for breaking news visit www.qns.com NOVEMBER 19, 2015 • buzz • the Queens Courier 61 30 times • NOVEMBER 19, 2015 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com victoria’s secrets VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS vschneps@gmail.com tweet me @vschneps My journey in China continues In Tianjin City, a city two hours from beijing, for the groundbreaking of a modular home factory, we were greeted by state officials sharing the goal of our visit, which is to encourage business between China and America. Our bus of 30 visitors was brought to an unusual four-story restaurant where we had a feast at round tables with 30 dishes offered on an enormous Lazy Susan. They are famous for their dumplings, and one of the chefs created them before our eyes. At most of the meals, I didn’t recognize the dishes (which I was told included such items as pig ears, pig intestines and lamb heads), but I did have two of my favorites: crunchy chicken feet and juicy Peking duck. Dynamic for all the news 24 $1000 hours,off Lumineers 7 days $500 a off week Invisalign DENTAL go WORK to www.timesnewsweekly.Free Whitening included the inViSiBle WAy to Some excluSionS Apply com StrAighten teeth third generation dentist 175-15 Jamaica avenue, Jamaica 718-297-4100 • 718-297-4106 It’s hard to resist trying everything, but I did, and I did, and I did! Between the huge lunches and dinners were meetings with government officials with the goal of building bridges between our countries. The next day, I began my visit to shanghai after a flight from Beijing in which my seat was so tiny I felt like a pretzel, but when I arrived at our fivestar hotel, it had a huge bathtub that helped restore me. As our bus traversed the city, I was impressed with the mix of buildings, both endless skyscrapers for living and offices, and European-style buildings from the 1930s. There is even a town built to look like an English village. When I commented about this to one of my Asian travel companions, he explained that all the clusters of dozens of buildings looked alike because of the difficulty of getting a unique design approved, which could take years, while a municipal design could be quickly approved. As we drove to see the site of the rebuilding of the city of Old Shanghai, we passed a series of a dozen apartment houses with balconies, each one with clothes hanging. I wish I could get a clear photo of the colorful displays. How remarkable that they all dry their clothes at the identical time of day! After visiting Old Shanghai’s planned restoration, which will be a mini-Disney World, we were off to more feasts. Lunch was 30 courses and dinner 20. All the food was served on a Lazy Susan. It looked good and tasted delicious, I went to bed feeling like a stuffed, overworked pig. I chose to miss day two’s early morning meetings and actually slept until 10:30 a.m. I must admit I was up at 1 a.m. emailing my staff about my first column from China. The morning was devoted to exploring the shopping districts. Luckily for me, my new friend Marilyn guan – whose company is creating a modular building complex in tianjin – guided me through the neighborhoods of Shanghai on foot and then by taxi. I had a quest – silk comforters and possibly having a suit made. After three hours, all was accomplished, mainly exploring the streets of Shanghai, a city of glorious glass towers next to 1930s buildings With Marilyn, I visited two shopping malls, across the street from the cityblock long Apple Store. They were a cross between the Americana shopping mall in Manhasset and Roosevelt Field mall – not what I was looking for. So into a taxi and off to a mall more like our indoor LIC flea market (this year, the Queens Holiday Market at the Shops at Atlas Park), where merchants have tiny 10-by-10 shops. It was a maze of aisles and merchandise hanging from the walls. Much of the merchandise was similar to that in Beijing’s silk market but limited to fashion items. I found one stall selling silk comforters and then, across the street, beautiful suits and cashmere items. Marilyn, my new friend, and I got fitted and, with the promise that all our clothes would be completed and delivered to our hotel by 10 p.m. that evening, we paid and left for our next event – lunch at the super luxurious and exclusive membership club, the Noah Yacht Club, “one of the super yacht destinations in the world,” according to Modern Yacht magazine. The elegant club overlooking the Huang Pu River is open to people with millions of dollars for membership. I was served a light lunch and was grateful it wasn’t a feast like the ones we had the day before! Members of our delegation spoke, and I talked about my love of China and my business. A treat for me when I travel is to meet interesting people. And I was delighted to be introduced to a couple who were promoting their new book, “The Jews of Shanghai.” Keep reading about my next visit to guangzhou in the Canton province, and then on to shenzhen. Food presentations were works of art Mitu Alam, Vicki and the dumpling chef Elaborate fish tanks filled the lobby of the exclusive Noah Yacht Club in Shanghai where our delegation had lunch Professor Lu Zhi De, wrote and designed a book about the Jews in Shanghai, with his wife Assistant Speaker Felix Ortiz from Sunset Park in Brooklyn, recently elected assistant majority leader, right, with staffer Mitu Alam One of the leaders of the delegation was our recent King of Queens Long Deng, who turned out to be my neighbor. We posed at the recreation center being built in the old city of Shanghai.
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