30th May - Guangzhou

I woke up early and nattered with Helen for a while before she headed off to explore the city and move to a Youth hostel in the center. The internet connection was good in the room and so I decided to spend sometime catching up on my blog (I am forever behind - having too much fun) and also reading about the next part of my trip. I have a good feeling about the Chinese and I have decided to start Couch Surfing again (I stopped while in India).

I should not have really stayed one more night in this hotel as it is expensive when not sharing with someone else. However, it is a long way to cheaper accommodation and in this instance I did not want to spend the couple of hours of moving just for a difference of £5. I will be gone back on major budget as I travel through rural China.

Whenever I arrive in a new country it always takes about 1 day of faffing before I feel like I can actually get going. Although I had done loads of organising stuff in HK I had not managed to get some things sorted. I decided I was not comfortable (after last nights 2 hours to travel 5 minutes down the road) to try and navigate through the city without a Chinese sim card with an internet connection and a map of China. I also needed to post home a Visa application and my second Passport on express delivery and go to an ATM. I thought that I should also have an explore of the city as well :-)


I headed out in the afternoon and popped to reception to ask directions. The girls at reception try very hard but speak no English and so it was a long experience as she typed into her translator on her computer and we tried to understand each other. It was brilliant timing though as along came another girl, Lin, that works at the hotel and is currently learning English. She wanted to practice and said she would take me to the different shops.


Lin is one of the sweetest, loveliest people I have met. She spent about 2 hours with me wondering round trying to help me to get all of the things that I needed and translating for me. No one in the shops we went too spoke a word of English and it would have been very difficult to get the right Sim card etc which allows a connection to the internet without her help. A sim card with £4 of call credit was £5.


Whenever we were crossing the road she would hold on to my arm and say "be careful". She walked me in linked arms everywhere. I felt huge as I am about 1 foot taller than here. It was a really lovely welcome to China. She really wanted to help.


We did not manage to find a road atlas of China which also had the place names in English in any of the local book shops but we did manage to get a small map of the state that I am currently in. It will be OK for the next couple of days before I need a new one.


Wondering round the area was fun. I tried some new street food that I had not tried before. They are like pancakes with stuff in. They chop it up and weigh it out. It was 1 CYN for a bag full - 10p. I think that I will be getting quiet a lot of this in the future.


The bikes that they have here are interesting. About 30% of them have a little motor attached, 50% are fixed wheel old style bikes like the ones they have in India and the rest are normal western style gear bikes.

People do use bikes as a means of transporting goods here, like they do in India but not so much in the western world.


As yesterday, I was surprised by how wealthy the city is. There are loads of high rises everywhere, good condition cars, good transportation links and roads. I did not realise that Guangzhou is such a major Chinese city. It is like HK but not quiet as shinny and clean as the business districts of HK. It could be compared to any major European city though. Very different to Indian major cities which still do not have the infrastructure.


My hotel is funny as it is a mid range place that tries to be more up market. They have girls outside in ball gowns just sitting there to welcome guests.


For dinner I went to the restaurant next door to the hotel where Helen and I ate last night. I ordered the Duck which I was told was spicy. It was about half a duck with all bones and skin cleavered up into smaller chunks and hard to find any meat on it. I think they must have just marinade it for about 7 years in chillies with an extra helping of chillies as it was so hot that I was crying and went through 10 tissues!

It was £5 for a big plate of duck and rice with tea. Having seen the prices in the street I now know that this is a reasonably expensive restaurant. It was jam packed though.

A productive day and a good explore of part of the city. :-)