Or else they would surely have turned in their graves at my complete and utter slaughtering of Dancing Queen last Monday. When I was over visiting the boyfriend in Shenyang, we joined his colleagues (all of whom are exceptionally nice people) for dinner and singing and had an absolute blast. Karaoke nights over here are different from those I’ve had in Ireland, mainly in two ways: The venues are purpose-built and not just dives with a TV put in, and you can buy popcorn and drinks, all of which will be brought to your group’s room. The other thing is that, as opposed to the let’s all shout in the direction of the microphone ting that I was used to, the people here really do sing- and they can sing well. You can imagine my shock and horror when, after almost an hour of absolutely flawless interpretations of local artists from Faye Wong to Andy Lau and Edison Chen, people started insisting that I sing as well. Luckily I eventually found my very own KTV niche in the low-pitch melancholy of Sarah Mac Lachlan’s Angel. Phew!
Shenyang itself appears to be a nice enough place from what I have seen- it does lack the big city buzz of Beijing a tiny bit, but it is a fairly big city in its own right, and I’ve only seen very little of it so it’s probably too early to judge. It’s definitely colder than the capital, that’s for sure. We went to see the Shenyang Imperial Palace, which had me very impressed. Rather similar in architecture and purpose to the Forbidden City, it is much smaller than its Beijing counterpart. Hence there were barely any tourists, no scaffolding, no big fuss, just gorgeous, well-preserved buildings and sunny, tranquil courtyards.
My quest for a pair of nice runners, meanwhile, remains unfulfilled- none of the five shops I went to in Shenyang had my size.
Bis dann,
Nadine
Shenyang itself appears to be a nice enough place from what I have seen- it does lack the big city buzz of Beijing a tiny bit, but it is a fairly big city in its own right, and I’ve only seen very little of it so it’s probably too early to judge. It’s definitely colder than the capital, that’s for sure. We went to see the Shenyang Imperial Palace, which had me very impressed. Rather similar in architecture and purpose to the Forbidden City, it is much smaller than its Beijing counterpart. Hence there were barely any tourists, no scaffolding, no big fuss, just gorgeous, well-preserved buildings and sunny, tranquil courtyards.
My quest for a pair of nice runners, meanwhile, remains unfulfilled- none of the five shops I went to in Shenyang had my size.
Bis dann,
Nadine
Gate outside the Imperial Palace
A very impressive ceiling
Throne room
Here houseth the concubines... I think!
Outside
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