Spring Festival Part1: Guangzhou

So tomorrow is Friday meaning I've been here in Guangdong for nearly a week, although I had a bit of a rough start since I got on the train feeling pretty confident until I realized I didn't have my American debit card on me. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I had washed all my clothes, packed my documents, packed laundry detergent and a clothesline, charged my camera, phone, and nook, swept the whole apartment, mopped the whole apartment, washed my bedding and made it all up so I'd be set when I came back (and also because it's the new year) and forgot that one little thing because I keep it locked away and I never use it for anything other iTunes or ebooks. Fortunately and unfortunately, Zhuzhou is 2 hours and 20 minutes away by fast train. So I was able to book a day trip to my own apartment and spent Wednesday in the surreal other world place known as the fast train and fast train station. After being accustomed to taking all the slow trains and the activity that comes with riding one in hard seat, the large seats, tray tables, non-smoking cars was certainly a change. And while the 8 hour slow train I took to Guangzhou before was 8 hours, it was a nice gradual shift into a warmer climate. I don't think I ever realized how cold Zhuzhou really is until I got off on the platform, pulled my scarf out of my bag and caught the bus into town. It was wet and rainy too. But the operation was a success, I got to the station with plenty of time to spare, and even more after my train was delayed by two hours so I couldn't get the metro and wound having to get a cab at the train station. So it costly and annoying, but it seemed like a better idea to have it on hand and go through all that trouble now than to find myself in Kunming with nothing to fall back on and a 24 hour train ride back to Zhuzhou.

But that was my Wednesday. I arrived here on Monday evening and though my hostel is out of the city center, it is near a metro stop so I can get around pretty well when I want to. It's also nice to go somewhere relatively quiet at the end of the day after pushing through so many people on the metro to get to where I want to be. On Tuesday, I decided to go looking for all the free things I could do and it turned out to be a day of big contrasts which I guess set the tone for the rest of my traveling around the city. I got up and went out to Enning Lu since Changshou Lu, the metro stop that takes you there, is on the same line as the one I take to get to the hostel. The Changshou stop is under a big fancy mall and going outside I found a narrow street crowded with stuff to buy and more interesting to me, oysters with tons of garlic and green onions. They also had oyster shells filled with noodles but they didn't catch my eye quite as fast.

One of my first meals in Guangzhou. I later found out that the booths near the youth hostel out in Fangcun are even better, though more expensive. These were 10 yuan for the whole bunch. The ones in Fangcun were about 5 yuan per oyster but they gave you a basket so you could pick them out of the fridge yourself and then they put them on the grill, cooked them in the shell, and added the garlic.

At the end of that street, I walked to my right and went along Enning Lu. I've heard that Bruce Lee's ancestral home is out at the end and that there's not much besides a plaque there to mark the spot. I originally set out to try and find it, and never did but I did find a lot of neat things along the way. I heard a bit of opera as I walked on and then a child's plastic toy chain saw lit up and played the Xiao Ping Guo. Like I said, a day of contrasts.

I later went out to Zhujiang looking for the New Guangdong museum (free admission!) and Canton tower. The architecture was completely different. There were multicolored electric lights everywhere as it got darker and the buildings were huge. Since it was close to the financial district too, there were a lot more English speakers and business men walking around suited up for work. It's where I learned that what it cost for me to stay at a hostel for 7 nights would just cover a scalp massage at the four seasons hotel. No, I have not looked at what must be some crazy price for a night at the four seasons. Whenever I walk into a place like that I never feel right. Hostel dorms or single rooms are more my pace.

Today, Thursday, I decided to go see the Lingnan Painters Museum at the school of Fine Arts. But when I got there, it was empty, locked, and all I saw were some maintenance tools. So I wandered around the campus a bit before deciding to take the metro to YueXiu Park. I heard YueXiu come up many times so I wanted to see what was around there. I found the museum of the Nanyue King shortly after exiting the station and went inside. I'd heard about the king's all jade burial suit and was curious as to how it would look. It was all pretty elaborate, which when you consider that his tomb was a king's tomb makes sense. But his jade suit alone was 2291 jade tiles sewn together. I'm not even talking about all the other jade bi or jade jewelry or jade in boxes around him in his tomb that they found. I found that a good number of the staff working here spoke English as well which surprised and threw off both myself and the staff since I've become used to having to gesture with my limited vocabulary and well, with my appearance. But with the history here, it seems to be less of a surprise to see a Chinese-American person than it is when I reveal myself in Hunan. The area definitely had more Muslim influence. I found a pulled noodle place (a specialty of Xinjiang), and a few signs in Arabic. The orchid garden too has some connection to Islam in China if I remember correctly.

Nanyue King in his jade burial suit.

So, I've been having a great time but counting my change and reworking what I have available has been frustrating. I lost a lot of money getting my card and now it seems I lost money by booking ahead on my train to Hong Kong. For whatever reason, the directions say you can only pick up the MTR tickets bought online IN PERSON IN HONG KONG which doesn't really work since my ticket was from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. So I'll be up bright and early looking for another ticket it seems. I'm not proud of my Wednesday escapade, but I guess the bright side of this is that by the time I leave Guangzhou, I'll have gone through every train station in this city. I also found that I've saved myself more money than I initially thought. When I arrived, I paid for a youth hostel card which knocked the cost of my room down and the card (which was 50 yuan) was more than worth the discount. Though I didn't find a youth hostel in Macau, it will also cut down what I'm paying per night at the hostel in Kunming. And in addition to all this, I do get my deposit back at the end when I check out so that will be a little extra to feed myself with. I definitely think I could have been smarter, but overall it hasn't worked out too badly. And now I may as well take advantage of the discount I get in youth hostels across China since I know I have another week long vacation in May. I'll have to see if it's possible to visit Xian and Nanjing in the same trip. If not, I know Xian could keep me busy for a week with the terra cotta warriors, the walls, and other sites it has. So, another tool to my China travel bag to work with.

I'm planning on using the rest of my time here to make day trips outside of the city. So I'll come back and write about how everything works out with getting to Foshan, Zhongshan, and Kaiping (which is in Taishan if I understand correctly).