last part- guangzhou

ok guangzhou will not be a city i talk with fondness. i wonder whether it is because i had landed at the wrong time in this developed city. it was tuanwu festival on 16 june and the whole country was on holiday. so you can imagine the crowd lah everywhere i went.

another reason why i don't like guangzhou is its people. urrghhh!!! i have never met ruder ppl that those here. even those in hk give you service with a smile and are ok with conversation and questions. those in guangzhou serve you with poker face and their mouth is only programmed to give a maximum of 5 word utterances at one time. even the taxi driver refused to talk more. i hate this city!!!

the only positive thing about the city is how cheap clothes are....well, i am not talking about branded stuff here. i am talking about made in china clothes and they are really dirt cheap. where can you find blouses for rmb25?? polo t-shirt for rmb19?? no wonder we see people leaving guangzhou airport with overweight luggage and having to pay fine.

so we arrived on 15 june, night and took a cab from the airport to our hotel which is located at the end of beijing lu, a long pedestrian street. very very convenient indeed.

the hotel, or service apartment is grand continental. the bed is better here.

there is microwave oven too.

again, see-through bathroom.

we went out looking for some snacks and to check out beijing lu before calling it a night.
and we found these dumplings, curry fishball and gwai nin kou in coconut milk. don't like the coconut milk. the dumplings were only so-so. not a good meal.
beijing lu.
they have instant lottery kiosk and we also tried one. very easy, just scratch all the boxes on the card and see whether any match the small ones on the left hand side. well, we lost rmb5.

the next morning, it was a full day of sight-seeing in guangzhou. we walked till our feet could not take it anymore. and oh the air here....it was so humid that i could slice the air with a knife. well, better than rain though i guess.

dim sum at four season restaurant adjacent to the service apartment. yummy!! very delicious.
rmb150 and a teapot of pu er tea.

took the metro to yuexiu park. it was only rmb2 for a single journey on the metro. cheap hor???
we did not have to pay to enter the park but gosh, the crowd!!! they love their parks here.

walls left from ming dynasty era......if i remember correctly.

this is the attraction in the park. statue of the five ramses. can't remember its significance. they are the mascots of the soon to be held asian games in guangzhou too.
we paid rmb10 for a buggy ride all the way to the hill to see the statue. and boy, we were happy to pay that amount because it was uphill climb winding all the way from the entrance.

next, we decided to walk to sun-yatsen monument hall because the distance on the map was not that far. big mistake! it was damn far and we had to stop many times for directions. menyesal!!
rmb10 to enter the hall.



then we walked again to liurong road to see liurong temple. i think it is one of the oldest temples here. it means six banyan temple i think.


lunch time.....although i did not really feel hungry because of the hot and humid weather. i only wanted something cold.
we saw this shop on liurong road and there were many customers, so we entered too.
i ordered mix chee cheong fun. it was good. this meal costs me rmb9 only. cheap hor?

then walked again to metro station. decided to go to shamian island, an islet on the pearl river that runs through guangzhou city. the island is known for its colonial style architecture but unfortunately, many are under renovation. so you see more scaffoldings.
the bridge that will get you to the islet.

we saw many brides and grooms taking their bridal photos here. i think this is one of the popular places in guangzhou.

this island also has many bronze statues.



aaa...the kind of poses you can play with the statues. ;P

time to go to the next destination- shang jiu lu, a pedestrian street known for all its shops, mosty clothing stores. yes, this is the place for you to get cheap clothes and every store had sale!!! they were shouting their prices, crowd was so thick that you had to push and jostle and elbow your way in and out. what an experience.

and the place was also under renovation. scaffolding again. so inconvenient.

makan time and we chose their fast food restaurant called 'kungfu'.
they serve rice and chicken dishes and vege. the complete set above cost rmb62. there was a bowl of soup too. ain't bad. 4 of us shared the set above.

no more walking after the meal because we wanted to get to tianzi pier for a cruise on pearl river.
our ride cost rmb68 because it was a fully air-conditioned boat and they gave you a fruit platter as well. the ride took about 75 mins. the legs screamed thank you for the rest!
you can also pay rmb138 if you want buffet dinner included.

the different kinds of boats for the cruise. it is one of the more popular activities in the evening for tourists.
the end of all sight-seeing!!! was so glad to call it a night.
but needed to grab something to fill the stomach.
went to a char chaan teng, a chinese cafe basically and had instant noodles with bacon and ham and cheese sauce. not a big bowl, so ngam ngam before heading back to the hotel to pack.

oh what a trip. so scroll all the way down and till the next page to get all the photos on the complete trip to guilin too.

the end of my post for this week.

time to do another packing now- back to work on monday. haiz.......