Visiting my daddy's hometown

Monday, September 22 written by Priscilla

Our routine begins with the daily run, but like always it usually take us a day or so before we find a good route. Today was no difference. We thought because we were close to the river, there would be no issue to run along side it. We were wrong, as it dead ends and we ended up running on the pedestrian street. To make matters worst, my ear phones broke. My wonderful v-moda ear phones wire snapped...guess they're not that wonderful after all. My running speed and endurance all depends on my music, so I became a very slow moving train. The little engine that could...could not anymore. I was timing every minute. It was dreadful. Anyhow, we still ended up real running for 30 mins in the squelching heat.

Erik picked out a dim sum place called datong. We hopped in a metro and then a cab to get there since it was impossible to get a taxi by our hostel. Our taxi driver had heard of datong and said it's an old authentic yum cha place, so we got excited. Then he started to ask if I was born overseas, so I said yes. Then he proceeded to say he could totally tell because of my skin tone. I'm so dark unlike other chinese girls with more yellow/porcelain like color skin. Also he said it looks coarser, must be the food I eat. Blah! That's what I have to say to that. I explained to him why chinese people like being white because it signals wealth and no need to work outdoors, meanwhile americans like to be tan because it means you went on vacations. He didn't buy that. Oh wells!

Our dim sum experience was great. It was a made to order place with all my favorite dumplings. We had attentive service, mainly because the host (female) was fascinated by my chinese skills and that I was travelling with two white boys. You could hear grandmas that pass by our table comment on them - "wow they know how to hold chop sticks. I know they must like chinese food, it's so good.". Pretty funny. We all agreed datong's fresh delicious dim sum was all better than go go except for the spring rolls. Erik is the spring roll expert.

We then headed to shamian island. It was leased to european powers as an opium war trophy, the french getting the eastern end and the british the rest. There's tons of trees, victorian style villas, banks, embassies, and churches. In the past, there were iron gates on the bridges to the island to exclude the chinese from the island, today there is still limited traffic flow into the island. It was pretty neat to have a place that looked european in the middle of a very chinese city.

We then went to do some shopping. Still no real success at it. I did buy new earphones, downgrading from v-moda to sennheiser. Oh wells, as long as it does the trick it's good enough.

Erik lead us to XXX, where my dad grew up. I wasn't sure at first if we hit the right street, so I asked a man around my dad's age if he knew where the street was that used to make traditional chinese drums. We walked to the direction he pointed, and saw some old drum making stores. I stepped in one to stir up a chat. The man was only in his late 40's or early 50's so maybe 10 years younger than my dad. But he said his store has been there for generations. He inherited it from his dad. He told me the street used to be famous for many traditional handicrafts like drums, lions heads for lion dancing, molding for moon cakes etc. But, things have changed. There's only a few of those stores left. Most have converted to shoe stores. The north side sells finished shoes, middle side sells the shoe parts for manufacturing and the south side sells signs. The whole area is still very busy, but it's becoming less and less cantonese people, since more people from other provinces are opening stores there.

He said he met a lot of overseas chinese people like myself trying to see where their parents used to live. He also said usually 2 out of 10 people spoke cantonese well, so he was shocked that I was pretty fluent. The man also gave us recommendations on where we should go visit in guangzhou and a place for authentic guangzhou food.

Erik felt a bit sick from all the walking around. He thinks it may be a semi-heat stroke, so we went back to the hostel to rest a bit. After the sun came down, we headed out again to do some shopping this time I had more luck with t-shirts. I'm starting to feel a bit fat, so I think I'm just going to start wearing t-shirts to cover up my fat. I bought four things for $20.

We then got a taxi back to the street where our hostel is located for a quick dinner. Erik still didn't feel so well, so we didn't want to wander too far from the hostel.

I'm starting to enjoy chatting up taxi drivers hearing their perspective of guangzhou. This taxi driver said he is not too fond of the village boys that come into the city because they are more scandalous. He also likes the new government because it protects the jobs in china.

Our local restaurant was pretty tasty. We got greens sauteed in garlic, sweet and sour chicken, and steamed fish. Nice and simple.

After dinner we headed back to the hostel so Erik could rest up. Alan and I went outside the hostel on the promenade for a while so I could take some photos of the guangzhou skyline. It seems I left it a bit late as most of the lights I saw the day before had been turned off already. Oh wells, I am sure I will be able to get lots of photos of the hong kong skyline which is where we head tomorrow.