Anshun

To start my journey in Anshun I went out last night to try and find the food stalls at Gufu street. When I reached what I thought was the food stall area at the intersection of Gufu and Tufu, I was disappointed with the lack of street food selection and decided to walk deep into the alley in search of something more interesting. My search lead me to a crammed two story restaurant that I don't imagine too many foreigners have visited.

Hongshan Lake

Streets of Anshun

Food stall

After ordering myself some pork belly noodles I sat down on the second floor and could hear the table next to me speaking about the foreigner who just arrived. I minded my own business for a while until one of them decided to ask me which country I was from, and I'm not sure what it was but from the moment they realized I could speak Chinese their interest in me did not let up. Soon a large white bowl was shoved onto the table, filled with a mix of sprite and baijiu, and the drunken leader of the group was coming up with a new reason to gan bei(This means cheers except you have to drink the whole cup) every few minutes. In between drinking shots of baijiu and talking to me he was calling all of his friends to tell them about his new american friend. As the bowl was slowly emptied my new friend demonstrated how drunk he really was: he promised he would drive me to a famous waterfall 50km a way in the morning, paid for my meal, showed me pictures of his parents, and offered to take me to meet all of his friends.

Excellent pork belly noodles

Drunk guy and the bowl

By the time the baijiu was gone it had started pouring rain outside, and this group insisted that they give me a ride back to my hotel, but before we could get half way there another friend was picked up and it was decided that they would take me out to another restaurant. I tried to resist, explaining that I was incredibly tired from my flight and train ride, but this was no use. Not long after we sat down at the place more people started showing up, first a friend, then the drunk guys boss, then his boss... and pretty soon we were a party of 10, I was introduced each time as the "new american friend", and each time a new gan bei was to be had. We sat for an hour talking and drinking, until I was at the point where I was ready to fall off of my stool.

A couple of us at the table

More showed up so we moved tables

Anshunese food