Both of us breathed an audible sigh of relief when we passed the border into the middle kingdom. We were giddy like school children! It had been over a year since we were in China and we were yearning for more. There is something special about China - it's where modern meets the old world, and the people are just along for the ride (whether they like it or not). It is almost as if they aren't participating, but are getting swept up. A really fascinating experience.
So Guangzhou can best be described as "typical massive Chinese city." It is the 3rd largest in the country, with 10 BILLION PEOPLE. My first impression was UGH this is going to be terrible to get around. If you saw the earlier post about the taxi queue, you will see that I was right.
Guangzhou is known for being the gateway to the west - it was the first city that had interaction with Europeans (Portuguese and the Brits). Our hotel was on an island that was "loaned" to the Europeans after one of the Opium Wars. Of course the British and French split it down the middle and put gates up to prevent Chinese people from entering. What resulted, though, is some surreal architecture in the middle of a "typical massive Chinese city."
Shamian Island - complete with Starbucks and tree-lined boulevards! A European dream!
To emphasize the "integration" of east and west cultures, there were bronzed statues all over the island showing Chinese and Europeans interacting. This is a large white lady walking her large dog. Yeah, I don't know either. Our "fat" stigma cannot escape us.
This nicely shows the moat that kept the dirty Chinese people off the clean European Shamian Island. I just like the picture because the girl's umbrella matches the light pole.
Wandering the streets of Guangzhou we found a huge Chinese style street market (veggies, meat, fish, etc.). Oh, and this:
KITTIES! Dinner or Pets?
Scenes like this make me love China. I really am a third world kid and could sit in this market alley eating weird meat off a stick all day.
No China city visit is complete without going to a museum (or as I call them, Chinese Propaganda Chambers). This one is the PEASANT MOVEMENT INSTITUTE. Actually, it was cool! Chairman Mao (may he rest in peace) actually taught seminars here to his right hand men (no women - they weren't THAT progressive). Afterward, the students were dispatched all over the country to do the People's bidding! This is Mao's actual office - if you believe the sign.
The institute was built on the grounds of an old temple I believe. Very quaint and peaceful! And covered - it was raining and we had no umbrellas.
The only other touristy thing we did as we ate our way through Guangzhou (I was sweating out Xiao Long Bao and Dim Sum for days) was the Orchid Garden. Well, there were no orchids, but there were some great VISTAS!
Jordan either got excited or is avoiding a bug here at the magical Chinese Rock.
Again, dinner or pet? This little guy was NOT afraid of us (I think he was rabid). Those ears... I have never.
In true Chinese fashion there were signs everywhere informing us of where we were. While I forget most of the actual text, here are some examples: HAPPINESS PAVILION. BEST MANAGED SCENERY. HALL OF AMUSEMENT. CONTEMPLATION GARDEN. Were some of my favorites. This one was probably PROSPERITY TEMPLE or something. Still pretty.
What an excellent garden path that was!
Neck-face!
Besides those activities, we wandered around, shopped for clothes (I am an XL or XXL in China), and ate street food. For those of you fortunate enough to NOT to have encountered one of these, it is a Durian fruit. Durian can be smelled from blocks away, and some establishments go so far as to ban it altogether. Example of what a Durian smells like: put on your running shoes, go for a run, leave them on your feet for three days, stick them in the microwave for 2 minutes, then stick your nose in the foot hole and smell. Yeah, it smells that good.
And no "typical massive Chinese city" is complete without a sprawling "downtown" or financial district that is: only loosely connected to the soul of the city, canvassed by a web of 16 lane roads in grid format, and has a skyline dotted with "the tallest and biggest blah blah blah" in the world. Guangzhou's (or as the Europeans called it, Canton) claim to fame is a 2000 ft tower called the CANTON TOWER. While we didn't get good pictures of it because we don't care that much, here is our best attempt:
See: the little toothpick looking spire behind the other generic big buildings. Google views of the tower at night. It was actually pretty in the evening.
Other city photo:
Canton - where east meets west. I wasn't too enthralled, but it met my expectations. Some great markets and amazing dim sum. Generally a pulsing Chinese city, not too different from any of the others. It reminded me of a mix of Chengdu (where the pandas are), Beijing, and Shanghai. Culturally, the city is going through an identity crisis that was pretty obvious to us. It is in the only province in China where they are allowed to conduct public business and have media in their mother tongue of Cantonese. We were expecting to hear a lot more of this odd sounding Chinese dialect, but it is clearly disappearing from the mainland altogether. Unlike in Hong Kong where they hold onto it fiercely and are undeterred by any nudging toward Mandarin from Beijing. I hope they successfully stand up to the people's party and retain their language! It would be a shame for all of China to be exactly the same in 20 years.
And because I cannot resist, I close with an image of this CHR "bullet" train.
