The weekend

So even though i've been here for 4 weeks now, I still feel like I haven't seen very much of my surroundings. It gets dark here about 6.30/7pm so there isn't really any time to go out after work and do some exploring which is sad. This means that I only really get the chance to play tourist at the weekends. 

 A few weeks ago after, we had a practise china lesson,  we had a very casual afternoon in Guangzhou, which involved sampling some of the (plentiful) roadside restaurants and having a wander to Canton Tower. We didn't go up the tower (we will save that for another day) but we got close enough for me to decide that the massive gaps between the floor sections (you can see the big sections inside the covering in the photo) is cheating when it comes to building a very tall tower! (Empty space shouldn't be counted)

Canton Tower up close

Not entirely sure what this is but I thought it was pretty, it was in the park next door to the tower.

On the next day, after a failed attempt to find the bus to take us to Xiqiao Mountain National Park - There's a big Buddha on the hill! (Even the tourist office didn't have a clue!), we decided to go the Zu miao ancestral temple in Foshan. 

If you are into martial arts then this is the place to go - there is a lot on Ip Man, Bruce Lee and martial arts - don't quiz me i've forgotten it all already! But the temple itself is quite big as well as old. It was a nice place to spend the day because there was a Confucius temple, Cantonese Opera, Lion dancing as well as lots of beautiful buildings to look at.

I'm a bit of a sucker for pretty old buildings so I loved just standing admiring the contrast of the old temple with the modern city surrounding it as well as the amazing details in the buildings.

I loved the detail on the roof of this part of the temple.

I loved the colours and the shapes and the details and pretty much everything about it!

Cantonese Opera - it was an experience!

The wishing tree

The highlight of the day was definitely the lion dancing. We were roasting sitting in the shade so the men in the suits must have been cooked! I didn't expect to get to see anything like this until Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) so this was a nice surprise. It's amazing how they get into character and act like animals (quite dog like), they went round the audience and snuggled up on the benches next to the audience - the bum wiggling they did entertained me no end. The detail in the costumes is beautiful as well.

I included a video - not quite the most impressive bit but good to see none the less. Enjoy!

I also learnt that the mid autumn festival (which happened a few weeks ago) is timed to coincide with when the moon is at its biggest for this time of year - I did think the moon was very large and bright when we were in Guangzhou taking pictures but I thought that was just a coincidence (and something to do with being in China)...yes that makes me sound very simple but in all fairness I know nothing about astronomy.  It's always funny learning the ins and outs of Chinese culture after the event!

G x