(Emily and Cady)Greetings to America from Em and Cady,
Well, today was very eventful to say the least. By eventful, in this case, I don't mean in an entirely good way, though it was one of those days that will probably be very funny to look back on AFTER the trip. Besides, there are good things to tell as well!
Anyways, we got up by about 7:30 for our last morning in Hong Kong. We decided to go searching for tai chi by the harbor before breakfast, though we never actually found anyone practicing tai chi. It was a gorgeous morning, the nicest we've had yet- there was no fog on the water, and the sun was even out! That made the walk by the water front absolutely beautiful and a perfect ending to our time in Hong Kong. The area around the water front is a lot like the Hollywood walk of fame- there are handprints and names of many different famous chinese actors (including Jackie Chan...and Sammo Hung!!! that one's for the Ahn family...) and a big bronze statue of Bruce Lee. Hong Kong is very glitz and glam which is probably why Ella (an exchange student who came from China last year) compared it to our Hollywood.
So, after our escapades around the harbor we were all rather famished and excited to eat. Ok, enough about that. To the train station! Train ride was pretty uneventful, nice watching out the windows... reading, journaling... and now for Emily's train thoughts:
hi everyone. i don't use caps so just bear with me. viz: this is evidence that i didn't fall asleep on the train! the train ride was really interesting. besides going backwards (more on that later) we got to see a really nice view of rural parts of china. the abject poverty of some parts was emphasized by the backdrop of developing high rises, which i thought was pretty interesting. picture rice paddies with little tin shacks and farm fields with an urban skyline as its backdrop. the dichotomy of the two was really interesting to see. the sight of the yards of cloth draped over the walls of the tin shacks was thought provoking for me because in ds and even hong kong, we haven't seen this type of life, especially one that coexists with such projected luxury (skyscrapers). ok those were just some ramblings from me and cady's bored so now we will tell you the real reason as to why we're writing and why you aren't hearing from terry (who was next in line for the blog writing) or nick (who was second in line). this is all very gov- line of succession esque.
soooooo. after the train station, nick, drew, cady, and i went through customs no problemo. then after waiting for terry and ric for some time, we realized that something was up. cady went investigate.
(back to proper capitialization). It seemed like Ric was having difficulty getting through customs, and upon further inspection it was discovered that he indeed no longer had a visa to China. The problem was actually that he was technically supposed to be in China yesterday (Hong Kong doesn't count unfortunately) and since he wasn't, the visa expired. UH OH. So Terry is trying to stay calm while the customs guy, who was actually very nice all things considered, was telling her that her husband had to return to Hong Kong and re-apply for a visa. All said and done, Ric did have to go back to Hong Kong, where I assume he is now, and we continued on into Guangzhou, which is where we are now.
hi, emily again. after the whole fiasco with the ric not being able to enter the country, we decided to go on with the day. rosie, our lovely and very knowledgable guide met us at the trainstation and in a matter of minutes i had learned that guangzhou has 9 million residents and 3 million migrant workers/foreigners, so there are 12 million people in the city altogether. however, guangzhou has a 15 million person cap, so the city is close to its limit. canton is not a city, it is a mispronounciation of the word guangdong, which is the province that guangzhou is the captial of.
Ok, cady here. Rosie took us to a traditional Chinese restaurant for lunch. The food itself was delicious. We got to eat in our own room (the foreigner zone!) and had a whole array of dishes served to us. One of which were oil fried prawns which stared up at us with beady little fried eyes and we, being the gallant adventurers that we are, gobbled them up (maybe a bit of an exaggeration...) with Viz in mind the whole time. Actually, we were quite proud of ourselves because we all tried everything that was presented to us, even those who aren't big seafood eaters (snaps for Drew!). Nick, on the other hand, wasn't feeling great. He got pretty motion sick from the train ride, and took drammamine way too late to save him, so he didn't eat anything except for soup. The meal went well, and we were all quite full when Nick began to look a little pale/green. Well, he didn't actaully appear green, but looking back now it would have been a very appropriate color for him to be. As we're finishing up- popping a few last prawns into our mouths- Nick gets sick. Bummer. Ask him about the story, it's really very funny. Don't worry parents of Nick, he's fine, and getting some sleep now.
back to emily for some info about the tour and whatnot after lunch:
ANYWAYS, we went to the dr. sun yat-sen memorial where we learned about the revolution that took place and the beginnings of the kuomintang (KMT/nationalist party). i was amazed to hear that dr. sun yat-sen was indeed pro-communist and that he was all for cooperation, unlike his successor chiang kai-shek. the memorial itself is a huge theater housed in an ornate traditional pagoda shaped building complete with a 5 meter bronze statue in front. inside, the theater was painted in only blue (representing the sky), red (people's color), and yellow (emperor's color) to symbolize the things he stood for and what he was to the people (a leader/emperor).
after visiting the memorial, we went to the chen family temple, which was a nondenominational house of worship that was donated (cady and i are suspicious that donated could be a double entendre for seized, but this is all conspiracy theory) in 1949 to the government. i didn't find it very interesting but it was gorgeous with many ornate wood, ivory, and stone carvings. i thought that it was a little too touristy for me (there were trinket shops inside the temple, which kinda ruined the ambience...it's one of our words of the week).
cady's turn
Speaking of the temple, I thought it was so beautiful, it reminded me a lot of being inside of the Alhambra in Spain. Just the attention to detail inside, combined with the sunny day made for a really nice scene. Lots of good angles- yes, I have been taking good care of the camera mom.
Alright, this has actually gotten very long. Internet is going to be the first thing in mainland China we spend RMB on! Can we just turn this entry in as our position paper? Well, that's it for now. Oh wait, impressions of Guangzhou real quick:
Contrary to Hong Kong, the urban parts of Guangzhou seem to exist because cities need to. Hong Kong is all about show and excess whereas Guangzhou is a little more laid back, and a little less chic (let's you breathe a little more... no irony intended). Old Guangzhou is very romantic (Emily thinks it's like Moulin Rouge- romantic in a grungy way with laundry hanging out the windows to dry and vines growing on the apartments) as we have decided to deem it, and pleasant to walk around. Actually, Em Drew and I went for a walk and found men selling many a live sea critter. Again, we thought of you, Viz.
OK OK OK we're done!! Much love to you all!
Well, today was very eventful to say the least. By eventful, in this case, I don't mean in an entirely good way, though it was one of those days that will probably be very funny to look back on AFTER the trip. Besides, there are good things to tell as well!
Anyways, we got up by about 7:30 for our last morning in Hong Kong. We decided to go searching for tai chi by the harbor before breakfast, though we never actually found anyone practicing tai chi. It was a gorgeous morning, the nicest we've had yet- there was no fog on the water, and the sun was even out! That made the walk by the water front absolutely beautiful and a perfect ending to our time in Hong Kong. The area around the water front is a lot like the Hollywood walk of fame- there are handprints and names of many different famous chinese actors (including Jackie Chan...and Sammo Hung!!! that one's for the Ahn family...) and a big bronze statue of Bruce Lee. Hong Kong is very glitz and glam which is probably why Ella (an exchange student who came from China last year) compared it to our Hollywood.
So, after our escapades around the harbor we were all rather famished and excited to eat. Ok, enough about that. To the train station! Train ride was pretty uneventful, nice watching out the windows... reading, journaling... and now for Emily's train thoughts:
hi everyone. i don't use caps so just bear with me. viz: this is evidence that i didn't fall asleep on the train! the train ride was really interesting. besides going backwards (more on that later) we got to see a really nice view of rural parts of china. the abject poverty of some parts was emphasized by the backdrop of developing high rises, which i thought was pretty interesting. picture rice paddies with little tin shacks and farm fields with an urban skyline as its backdrop. the dichotomy of the two was really interesting to see. the sight of the yards of cloth draped over the walls of the tin shacks was thought provoking for me because in ds and even hong kong, we haven't seen this type of life, especially one that coexists with such projected luxury (skyscrapers). ok those were just some ramblings from me and cady's bored so now we will tell you the real reason as to why we're writing and why you aren't hearing from terry (who was next in line for the blog writing) or nick (who was second in line). this is all very gov- line of succession esque.
soooooo. after the train station, nick, drew, cady, and i went through customs no problemo. then after waiting for terry and ric for some time, we realized that something was up. cady went investigate.
(back to proper capitialization). It seemed like Ric was having difficulty getting through customs, and upon further inspection it was discovered that he indeed no longer had a visa to China. The problem was actually that he was technically supposed to be in China yesterday (Hong Kong doesn't count unfortunately) and since he wasn't, the visa expired. UH OH. So Terry is trying to stay calm while the customs guy, who was actually very nice all things considered, was telling her that her husband had to return to Hong Kong and re-apply for a visa. All said and done, Ric did have to go back to Hong Kong, where I assume he is now, and we continued on into Guangzhou, which is where we are now.
hi, emily again. after the whole fiasco with the ric not being able to enter the country, we decided to go on with the day. rosie, our lovely and very knowledgable guide met us at the trainstation and in a matter of minutes i had learned that guangzhou has 9 million residents and 3 million migrant workers/foreigners, so there are 12 million people in the city altogether. however, guangzhou has a 15 million person cap, so the city is close to its limit. canton is not a city, it is a mispronounciation of the word guangdong, which is the province that guangzhou is the captial of.
Ok, cady here. Rosie took us to a traditional Chinese restaurant for lunch. The food itself was delicious. We got to eat in our own room (the foreigner zone!) and had a whole array of dishes served to us. One of which were oil fried prawns which stared up at us with beady little fried eyes and we, being the gallant adventurers that we are, gobbled them up (maybe a bit of an exaggeration...) with Viz in mind the whole time. Actually, we were quite proud of ourselves because we all tried everything that was presented to us, even those who aren't big seafood eaters (snaps for Drew!). Nick, on the other hand, wasn't feeling great. He got pretty motion sick from the train ride, and took drammamine way too late to save him, so he didn't eat anything except for soup. The meal went well, and we were all quite full when Nick began to look a little pale/green. Well, he didn't actaully appear green, but looking back now it would have been a very appropriate color for him to be. As we're finishing up- popping a few last prawns into our mouths- Nick gets sick. Bummer. Ask him about the story, it's really very funny. Don't worry parents of Nick, he's fine, and getting some sleep now.
back to emily for some info about the tour and whatnot after lunch:
ANYWAYS, we went to the dr. sun yat-sen memorial where we learned about the revolution that took place and the beginnings of the kuomintang (KMT/nationalist party). i was amazed to hear that dr. sun yat-sen was indeed pro-communist and that he was all for cooperation, unlike his successor chiang kai-shek. the memorial itself is a huge theater housed in an ornate traditional pagoda shaped building complete with a 5 meter bronze statue in front. inside, the theater was painted in only blue (representing the sky), red (people's color), and yellow (emperor's color) to symbolize the things he stood for and what he was to the people (a leader/emperor).
after visiting the memorial, we went to the chen family temple, which was a nondenominational house of worship that was donated (cady and i are suspicious that donated could be a double entendre for seized, but this is all conspiracy theory) in 1949 to the government. i didn't find it very interesting but it was gorgeous with many ornate wood, ivory, and stone carvings. i thought that it was a little too touristy for me (there were trinket shops inside the temple, which kinda ruined the ambience...it's one of our words of the week).
cady's turn
Speaking of the temple, I thought it was so beautiful, it reminded me a lot of being inside of the Alhambra in Spain. Just the attention to detail inside, combined with the sunny day made for a really nice scene. Lots of good angles- yes, I have been taking good care of the camera mom.
Alright, this has actually gotten very long. Internet is going to be the first thing in mainland China we spend RMB on! Can we just turn this entry in as our position paper? Well, that's it for now. Oh wait, impressions of Guangzhou real quick:
Contrary to Hong Kong, the urban parts of Guangzhou seem to exist because cities need to. Hong Kong is all about show and excess whereas Guangzhou is a little more laid back, and a little less chic (let's you breathe a little more... no irony intended). Old Guangzhou is very romantic (Emily thinks it's like Moulin Rouge- romantic in a grungy way with laundry hanging out the windows to dry and vines growing on the apartments) as we have decided to deem it, and pleasant to walk around. Actually, Em Drew and I went for a walk and found men selling many a live sea critter. Again, we thought of you, Viz.
OK OK OK we're done!! Much love to you all!
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