On to Guangzhou and Guilin

(Molly)

We took our first train yesterday! It took us from Hong Kong to Guangzhou, through some rural areas. We passed huts and old brick houses, and houses or sheds that were open to the air. I had seen a picture in TIME magazine of half a building in China – the other half had fallen down – and was not sure whether or not people lived there. Now I am certain that it was occupied.

On the train, they handed out Watson’s Water. It comes in bottles with bright green huge caps which amuse me very much. When we got off the train in Guangzhou, Ms. Arkin was VERY relieved to find our guide, Thomas, waiting for us with a sign. He took us to lunch, which was fish, eggplant, rice, and chicken. We did not eat much… I didn’t like any of it except the rice. It was actually our first Chinese meal – we had not eaten any Chinese food in Hong Kong.

Guangzhou is quite dilapidated and polluted (I could feel my nose and eyes stinging). After lunch, Thomas and Mr. Chen (our driver) took us to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall. The outside was beautiful. The inside designs on the ceilings were interesting – they looked a little like bubble letters, only in patterns instead of letters (if that makes any sense). The shapes were very bold and rounded, but the colors were weak colors. It was an interesting combination.

After this, we went to the Chen Family Temple, which used to be an academy and is now a folk art museum. It was fabulous. It had amazing ivory carvings, sand paintings, brush paintings, and furniture. The courtyards were also beautiful. Outside street vendors were selling amazing-smelling vegetables that looked like large potatoes. I regretted not getting one. It was actually the only thing that has smelled good to me lately – I think all the cigarette smoke is affecting my sense of smell. Everyone smokes here!

After the museum, Thomas took us to a rather large store. At first we thought it was our hotel, and we were quite worried! When we came in, a man gave us a demonstration of taking the pearls out of a fresh-water oyster. We each guessed a number – there can be anywhere from 0 to 45 pearls in that size oyster (it was pretty large), and there are usually between 5 and 25. Steve was the closest, with 15 pearls. There were 14. He told us that we would get to keep the pearls if we guessed correctly, but he gave them to us anyways even though we didn’t guess correctly. They are pink J.

Then they showed us some pottery. It was very light and translucent, since it was made out of eggshells, and it was painted beautifully. However, I felt very pressured to buy things. There was a salesperson around every corner in the store, and we couldn’t leave, because Thomas was still inside. I felt like hiding under a table! Ms. Arkin wound up buying some chopsticks, and Steve bought 2 small vases. I’m sure Thomas got a cut of everything we bought. Yuck.

The Victory Hotel (it used to be the Hotel Victoria – take that, Brits!) was quite nice. We turned on the TV while we were waiting to leave for dinner, and watched the funniest Chinese sitcom! Ms. Arkin said that the acting was better in the Middle School plays.

The next morning, Thomas took us to the airport. The airport was so much easier to get through than U.S. airports. The plane ride was really short. They started to play Mr. Bean and I got really excited, but then they turned it off for landing after about 2 minutes.

Our new guide, Rico, picked us up from the airport. He is pretty young, and seems much better than Thomas. He took us to check into the Sheraton Hotel, which is mighty nice. Then we went to lunch at a nearby hotel. That was yummy! Rico didn’t sit with us… the guides never do, I guess. Then we climbed Fubo hill. Somehow it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. By the time we got down, my whole body would shake if I stood on my toes. So many stairs!!! At the bottom I had one of the amazing-smelling potatoes that I had smelled yesterday; it turned out to be a sweet potato, and it was purple inside!!

Then we went to Elephant Trunk Hill. It was pretty neat. Guilin reminds me a bit of Savannah, with parks everywhere. It is less dilapidated than Guangzhoul. The mountains are beautiful, but I wish it were less misty. It rained today.

For dinner Candice, Steve, and I went wandering into a place where nobody spoke much English. They gave us only one menu, and it took 5 minutes to get two more. Next time we won’t bother. That was our first meal without forks! I had crisp fried pork, which was a little too fatty, but pretty good. Too much fat seems to be a trend. Candice and Steve got chicken, which had some bright red bone marrow that scared Candice away. We are really feeling like we are in China now! The culture shock and language barrier are setting in.
Tonight we went to a “culture show” – the acrobatics were amazing, but one of the songs was literally Enya. Not so cultural. I also caught a little ornament that they threw out into the audience in a wedding dance – maybe that means I will be lucky!