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!
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!
posted by Polecat at 6:59 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home