My weekend visit to Taiyuan in the Shanxi Provence

Took my first trip in China outside of Beijing or Shanghai this weekend to the city of Taiyuan in the Shanxi province as a guest of the Through Beijing Film & TV Co., LTD.The first night we were treated to an amazing dinner in a private room of a beautiful traditional restaurant.  The food was not just delicious, but the presentation of the 20 or so dishes was amazing.  The company who hosted us also had a division of liquor which was served in huge quantities all night long.  As the guest of honor I was expected to drink a shot with everyone of the 10 hosts at the table.  Being a non-drinker that was just not going to happen.  The peer pressure to partake in the imbibing was something I haven't experienced since high school.  I tried to get away with just touching the alcohol to my lips, but the party came to a screeching halt as the hosts all stared at me and insisted I not insult them by finishing off the shot.  I was torn between insulting our hosts and embarrassing myself by getting sick and possibly spewing the dinner back onto the table.  Luckily my friend, Russell, came to my rescue and offered to drink for me.  Our hosts seemed satisfied with that and I was saved while poor Russell drank double for me for the rest of the night.   As Taiyuan is famous for their noodles, after dinner, we were treated to a noodle making show.Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM92sr0ogGgOf course after the restaurant we went to a KTV (Karaoke) place where, once again, I was peer pressured to join in the singing.  But like my drinking, I stood firm.  I managed to save face when I got up to shake my ass to some silly song about gummy bears though.  The Chinese seem to like the way I dance and they all got up to join me.  Or perhaps they were just helping me save face once again by not letting me be the only one making an ass of myself.The next day we visited the new film studio the company is building at Shitai Lake.  We took a ride on one of the boats and witnessed some of the fish jumping out of the water as we rode past.  Of course, one of them showed up on our lunch table an hour later.  Yum. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMfJculkeZM The studio was quite a way outside of the city and it wouldn't have been such a bad drive except that the Big Boss who rode with us liked to smoke in the car.  It seems that he didn't get the memo about smoking killing not only the smoker, but also the people around him who have to breathe at some point during the 80 minute ride.  I guess living in Los Angeles, where smoking is prohibited just about everywhere, I've been spoiled.   There are still so many smokers in China I'm afraid the world's tobacco industry would collapse if China suddenly decided to ban smoking all together.If the smoking didn't kill me, the driving in Taiyuan might have.  At many occasions in the day I'd see cars cross the yellow lines into ongoing traffic, just missing head on collisions by inches.The crazy driving in Taiyuan, however, was only one test of my bladder control.There were a lot of squat toilets in the public areas and there was rarely any toilet tissue.  So I found myself holding it for as long as I could stand.  But at some point I had to give in and take the gamble of getting to a bathroom with either Western or Chinese style squat toilets.  I still haven't quite mastered the art of the squat toilet yet and I think my newly purchased boots may have suffered the consequences.  Oops.