Guangzhou Good Times

It has been a long time since the last post, and a lot has happened. Unfortunately, we have been too busy to blog about it. But finally a weekend has arrived that we are not rushing around or doing crazy things, so I can sit down and write a quick blog about our trip to Guangzhou.

This trip happened actually over a month ago, during the national holiday. The Peoples Republic of China was officially founded on October 1, 1949, so that is the national day. Chinese get three days off to celebrate this holiday, and this is added to a weekend, for a total of five days off in a row. The idea is that they can go back to their home town and visit their families during this time. This year, our school got a couple extra days, taken from a weekend before and a weekend after. So we were able to have seven days off in a row, very nice.

We went to Guangzhou. We had some friends there, Karen, one of the other teachers came with us. And we met up with Kristine, who you might remember from our trip to Dalian. Her boyfriend lives in Guangzhou, so we all hung out together for a few days.

The week consisted mainly of eating and shopping, which I gather is what Kristine mostly does when she is in Guangzhou. We didn't mind, because, well, I like to eat and Allison likes to shop. So I will separate things out into two posts, the shopping one and the eating one.

First, a little bit of introduction. Guangzhou was a great city, because, of course, Allison and I both speak a little bit of Cantonese. It was much easier to get around and communicate with people. Much much easier. I've almost forgotten how it is to live in a place where you can halfway understand people. Karen and Kristine also speak some Cantonese, so we were all feeling quite at home.

Despite being comfortable with the language, most people in Guangzhou would start off speaking in Mandarin to us. Pretty much everybody knows Mandarin there, so it is often the language of everyday conversation, particularly between two people who don't know each other. Cantonese is used more amongst friends, or if you are at a restaurant or store, if you start speaking Cantonese to the shopkeeper, he or she will answer in the same language. But if you don't, he will assume you don't know Cantonese. Many people in Guangzhou come from other parts of China.

Guangzhou was quite a bustling place. Much busier than our sleepy neighbourhood in Tianjin. We took the subway and bus most places, and the subway and bus were packed full of people, all of the time. The subway was very efficient. Push a touch screen to find the station you want, then pay according to how far you want to travel. You get a black plastic token, swipe it when you enter the system, then again when you leave the system at your destination. Seems to work well enough, and you can't cheat the system. Reasonably priced too, between 2 RMB and 6 RMB depending on how far you want to go.

In terms of accomodation, the three of us (Allison, Karen and I) stayed in JinJiang Hotel, which cost something like 170 or 180 RMB per night, so it was pretty reasonable. It was clean and centrally located, so pretty convenient. The hotel room is pictured above, with the five of us sitting there. I think we were watching a movie that night.

Again, sorry for the long hiatus between postings. Stay tuned for food pictures.