美麗的中國!!!

Well we certainly had a crash course on Chinese language, culture and history over the past week. Guangzhou hit us like a tonne of bricks... we arrived into the largest city we have been to this year (a staggering 13 million people!!) to a humongous smoggy overcast skyline and no English to be found...anywhere! Somehow, we found our way onto a local bus which ended up dropping us at a famous roundabout, one of the only recognizable landmarks in our guidebook. We found out quickly that much of the next two months would depend on good luck, patience & universal sign language (silly gestures... basically a long & drawn out game of charades)!!

We braved the Guangzhou subway system & we able to find our way around the city relatively easily. We ended up staying at a youth hostel on Shamian Island (surrounded by the Pearl River) in the heart of Guangzhou... really beautiful. We noticed immediately the abundance of American couples pushing or holding a Chinese child on this Island... we soon found out that the American embassy is on the island & couples wanting to adopt Chinese children have to live for a couple of months in Guangzhou to prove that they are willing to embrace some of the Child's native culture! Consequently, the island has a Starbucks.. ha ha!!!

We filled several days in the mega city by exploring the city streets and riverfront by foot, trying out "real" Chinese food, visiting a museum and going to the huge Xuexiu park. While in the park, we couldn't resist visiting it's number one attraction - the Five Celestial Ram Statue... Apparently, the legend goes that once upon a time five celestial beings in colorful robes, each riding five-coloured goats brought grain to the starving city of Guangzhou. Their gift was a blessing from the gods which meant Guangzhou would be free from famine forevermore... We thought the statue was quite strange, but that didn't stop hoards of Chinese tourists from having their pictures taken in front of it (we couldn't resist either). For some reason, the Chinese love to make a "peace sign" when posing for pictures, not to symbolize its meaning from the 60s, but to imitate bunny ears to make the picture more "cutsie"... Actually, China has been a bit of an ego trip as everyone thinks we are the most beautiful people in the world! Consequently, we have had dozens of requests for our picture (sometimes we are even encouraged to make bunny ears in their photos!). Makes you wonder what will happen to all those photos of us out there, somewhere... living room walls? Computer screen savers?? Or erased after a good joke with friends back home!!

Our first bus ride was quite an adventure! The bus station, as to be expected, had no English & no English speakers. We relied on our phrasebook, our horrible pronunciation and the kindness of locals to get onto the correct bus. We were told to get off the bus in sign language, to a dark deserted parking lot which we were assured (again in sign) was the Huizhou bus station. As the bus drove away and we took stock of where we were, we

suddenly realized that a) we weren't at the main bus station & we didn't know where we were. b) we could ask where we were. c) we couldn't tell anyone where we were going... Yikes. In the end, we found a phone & called Mer's friend (whom we were going to visit) who was able to communicate in Mandarin with the people in the parking lot where to take us. Seconds later, we were forced to trust that one of the men was going to take us to the right place in his car... Needless to say we were so happy to see Kim's smiling face twenty minutes later!!!

Kim has been teaching English in Huizhou for nearly ten months. It was amazing to see her and to have a bonafide guide to show the ropes. She taught us what to eat, how to order, the drinking customs and even the local game of dice that is played in pubs. Because she studied Anthropology, she was also able to give us tonnes of unbiased information that she had gathered about Chinese culture. Kim and her good friend Rebecca took us out to try a local 'hot pot' meal on the street. Basically, a large pot of boiling broth is set in the centre of the table over a propane flame. You choose sqweres of raw ingredients (such as lettuce, several types of mushrooms, noodles, tofu, meat, tree fungas, seaweed, you name it) and cook them in the broth to share with everyone! Delicious and a really cool, social way to eat!!!

All in all we had a fabulous time in Huizhou. We drank traditional tea, hiked to a local lake, met all of Kim's friends and colleagues, visited her school and spent lots of time walking along the river and getting to know the city. For $7 Mer even indulged with Kim & Rebecca to a two hour Chinese massage... ahhh.... At night, we went out to several bars including "rave party" where we danced and gambayed (cheers where you chug a small glass of beer) over and over again. We were sad to say goodbye, but excited to be launched out on our own again to explore more of this incredible and complex country!!!

ps. More pictures to come to this update soon!!!

pss. The title of this entry means "Beautiful China" in traditional Chinese characters

Apr 16, 2008

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