Photos from China - Part 2

Well I finally got around to putting up some of the pics from our trip to China. They go a little bit in reverse timewise, but you can still get a good feel for the many things we saw and got up to in Guangzhou, Foshan and Shiwan on mainland China. If you want to see a particular picture in a larger size just click on it. Enjoy!

It was all skyscrapers and modern architecture on the empty land being developed not far from our hotel. Another symbol of China "on the move". I had to explore other parts of the city to find old buildings with their traditional character.

One of the first things that strikes you when you arrive in Guangzhou is the number and size of the overpasses. The city has loads of L.A. style spaghetti freeways with overpasses to allow all those cars to move around.

Afternoon peak hour on the main road near our hotel in Guangzhou. The buses are the main form of public transport, and here they're transporting people to the southern parts of Guangzhou, away from the city centre.

A traffic officer does his job in a busy intersection near Bejing Lu (street), Guangzhou.


A hot Friday afternoon drew a large crowd of people for dancing practice in the outdoors at the People's Park in Guangzhou. There were 3 groups of dancers in the park, each with different styles of music.

A beautiful Kapok tree in the grounds of the Dr Sun Yat-Sen memorial hall.


East meets West at the toilet. You didn't usually see a cistern over the top of the squattie as in this case.

Dr Sun Yat-Sen outside his special memorial hall, Guangzhou.


Another smoggy and humid day in Guangzhou. This road near our hotel would be reduced to a crawl in peak hour.

A homeless person getting some sleep. We frequently saw homeless people underneath some of the bridges, and in this case a road overpass.

This is not your average furniture shop in Guangzhou. Luckily they now have an Ikea there.
Furniture shopping in Guangzhou can be an opulent affair for some!

Where there are temples there are .... monks! And monks need special threads from the Monk shop.

Where there is smoke, there is .... incense at Guangxiao Temple, Guangzhou.


Outside the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall, Guangzhou. Unfortunately, the foggy day doesn't show the house in its full beauty.

Peta and Danielle at one of the side entrances into the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall. Note the superb ridge tiles of the building.

Artwork under the eves inside the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall.

Peta and Danielle in the garden at the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall, Guangzhou.

A warrior painted on the massive front door of the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall, Guangzhou.

Three gods covered in lucky/fortuitous symbols such as the children, the crane, dragons, a peach...


A view of the well King's tomb excavated in 1983 from above, at the Museum of the Nan-Yue King in Western Han Dynasty.

The dead King's body was buried in this jade shroud of almost 2300 pieces sewn together.

Inside the King's tomb at the Museum of the Nan-Yue King in Western Han Dynasty. There's little joy in being a concubine put into the tomb with your dead king!


The three sisters at the Guangzhou Museum of Art.

The garden inside the Guangzhou Museum of Art was very beautiful.

Danielle and Peta have arrived in Guangzhou and here we're mucking around at the Guangzhou Museum of Art.


This is the reception desk of one of the swishest hotels in Guangzhou, the Garden Hotel. The gold picture is based on one that is a famous papercut artwork design from Foshan.


A Shiwan potter takes a break from his work to play us some traditional music. This was much more preferable than him try the hard sell on us in his studio when we didn't understand Chinese. Sign language and a smile helps though. He was a jolly soul and rather funny!

Heley inside one of the dragon kiln's side entrances, where pots get loaded up for firing.


Going potty at the Ancient Nanfeng Kiln, Shiwan.

Heley strikes a pose then to some God, probably the God of good pot firing in the Kiln!



One of the two "Dragon" kilns (left) at Shiwan, famous for its ceramics and pottery.


A gigantic lantern in the Foshan Folk Art Museum.


RB strikes a pose. Note the ornate ridge tiles on the top of the building.

In the photo below you can just see some people standing around the edge of the pond wall. This pond was chock full of turtles, who sometimes climbed up onto this stone turtle. The Chinese would take aim and try to throw their money at the turtle, though we weren't sure if they were aiming for the live ones on the stone turtles back or not!


Part of the Ancient Temple, looking through the gate to a performance stage.


This group of school kids decided to practice their english on us with each kids saying hello as they walked by. We had to stop and wait for them all to go past with a wave and return greeting.

A wall of Chinese lanterns at the Ancient Temple, Foshan.

Photos from China - Part 1

RB and the Dragons at The Ancient Temple in Foshan.

It was a fish feeding frenzy at Liang's Garden. The minute someone started dropping food into the pond the fish would come from all corners of the pond, following each in a line other to join the mele underneath the feeders hand. Amazing to see them climb over the top of each other and out of the water as they tried to get some food.

It's not just Hobbit houses that have round doors. This building was one of the few at Liang's Garden, Foshan.

I never got tired of temples or gods in China. Each place had something unique about it.


You'd best behave yourself at the beautiful Liang's Garden. Check the last sentence of the sign.

We had a pretty good view of the ancient 7 -storey Pagoda at the Renshou Temple, from our room in the Rotating Palace hotel in Foshan. The pagoda was built in 1656.

Quick! Where is my train carriage? Where is my seat?. We all rush onto the train at GZ station.

This is the crush at the gate as everyone tried to rush to get onto our train to Foshan. Waiting on the platform just doesn't happen in China. They keep you in a waiting room until the last minute then you must rush through the station and out to your platform with a few ticket checks along the way.


I dig those red laterns in the gardens at Yuexiu Park. So pretty!

RB has a rest as we explore a park.

Neon lights (and boat) on the Pearl River, GZ.


This was a familiar site around town. It took a bit of getting used to being served a roasted animal with his head perched upon the plate!


Rb tries to cop a feel of the sculpture outside the Guangdong Museum of Art.

This was a regular occurrence in Guangzhou, poor visibility due to high humidity and smog. It was pretty bad this day as you can see. This is me walking back to our hotel from the Guangdong Museum of Art on the other side of the river.

Two monkeys ride on a bicycle at the Guangzhou Zoo's animal performance area. Note the stick for whacking the monkeys if they don't perform their trick.

Baby bear plays with his chain.


We watched these bears in amazement as people dangled food over their enclosure, enticing them to beg for it.

While we tried to take this photo some crazy Chinese people were throwing rocks at the elephant!


Let's all pat the animals in the Guangzhou Zoo ;)

There's nothing like a communist poster to make you feel good about life. The ones I saw in Vietnam were never like this though, showing you can aspire to a future living in a cool apartment!

This group of apartments (above) was my favourite in the area. It reminded me of France with those tops on the buildings.

This is the view I'd see each night from my apartment in the hotel in Guangzhou. They love some neon lights in China, and they love to sell some of those apartments in the new buildings that were rapidly springing up near our hotel.