Xin Tian Di—-New Sky & New Land
One of the most famous places in Shanghai you will definitely go is Xintiandi.Xin in Chinese means new,and tian means sky or heaven,and di means land or earth. Xintiandi is rebuilt based on the old shanghai shikumen houses and now become a very successful place for people to go either for an interesting tour or attend some events. Shanghai local people used to live in this kind of houses, so today,when you sit on a chair of a delicate restaurant, maybe you are at a local family’s living room many yeas ago. So Shanghai local people (especially old people) are interested in Xintiandi, because it can recall them lots of memories; Shanghai young people love to go to Xintiandi,because it is a paradise in the world;Foreigners like to go to Xintiandi,because they can find out many Chinese & western combines there. Many people visit there and many famous events held there, it is a miraculous place!
I went to one of the famous restaurants named Zen last night. It is famous for its Cantonese food. “Zen” this word is from Buddhism,which covers a kind of mysticism. The Chinese name is Cai die xuan, no exact meaning,relevent with butterfly.But it sounds delicate and grace, the Chinese characters look very nice as well. The dish was not bad,the enviroment was quiet last night. Inside are sitting many people which are from almost all the world—this is an interesting phenomenon,because normally,in a western restaurant,most of the people are westerners,only one or two Chinese people,while in a Chinese restaurant, most are Chinese faces,seldom western people.But in this restaurant,almost half and half.
This was my second time to go there. My first time was one year ago, with my two dear bosses.One is from New York,the other one is from London. I remembered one of them spoke to me: This is a good chance for you to learn English, these are authentic London accent and authentic New York accent. I just nodded my head. I don’t know why, I will never forget those words and the atmosphere at that moment.
sophia.s.su