After successfully and independently navigating the metro system - it took 2 hours, we are all still very impressed they managed to get here without a hitch - Mum and Dad breathed their first - not quite fresh and clean - Chinese air. Sadly I had to work during the week whilst they were here so some solo adventuring was required on their part.
Whilst day one was acclimatising to their new Chinese surroundings, snoozing off the jet-lag on their very hard bed (China is not the country to come to is you like to feel like you are sleeping on a cloud) and trying out the local food; I threw them straight in with the local dish of roasted duck, the included bones were a bit of a shock to the system I think.
Day two was an afternoon trip to Zumiao, which is considered the centre of Foshan city. Our afternoon excursion worked fairly well because the morning had been full of rain and I only have to teach one class on Thursdays so we had the rest of the day to ourselves. There isn't That much to do in Foshan as a tourist to we had plenty of time to see the 'sights'. This included a visit to the Ancestral Temple, a mid afternoon tofu snack (I think Dad is a convert), a nip in-past a very new temple (it is still being built) which had a religious ceremony in full swing - I thought this was quite interesting because despite the number of temples i've visited in this country i've never seen the monks actively worshiping (i'm not sure if this is the right term, i'm not very clued up on my religions). Next I took Mum and Dad on a little stroll down some of the few remaining old streets in Zumiao (most of it has been turned into skyscrapers and shopping malls) and into an outdoor market - these places never fail to amaze me with the variety of food stuffs available - I still haven't got a clue what you do with a call bladder though! Next we walked through the streets to Liang Gardens, which I think is one of the prettiest places to visit in Zumiao, and also quite entertaining with its slightly whimsical public signage. A visit to Liangnan Tiandi (a reconstructed area of ancient style Chinese buildings) was required to show them what Foshan once looked like before the city's penchant for skyscrapers and shopping malls took hold. Our final stop of the day was the one I had most been looking forward to because I was intrigued to see what Mum and Dad would think of our much frequented eating destination which my friends and I have nicknamed 'the Alley'. The Alley is a street that is full of basic eateries offering everyday Chinese food at very cheap prices and delivering the kind of ambiance only a slightly grotty street, full of various (some questionable) smells, can deliver. I'm not sure how impressed they were but the fried rice and the beer was a hit....
Day three was a solo venture to Guangzhou for the intrepid twosome as I had to work all day but I did city hop in the evening and join them for dinner. Which turned out to also be new experience for me. We went to an area full of various eateries that had been recommended by a friend. My basic Chinese unfortunately doesn't extend past the familar dishes so my ordering technique consisted of dragging the waitress round the restaurant pointing at pictures on the walls and what people were eating - it seems to work. We ended up dining on some very large fried dumplings, a variation on the typical fried rice dish and some questionable rice tubes. The rice tubes were made of rice sheets rolled up and drizzled in various sauces. The way we were eating them was clearly not satisfactory to the locals because one of the waitressing staff came along, stole the chopstick out of my hand and stirred the sauce through the rolls, to thoroughly coat them in the sauce, before miming out what we should be doing and then giving my chopstick back and walking away. Everything is an experience in this country.
Day four was a Saturday, and since I had been accused of making the itinerary too intense (my aim for the trip was that they would have pretty to do everyday, I think I achieved this), we decided to stay local and visit a local park and Pagoda, which despite being within walking distance to where I live I had never visited it before.This was the first day of the weather truly heating up and it's had been a long time since I had seen blue skies in this city! The pagoda was very new but offered lovely views over the surrounding city. We spent a quite a while just analyzing the city layout and how all the skyscrapers are different - this means that the city is must less boring to look at than you would expect.
The Leigang Park Pagoda. The view over Foshan from the Pagoda
We then walked through to Qiandeng Lake, which I had been to before, but this time the flowers are in season so it was a much prettier experience.
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Qiandeng Lake and its lovely occupants
Day five was a return visit to Guangzhou. First we visited Shamian Island, a former foreign concession, which despite my numerous forays onto previously , I had never actually walked the length of it (it's not even that large). Shamian Island is a popular place for locals to partake in a varying number of activities, including: Jianzi (featherball in English), badminton, racquet dancing, tai-chi and other popular Chinese past-times. As we were there on a Sunday, the locals university students were out trying to improve their English - the aim being to have conversations and afterwards get pictures with as many foreigners as possible. We bumped into two groups, who were both lovely but after two we were doing our best to keep a low profile (it's a time consuming experience). As we walked off the island we came across the whole group of students assembled with their lecturers, there were about 50 of them. Even though we had only met 8 of them, the whole group turned around to wave, cheer and shout thank you at us (which was lovely...we had obviously said something right. We then carried on to the centre of Guangzhou for a stroll up the popular shopping street, Beijing lu, before stopping for lunch. Mum wasn't too impressed with her Chinese meatballs but at least she could finally tick eating seaweed off the list. We then went to have a nosey at the Pearl River (which I today learnt is the 3rd longest river in China) but it's not that striking a view on a cloudy day. Our final destination in that area of Guangzhou was at the Haizhu Square shopping area. It is a 6 floor high warren of stalls selling everything from chinese decorations to halloween costumes. It's my favourite place to go and have a nosey.
Our final stop on the metro led tour of Guangzhou was at Changshou Lu. The aim had been to find ShangXiaJiu Lu - a popular tourist shopping street - but I think I led my trusty followers in the wrong direction (not for the last time). Instead though we stumbled upon a seeminly endless, narrow street, lined with stalls selling countless, and very similar, jade goods - I think I'm going to have to return and buy some jade beads before I leave. However the whole trip wasn't ruined because trying steamed buns (one pork, one red bean) could also be ticked off the cultural tasting to-do list, along with some pancake batter style sandwich things. I had never had them but they were really good, we had one with custard in and one with red bean. I think there is a bit of a family obsession with red beans brewing! I should have taken a pivture to descibe it better but I was too bisy eating so I'll just have to back another day for a different flavour and take picture then - the sacrifices I make!!!! After a day of grazing on chinese cuisine - and McDonald's black bean ice cream (surprisingly good) - it was time to head home. I think I did a fairly good job of tiring them out on this trip - I don't think it classes as a holiday when you are walking about 10 miles everyday!
For the next 5 days I had a break from playing tourguide as Mum and Dad went to Hong Kong for an alternative Asian experience. I was at work so I couldn't join them.
Day eleven was our final Saturday so we returned to Guangzhou to see some of the things we hadn't had time for previously. We headed to the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King which is a museum constructed around the fairly recently discovered, 200 year old, tomb of a King Zhao Mo. The tomb had never been disturbed so the museum is home to the thousands of artifacts he and his 15 human sacrifices were buried with. As Chinese museums go its not too bad, I thought it was interesting to see what was considered pivotal to life after death and I liked all the pretty jewellary (I'm easily entertained). However, the audio guide didn't exactly inspire much enthusiasm, the girl sounded bored stiff and they hadn't edited out any of her mistakes - it's not very often that you here The Aristocats talked about in conjunction with chinese history.
After our morning of culture, we decided to head to a nearby park to relax in the sunshine. However, for some unknown reason (but with heavy influence from my clearly poor navigation skills) we never found the park. Instead though we stumbled across the area of Guangzhou clearly dedicated to selling and supplying all the components you would ever need to construct an air conditioning system. The streets in this area were lined with countless stores all selling more or less exactly the same items - the question of 'how do they all survive?' is still unanswered. So after our abandoned attempt to find the mystery park, Mum and Dad decided to take me to see Martyr's Park where they had been the week before, and somewhere I had never been before. Martyr's park is a lovely park, complete with the Martyr's Tomb, that was being well used by the locals for all their weekens activities like chess, various forms of exercise and dancing. There was even a group putting on a musical performance complete with costumes and wigs - it was a nice break from the other groups in various corners of the park who were performing Cantonese Opera (I'm not a fan).
Day twelve was a trip to Xi Qiao mountain, I also took James there when he visited at Christmas. The mountain was especially busy when we visited because it was the weekend of the Qing Ming festival. Qing Ming festival is the celebration of youe ancestors. Some people go to thier family tombs and burn paper offerings of items they thing their ancestors will need - my pupils had iphones, ipods, houses and clothes in mind for their offerings. Other people go to places, like the Buddha on Xi Qiao, to burn lucky incense for themselves and their families. We made ourselves a local friend that day, who ultimately abondoned her friend for us, who gave us some incense to burn. It was nice to have someone with native chinese knowledge to answer all the questions we had.
The Buddha on the mountain and our Buddha selfie.
Our final day together was a trip to the Nanfeng Kiln in Foshan. Foshan is famous for its pottery history, and the kiln we visited is home to the 500 year old dragon kiln (so called because of it's shape). After buying ourselves a little pottery momento, as well as helping a stall owner with her tofu production (free labour), we had to go back because I had to work in the afternoon.
Some pictures from the kiln visit:
Mum making tofu
the dragon kiln
For our final meal together we were joined by John and his parents who had arrived the day. Since we were now a large group, we decided to take full advantage of this fact and eat in the style of traditional Chinese family dining. This involves ordering various dishes - we had fish, pork, soy beans, beef, vegetables, dumplings and of course rice - which are all placed on a lazy susan in the centre of the round table (the tables are always round) and then shared between everyone. It's definitely a good way to try new dishes and it's a nice sociable way of eating. The sophisticated ambiance of the restaurant was slightly ruined though when the neighbouring table brought two dwarf hamsters, in a box, out to dinner with them. We weren't sure if they were to season the stew or some potential escapee pets...
After the beautiful weather they brought to France last year and the same again here this year I maintain the fact that they are good weather omens; while they were here we had the best weather of the year so far, especially as ever the whole week after they left it was windy (by Chinese standards), completely cloudy, raining and the temperature had dropped by 10oC. I thought spring was never going to return but thankfully it has!
G x
