We arrived at guangzhou around 6:30am this morning. It was a bit confusing at first as not that many people got off the bus, so we were pretty sluggish in packing our stuff. After a few minutes we realized majority of the riders were actually heading to shenzen instead! We made it out ok and said farewell to steph for a few days.
Stephanie was heading to hong kong first to meet louisa, meanwhile erik, alan and I will check out guangzhou. This is where my dad is from, so I thought it would be nice to check it out even though we heard it's pretty uneventful and industrialized. In this city there are over 5mn residents.
I was finally able to use my cantonese here to get to our hostel by the pearl river. That's when I realized cantonese might also be a bit useless here since the receptionist only spoke mandarin. Nevertheless, we checked into our triple. This hostel is by far the nicest one we've been to in china. It's costing us 368RMB ($40) a night.
Erik was pretty tired since he didn't sleep on the overnight bus at all, so he took a quick 1.5hr cat nap. Alan followed and I just got ready and asked the receptionist for some suggestions of things to do. As expected, there's not much to do here besides shopping and eating. I didn't mind either. I desperately...ok maybe not desperately but definitely need to get new clothes. Several of my shirts have holes and I lost a dress in the mist of doing laundry at the guilin hostel. Also, I like cantonese food, mostly because it's simple and I know how to order. I gave my dad a call to ask where he used to live - "dai sun lu" (I think that's how you spell it) - so we can check it out later.
By the time we headed out I was pretty hungry. I haven't eaten anything since last night and was up at 6am. Thus, saying I was groggy and easily agitated was an understatement. I asked the 7-eleven lady where was a good place to "yum cha" (aka dim sum). She said there's only one really big place on this side of the river, so we searched for it and found it after asking a few people.
The restaurant was pretty big. There were fresh seafood on the first floor including a pool of swimming fish, crabs, turtles, snakes, clams, and frogs. Chinese people love their seafood fresh. The restaurant was a bit chaotic. We had to find our own seats, which took us a good 10-15mins. Then we had to go to the stations to order our food. Everything was pretty normal like the dim sum we have in the states, but cheaper and larger quantities. Erik still preferred dim sum go go in nyc.
After yummy in our tummies, we searched for the yuexiu gongyuan where the statue of five rams were, but first stop the orchid garden. The orchid garden was pretty uneventful as there were barely any bloomed orchids. Maybe we should of checked first before paying 10RMB ($1.20) to go in.
Every new city we visit we get closer to the tropics, which means it's hotter and more humid. Despite what you see in central park, polar bears are not meant for this temperature. Erik's shirt quickly became soaking wet walking through the shaded orchid garden. So guess what that meant? It was time for a coffee break at the air conditioned starbucks.
I think it has become a quest for erik and alan to try out every mc donalds and starbucks...and the ever delicious haagen dazs in china. I even caved in and got one today. A nice coffee frappachino with skim milk. When I asked for that they said there's no milk in a frap. How could that be? I'm sure there is. Oh wells, full fat it is. It was very satisfying too.
Next stop, yuexiu gongyuan. It's a huge park, which inherently means we will get lost. We tried to find the so called waterfall by the lake, but we decided they meant it was a water slide (we were too lazy to walk to the waterfall). We then went for our search for the statue of five rams. We asked maybe five people for directions, but somehow we always seemed to be walking the wrong way...up a hill. Erik was not a happy polar bear. Eventually we found it, and took some photos.
The story of the five rams: It's one of the most famous structures in guangzhou. Legend has it more than 2,000 years ago guangzhou was a barren land with hard working people sufferring from famine. One day five immortals with five colored garments came riding in on five rams, playing their legendary music. The rams held sheaves of rice in their mouths. The immortals left the rice for the people and gave blessing to the town. The immortals left and the rams became stone. Ever since guangzhou has been a rich and populous place.
We then tried to find the zhenhai tower, which meant walking up another big hill. Alan reckoned it would be a nice sighting, so we listened and walked. To our disappointment we couldn't see the tower unless we paid entrance to the museum, so we decided to scrap the idea of checking it out.
Next search was the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen memorial hall. The memorial building was pretty neat, but it's really just an auditorium now. Erik was glad it was air conditioned, so we sat there for a while to cool off.
The Hualin Si Temple was next. It was a large praying site. There were lots of chinese people giving thanks and praying to various gods, buddhas, and arhats. One of the rooms hosted the 500 arhats. It was pretty impressive as each one was life size and painted gold. There were incense everywhere and people praying.
Erik was done with culture for the day and started to get a bit hungry. So we got on the metro to a shopping/food street. By the time we arrived there it was 4pm, and to our disbelief it was chinese siesta time...meaning no real food is serve now as they transition to dinner. Poor erik and alan needed to eat chinese fast food instead. It was ok. I ended up eating street food - turnips and fish balls.
Afterwards we went shopping for a bit. It was pretty chaotic with people everywhere. Alan gave up on it after a little while, and erik stayed with me. I didn't buy much and got too hot to continue shopping. Back to the hostel we went.
On our walk back we got a glimpse of the city's skyline over the river. It was really pretty lit up. I plan to take some photos of it with my tripod sometime over the course of the next few days.
Alan helped erik spot some bars that showed the man u - chelsea game. We had dinner and some carlsberg watching the game. Erik was happy the game ended to be a draw since it will help liverpool. I was so tired I ended up falling asleep watching the game (EA edit: no wonder considering who was playing). Not to say the least we got a cab back to the hostel right after the game and went nighty night.
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