It's time to go...

Guangzhou has a different vibe at the moment. We tried to go out on Tuesday night to a good Turkish restaurant RB's expat workmates like and it was completely jammed with people waiting to eat there. There was no such drama last time we went there. We then walked a short distance to an Italian restaurant and it was very busy too. We ended up with a table in a dumpy back room. That room then started to fill up with a huge group of Western business men and their Chinese female friends having dinner. The 99th Canton Fair starts later this month (April 15-30) and already western people are pouring into Guangzhou. We're not used to seeing so many other westerners on the street, in non-Chinese restaurants and in our hotel, which is now very busy. It is strange! We think it's a good time to leave Guangzhou. We preferred the feeling of "having it to ourselves" if that makes any sense? ;)

The "baby people" have also arrived at our hotel. Previously we had only seen them on Sharmian Island where they're known to stay at the swish White Swan Hotel, and another time at the Baiyun Hotel. Most of these new adoptive parents sounded like Americans. At our hotel, Ramada Pearl, we now have at least 5 or 6 French families with their new adopted Chinese babies. Breakfast in the hotel was mad yesterday with all these families there at once. There is hardly enough room for their strollers in the restaurant or even the hotel lifts! Some of them already had one child of their own while I saw two families that already had a Chinese baby girl of toddler age. It was quite strange to see these little girls playing together and speaking French. The Chinese waitresses in the restaurant seemed to be very intrigued by it all too, with two of them hanging out near our corner of the restaurant while usually the waitresses are busy at the coffee stations and resetting the tables. These adoptive parents must bond quickly with others as they are always hanging out together.

Last night I was coming back from a foot massage and trip to the Bakery and I passed through our local square. It is always busy in the evening after dinner time as people do their exercising and socialising. There are many little colourful things in the square for sitting or standing on that look like rides for kids but they're actually used by adults, even grandmas and grandpas, to keep fit. There is one were you sit down and pedal like a reclining bike, another where you stand on a disc and hold onto a rail at chest height, while you swivel your hips to make the disc rotate. It all looks rather fun. Sometimes people play table tennis in the square too.

My favourite though is to watch the ladies do their "dancing" exercise. They set up a portable stereo and stand in lines in a corner of the square as if about to do aerobics. Instead their dancing looks like a combination of medium paced tai chi and linedancing, as they're frequently changing which direction they face. It's great to watch and the little kids will often ride a bicycle through the middle of the ladies - little daredevils! ;)

Tonight we must pack up everything in the apartment. We have to get ready for leaving for Macau (via bus) tomorrow lunchtime with one bag , and leaving the other here to collect when we come back to GZ next Thursday to get our plane home. Hopefully we can fit a lot of things in RB's massive suitcase. We have a little pile of souvenirs in a corner of our room so I hope we can get everything home. I still plan to do some shopping in Hong Kong. I'm after a new pair of sneakers, and hope I can get them cheaper in Hong Kong than here on the mainland, where many imported things cost a little more.

So it's time to go on holidays for RB and I. We're off to explore some other facets of China, eat some more top cuisine, including Macanese in Macau, and enjoy some greenery on Taipa and Hong Kong Islands.

Catch ya later! :D

Word play

I've had some feedback that people have enjoyed learning the Chinese words through this blog. Well I've got a new one for you!

Today's word of the day is ting. I learnt this Mandarin word to use when I catch taxis around Guangzhou, but today I gave it a spin in the supermarket. I wanted to buy some extremely addictive little dessert treats they have in the bakery. They are like a profiterole with light as air pastry filled with very fake looking (probably mock) cream. They had boxes of the desserts on the counter but I only wanted a small portion. After motioning a big handful with my 2 hands and pointing to the plastic bag roll, the counter attendant got my drift and gave me a big smile. He put on his plastic gloves and started measuring them out onto the scales. When he got to around 20 I yelled out "Ting". Hehe! Stops taxis and stops you buying too many cream puffs! Ting means stop. ;)

I got my freshly made snacks for 50c AUD for150 grams. Right on! The bakeries here are very cool, just like Breadtop for anyone who knows this chain in Melbourne. I have yet to try the pork floss buns though (eek) and there are some other scary looking ones, but I have eaten some very good buns and pastries here. Sometimes we can buy baguettes for making a sandwich for dinner. A bun for a breaky snack costs about 1.50-3 yuan which is about 30-50c AUD.

The sun is out today for the first time in ages and it is warming up again to t-shirt and jeans weather though the Chinese ladies are still wearing long sleeves all the time. It's a blue sky day! Hooray! I think I have had less than 5 of these in the nearly 4 weeks I have been here. Today it is worth savouring though as the air is beautifully clean after the last 5 days of showers. I'll be outdoors this afternoon enjoying it.

Here is a story for Mum.... I was in the "western/imported" foods shop near the hotel the other afternoon when a little western boy came in with his Chinese housemaid or nanny. He was doing what kids do and eyeing off the lollies at the counter while I was paying for my stuff. I said hello and he greeted me back. The Chinese shop man then asked me, "Why don't you bring your baby to the shop?" I had to smile and say, "Because I don't have one". His reply was an optimistic "Maybe one day!". Haha!

Busy few days

Peta and Danielle arrived from Brisbane via Bangkok on Thursday afternoon and I treked out to the airport which is further away than Foshan incidently (seriously!) and escorted them "home". I booked them in at the hotel across the road from the Ramada, where RB and I are staying, so that we could easily see each other and hangout. Their hotel had a good price and a manager who spoke some english. Thursday night we all went for a foot massage to get the circulation going. Both the girls really enjoyed it

I could see on Friday morning that the girls, well Petie in particular, were a little freaked out by the language barrier just as I was when I arrived. After an online session of learning Mandarin they felt okay about it all and took off to see the "famous" GZ Zoo ;) . For dinner we took them to one of the local restaurants that does pizza and pasta. The chef at Newland aka Nui Lan does an awesome pizza base that I think I will actually miss when I leave here. Eating there also gives us a chance to eat some salad and potatoes and keep up our vegies.

Initially I'd thought we could do another trip to the countryside of Guangdong to see the small town of Zhaoqing, known for its excellent limestone crag landscape, on Saturday but the weather wasn't much good so we stayed in Guangzhou. We took off to see some more local sights kicking off at the Guangzhou Museum of Art. For a place that was built in 2000 it sure wasn't the flashiest building. RB suggested that maybe the design had looked good on paper but no one had given any thought to the materials because it was already looking a bit tired. I was a bit disspointed with this place as many of the exhibition halls were closed, but we all found some exhibitions we liked as we wandered around. We all liked the special "East meets West" exhibition which gave us a great education on western influences in Chinese culture including clocks, ceramic glazes, the establishment of universities, clothes fashions for weddings (white dresses!), the adoption of western medical treatments, telephones, market bazzars (which started in France!), and many other things. The exhibition also showed many artifacts from times when GZ was an ancient trading port.

I couldn't find the terracotta soldiers in the museum that the Lonely Planet guide promised, but I did like the exhibition of political cartoonist Liao Bing Xiong's work. Apparently he was exiled from China in 1958, but now he is celebrated!

Our next stop sounded like somewhere mildly interesting in the guidebook but proved itself to be fascinating. The Museum of the Nan-Yue King in Western Han Dynasty is devoted to an archaelogical find across the road from the Yuexiu Park (see earlier posts). In 1983 an excavation being done on a hill top for an apartment complex unearthed an ancient King's tomb dating back to around 100BC. The tomb had suffered some structural and environmental damage over time, but when it was found all its contents were intact with nothing stolen or destroyed. The Museum lets you walk inside the series of chambers inside the small tomb, and then has a very well documented exhibition on site of everything found inside. The museum is a credit to local authorities for perserving everything on site and documenting the dig.

As well as the dead King there were also 4 concubines, 7 chefs, some guards, a musician and some eunechs buried in the tomb too. Artifacts were saw from the tomb covered so many different things ranging from the jade shroud the king was wearing made from almost 2300 pieces sewn together, to musical instruments, weapons, bronze mirrors, jade items, seals, bronze pots, urns, jade goblets, a pearl-filled pillow for the King, ink capsules, foods, wine and water vats and more. Over 1000 objects were found in the tomb. This place really rocked!

By Sunday RB needed to escape from the sensation that he was the Mother Hen, rounding up the chicks (so we girls take a little organising! :P) so he did his own thing and we did ours. In a Spring downpour we found the local metro stop (>30 min walk from the hotel) and got ourselves to the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall. I had visions of a set of pavillions like those we had seen in Liang's Garden (Foshan), but the Chen Family temple was much much grander! Upon entry the first thing that struck us was how huge the place was. It was a similar set up to the "house" in Foshan with 3 rooms to a row and 3 rows of buildings but the central pavillions were absolutely huge and the rows separated by beautiful big open courtyards with trees, sculptures and huge fish bowls. Despite buzzing with overseas and Chinese tourists the place felt very calming. It featured beautiful ridge tiles on the roof, massive intricately carved screens and two giant colourful warriors painted on the front door.

The Chen Clan Hall also housed the Guangdong Museum of Folk Art inside its walls. Peta, Danielle and I enjoyed the exhibits of top quality jade, wood and stone carving, embroidery, ceramics, papercuts, furniture, and much more in the many rooms of the Halls. There were also a few tourist souvenir shops tucked away, and Pete practiced asking for a discount before buying anything, just as I had done before securing their hotel room :)

Our next stops were two temples that were close by. Upon arriving at the Guangxiao Temple a man tried to signal to us that it was 5 Yuan to enter. I wasn't buying that when I saw him leave the donations box to go sit and chat with his other cleaner mates while we dug around for 15 Yuan. While he had his back turned I ran through the entrance and Pete and Dan hurried after me sticking 2 Yuan in the box to ensure good karma! Guangxiao Temple is one of the oldest in Guangzhou, founded in 4th century AD. It featured many temples and halls within the complex and we got quite a thrill to see some many Buddhist monks walking around the place.

Before the light started to fail (grey sky and foggy air from the moisture don't make for great photographic lighting) we walked the back streets to get to the Liurong Temple. I had a bit of trouble finding it until I could see the nine-storey high octagonal Hua Ta aka Pagoda towering over the fence. The place looked closed but as we peered through the exit gate the guard ushered us in. Yaaay! We had a little walk around, admired the beautiful Pagoda which actually has 17 storeys and can be climbed during opening hours (for an addition fee to the entry fee), and checked out the main temple. This temple complex was established in AD 479 and was small but lovely with its Banyan trees and pagoda. We got a real treat watching everyone prepare for a Buddhist ceremony. There were monks galore and after 15 minutes or so we got to hear them singing as the ceremony got underway in the main temple. This temple took my breath away when I saw the 3 absolutely huge gleaming gold seated Buddhas inside. The girls will probably be sick of temples by the time they finish their trip, but I find each other has something unique about it, so I always enjoy visiting them, especially ones where people are actively worshipping as in the two we saw that day.

Today (Monday) the girls have left for Hong Kong. We visited the train station last night to suss out the system for buying tickets there, and where the train leaves from. They shouldn't have had any problems as unlike the Guangzhou train station we departed from for Foshan, the Guangzhou-Kowloon section of the Guangzhou East train station has English translations for many signs.

RB is going to take some annual leave next week, as his replacement from the Ericsson office in Melbourne flies in to begin his 2 month stay, so we will get to do some tourist travel ourselves. We'll be visiting Hong Kong and Macau (where I am keen to see the Portuguese influence) from next weekend until Thursday 6 April when we fly out of Guangzhou for Melbourne. Five days, 2 cities, much to see! How exciting!

Get it together

Tuesday was a busy day organising things. I am over halfway through my stay here now, and time has flown after the first week of adjusting. I have completed some of the work that was hanging over from my old job at Monash Uni, and passed over doing anymore work for them for free even though some exciting results have just come in today. Alas, I have some other priorities right now.... marking a thesis that should have already been returned to the Uni, and organising things for when my sisters, Danielle and Peta, arrive in Guangzhou tomorrow.

Yesterday afternoon there was a mad MSN session between we three girls of "what do I pack?", "give me some tips?", "should I buy this when I get there?" ...etc. Their time here will actually be much shorter than I thought it would be, but we'll be able to show them the ropes in China, and give them some tips for Vietnam as they commence their Asian adventure (Bangkok, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Xi'an, Beijing, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Chang Mai and anything else in between).

We hope to do another trip to the Guangdong countryside this weekend to see another small town, Zhaoqing, weather and the girl's travel timeable permitting.

I also worked out yesterday that my framed picture from Foshan just qualifies for Singapore Airlines carry on baggage size. I went and bought a little tape measure for <$1AUD at the local stationary/business supplies shop and we measured it to be 115cm (length+width+height)! RB is on the hunt for some bubble wrap today to place over the glass. Fingers crossed we get it home ok.

Finally one funny observation, the toddler-aged children here sometimes get around in some quite funny pants. The pants have a split along the bum cheeks and a little around the front. It allows the mums to hold the little kids over a grate if they need to do a tiddle or for the little boys to easily wee at a tree! LOL. Not seen the rear end of the pants in action yet, but I laugh at the flash of bottom you see with these pants sometimes, and cannot wonder if the draught makes them a bit cold in winter. Good for toiley training though! :)

Uh huh

RB told me the other day that there was an underpass for that huge new intersection where we nearly got run over. >:/

Foshan

Richard and I really liked the small town of Foshan. It was much smaller than Guangzhou and did not feel as dusty, smoggy, or busy. The first thing we noticed was how many motorbikes were on the road. There were many more in Foshan than in Guangzhou where cars and buses dominate the roads. Tourists are well catered for in Foshan as well. We found a great map with lots of info in our hotel room and we set off to see the sites.

Liang's Garden was our first tourist stop. It was established in the early 1800's and took 50 years to build. Behind its walls it featured some beautiful old houses, pavillions, ponds, bridges and gardens. The houses were what interested me most. The oldest had three rows with three high ceiling buildings in each row. A building would have sometimes two-four rooms all facing onto a central courtyard, so filled with natural light. Another building featured a series of 3 round doors as you progressed through it. The rooms featured temples, art, furniture and historical displays. The garden is regarded as one of the most beautiful in Guangdong, and while it was small in size, it more than made up with it for its well preserved or restored history.

The Renshou Temple, which we could see from our hotel, was a working Buddhist temple. The place was staked out by more beggars than I have seen in my whole 2 weeks plus in China. They were on boards on wheels, wheelchairs, crutches or canes and would either chase you with their cup and pleading words, or catch our attention by yelling out "Hellooooo". The temple was cool because it featured a 7 story pagoda from 1656!

The Ancient Temple complex had many things to see and do within its walls. Highlights were the temple orinally built in the 11th century which became a Taoist temple in the 15th century with a 2.5 tonne bronze god statute in it. What amazed me was the artform shown of "ridge tiles". These are decorative ceramic pieces that go on tops of buildings. Some at the temple had animals like dragons and lions, but one on show was about 5m long and 1.5m high featuring 3 stories with finely crafted scenes of people, houses, battles and more. So many figures and so intricate! Absolutely astounding craftwork!

Dinner on Saturday night was a treat. The claim to fame of our hotel, the Rotating Palace Hotel, was a huge rotating restaurant on its top floor (18th). My first ever rotating restaurant experience. I get dizzy just thinking about it. I put my handbag down on the window shelf and the waitress had to tell me to move it to the chair or it would get left behind as the restaurant floor spun slowly around the inside of the building! LOL. We had a great dinner Cantonese style, but avoided some of the restaurant delicacies such as "Dog in a Pot", camel hump, snake and other weird animals or their bits.

We were a little late for Dim Sum in the morning, and had only tried 5 dishes by the time we realised they were packing up. It's probably just as well as we didn't need to stuff ourselves again. I hope we can have more authentic Yum Cha while we're here as it looks pretty good. I'm pretty hooked on having tea all the time here too. It's good stuff!

Sunday morning we visited the Folk Arts Research Institute. This building had exhibitions , galleries and small craft shops and workshops showcasing many different things. We went crazy over the "paper cuts" we had admired at Liang's Garden. These are pictures done by cutting intricate designs from a sheet of coloured paper. The craft has been practiced in Forshan for nearly 1000 years. We can show you some of our souvenir ones when we get home. We did buy one picture that has turned out to be too big to fit in the suitcase so it will be a challenge to get home!

We then jumped a cab to the neighbouring town of Shiwan, which is famous for its porcelain and ceramics. There we went to the Ancient Nanfeng Kiln. There are two kilns on the site with the oldest one built in the Ming Dynasty (1506-1521), and still being used 500 years later! The kiln is the oldest firewood dragon kiln (meaning it is long with many side doors) in China and the world. We were rather amazed that we could wander all around the two 30+m kilns and even go inside to see the pots stacked up after firing. The place was pretty well set up with people doing demonstrations pots making, and figurine painting. We also liked exploring the artists studios in the old buildings at the rear of the site. Both RB and I were amazed at how dark some of the rooms were where the artists were doing intricate work. The variety of ceramic objects made in this town is also astounding, with Guilds set up in the ancient times that specialised in different things, be it large pots, vases, red glazes, black glazes, small tea pots and more.

By 5pm it was time to jump one on the buses that left for Guangzhou every 15 minutes. We had no trouble buying the ticket thanks to the note in Chinese from our hotel staff. With only minutes to spare we found the waiting room and entrance to the bus platform. We made it onto the bus, and the ride back took just over 1 hour. It dropped us off at a huge bus station we didn't know existed, about 500 m up the road from the Guangzhou train station. Our trip to Foshan was a success! :)

Farewells and departures

Friday night we went out to dinner and drinks to farewell one of RB's workmates, a Swedish fellow who was heading home for the birth of his first child. We were joined for dinner by some of RB's other workmates (1 Lebanese, 1 Fijian-Australian, 1 Greek, 1 Jordanian, 1 Chinese) and 3 Chinese girls (one was the wife of the Jordanian). We had one of the hugest banquet dinners I have ever seen. I'll try and recall all the dishes, but I didn't want for food or beer and it was a great way to try so many things at once. All the food was Hunan style, which is the province to the north of Guangdong (our province) and renown for using a lot of chilli.

We ate roasted peanuts, beef with chilli and shallots, pork ribs, beef with a green vege, shrimps on skewers (you eat the soft shell and legs too), chicken with vege, a duck that had been roasted with a tea flavour followed by a chilli burning sensation, more pork, fish, tofu, beans, fried rice with some vege (very good!), and some steamed rice. All the dishes were great and I enjoyed meeting the other expat workers and local girls. It made such a difference to hand all the ordering over to someone else to take care of. Hooray ;) That dinner with loads of beer came in at 73 yuan per person, about $13.50AUD.

Afterwards we visited a pub for a few beers but I just sat in the beer garden and relaxed. I couldn't fit another beer in my tum was so full! It was a good, fun night in Guangzhou!

Saturday we got up early and by mid-morning we were down at the train station. We got in the line and presented our tickets to enter the station about 30 mins before our train was to depart. As we entered we had to put our luggage through a security scan and go through a metal detector. No way I was putting my handbag through the scanner in case I didnt see it on the other side, but there was no probs there. The departures screened list 2 numbers next to our train number. I guessed one was for the platform, but what was the other? We found someone to show our ticket to and they directed us to Waiting Room 2. So far so good when we had our tickets checked to get in there, asking each person "Foshan?" as we showed the ticket. We sat down for 5 minutes or so and then suddenly there was an announcement and everyone started for the door! Oh shit?! What did that official just announce? RB picked up he overnight bag and we got ready to follow the tailenders to see where everyone was going. We all surged out of the waiting room, jammed onto the escalator, then formed a semi-line/scrum to get past an official at a small gate, then through a doorway and we were on the platform. Everyone then ran across the empty platform to get to their carriage in a huge hurry. We found ours, and then our seats and sat down and laughed!

It was so strange to not be waiting for your train on the platform, but a great way of controlling large numbers of people. We encountered a similar system at the bus station at Foshan when coming home.

As everyone settled into their seats there was a lot of talking and excitment. It was very noisy and RB worried the grandma next to him was going to send him deaf in one ear while she talked to her travel companions in the seats behind. The funny music played over the speakers seemed to calm everyone down as the train started. Then the Chinese people got out their tea flasks to make some tea, and snacks were passed around the families to munch on. We left Guangzhou behind and saw some different scenery - vege patches being tended to by field workers and houses similar to those we had seen in Vietnam. After a quick 30 minute ride our carriage attendant told us Foshan, the first stop, was coming up. We jumped off and laughed at how small a distance we had travelled. We were never quite sure when planning the trip how far it was, as the Lonely Planet said it was only 19Km southwest of Guangzhou, but hotel staff had told us it was a long way away, over an hour! Talk about confusing! We had made it to Foshan in one piece though ;)

Tough Chinese chicks

Yesterday I added three Cantonese words to my Chinese vocabulary; this (ni goh), please (cheng) and pain (tung). They all got a work out. The first two got me my lunch, the last one stopped the Chinese masseuse from killing me! RB and I went out for a post-work massage at our local place. This time we scored much better masseuses, two ladies less interested in chatting with each other and more interested in working all our pressure points. The foot massage was MUCH better this time, and my lady worked points along the top of my toes and even around the sides of my heels. It was less about the foot soak this time and more about her powerful hands doing reflexology magic!

This time we did the foot and body massage. It was a full work out! I have already described the foot massage (which also includes back, shoulders, lower and upper legs) in my first blog post. The body massage involves lying down on a table fully clothed with a towel over you. RB and I were in a room with two tables, but I don't really see the point in that as a good massage for me involves forgetting where you are and just relaxing. It was during the body massage that I tested my newest word, tung. While I don't have a hope of mastering the six basic tones of Cantonese in my brief stay, the masseuse knew which word I meant when I said "Tung!!!!!" OOWWWW.

It was not until I experienced massage in Asia (firstly in Hanoi and now here) that I ever thought it could be an experience other than relaxing (I miss you aromatherapy massage!) Asian massage for me is so often about gritting your teeth and trying to hang on as you test yourself for pain or discomfort thresholds. I had a few relaxing moments in between the pressure points last night, usually when she had finished working one part of the body. The body massage involved working on my head then the tops of my shoulders, arms, tummy and legs, then rolling over for the shoulders, back, bum and legs. I got used to the sensation of every one of my toe and fingers being cracked, but while she worked my back I was breathing so hard trying to get through the pain that both RB and the two masseuse ladies thought I was having trouble with my head down the massage table hole. LOL.

Today I have little finger/knuckle size bruises at different places across my body - on my thighs, bum, and I'm sure I'll find some more later. Other spots are just sore. But in between all these ouchy points my body feels really good. I'd like it to someone making a beautiful pizza dough, kneading it, throwing it in the air, stretching it, but then getting the rolling pin and just whacking the hell out of it a few times! Hahaha. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger! I'll be going back for another go next week!

Tomorrow we are off to see Foshan for the weekend. Wish us luck to get home on Sunday, as we only have our train tickets out of Guangzhou ;)

Give it a go

Yesterday I thought I was very brave to go to a restaurant RB had recommended across the road. I went in and found no english on the menu but a picture of each dish. There were loads of dishes that were just slabs of meat, but I had a craving for fried rice and there were 3 kinds on the menu. I chose one for 20 yuan (<$4) and it was okay though a little bland. I always like my lunch outings though, watching the bustle of the restaurant, drinking jasmine tea and reading my paper. Pretty much how I like to spend my lunch time at home, having a bit of quiet time.

Last night RB and I went for a walk to the malls that sell computer bits and pieces. He wanted to price check some things and I wanted to buy a mouse. As we walked there we had to cross a massive intersection about 8 lanes wide. I find it amazing that these new intersections can be built but there is no allowance for pedestrians to cross the road. RB led me across 2 lanes to a line marking area separating the exit of an underpass lane from the ones we just crossed. I wasn't sure it was a good place to stand since I'd watched a cab drive straight over the 1 metre lane separator. Sure enough as we stood on it and waited to cross the next 4 lanes, a car came out of the underpass and headed up his lane then decided to drive directly at us. I couldn't believe he could somehow look straight through us to see the lane he wanted to make a beeline for. Luckily he stopped in time before hitting us, but not before I'd tried to pull RB back out of the path and let out a scream. Way too close a call! Very scary.

Most other big intersections in busier parts of town will have a pedestrian overpass or walk signs for pedestrians and even traffic officers with whistles too. Even when you get a walk light you still have to look for cars, trucks and especially bikes that ignore the lights.

We found all the malls we wanted shut by about 7.30pm, so we searched for some dinner. RB suggested we try a nice looking cheap little eatery. After seeing that all the menu was written in Chinese with no pictures, we vetoed the idea and went outside to discuss the next option. While outside a young man ran out and said he spoke some english and he'd help us order. The eatery had a sign outside with some pictures of about 9 dishes, so after talking to this young man we chose 2 from the picture board. We felt good about trying a place that locals would eat at and the people in the restaurant were excited about us eating there.

Our meals arrived and the duck dish RB picked had everything in it including the duckie's bill and feet. The duck had been chopped up into pieces about 1.5-2 cm squared. The dish was a bit of a challenge for me because it was chock full of bones and veiny looking bits. I'm hard pressed eating a piece of chicken from KFC with bones, I so studiously always avoid boney cuts of meat (besides chops and t-bones!). I had a crack at it and enjoyed the flavour of the meat and chilli hotness when I could separate it from the teeny tiny bones. I don't have the practised way of the Chinese of rolling it around in my mouth to get the good stuff then just spitting out the bones onto my side plate.

The pork dish was pork strips with more chilli and some weird vege. It was ok but swimming in a sea of oil. I was largely onto eating mostly rice by this stage and drinking my tea and Shenzhen Kingway beer. We ordered the bill and then got a shock! It was way more than we expected from a place where most dishes on the menu in front of us were 10 or 15 yuan. Somehow our 2 dishes totalled 68 yuan. Over 30 per dish! When we eat in our Chinese restaurant in the hotel (very very nice!) paying 30 yuan means it is aVERY special dish! Unlike that fine dining restaurant, the eatery had only plastic cups for the tea, wooden disposable chopsticks, no chopstick rests, no napkins (not even a paper one). It was very basic and we'd just been stung! Moral of the story.... if you can't read the menu and you still order, check the price of the dishes before placing the order so that you don't get any surprises. We didn't have the Cantonese skills to argue, so we just paid up, and walked out feeling a little bad. RB said he knew he was being overcharged when they read the price to us and other people in the eatery started laughing! EEP.

Live and learn. We'd just had our first rip-off moment. I think I'm going back to the wannabe-western restaurant for my lunch today. The nasi goreng is very tasty, and menu has some pics and english and I know what it costs! HAHA. Or do I want to make myself a sandwich for lunch instead? There's other Chinese places round here to try, so I'll keep soldiering on, but today will eat something I can a) identify and b) don't have to spit out onto the plate :D

Supermarket scene

I've just come back from a trip to our local supermarket. I like going down there. The place is always going off! Crowded and busy with shoppers getting mobile phones, face whitening creams, yoghurt, a fresh fish (caught in the tank) for dinner or pineapple beer. I got some of the latter to try myself. It is always very noisy in the supermarket too. They have TV screens all over the joint blaring out ads for specific products on the shelves below. Lucky I don't understand a word of it and it just becomes background noise to me.

I love how the beer is so cheap in Asia :P RB goes for San Miguel. For $1 AUD you get 640ml of a very drinkable and tasy beer. Today I went for some stubbies of Heineken at $1.5o AUD for 330ml. Not as good a value but it tastes much nicer than the Heineken we get in Australia and more like the Heineken I would drink in France. It is made somewhere in Asia.

There is so much to see in the supermarket! The strange breads, cakes, fruit n vege, meat cuts, cooked foods (like dumplings, noodles soups cooked to order....) , black-skinned chickens (these uncooked fellas freak me out), snacks, drinks. There is even a rice counter with 7 kinds of rice to choose from per kilo. RB and I have been testing out the different brands of potato chips (aahh chipies I love you!) Lay's make some of my favourite chips at home so I have been testing their Chinese favours. The "cool" tastes range features green tea, cucumber, and lemon flavoured chips. I liked the cucumber ones!

I also bucked the system at the supermarket today. I took my own plastic bags down there. For a country that says it is becoming environmentally aware, they love the plastic bag here. I even bought some wet wipe tissue things and these packets got put in a plastic bag inside my other plastic bag. When you go to MacDonalds they even give you a special plastic bag to carry your drinks in. ..... Yes, we eat at Macca's sometimes. :) It is easy to get a feed there compared to going to a cafe! China needs to get into green bags like we have at home at the supermarket.

I went through the market on the way home to look for some tomatoes. It is very freaky there but cool, and a bit stinky near the butcher's counters. It is amazing how they just have all the meat lying out on the bench. Not too many live chickens at the markets at the moment though. The people of Guangdong province used to like to have their chickens killed fresh for them at the market (apparently it keeps the flesh tender) but the practice is less popular since the threat of bird flu. Now some markets have established a special room for the hygenic killing of poultry but I think our local market is too tiny to have this.

A Gaungzhou resident died just after I arrived here from bird flu. Apparently he always hung out near a market or something like that. Today's paper reports that "sales of Baicheji, cold boiled chicken, have been plummeting in Guangzhou since a local resident died of bird flu. The chicken is usually only half cooked, to keep the meat soft and full of flavour. However, this has not been a safe way of consuming chicken due to the bird flu threat. One restaurant that is famous for its Baicheji said it hadn't received a single order for it all week."

It's cold outside today. Somewhere between 10-15C depending which weather site I look at. I had 4 layers on top with a scarf and I was okay, but when we went out for dinner last night it was below 10C with the wind chill factor and drizzle. FRESH! Even the dogs and cats outside today have their jumpers on. Yep, I saw a cat in a little purple wooly jumper!

We have sorted out how to get some tickets to Forshan so we will try again this weekend to go there. :)

Not all to plan

One of the reasons I came to Guangzhou was that I thought we would be able to use the city as a base and do some exploring of other towns on the weekend. The idea hasn't exactly gone to plan. My second weekend in GZ was spent looking at some more local sites and going down to the train & bus station to visit the ticketing office. We wanted to go to nearby Foshan for a day trip on Sunday to see their temple and old gardens.

Saturday afternoon we jumped on the GZ metro system again (very clean, very efficient) and headed off to Yuexiu Park in the northwest corner of the city (our hotel is in the southeast). The park was HUGE, apparently 93 hectares. It is also full of hills and gullies. If you walked the whole thing every weekend you would get very fit. My sore muscles from the gym were ouchie! We saw some cool momuments, statues, and the five-story Zenhai Tower built in the late 14th century, which is also the only part of the old city wall still standing. I'll be going back there when Peta and Danielle arrive in GZ as it houses the GZ City Museum. It was a rather beautiful and impressive building.

We then went to the northern bus & train station (there are more than 1 for heading out of GZ) to see if we could sort some tickets for Foshan. We had heard the station was full on but that didn't prepare us for the sea of people standing around outside. SOOOO many people with big bags of belongings just sitting on the ground until it was there time to show their ticket to enter the station and go to their platform. It was like a giant carpark of people just milling around.

Our efforts to get tickets were futile. We went to the bus station and all the info was in Chinese only, no English speaking ticket desk like they have in Vietnam :( We saw where you line up for the Foshan bus, but without info on a return schedule to GZ, RB was unwilling to live on the wildside. Can't blame him when he needs to be sure he can get to work! It was the same at the train station.... no english speaking ticket office, and the inquiry office had a sign but no office! No wonder people advise for you to buy tickets through your hotel. The people at the desk at the Ramada weren't particularly keen on helping us get to Foshan though. Seems we'd have an easier time going to a big city - I hope this is the case when we try to book some tickets for Hong Kong!

Sunday it rained so we rested our blistered feet and tired legs. The visibility at night after the rain was further than any time since I arrived!

New experiences

Firstly some good news.... I have a new job! I had a hectic day before I left home where I had two job interviews at the Dept of Primary Industries for very different positions, one for a Project Officer, the other for a Post-doctoral Scientist in Soil Microbiology. I did well in both interviews and was offered a second one for the PO job. I told them I was off to China for five weeks and was not making any commitments until hearing about the Scientist job. Low and behold, that job offer came through on Wednesday! Hooray! I haven't worked in a full-time research scientist role since July 2004, so it will be amazing to have a proper income again, stable hours, a proper project to sink my teeth into and a two year contract instead of working week to week wondering when the project budget would run out. I'm so excited. Downside, doing the 9-5 will shock my system for the first while (haha!) but it is great that the job is on the northside! When I was at Monash Uni Clayton the 2.5-3 hour round commute sucked up too much of the day - time that could be spent at home with RB, or putting in a few more hours in the lab, was instead spent sitting on the tram, train and bus. No more...!!!

Back to China... Yesterday I was going a little stir crazy sitting in this hotel apartment room so I took myself off to the gym. It was a rather nice quiet little space with a view onto the Pearl River, the freeway and more apartment highrises in the distance (new swish looking ones). I had a good time working out my muscles on the fixed weights and doing some cycling and rowing. I'd better keep going while I am here as it is hard to keep an eye on your diet when you eat a lot of meals in restaurants or cafes. Our apartment kitchen is barely set up for cooking though we had sandwiches for dinner two times this week after eating big lunches. I have a lot of fruit on hand to eat too. We also wash all our fruit & vege with a nifty detergent especially for this purpose! Got to say, it was weird washing my tomatoes, cucumber, capsicum, onion, and lettuce in a frothy sink, but luckily I resisted the automatic reaction to fill the sink with hot water first!

Last night we visited Shamian Island. It was a little oasis of trees, lovely gardens, old buildings from the 1800's and early 1900's and a massive hotel shaped like a hip flask that towers over the island while illuminated at night. Shamian Island is also famous for being full of babies. People stay there when they come to China to adopt babies because it is close to the consulates, and a much more pleasant place to while away the 20 days you must spend on the mainland before whisking your beautiful little Chinese bub off to a new life. There are loads of shops with babies clothes or shoes, and advertising stroller hire (strollers aren't commonly used in Guangzhou). The Thai restaurant we dined in last night advertised a baby menu and baby highchairs and spoons etc to encourage baby toting patrons.

After dinner we ventured out to a Chinese nightclub. Australian live act Infusion were playing at Baby Face, so we went to seek them out. It was a bit of a mission to find the club but when we walked on in at 10pm it was jumping! Full dance floor, busy bar, happy people. There were all ages of people in the club (read young chinese and old chinese men chasing young chinese girls). We didn't always like the DJs selection which included disco house and some odd 80's remixes. Ride the White Horse was the only song I recognised and it is only passable if it is the breakbeat mix but we stuck it out waiting for the band. The place just got more and more crowded as people kept streaming in. I started to feel like I was in a pinball machine as I was constantly bumped by people. There were couches in booths but we weren't allow the sit in them :( so we just had to stand amongst the throng. Meanwhile their were loads of people standing at the small high tables throughout the club drinking what looked like iced tea in big jugs and playing a drinking game with that involved having a set of 6 or so dice in a cup. Strangeness. Also there were bowls of cut up fruit on each of the tables. More weirdness, seeing people munch on fresh fruit in a smokey crowded nightclub. We split before Infusion came on, beaten down by sore legs, dodgy music and a huge crowd of single expat men flooding in the door. Clubbing in Melbourne is much nicer :D

All about animals

Every day I get the english language newspaper, China Daily, delivered to my room. I love to read the paper and this one is proving to be an eyeopener, as it relates political and life events in China. Three articles caught my attention recently in light of my recent post about the trip to the Zoo....

Tues March 7 - Beijing Times
Stray tabby fights for life after petrol attack
A stray Beijing cat has been taken to an animal hospital after being abused by some cruel, but unknown passers-by.
The people poured petrol on its fur and set it on fire. It was rescued and sent to hospital, but its face has been badly damaged and it may well be put down.
The public were outraged by the incident and pooled money to pay for the treatment.

Tues March 7 - Chongqing Morning Post
Shivering snake rescued after escaping from circus
A 2.5 metre-long python has been rescued after being discovered sick and lost outside Chongqing.
The snake is believed to have escaped from a visiting circus, which recently toured the area. The snake is a tropical creature, so it was not suited to the local conditions.
The serpent had ulcers and was very weak, but it is now being looked after in a local animal rescue centre.

Lastly, as reported in China Daily on Wed March 8 2006
Animal welfare call
Zhou Ping, a deputy from Sichuan Province to the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), yesterday appealed to the congress's current annual session to enact a law on protecting animal welfare as soon as possible.
Zhou said the law should include the banning of mistreatment of animals and consumption of wild animals and measures to improve means of slaughtering animals.


Good to see that some people are thinking about animal welfare! The news coming out of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing is very interesting, as the government debates and plans future activities. The most striking information for me is always that which contrasts the difference in lifestyle, wealth, health and opportunity for rural Chinese compared to urban Chinese. We have heard in Australia about farms being taken for building projects for dams etc, but property rights are also a problem for urban Chinese who live in traditional housing and neighbourhoods. I saw a TV story just yesterday on how the squeeze is on in Beijing for people to move out of ancestral homes and sell up for what they consider insufficient compensation so that more skyscraper apartments can be built. China is on the move but how do you stop people being trampled on?

A bit of culture

Guangzhou is a modern city. There are skyscrapers everywhere, smog in the air so that sometimes you don't see a blue sky or far in the distance, and those freeways and mainroads that circle and divide the city centre. I expected this given that GZ is an industrial area and economic centre for the south. I didn't really expect to see no traces of an "old" China. By comparision Ho Chi Minh city in Viet Nam is modern too, but the old public and private buildings are still there. I believe there are some traces of the old Canton here, and I'll check them out this weekend at Shamian Island, which became a British & French outpost after the two Opium wars in the 1800's.

Sunday afternoon was spent at the Guangdong Museum of Art. The gallery had some excellent modern art, sculptures and special exhibitions. We admired some amazing landscape paintings and a photographic exhibition. There was also huge calligraphy exhibition, but we couldn't appreciate it not knowing anything of this artform. We have seen people crowd around artists doing calligraphy on a table in the street on a weekend though, so we appreciate that it is something special.

Sunday and Monday were coloured by another kind of culture as well, that dreaded human foible - culture shock. I found myself feeling a little worried about getting by without a command of the language, living in a hotel apartment, and feeling confused by which direction is north. Why am I here? Monday afternoon brought a little confidence. I ventured out to lunch, ordered ok, and read my phrasebook to understand and practice some simple polite words. I found my way to the supermarket and home ok, and the sky cleared to blue as the temperature rose into the low 20s. Felt much better!

What is travel if you don't take yourself outside your normal space and try something different? It is why I am here. To see what life is like in one of the world's most populous and biggest countries. Sure I'm not going to see a lot of it, being based in one place the whole time, but I'll get to see it day by day and soak it up a bit.

I saw toads and snakes for sale in the market last night, next to the turtles and fish. Toad for tea anyone? :P

Welcome to China!

Well I made it here, to Guangzhou (pronounced Gwong-jo), China. The five week stay has commenced. I flew in on Friday afternoon after a fairly uneventful flight, broken up by a stop at Changi airport and some playtime in the girl's treasure chest that is the makeup and perfume duty free shop. :)

RB came to pick me up at the airport and he pretty much has the hang of the place after 3 wks or so. He knows enough Chinese words to make things happen, knows the lay of the land, and feels comfortable. I was so happy to see him again!

Saturday was spent at the Guangzhou Zoo. For some reason this place hasn't made it into the Lonely Planet China. In the sprawling metropolis that is GZ, with its LA-style freeway over- and underpasses the Zoo is a great escape. Greenery, quiet (except for roaring horny Tigers) and spacious. We were as much an exhibit at the Zoo as the other animals. Being causian here means that you get a lot of people staring at you. I'm still still getting used to that but it gives RB a giggle as he watches the people's eyes move over me (tits, tum & bum is the staring order he reckons *blush*).

Crazy things at the Zoo included:
- seeing people throw a rock near the elephant to get his attention, and food to the bears to make them stand up. Also kids going behind barriers to walk right up to the monkey cage and feed them peanuts.
- dogs as exhibits. We saw a dalmatian and 2 pomeranians in the children's area.
- a special performance area with bears walking balanced on their front paws on a highwire-style apparatus, monkey's pushing carts and riding bicycles, and birds pushing toys. God it was weird and strange. Poor things. The bear has a rope through it's nose and the monkey's got smacks on the head when they misbehaved. There are no animal rights in China.

We missed the dolphin show, so I can only wonder how those performing animals are treated.

Saturday finished with a trip to the massage place. Sounds saucey but it wasn't! Massage is all the go here to look after the body and relax. We had an hour long massage that started with a nice foot soak while they rub your back and shoulders. You then turn around and settle into your plush recliner chair with a view of the cable TV, peanuts and water, while they go to work on your feet and lower legs doing some reflexology and working out the knots. I really needed it after a day of walking and 12 hrs cramped in a plane. Must do this again! It only cost $5.