Baozi are small flour parcels filled with, well, anything really, and steamed. Jaozi are larger, but boiled, and filled with similarly unidentifiable vegetables or meaty paste. They're versions of each other really, only different in size and cooking, yet when we explained to our CouchSurfing host Huiqing, with whom we stayed the night, that we'd had "baozi, steamed dumplings" we had to explain every type of dumplings we had conceivably ever eaten, at home or abroad, to show the difference, or lack of, between one dumpling and another.
Kaifeng is famous for its dumplings - famous how or among who, I've no idea - particularly its mutton dumplings. As far as I can tell, the only difference is that they are slimier and don't taste as nice as those on campus in Zhengzhou. Still, Kaifeng is a lovely little city. It's much more relaxed than Zhengzhou, in no small part thanks to the lakes within its city walls. We took a pedalo out for an hour on a lake on Sunday for a different view of the city - this was pleasant until Anna and I had a small disagreement about who was the captain of our swan-shaped vessel. This resulted in Anna singing "I'm the captain, you're the first mate...."
I forget the rest. I'm the captain. End of.
Anyway, everything's nicely contained inside the city walls in Kaifeng. Its been flooded and destroyed several times but they've done well to preserve or recreate a number of temples and palaces of this ancient Song capital, and we spent the afternoon in Longtin park and the Dragon Pavilion.
Back in Zhengzhou (Kaifeng is reached by bus easily), there was no sign of the anti-Japan protests, other than heightened security at the campus gates. There was, however, and EARTHQUAKE!!! Four point seven, whatever that means. I didn't feel a thing - probably napping - but others ran out of buildings - either through fear of the Earth shaking or through lack of faith in Chinese construction standards. They've probably got a point - 24 buildings collapsed in Suzhou, the epicentre of the quake!
Photos of Kaifeng are here, Anna's are here.
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