also has the world’s busiest McDonald’s. It has constructed the world’s longest outdoor escalator.

Hong Kong is also one of the world’s top centers for trade. Which is only fitting, since Hong Kong’s growth began as the result of a trade war between England and China in the middle of the 1800s. And trade has been the source of Hong Kong’s growth ever since.

But where does all this economic success come from? What are the origins of Hong Kong’s wealth and power?

Hong Kong has no vast agricultural areas. Hong Kong has no wealth of raw materials. Hong Kong has no reserve of valuable minerals. It would seem that Hong Kong has none of the things that traditionally make a community wealthy. But Hong Kong does have two things that make up for everything that’s missing. The first is a unique geographic position. Hong Kong is at the crossroads of Asia and it is the commercial entrance gate to the Chinese mainland. To take advantage of its geography, Hong Kong has built itself one of the most modern ports in the world. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: The second thing that Hong Kong has is a population with a cultural tradition that loves “efficiency.” Efficiency is basic to the Chinese character and it comes out in everything that is a basic part of Chinese life.

BURT WOLF: For thousands of years the Chinese have cooked in woks. A wok is easy to make. Easy to store. Easy to use, and most important, it is very efficient in terms of fuel. Most Chinese recipes are masterpieces of gastronomic efficiency. Lots of well-balanced nutrients for the least cost.

The Chinese junk is an amazing example of efficient nautical design. Easy to build, it carries a large amount of cargo space and makes almost perfect use of the local winds. The Chinese also invented the magnetic compass, which was certainly a great step toward more efficient travel.

And with all due respect to Mr. Gutenberg and his bible, the Chinese had movable type centuries before the Europeans. They also invented paper, which gave them the original prize for efficient information storage. And next time you open up your wallet, please bear in mind that it was the Chinese who came up with the idea of paper money.

NINE DRAGONS

BURT WOLF: Across the harbor from the island of Hong Kong is Kowloon. The distance is only a mile and you can cover it by car in the harbor tunnel, but the most interesting way to make the passage is on the Star Ferry. These ferries have been running up and back on Hong Kong harbor since 1898, and these days they run every few minutes. And at 25 cents per ride it’s one of the best transportation deals in the world.

The word Kowloon means nine dragons. The folklore that goes along with the name tells the story of a boy emperor in the Sung dynasty who was forced to this tip of land by the invading Mongols. While he lived here, he noticed that the peninsula had eight hills.  He called them the eight dragons. An adviser to the emperor pointed out that an emperor was also a dragon and so he included himself and called the place nine dragons, Kowloon.

Kowloon has a land surface of only three square miles, but it’s the center of Hong Kong’s shoppers’ paradise. The place to start is at the Chinese Arts and Crafts Store in Star House.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: In China, tea is very important, but the equipment that the tea is made in is just as important. Particularly the pot. 

Now this is the jade department. Jade is very important in Chinese culture because jade is thought to have the power to lengthen your life and to keep away evil spirits. When you’re buying jade, if you’re lucky enough to be doing that someday, you want to look for jade that has a deep green color and the color should be very even. Here are two pieces. There’s a really deep green color, looks great, even. This one is bigger, but less expensive because it doesn’t have the depth of color and it’s not even. I guess you’ve got to assume that the deeper the color the more expensive the jade, the more evil spirits it will keep away. 

This is the department of traditional Chinese clothing, it’s ready to wear, I mean, the clothing’s ready to wear. I’m not sure that I’m ready to wear it. Dresses look fine --certainly would fit in any western wardrobe. Red’s a very important color. It means good luck. And I think all of the women’s clothing here is nice. The men’s clothing, it’s a little trickier. This is a traditional men’s garment, it looks very comfortable. I’m not exactly sure where I would wear it. And I’m afraid that if I wore it once, it’s so recognizable, they’d know it when I wore it a second time. They have an area where they reproduce the clothing of the emperors. Very nice. Only emperors were allowed to wear gold, so they wore it as often as possible. This is actually an ensemble, you have the whole outside garment, those are the boots and the belts that go with it and the hat. Hat’s very important, it’s a big deal emperor’s hat. You wear it like this. The tail in the back spins you into the wind. If you’re an emperor it’s important to know which way the wind is blowing. I can also wear it this way, it’s a fabulous fly-swatter during the summer or in southern countries, and, as a triple threat it works as a wonderful salad bowl which you can then move around the table with this end. I always like multi-function things you know.

BURT WOLF: And then there’s The Golden Mile on Nathan Road.

THE NEW TERRITORIES

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: The third area making up greater Hong Kong is known as The New Territories, and it’s just up the peninsula from Kowloon. And though it isn’t visited very often by tourists, its worth the half hour trip just to take a look at the nightly fish market in the small town of Sam Tung. And finally, there are the Outlying Islands, a good place to see what this area actually has looked like for the past six thousand years.

BURT WOLF: Observers of the Hong Kong scene are quick to describe the community as addicted to commerce. But the real addiction for the people of Hong Kong is Mahjong. Mahjong is a board game played by Chinese all over the world. It originated during the Sung Dynasty about a thousand years ago. In the beginning it was played with cards but these days small tiles are used. Chinese characters are engraved on the blocks and the game is similar to gin rummy. Get your matching suits together and get out. Each player also has a pack of one hundred betting chips which are assigned a value by the players. Millions of dollars change hands at Hong Kong mahjong games each year. It’s a game that is noisy, fast and, to the eyes of a westerner, a bit aggressive. It is sometimes used to test the strength and intelligence of a newcomer to a group, a new employee, a merger partner, or a prospective bridegroom.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: I learned about Mah-Jong when I was six years old. I have no idea why, but every Thursday night my mother and three of her friends would play Mah-Jong. The game wasn’t particularly important to me but on Mah-Jong nights she would serve a bowl of chocolate-covered raisins, a big bowl, and that made Mah-Jong special. Now these ladies play a far superior game to anything that went on in my mother’s house, but they only serve tea. It’s just not the same for me.

BURT WOLF: Hong Kong is a wealthy city. It has the world’s third-highest per capita gross national product. It has the largest gold reserves in Asia. It has the largest per capita ownership of Rolls Royce cars. It also has an appetite that goes along with its assets. Hong Kong is the world’s largest importer of cognac. It is one of the world’s leading consumers of protein. And it has the world’s highest per capita ratio of restaurants. In Hong Kong, there is one restaurant for every eight hundred people. Whatever it is that you want to eat or drink, this town will get it for you.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  But when all of the fads and fashions of international gastronomy have been pushed off to the back burner where they belong, and it’s time to settle down to some good eating and drinking, Hong Kong’s heart is Chinese and Hong Kong is home to some of the best Chinese cooking in the world.

BURT WOLF: The majority of the people who live in this city are of Cantonese heritage, and Canton is a part of China with an ancient reputation for good food. The Cantonese kitchen is based on fresh foods of high quality that are prepared in ways that preserve their original appearance and natural flavors.

Barbecued meats... minced beef and egg flower soup... crabmeat and sweet corn soup... steamed shrimp... pan-fried boneless chicken with lemon sauce... baked salted chicken... sautéed diced chicken with chili... grouper filet with a sweet corn sauce... and broccoli with crabmeat.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA:  But of all the gastronomic contributions of the Cantonese, perhaps the most significant is dim sum. Dim sum translates as “a point on the heart” or “touching the heart.” And what does the touching is a collection of small foods designed to be taken with tea.

BURT WOLF: The best way to experience this tradition is to visit a restaurant that specializes in dim sum. This the Ocean City restaurant in the New World Center, and it is one of the world’s great presenters of dim sum. A dim sum restaurant should be huge, well lit, packed with eaters, noisy and somewhat chaotic. Carts carrying steam baskets and dishes of food are wheeled around the tables by women. Each basket or dish contains a particular food. As they move through the restaurant, they describe the food on their trolley. The diners yell for what they want, and the servers serve. Each dish has a specific price, and each table has a card. Your card is stamped for each dish that you take. At the end of the meal, the waiter adds up the stamps and you find out what your meal cost. You can eat as much or as little as you like. But if you want to eat dim sum at its best, it’s important to get to the restaurant early. If the place opens at noon, try and be there about fifteen minutes before. The food will be at its point of perfection and you will get a table for the first round of service. The later you come in, the more limited the selection. Dim sum is at its most magnificent on Sunday morning, when it is a traditional family meal... a gastronomic bedlam, and lots of fun. 

For Travels & Traditions, I’m Burt Wolf.

Travels & Traditions: Taiwan, A Sense of Place 2 - #710

BURT WOLF: The island nation of Taiwan is an extraordinary combination of ancient Chinese culture and the most modern aspects of Western society.

Its 23 million inhabitants live with two calendars. Business runs on the standard Gregorian calendar used in all western nations.

But family life is based on the Lunar calendar which has controlled Asia for thousands of years.

The Taiwanese have carefully preserved the traditional arts and crafts of China. Everyone still has a chop that is used for signing documents. It’s a name stamp that dates back to the time when most people could not read or write.

The document being sealed with the chop can be a traditional wedding license or a contract for the construction of a high-rise condominium.

There are mountains where tea is cultivated with the same ancient techniques that have been used for thousands of years

And there are modern facilities that have made Taiwan a world leader in the manufacture of computer chips, chemicals and hi-tech components. Taiwan is the world's leading producer and exporter of laptop computers. 

But Taiwan also exports talent and a major beneficiary of that trade has been the United States. I wanted to visit Taiwan based on the advice of people who really knew it. 

People like Dr. Henry Lee, the world’s leading forensic investigator. The real CSI.

DR. HENRY LEE ON CAMERA: I start my career in Taiwan. I graduate from Taiwan Central Police University. Then I became a police captain. In my career, I assist Law Enforcement around the world investigate approximately seven to eight thousand major cases. A lot of people say those high profile cases the most interesting - O.J. Simpson, John Kennedy Assination, Jon Benet Ramsey, Lacey Peterson, Elizabeth Smart, to recent case, Phil Specter.

BURT WOLF: Taiwan also gave us Michael Tong, who brought elegance to Chinese restaurants in the U.S.

MICHAEL TONG ON CAMERA: I love to eat, I love to cook. And the real restaurant which is I joined Mr. Wang in 1967 at Shun Lee Dynasty. And the first one, actually, become recognized by the New York Times and received four stars. The restaurant take up like fire. 

BURT WOLF: Taiwan native Dr. David Ho is a leading authority on AIDS prevention.

DR. DAVID HO ON CAMERA: I've been a researcher working on HIV/AIDS, ever since the early 1980s. My team had concentrated on understanding HIV, what it does in the body of an infected person. And that led us, in the mid-1990s, to develop certain strategies to treat HIV that ultimately became, quite successful, and that's the so-called combination, or cocktail therapy.

BURT WOLF: Walter Wang, an award-winning entrepreneur, also came from Taiwan.

WALTER WANG ON CAMERA: I'm in the manufacturing business. We take PVC or plastic raw material, and we convert it into building materials. Exterior doors, patio doors, exterior moldings. And so, almost anything you can think of related to building materials. 

BURT WOLF: Fang-Yi Sheu, is an internationally famous dancer who splits her time between Taiwan and the U.S.

FANG-YI SHEU ON CAMERA: Dance makes me fell alive and dance is part of my life. If I try and figure out without dancing what else I can do and that would be really, really big question for myself.

BURT WOLF: And Chien-Ming Wang, star pitcher for the New York Yankees, who currently calls New York home.

CHIEN-MING WANG ON CAMERA: I am pleased and honored to be one of the players on America’s best professional baseball team.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: I wondered what it would be like to visit Taiwan with advice from those who knew it best. And so I asked—and I came.

BURT WOLF: Considering the fact that the Taiwanese have been serious about baseball for over 100 years, and that the game is played with the same rules as in the U.S., it’s not surprising they’re producing stars like Yankee pitcher, Chien-Ming Wang.

What is surprising are the differences in what goes on around the games. Six big league teams travel around the country but for many years none of them had a home town which meant that no matter where they were playing, each team had thousands of fans at each game.

The Taiwanese may have accepted the idea of a four based diamond, nine innings to a game and a maximum of three strikes or four balls for each at bat.

But when it comes to ballpark food they definitely have their own approach. Peanuts, popcorn and crackerjacks are out.

Pork and sticky rice sausages and a lunch box with pork, rice, and vegetables are in.

And the fans are not shy about expressing their feelings. They show up with horns… whistles… and drums…and anything else which will help them convey their opinions. And they have an opinions about every play.

These massive responses are organized and coordinated by independent self-appointed cheerleaders. It’s somewhat of a mad house, but the officials see it as just another expression of the nation’s love of democracy and their belief in the right of self expression.

TAIPEI 101

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Right now, I am in front of Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world. But since some people have always believed that size mattered, I’m sure that someone somewhere is trying to build a taller building. But the height of this building is not what really interests me.

BURT WOLF: I find the building interesting because it is a perfect example of Taiwan’s constant effort to incorporate ancient Chinese principles into modern technology.

Taipei 101 is 508 meters high and is built with the most advanced construction techniques. But it’s shape is like a stalk of bamboo, an ancient Chinese symbol for growth. And that’s only one of many traditional symbols in the building.

STEPHEN CHI ON CAMERA: You see lots of Chinese characters for example the cloud and also the dragon head in the corners of the building and also what we call ru yi in the ancient coins. Oldest characters represent symbols of fortunes, means if people living here, work here, can bring lots of fortunes to him.

BURT WOLF: In Chinese culture the number eight is a symbol for prosperity. Accordingly, the building is divided into eight sections and there are eight floors in each section.

STEPHEN CHI ON CAMERA: And each big union contains eight small unions.  In Chinese it's called fa fa which means to “bring lots of fortunes” so again it means that people working this building can earn lots of money.

BURT WOLF: Taipei 101 also houses the first wind damper that is on public display. Suspended from the 88th floor, this 660-ton ball helps stabilize the building during typhoons and earthquakes.

STEPHEN CHI ON CAMERA: It's main function is to reduce the vibrations of the high buildings because a high building would normally shake by the wind and especially in Taiwan because we have earthquake.

BURT WOLF: The elevators are the fastest in the world, traveling at over 1,000 meters per minute. But their location in the building was approved by a feng shui master practicing the 5,000 year old art that tells him if the construction plan is in keeping with the mythological forces of the planet. Too much feng and not enough shui and you’re in deep trouble.

In 39 seconds these elevators take visitors to the 89th floor where they can look over the city while waiting for their stomachs to catch up.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: But if you belong to the terra firma school which believes that the more firmer the less terror, fear not, because those who stay below will be offered shopping.

BURT WOLF: The Taipei 101 Tower rests on a vast support of international shops. Electronic stores, a high-end supermarket, the largest English language book store in Taiwan and dozens of different restaurants, bars and cafes.

DIN TAI FUNG DUMPLING HOUSE

BURT WOLF: Ah, my life is filled with unanswered questions, and, like George Carlin, I wonder why there is an expiration date on sour cream? Why do they call it chili if it’s hot? And if money doesn’t grow on trees, why do banks have branches?

And one that has stymied me for decades---the secret of the Taiwanese soup dumpling.

This is the Din Tai Fung dumpling shop and it is the world epicenter for dumplings. Each day thousands of dumpling lovers line up to get in and the line is particularly long on Sundays, because that is the day when they make their inscrutable soup dumplings.

WALTER WANG ON CAMERA: What’s so special about this dumpling is that when you - it's small bite-size dumpling when you bite into it, all the juices flow out.

BURT WOLF: How do you get soup broth into a dumpling without breaking the dough that’s holding everything together?!

Or even more mystifying, what’s the secret of keeping the dough from getting soggy?

The master dumpling maker believes there is no secret. And to prove his point he’s allowing me to video tape him making the dumplings and to watch the replay in slow motion.

Okay. The dough is made from wheat flour. Half gets mixed with cold water—which keeps the dumpling wrapper puff up when it’s steamed. The other half is made with chicken broth which keeps the wrapper from expanding too much.

The dough is kneaded into a rope. A piece is pinched off. A rolling pin is used to flatten it out and shape it into a circle.

The pork filling, which has been mixed with a little gelatin, is packed into the dough.

Then the sealed dumplings go into a steamer where they steam for about two minutes.

When they come out they’re puffed up with soup. How did that soup get in there?

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Let’s watch the replay.

BURT WOLF LOOKING INTO MONITOR AND TO CAMERA: Dough looks okay. Ground pork looks okay. Wait, wait, there it is you see the soup was frozen into a gel and mixed with the pork. It was hiding in plain sight all the time.

Good work huh Dr. Lee?!

DR. HENRY LEE ON CAMERA: Hummmm.

THE LANTERN FESTIVAL

BURT WOLF: Most of our celebrations have their origins in something that is happening in nature. It may be happening on earth, like the beginning of the season for planting.

Or it may be happening in the heavens, like the night of the biggest moon.

In Chinese communities all over the world, the most important celebration of the year takes place on the first day of the first lunar month---it’s Chinese New Year and it usually falls around the beginning of February. But unlike the New Year celebration in the west, which lasts for twenty-four hours, the Chinese New Year celebration lasts for two weeks. It ends with the ritual of the lantern festival, which has been part of Chinese New Year for over 2,000 years.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: The Taiwanese believe that the world is filled with invisible spirits who are roaming around. They also believe that the first full moon of the year casts a magical light that will allow you to see these spirits.

BURT WOLF: In the past, believers would walk around with torches which made the job easier. Eventually those torches became lanterns and the Lantern Festival was born.

Over the years, the Lantern Festival turned into a special event for children. Probably because the date of the first full moon of each year often occurs when children are going back to school after their New Year’s break.

Parents build elaborate lanterns for their children to take to school. And teachers help the children light them.

The bright light rising to the heavens expresses a symbolic wish that the children turn out to be bright students and rise to the top of their class.

On these special evenings, the streets of Taiwan are filled with thousands of people marching along with their lanterns.

Fireworks are often set off to attract the attention of the gods.

There is even a traditional food for the lantern festival. It’s a round sticky rice cake.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: The round shape of the cake is symbolic of the moon and of the unity family.

And some people believe if you eat this cake at the right moment in the New Year festivities it will prevent you from aging during the next year. Now, I've been doing that for ten years and as you can clearly see my timing is seriously off.

TAIPEI’S GRAND HOTEL

BURT WOLF: Taipei’s Grand Hotel was built on a tree covered hill above the city. It opened in 1952 and quickly became a national landmark.

The architectural approach is known as the Chinese Palace Style and it's been used for hundreds of years in the construction of the strongholds in which the emperors lived.

CATHERINE FAN ON CAMERA: The Grand Hotel was officially established in 1952.

BURT WOLF: Catherine Fan is a communications specialist with a detailed knowledge of the symbolic meaning of the hotels architecture.

CATHERINE FAN ON CAMERA: If you look carefully at the wood streak patterns of the Grand Hotel you may find something interesting. These are Chinese characters.

BURT WOLF: There are six calligraphic letters on each of the main entrance doors that mean Long life to the Republic of China.

The dragon and the phoenix are symbols for happiness, good fortune and prosperity. They are considered to be the royalty of the animal kingdom and you will find their images on the hotel's staircases, walls and ceilings.

CATHERINE FAN ON CAMERA: The general numbers should be 200,000 dragons.

BURT WOLF: 200,000 dragons are in the building?!

CATHERINE FAN: Yes.

BURT WOLF: So be careful where you walk.

BURT WOLF: The ceilings are also covered with five-petaled plum flowers which is the national flower of The Republic of China on Taiwan.

The flower in the center of the entrance area has 5 dragons holding onto a dragon ball surrounded by an additional 23 dragons and 16 phoenixes---elaborate but essential for good fortune, and prosperity.

While Taiwan was under Japanese occupation, this area was part of a Japanese shrine. A series of bombings destroyed most of the shrine but this dragon remained ---clearly a sign of its mystic powers. So in 1987, the hotel had it gilded and set back in place.

CATHERINE FAN ON CAMERA: I was told this dragon is almost 100 years.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: 100 years…

CATHERINE FAN ON CAMERA: Yes.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: It doesn’t look a day over 90.

NEO BA-BA BEEF NOODLE SOUP

WALTER WANG ON CAMERA: In Taipei, you would enjoy the best beef noodle soup. There's a restaurant in Taiwan in ... my favorite is called the ... Daddy of Beef Noodle Soup.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: There's a widely accepted rule in economics that as sales increase, prices decrease. But there are some exceptions.

BURT WOLF: One of the more unusual exceptions is Taipei’s Neo Ba-Ba Restaurant. The Beef Bowl.

Their most famous soup is made from five different cuts of beef from five different countries: Japan, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the U.S. And the more bowls of beef noodle soup the shop sells, the more it charges.

When Tony Wang and his wife Jan first introduced their Rolls Royce version of the noodle soup they charged 20 dollars U.S. per bowl. 

After they sold 30 bowls of soup they raised the price to 30 dollars.

At 50 bowls it went to 60 dollars.

And today it goes for 120 dollars per bowl. And they have sold over 4,000 bowls since they opened.

JAN & TONY WANG ON CAMERA: When the store first opened there's only one beef soup. After period of time a customer tired of eating the same one so we try to make different that's why it comes to 23 different kinds of noodle soup. This one is the first one and this one is the last one.

BURT WOLF: Before preparing the meal, Tony visits your table to find out your taste preferences. Once you’ve finished the meal, he takes detailed notes about your likes and dislikes and holds them for future reference.

So, just in case you win the national lottery, or marry into great wealth and come back here to celebrate, Tony will be ready to cook for you.

In addition to the usual soup, Tony offers a three course meal called Head of State Beef Noodle Soup Dinner. The first course is slowly simmered beef broth. The second course is five kinds of beef in a soup. The third course is soy braised beef over noodles.

There is no set price for the meal. When you finish eating you pay whatever you think its worth. Tony says that on average people are paying about 250 U.S. dollars per meal.

CUSTOMER ON CAMERA: You can try once or twice in your life but not everyday okay?!

NIGHT LIFE (KTV)

BURT WOLF: There’s lots of nightlife in Taipei, but for me the most interesting are the giant Karaoke Clubs like Partyworld.

FANG-YI SHEU ON CAMERA: KTV is a great place to scream. When you sing and those words come out, and the melody come out it's --- people feel like they're telling their own story.

BURT WOLF: The lobbies are decorated in a style intended to convey a lavish sense of wealth. You have arrived. Your ship has come in. The world awaits your talent.

For speakers of Mandarin, Taiwan is the pop music capital of the world, with its own set of superstars turning out an endless selection of hits.

And millions of fans who feel compelled to sing along.

Karaoke in Taiwan is called KTV and it’s somewhat like a karaoke bar on steroids.

As you get off the elevator you are welcomed by the staff… and taken on a tour of the buffet and the food is pretty good.

The building consists of ten stories of private karaoke rooms.

Some are huge and can hold over 2,000 people. The smallest are designed for no more than a dozen. And they have just about every size in between. You book your space. Assemble at the appointed hour and sing your heart out. The place is open 24 hours a day and there is always a party going on.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Well you can do anything but don’t step on my blue suede shoes. You can burn my house, you can steal my car, you can drink my liquor from an old fruit jar, you can do anything you want to do but honey don’t step on my blue suede shoes.

Thank you, thank you very much.

BURT WOLF: For Travels and Traditions, I’m Burt Wolf.

Travels & Traditions: Taiwan, A Sense of Place 1 - #709

BURT WOLF: From the very beginning of our history America has been populated by people who came here from somewhere else. We tend to focus on the immigrants who came here from Europe during the late 1800s and early 1900s but even the Native Americans who were here when the first Europeans showed up had originally immigrated to America from Asia.

During the 1800s mainland China was in total chaos. Thousands of Chinese left their homeland in search of their golden opportunity which they believed was buried in the mountains just outside of San Francisco.

The earliest Chinese workers to arrive at the time of the California Gold Rush, did the toughest jobs for the least money. When the gold rush came to an end the Silver Rush started and they were back in the mines again. And when the silver petered out they went to work building the railroads. And when the railroads were finished they built the California vineyards. 

Asian immigration has continued. And today some of the most interesting people coming to the United States are coming from Taiwan. Chien-Ming Wang, who is pitching for the New York Yankees. Dr. Henry Lee, one of the world’s most famous forensic scientists who is with the Connecticut State Police. Fang-Yi Sheu, a star with the Martha Graham dance company in New York and The Cloud Gate Dance Company in Taiwan. Dr. David Ho, one of the world's leading researchers on the prevention and cure of AIDS. Walter Wang, a successful manufacturer and philanthropist. And Michael Tong who introduced the first elegant Chinese Restaurant in America.

Taiwanese students are attending major technical universities in the United States and many have graduated into positions in Silicon Valley. Jerry Yang, one of the founders of Yahoo, is a perfect example.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Hi, how are you doing….

BURT WOLF: I have been a frequent visitor to their homeland of Taiwan and I was curious to find out what they would recommend for my next visit. I asked and this program is the result of their suggestions.

TAIWAN’S NATURAL BEAUTY

CHIEN-MING WANG ON CAMERA: I think the scenery in Taiwan's eastern rift valley, especially the national Taroko Park, is awesome.

DR. DAVID HO ON CAMERA: In Hualien, you could you could go inland into the Taroko Gorge and that scenery is very special. And rather unique to Taiwan. And I think every visitor who is going to spend some time some time in Taiwan should go visit that spot.

DR. HENRY LEE ON CAMERA: I like to see the countryside. I like to see the nature beauty. I like to see the people, how they live. I want to talk to the farmer and to learn their life, and to share their life experience with me.

BURT WOLF: About four million years ago, the tectonic plate under Asia, bumped into the tectonic plate under the Philippines. One result was the Central Mountain Range that forms the backbone of Taiwan. Giant sheets of marble were forced upward and weathered by thousands of years of wind and rain.

Today the area is known as the Taroko National Park and it’s the best place to see the pristine natural beauty of the island. The park is filled with mountains, valleys, gorges, fast flowing rivers and waterfalls.

The Central Cross Island Highway winds its way through the park and offers visitors some spectacular views of the landscape. A river cuts through the marble mountains creating one of the world’s most interesting locations for white-water rafting.

About twenty percent of Taiwan has been reserved as national park land and protected against development. It's an extraordinary opportunity to see what this part of the world was like when it was still under the control of ancient tribes. 

WULAI HOT SPRINGS

BURT WOLF: An hour’s drive south of Taipei in a narrow valley surrounded by steep hills is the small town of Wulai. Before the connecting roads were built it was not an easy place to get to which helped protect its natural beauty. The Wulai waterfalls spill down for over 260 feet.

And if you’re into extreme sports you can take the Wulai Cable Car to the top of the cliffs. It rises to a height of 80 meters above the river which makes it the highest cable ride in Taiwan.

But Wulai is even more well-known for its hot spring waters that gush up from beneath the mountains. It comes out at 85 degrees Farenheit. It’s colorless, odorless and contains large amounts of iron. Tourists and locals bathe at the open-air spring at the banks of the river. The spring water gives your skin a very pleasant smoothness.

FANG-YI SHEU ON CAMERA: I think it’s the water helps me a lot. Just release my back, my neck. I have nothing to do that’s the only place I go. Some how that place makes me calm. Yea.

BURT WOLF: Thousands of years ago the springs of Taiwan attracted native tribes to the area. And today the town is a virtual hot bed of hot spring inns, each receiving a supply of warm water directly from the hot spring.

On the surface it can look like a sleepy little town. But they have balanced out the local economy with a street of shops selling souvenirs and snacks and the local rice wine.

Wulai is also home to a very special spa called Pause Landis. The spa has a series of private bathing rooms where the hot water comes directly from the hot springs. All of the rooms look out on the tranquil beauty of the valley. And each has a different interior design.

In this room the hot spring water passes over a solid gold basin from which the water absorbs a heavy dose of good luck which is then passed into your body while you soak. Then there is the waterfall room.

My favorite was the hot pot room which has three oversized cast iron pots in which the water is kept warm while you relax.

GRAND HOTEL DIM SUM

BURT WOLF: Taipei’s Grand Hotel is run by a non-profit foundation dedicated to the preservation of traditional Chinese culture. The architecture is traditional. The furniture is traditional. Even the restaurants are traditional. And in Taiwan, that means Dim Sum.

DR. HENRY LEE ON CAMERA: Now Cantonese Dim Sum is so famous. I want the small, steam bun with crab meat in there and so those are the stuff I like. 

BURT WOLF: Dim Sum means “touch your heart” and it was originally developed by chefs during the Sung Dynasty which got started in the 10th century and ran for 300 years. 

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Two thousand different dishes have evolved since Dim Sum was first introduced. And though it was originally designed as a snack to be served in Tea Houses, these days it’s become the basis of a full meal.

CATHERINE FAN ON CAMERA: Here at the Grand Hotel we have prepared two kinds of delicacies. One is from Northern China and the other one is from Southern China. 

CATHERINE FAN: The Northern part includes pork fried icy dumplings, ribbon rice cake, pork bun, seafood dumplings, and the shrimp and Chinese chives dumpling. 

And the Southern park includes vegetarian dumpling, taro cake, pork chow mei, fish dumpling, and the shrimp dumpling.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: There's really nothing more important in Chinese culture than food. In fact, one of the ways you ask someone how they are is Tsa Fon La Mao which means “Have you eaten? The theory being that if you’ve eaten you're okay.

TAIWANESE HAND PUPPETS

BURT WOLF: Hand puppetry is one of the most authentically Taiwanese traditions. It’s even performed in the Taiwanese language instead of Mandarin. And it’s been around since the 1600s.

DR. DAVID HO ON CAMERA: The Taiwan puppets are very well-known. They are enjoyed by kids in the previous generation much more than today. I also think that's very unique to Taiwan. It's quite special. 

BURT WOLF: Taiwanese puppets consist of two parts – a hollow wooden head and a hollow body made of cloth. The puppet master puts his hand inside the puppet and uses his entire hand to mimic the natural movements of people.

WALTER WANG ON CAMERA: Usually, a kung fu puppet series. It's multiple series, like a soap opera if you will. It has a full-length story, and it has a bunch of stories, has a hero. And it's about kung fu fighting, and it gets kids very interested and excited. 

BURT WOLF: It’s a little like Pinocchio meets Bruce Lee. Hand puppet shows are still a very popular form of street entertainment with puppet masters reciting poems, singing traditional songs and using sound effects. They’ve even begun using lasers, dry ice and anything else that promises to increase the size and attention span of the audience.

SHIATZY CHEN

BURT WOLF: Another area in which Taiwan is balancing ancient traditions with modern technology is fashion. Shiatzy Chen is one of Taiwan's most successful designer labels. 

FANG-YI SHEU ON CAMERA: I love their clothes. I mean they’ve got a style. And they have a lot of great designs. It can be very formal and you know can be casual too. But once you wear her clothes, I feel like, yea I’ve got a style. I love Shiatzy.

BURT WOLF: The brand got started in 1978. And their objective was to develop a line of high quality, stylish clothing for women which they described as “neo-Chinese chic". In 1987 they introduced a line for men.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Now you might think that these sleeves are a bit too long. But it is the Ancient Mandarin style and it tells everybody that you are much too rich to work with your hands.

BURT WOLF: Shiatzy Chen has done a considerable amount of research on traditional Chinese dressmaking and has incorporated that knowledge into their work.

THE JADE MARKET

FANG-YI SHEU ON CAMERA: Jade Market is a great place to shop.

BURT WOLF: For over a thousand years, the Chinese have worshiped the Jade Emperor. And when they started mining jade in the 1700s it became the country’s most precious stone. It's beautiful but it's also tough.

Every weekend hundreds of vendors who specialize in Jade come to Taipei and set up a market that’s open to everyone. There are new pieces, antique pieces and polished stones. There are pieces that sell for thousands of dollars and pieces that sell for just a few bucks. They say that jade can reflect the wearer's way of life, with the color becoming more intense with age and literally polished by the owner's skin. 

Fang-Yi’s suggestion to visit the jade market is much appreciated, especially by my grand-daughter.

THE SLACK SEASON RESTAURANT

BURT WOLF: The restaurant is called The Slack Season and it has an almost mythic place in the gastronomic history of Taiwan. 

Mr. Hang Saw Hang is the fourth generation in the business. And there will probably be a Hang in this restaurant for many generations to come. His great, great, great, grandfather is credited with developing the basic recipe for Tainan Noodle Soup which is one of the most traditional of Taiwanese dishes.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: The story of Tainan Noodles goes like this---Hang’s ancestor was a fisherman, but because of the typhoons that came through in August and September he didn’t have very much fish it was kind of a Slack Season. So he developed a soup made from noodles and shrimp and pork which he sold from a stand. It’s kind of Taiwan’s answer to Spaghetti Bolognese.

BURT WOLF: And today it’s a national favorite.

RELIGION IN TAIWAN

BURT WOLF: Taiwan is one of the most religiously tolerant nations in the world. At last count over 25 different religions were recognized by the government, which means that they met the requirements for a minimum number of local members, and sufficient money to carry out their mission.

There are over 23,000 places of worship on the island, including 8,600 Taoist temples, 4,000 Buddhist temples, 3,600 Protestant churches and 1,100 Catholic churches. You will also find Jewish Synagogues, Confucian monasteries and Islamic mosques.

Almost all of the monasteries and temples are open to the public and welcome both worshipers and visitors. The most interesting are the folk temples that combine Buddhism and Taoism with an assortment of gods that specialize in specific areas.

The most popular folk deity in Taiwan is Matzu, patron saint of seafarers. Her dark blue face makes her easy to recognize. And she's always accompanied by two giant statues with huge ears and eyes. One is known as Eyes That See a Thousand Miles and the other is Ears That Hear On The Wind.

The legend of Matzu tells of the daughter of a fisherman who was born about a thousand years ago. One night she had a dream that her father’s boat was caught in a typhoon and sinking. In the dream she tried to save her father and her brothers who were on board. When she woke up she found out that there had been a typhoon and that by some miracle her brothers were saved, but not her father. She spent the rest of her life using her special powers to save people. Over the years her benevolence has extended to all in need and her followers are in the millions.

THE NATIONAL PALACE MUSEUM

DR. DAVID HO ON CAMERA: I visited many museums on the mainland, and in terms of the collection none will compare to that held in the National Museum in Taipei.

MICHAEL TONG ON CAMERA: They are the world's largest collection of the priceless Chinese treasuries and I mean for art field.

WALTER WANG ON CAMERA: The National Museum is a place that almost all visitors in Taiwan must go. It has a lot of Chinese antiques that visitors would not be able to see in the rest part of the world. Even in China or in Mandarin Museum, you won't be able to see those exhibitions that you can see in the National Museum of Taiwan. 

BURT WOLF: The National Palace Museum in Taipei opened in 1965 and holds over 700,000 works. It is the largest collection of Chinese art in the world, representing over 5,000 years of the most important arts and crafts.

When the Japanese attacked China in 1931, the greatest works of Chinese art were loaded into thousands of crates and for 16 years secretly moved around so the Japanese wouldn’t find them.

After the Japanese surrendered in 1945 and civil war broke out in China 4,800 crates of the most valuable works were shipped to Taiwan for safekeeping. And all through the following years of turmoil not a single work was ever lost or damaged.

There are 4,400 ancient bronzes, 24,000 pieces of porcelain, 13,000 paintings, 14,000 works of calligraphy, 4,600 pieces of jade and 153,000 palace records. Today, most of the collection is held in storage rooms that were dug out of a mountain behind the museum. The objects are periodically rotated but it would take 12 years of regular visits to get through all the rotations and see the entire collection.

SUN MOON LAKE

DR. HENRY LEE ON CAMERA: For the tourist, if they just stay in a 5-star hotel, eating hotel meal, you only see part of the country. You should go to where other people, living, eating and touring, and learn and experience their culture.

BURT WOLF: Three hours south of Taipei, in the foothills of the Central Mountain Range, is Sun Moon Lake, the largest natural lake in Taiwan.

FANG-YI SHEU ON CAMERA: I love Sun Moon Lake because it just makes me feel like, oh my God, this is an amazing place. I feel like oh my God this whole view is like a beautiful woman. Very classic.

BURT WOLF: It got its celestial name because of its shape. The Eastern part of the lake is round like the sun, while the Western part is shaped like a crescent moon hence the name Sun Moon Lake.

Legend has it that the lake was discovered when the ancestors of the Shao tribe stumbled upon it while they were out deer hunting. They found it so beautiful that they moved their entire clan to its shores. 

These days there are only 300 people in the Shao tribe but they still live in their favorite neighborhood and they have exclusive rights to the best block—a sacred island in the center of the lake that serves as their private sanctuary.

Even though the island is accessible only to the tribe, the rest of us have plenty to do. Fishing, boating, eating, and lots of hiking. Seven different trails wind through tea farms, conifer forests, aboriginal villages and a waterfowl sanctuary.

NIGHT MARKETS

BURT WOLF: Most people in Taiwan spend their days working and end up with very little time to shop, but the merchants of Taiwan have solved that problem by opening up night markets. Each town has their own version and the larger cities have dozens of them. They open about 7 pm, close at sunup and spread out over several blocks.

Each market has a slightly different set of vendors but in general they offer clothing, shoes, local inventions and lots of street food.

Originally they were serious shopping areas designed to meet the needs of hard working families, but today they are more about atmosphere and fun. Rosa Hsu, a resident of Taipei and friend of mine for many years, took me to have my fortune read.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: Ah, a fortune teller, well, let's have our fortune told.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: What is she saying?

ROSA HSU ON CAMERA: You don’t want to know.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: What is she saying now?

ROSA HSU ON CAMERA: You don’t want to know.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: I want to know.

ROSA HSU ON CAMERA: No, you don’t want to know.

BURT WOLF ON CAMERA: I don’t want to know.

ROSA HSU ON CAMERA: She said that the program will be finished in five seconds. Quick!

BURT TO CAMERA: For Travels & Traditions, I’m Burt Wolf. That was fast.

Travels & Traditions: The New Hong Kong - #110

Hong Kong thinks of itself as “The City Of Life”... filled with energy... always in motion... vibrant during the day... and exciting at night.  A modern commercial and financial center.  A match with the great cities of Europe and North America.  And that’s true.  But that is only half the picture.

The other half can be seen and understood by taking a look at Hong Kong’s most popular religion.  It’s known as Taoism, and it’s more a philosophy than a religion in the Western sense of that word.  Taoism’s teachings go back over two thousand five hundred years.

The most important graphic symbol in Taoism is the yin and yang.  It’s a statement of the constant oppositions in life:  dark and light, good and evil, male and female.  These opposing forces are in conflict, but they also complement and counterbalance.  Each takes over a spot at the very center of the other.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  In the end everything is brought together and united in a single circle...it turns out that all things are one thing.  The word Tao means “the way’ and what Taoism tries to do is teach people how to get in step with the way of the universe.  And the most important skill in getting in step with the way of the universe is the ability to balance opposites.  And that is what Hong Kong is all about.

Hong Kong is old and traditional, but it is also new and futuristic.  It is a capitalist city in a Communist nation.  It speaks English and it speaks Chinese.  It is Eastern and it is Western.  The old hand-made junk sails past the computer-designed cruise ship.  And it is this city’s skill at balancing opposing elements that makes it such a fascinating place for a tourist.  So join me, Burt Wolf, for TRAVELS & TRADITIONS in Hong Kong.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  During the seventeen and eighteen hundreds, England bought large amounts of tea from the Chinese...purchases that put a great strain on England’s balance of payments.  To even things up, England forced the Chinese to buy opium from English traders who brought it in from India.  A nasty business and the Chinese tried to put an end to it by forcing out the English, European and American opium traders.  In response, the English sent in the marines and forced the Chinese to give them the island of Hong Kong as a trading base.

In 1997, after more than one hundred and fifty years as a British Colony, the English gave Hong Kong back to the Chinese.  Most people thought that Hong Kong would change drastically,  but that does not appear to be the case.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  I was here just before the handover and I’ve come back to see what changes have taken place, and from the point of view of a tourist, they seem very small.  The tension that built up prior to the handover seems to have dissipated, everybody’s gone back to work, the city seems a bit more relaxed and enjoyable, and the first thing I noticed when I arrived at the airport is the royal coat of arms is gone and the pictures of the Royal family.

The Bauhinia flower, known for its ability to endure difficult conditions and still flourish, has become the official emblem of Hong Kong.  The Central People’s Government gave a gold-plated sculpture of the flower to Hong Kong as a gift.  It’s called “Forever Blooming Bauhinia,” and it stands in front of the new Convention Center.  The flower has replaced the profile of Queen Elizabeth on the Hong Kong coins.  The Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club has lost its “royal” standing and now sits alongside the rest of us as merely “The” Hong Kong Jockey Club.  The shopping is better than ever and there’s good value for your money... There’s a magnificent new airport with more direct flights from Europe and North America... and the world’s longest road-and-rail suspension bridge has opened and become something of a sightseeing attraction along the lines of the Golden Gate in San Francisco.

Below the bridge is the harbor of Hong Kong, which is the busiest harbor in the world.  The best way to see it is on a Star Ferry. The ferries shuttle between Hong Kong island and the mainland district of Kowloon.  These boats have been making this one-mile trip since 1898, and at 25 cents per ride it’s a great value.

Your next ride should be on the funicular railway to the top of Victoria Peak.  This is the highest point on Hong Kong island, and the ideal spot for an overview of Hong Kong and the mainland across the harbor.

Another high point for most people visiting Hong Kong is shopping... and the person to shop with is Helen Giss.  In 1978, Helen moved from Little Rock, Arkansas to Hong Kong.  As the wife of a corporate executive, she often found herself offering shopping advice to her husband’s American and European business associates during their visits to Hong Kong.  Today she is considered to be one of the world’s great shoppers, and she has built a substantial consulting business along the way.

HELEN GISS:  This is Mode Elegante, it’s one of the tailors that we use, and this is Bacon Lee... This is Burt Wolf, Bacon.  We’re here to take a look at some beautiful fabrics for Burt for a jacket.

BACON LEE:  Sure.  Some kind of cashmere, or...

BURT WOLF:  Well, you tell me what I should be looking for.

HELEN GISS:  Okay, I think you should be looking for a fabric that you would never buy at home.  And I always encourage people to get a cashmere blend, or a wool blend which includes mink, or something kind of unusual.

BURT WOLF:  A mink and wool...?

HELEN GISS:  Yes, mink and wool.

BURT WOLF:  Can I see... what does that feel like?

BACON LEE:  Let me show you some sable mink.

BURT WOLF:  Mink...

HELEN GISS:  Sable and mink.

BURT WOLF:  ...sable, and cashmere.  I am not going to find this in my neighborhood store.

BACON LEE:  No, they don’t make a ready mix.

HELEN GISS:  Not a chance.

BURT WOLF:  And it’s a good idea to bring an example of what it is you want, and they’ll fit it.

HELEN GISS:  Absolutely.  If you have a favorite jacket, or if you have some pictures of some things that you think might look good on you.  You know, it’s always wise to give them as much input as you can.

BURT WOLF:  What would a double-breasted blazer in cashmere-mink...?

BACON LEE:  Roughly it would cost you around, say about 480 something.

BURT WOLF:  Four-hundred and eighty U.S. dollars for a sable, mink and cashmere double-breasted blazer.  That is a good buy.

HELEN GISS:  That is a good deal!

BURT WOLF:  I never thought I was going to get a mink!

HELEN GISS:  And we’re in Trio Pearl which is one of my favorite places.

BURT WOLF:  Oh!  This is very serious stuff, isn’t it?

HELEN GISS:  It’s very beautiful.  Almost all of our clients, when they come into Hong Kong, one of the first things they ask me about is jade.  Jadeite.  The precious... every range of it, every color.  A lot of people don’t realize that it comes in a lot of different colors.

JEWELER:  This piece is brown.

BURT WOLF:  Brown jade.

HELEN GISS:  Brown jade.

JEWELER:  It used to be a belt buckle.  That’s half of the buckle.  It was cut off from a buckle.

BURT WOLF:  What other colors besides green and brown?

HELEN GISS:  The beautiful lavender...

JEWELER:  The lavender, yes.

HELEN GISS:  The lavender color, here.

BURT WOLF:  That’s quite surprising.

HELEN GISS:  It is surprising and most people don’t really... I think a lot of people don’t realize that.

BURT WOLF:  Why is green more popular than the others?  Why do we think of jade as green?

HELEN GISS:  It just goes way back in history.  The more green, the more... you know, the better.  And one of my Chinese friends said to me one time that the very best description of supreme quality jade would be what you and I use at home – Prell shampoo.  That color – 

BURT WOLF:  That’s the right color?

HELEN GISS:  That’s the right color!  The color green, the fact that it’s translucent, it’s even – 

BURT WOLF:  So you see people shopping for jade and they have a bottle of Prell in their hands?

HELEN GISS:  Absolutely.

BURT WOLF:  They’re skilled shoppers.

HELEN GISS:  They’re skilled shoppers.

BURT WOLF:  I’ll remember that.

HELEN GISS:  Right.  Usually, when they set a piece of jade like this they will leave it open on the other side so that you can hold it up to the light and see how gorgeous the color is.

BURT WOLF:  That’s an important thing to know.

HELEN GISS:  And also you can see that they didn’t do anything to it.  You know, they haven’t touched it up or done anything like that.

JEWELER:  You see, like all our setting, the back is all open.  Most jeweler’s shops close the back, so they make the back piece of metal like a mirror so it gives more light underneath.  So it gives...

BURT WOLF:  The stone looks better but it really isn’t.

JEWELER:  That’s right.

BURT WOLF:  So I got a bad stone and a good mirror.

JEWELER:  That’s right.

BURT WOLF:  And it looks great, but it ain’t.  Okay.  Good to know.

HELEN GISS:  Hollywood Road is where most of the antiques in Hong Kong are located right now.  Not all of them, but most of them.  And one of the things I really enjoy showing my clients are the antiquities.  Here we have a Han Dynasty stick man, and the stick men were excavated in the nineties – the early nineties – and I think National Geographic did a big article on them.  And the Han horse here that is without his legs because his legs were originally wood, so they –

BURT WOLF:  It’s amazing that things of this age and quality can be purchased just in a shop.

HELEN GISS:  It’s absolutely amazing.

BURT WOLF:  Not in a museum.

HELEN GISS:  It’s absolutely amazing.  And it’s really... this is where a lot of the antiques that are in the museums in America are coming from.  All along this street.  And over here we have a whole set – the groom and the horse, it’s Ming Dynasty, so that’s four to six hundred years old.  The attendants, and the sedan chair and the sedan chair carriers.  And it’s probably, it looks to me as if this whole set was excavated from one site.

BURT WOLF:  And they’re burial objects?

HELEN GISS:  Yes, they are burial objects.  It wasn’t just the really wealthy people that were buried with what they needed in the afterlife, but also the farmers were buried with what they needed in the afterlife.  And this probably dates, I’m sure it’s pretty... it’s Han Dynasty.

BURT WOLF:  Two hundred B.C.?

HELEN GISS:  Two hundred B.C.  And it’s even got a little pig in the yard.

BURT WOLF:  I’m just astounded that this stuff can be bought in a little shop.

HELEN GISS:  And this is the jade market.  It’s had a couple of different lives since I’ve been in Hong Kong.  But the most wonderful thing about it is that you really can buy bits and pieces here that don’t break the bank.  All kinds of... and a lot of it is new – newly carved.  But that’s okay.  You know, I think...

BURT WOLF:  That’s white jade?

HELEN GISS: ...if it pleases you.  This is white.  And if it pleases you, you know, it’s kind of fun for you.

BURT WOLF:  Hong Kong dollars.  Okay.

HELEN GISS:  Yeah... It’s kind of fun for you to be able to have it.

BURT WOLF:  That’s like twenty-five bucks!  That’s really nice.

HELEN GISS:  Right, exactly.  Which is terrific.  It’s really wonderful to pick up things like this here at the jade market – where the stones are natural, and they make wonderful little gifts, and you know, they’re reminiscent.  Generally, the carving is something that is reminiscent of a traditional Chinese carving.

BURT WOLF:  And you can bargain here?

HELEN GISS:  And you can definitely bargain here.  Absolutely.  It’s part of the fun.  Definitely.

BURT WOLF:  Are there general shopping rules that apply almost all over the world?

HELEN GISS:  I think so.  I think that the main rule is knowing what things cost in your home country.  You know, doing your homework, and knowing what it is you want to buy, and not going out with a preconceived idea of what you’re going to find.  I want people to buy things they wouldn’t normally buy at home.

The serious shopping takes place in the Kowloon district on the mainland or on the north shore of Hong Kong.  But there is one light-hearted spot for shopping on the south shore of Hong Kong that you may want to visit.  It’s known as the Stanley Market.  A bazaar-like structure selling clothing, souvenirs, inexpensive jewelry, and just about everything else in the tourist shop inventory.  I’m getting a traditional suit for my grandson.  It will give him a certain look of authority when we go out for Chinese food.

Hong Kong has about six million residents and about 15,000 restaurants, which gives it one of the world’s highest ratios of eateries to eaters.  Stephen Wong is a local food authority, and he gave me an excellent gastronomic tour of the city, starting with a traditional Chinese breakfast.

STEPHEN WONG:  We should actually start the day with the congee.

BURT WOLF:  Congee?

STEPHEN WONG:  Congee.

BURT WOLF:  And this is a rice soup.

STEPHEN WONG:  Yes.  And this is normally eaten with deep-fried batter.  This is the most famous of all the deep-fried batters. [Speaks Chinese]

BURT WOLF:  What’s it called?

STEPHEN WONG:  [speaks Chinese] It means “oil-fried ghosts.”

BURT WOLF:  Ghosts!

STEPHEN WONG:  Demons.  You know, in the old days, there was a couple who were villains to the emperor.  So people hated them, and this is the couple.  So they dump it in a wok and deep-fry them they were so hated.  Nowadays, it’s one of the most popular snacks in Hong Kong.  [Speaks Chinese]

BURT WOLF:  Deep-fried bad ghosts.  I got it.

STEPHEN WONG:  You got it.

BURT WOLF:  I eat this with the rice soup.

STEPHEN WONG:  Right.

BURT WOLF:  Porridge.

STEPHEN WONG:  Porridge, right.

BURT WOLF:  I have seafood in mine, what do you have in yours?

STEPHEN WONG:  I have thousand-year-old egg and preserved pork.  It’s an acquired taste, I must say.

BURT WOLF:  It certainly is.  And the rest of this stuff?  Are we eating it in the right order?

STEPHEN WONG:  Any order, but this all goes with the congee.  The congee is the center.  Anything goes with the congee.  Normally it’s a chow mein with fried noodles, really simple, inexpensive, but very tasty.

BURT WOLF:  Now, when I’m taking noodles and they run very long like that, am I supposed to put it in my mouth and then stuff it in?  Or am I supposed to...?

STEPHEN WONG:  No, no, please.

BURT WOLF:  Never like that?

STEPHEN WONG:  No.

BURT WOLF:  Okay, how do I do it?

STEPHEN WONG:  Do it from there – from below your chin... Yes!  And then slurp it up.  Right.  Never do this.

BURT WOLF:  Never.

STEPHEN WOLF:  Never.

BURT WOLF:  Never!  I’ll never do that again, I promise.  What does this stuff cost?

STEPHEN WONG:  Well, you know, we are having a larger than normal breakfast today.  But it’s not costly.  You see, your congee is $2.50... mine is $2.00... this is fifty-cents per piece... the soybean milk is fifty-cents... this is a dollar each... So, altogether about ten dollars for two for a huge breakfast.

BURT WOLF:  But it’s really enough for four.

STEPHEN WONG:  Exactly.

BURT WOLF:  So about two and a half dollars per person for a breakfast like this – U.S. dollars.

STEPHEN WONG:  Exactly.

BURT WOLF:  It’s a great value.

Another group to take up residence in Hong Kong came from the northern city of Shanghai.

BURT WOLF:  How can I tell Shanghainese cuisine?

STEPHEN WONG:  Well, Shanghainese cuisine is identified by its use of sugar, vinegar, and fermented white rice.  So it tends to be a little more sweet and sour, but also a fine balance between the tastes.  Now Burt, on the table we have four bowls of 

most authentic Shanghai dishes.  This is the most representative of that region.  This is the stir-fried freshwater shrimps – quickly stir-fried to perfection.  Stir-frying is spectacular.  It retains the flavor.  It’s not a long process.  It’s a short process retaining the actual flavor of the ingredients.  So, the Shanghainese stir-fry their food, we Cantonese stir-fry our food.  This is a braised pork ball, we call it “Lion’s Head” because of the size of the pork.  Look at this.  Huge pork ball, minced pork, served in a casserole with Shanghainese cabbage.  Over here, is of course the pea shoots.  Stir-fried again and served with crab meat.  Over here, we have the freshwater fish served with a sweet and sour sauce.

BURT WOLF:  Mmmm.  Now that means the same in Chinese as it does in English.

STEPHEN WONG:  Yes.

BURT WOLF:  This is a restaurant that serves Chiu Chow cuisine.  That is the northeastern corner of the Jiuong Dong [sic] Province, which is the province that Hong Kong is in, if I recall.

STEPHEN WONG:  That’s right.

BURT WOLF:  And it’s known for more intense flavors, lots of dipping sauces, lots of seafood, lots of homemade sauces.

STEPHEN WONG:  Chiu Chow is also a coastal area, so seafood is caught in abundance.  And they make very wise use of different fruit sauces to compliment the seafood.  Over here we have the deep-fried shrimp balls, normally eaten with a honey sauce or a tangerine oil.  This side we have the Chin Jiu [sic] scallops with pepper leaves.  And over this end we have the deep-fried crab balls, again eaten with a honey sauce.  So this is a real good starter.  Over here, as you know, yin and yang, tai chi, this is a very famous tai chi vegetarian soup with a spinach puree – the dark green side representing yin.  And then, of course, the lighter side – which is a chicken mash with egg white – representing yang.  And not all yin are yin, there’s a little bit of yang here.  So it’s excellent.

BURT WOLF:  You always need a little bit of yin in your yang, that’s what I always say.

STEPHEN WONG:  Over here is the signature dessert because this is what we call pan-fried Chiu Chow noodles.  Normally eaten with vinegar and sugar.  So you can call it a noodle dish, but then also you can call it a dessert because sugar is used.  Probably this is the only noodle dish in China where white sugar is used for enjoyment.

BURT WOLF:  Oh, here’s one of the ancient foods of China.  It’s called the maraschino cherry.  Many years ago you found them in Buddhist and Taoist temples, but now they’re in Shirley Temples.

When Hong Kong’s Happy Valley racetrack opened in the mid-1800s, big British companies supported the sport of horseracing, and many people believed that the Jockey Club controlled Hong Kong.  The members seemed to exercise more power than the British Governor, and it was no coincidence that the colony’s Legislative Council met on Wednesday afternoons.  That was Race Day – and the only day of the week that all the members of the council could be expected to be in town.

Each year,  more than three and half million tourists and residents visit the original Hong Kong racecourse in Happy Valley, or the new course across the harbor.  There are 75 race meets each year, and the betting totals over twelve billion U.S. dollars.  More money is bet each race day in Hong Kong than at any other track in the world.

WILSON K.M. CHENG:  Horseracing is the most popular sport in Hong Kong.  On a race day like today, we have about fifty to sixty thousand people coming to the track, and we have about one million people from all over the country participating in the game in one way or another.  They can go to our off-course betting shops or do their betting through telephone and at the same time watch the television.

The Hong Kong Tourist Association has a “Come Horseracing” tour that will guide overseas visitors to the track and through the rituals of racing.  And don’t feel sad if your bet doesn’t win.  The Club is a non-profit association that supports medical, educational and welfare organizations.

People have been living on Hong Kong and the surrounding islands for over 6,000 years, and you can get a look at what this area has been like for many of those years by visiting one of the outlying islands.  The largest is called Lantau.  It’s twice the size of the island of Hong Kong, but it has very few inhabitants.  The peaceful atmosphere has made it a haven for Buddhist monasteries.  The most famous is Po Lin, home of the world’s largest seated outdoor bronze Buddha.

The 250-ton statue is more than one hundred feet high.  The upraised right hand represents compassion, and the left one offers happiness.  He sits on a lotus, symbolizing purification.  Surrounding the Buddha are six additional statues, each of which is presenting an offering – light, fruit, flowers, musical instruments, incense and ointment.

The Buddha was built in Nanjing, China, where sculptors paid special attention to the eyes.  The trick is to get a serene expression that looks down benevolently on the monastery below.

Outside the main hall is an area where incense is burned and messages are sent to deities and ancestors.  The main temple has a series of sacred hangings.  Buddhists believe that if you pass underneath these hangings, your sins will be forgiven and your soul will be saved.  The Po Lin monastery also has a number of restaurants open to the public.  They specialize in traditional Buddhist vegetarian recipes.  A meal of vegetables, mushrooms and bean curd is believed to cleanse the system.

True to the tradition of balance, a day of serene soul-searching at the Buddhist monastery of Lantau finds its opposite in the Hong Kong night.

BURT WOLF (ON CAMERA):  Taoists don’t see life as following a straight line.  They think of it as twisting and turning back on itself and forming a circle.  And in forming that circle, they remind us that all things are one thing.  When the government of the city of Hong Kong was given back to the Chinese, it completed a circle.  A circle that took over 150 years to make a turn.  But in making that turn, it turned Hong Kong into one of the most interesting cities in the world.  I hope you have enjoyed this brief visit to The City Of Life and I hope you will join me next time on TRAVELS & TRADITIONS.  I’m Burt Wolf.