Guangzhou - The more I see, the less I know

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This blink of an eye is for Deb.

It’s strange but the more I am in this country, the more I see and the less I know what to write and what I do write seems trivial and is only scratching the surface of this complex country and its people.

I can tell you that I visited the Liu Rong Si (6 Banyun Tree Temple) and when I climbed the 187ft pagoda (built in 1097) it definitely moved in the breeze when I was at the top and now I have a bit of a fear of going up that kind of building. But, I can’t tell you about any of the people or the deeply engrained history that has passed through the pagoda in the 911 years since it was built. I can also show you images of the Banyun tree in the court yard that has grown around the rocks at its base which tells me it has been there through years of change but I have no idea of what changes. I can show you photos of the temples but these won’t make you aware of the heady scent of the incense burning in the incense burners or the sound of the monks chanting and I feel that my experience is too fleeting and shallow to mention and I can’t ever do it justice.

I can, however, tell you that I’ve walked the length of Qing Ping market and not seen dog or cat meat for sale, just endless puppies and kittens and tea, herbs, piles of dried sea horses, frogs and bugs. I’ve also seen men selling tigers paws hacked off with its skin peeled off to reveal tendons and the claws at the ends but I can’t understand it. So I wonder why I mention telling you these things?

I did meet the most lovely flower seller with whom I sat and tried to talk Mandarin with. I took her photo with the Polaroid and gave it to her. She couldn’t believe her own image. I was entranced by her hands holding the photo. These real moments, I can tell you about with enthusiasm because I lived it. I can also tell you that as I walked through the streets around the clothing wholesalers, the men collecting clothes bought them by the weight, not by counted garments. All of the clothes were sectioned, sewn into huge bags and weighed before being bought. The huge sacks are stacked up and wait in line, with the guys often sleeping on top, to be collected by huge trucks and taken away. The market is alive whereby the bigger vehicles reign over cars, bikes and people. There is no real order - you just get your stuff, weigh it, pay for it, get it packed and out of there as quickly as possible. It must take all day to sort this collection and I can tell the men work really hard often hauling their purchases away on trollys.

I can also tell you that we’ve mastered the underground here and its quick, cheap, easy, clean and always holds a possible story and that the ferry we catch from our side of the river to the Shamian side costs 5 jiao - 4pence. The short boat ride is always teaming with life both inside and out. Everyone uses it from the fishermen to the locals and us. Every time we ride this boat, we see another story and different life that we can never understand or begin to know so I don’t know what to say. When we get off the boat, there is a mass exodus in true Chinese style and everyone heads up the gangway to the bank. No one helps anyone else and often men pull large heavy loads that either get stuck or are just too heavy but everyone walks around them and they struggle on their own - these things I can’t understand.

The walkway from the ferry weaves in between the fish market and along the river side which parts Shamian Island from the mainland. On Shamian, I can say that we have seen American couples with their newly adopted babies. This is the official place for the Americans to come to collect their long awaited baby and they all stay in the White Swan Hotel. All of the babies have been abandoned and 99% are girls and all for reasons that we can never comprehend -either through the one child policy or for other reasons. Their abandonment notices have been displayed and the lucky ones are adopted. I know this but how can I express the joy that these couples must feel at seeing and holding their newly adopted daughter for the first time and that it is a new beginning for them and neither can I know or ever understand the heartache that the mother must have gone through before letting her baby daughter go. So I scratch the surface again and see the happiness but can never feel the depth of life and I wonder if there will be a surge of young Chinese Americans returning to their home land in the future to find some of their Chinese roots.

Also, Shamian is teaming with brides and grooms at the weekends and less so in the week. The first hour I stepped onto the island I saw 3 happy couples posing in all of their finery for their glorious technicolour pre wedding photo albums that not only resemble nothing of real life but can create any fantasy locked in those images to see for ever. However fake it all looks, I never tire of seeing the wide eyed brides. I don’t know their stories but I can see their hope and excitement. Every city we go into specialises in this type of wedding photography and always in the city centres, there are huge marquees set up with model brides walking the cat walk and inside endless wide eyed couples leafing through the piles of wedding albums to pick their kind of styles and sign up to contracts. They sign up to the company to make them too look a million dollars and believe me, they can do it. On the photo shoot the bride to be is accompanied by a full make up team and full set of lighting and camera men with endless cameras. In the most recent Guangzhou magazine, there is a 2 page article on how to arrange your very own pre wedding album photo shoot and how much it costs - as little as 1,500 Yuan (£125) to as much as 12,000 Yuan (£991) which is a lot of money here.

I can mention that I have seen 6 blind people in a crocodile line all following the leader by holding the person in front’s left shoulder. The one on front extends a white stick to either side and ahead. I marvel at their ingenuity and control to not only manage these pavements and roads but to survive it all. I take a deep breath and am humbled by the sight and think of how they manage. The simple act of walking down the pavement and across the road is a total minefield of possible disaster which even the fully sighted have to be 100% aware of to survive the pot holes, 3ft curb drops, protruding pipes, broken tile edges and fallen away areas. Crossing the road would be unimaginable for me because there are no rules or laws and cars, buses and vehicles push forward through the crossing pedestrians and I wonder how the blind manage in this madness. As they pass, I step back from their sticks and feel great admiration and I am humbled by their abilities but this doesn’t help them and I only look but can never know or understand.

I can tell you about the married couple who live in the toilet block opposite to the hostel. Everyday she hand washes her clothes and hangs them out on a make shift line. All day she tends to the toilet blocks keeping them clean and in working order. Her and her husband live in the sections between the toilets. As my days pass in Guangzhou, their life unfolds before my eyes. In the evenings, around 5pm, she folds and takes in the washing, removes the temporary lines, sets an old wooden box onto the steps of the toilets, places her tv on top of the box and prepares and makes dinner. Two chairs are placed opposite the tv with the pavement in between, the table is laid and the dinner brought out. The couple put signs up to say the loos are closed, then watch tv whilst eating dinner. This is all carried out at dusk and neighbours arrive or stop for a chat and passers by watch tv, as if dropping into their house but it is all happening on the pavement. By 10pm, they have packed everything up and gone to bed. By 7am the next morning, her washing is already blowing on the makeshift line and the breakfast is being prepared and a new day starts.

In China, no one queues, no one really helps anyone else, no one gives their seat up on crowded buses or metros for the elderly or pregnant, everyone pushes and squeezes in to tiny lifts, train carriages, buses and escalators but I realise that I know nothing of the ways or customs and development of this country. They have moved through hard times to this outwardly prosperous one, and who am I to question queuing, helping and chivalry? Every corner that I look tells me a little more about this country and its resourceful people. Every street and market, shopping plaza, underground train journey, ferry boat ride, childless couple and morning exercising group tell me a story and I look to see but find there is too much and just keep scratching before moving on.

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Photos

Waiting with the clothes
Outside the clothes wholesale market, waiting to be collected.

A fisherman's night catch
for sale at the side of the real fish market

Comments

[Detailed observation.]

In China, no one queues, no one really helps anyone else, no one gives their seat up on crowded buses or metros for the elderly or pregnant ---------------------------------------------- In some places, it's true. In some places, it is not true. Usually in big cities, it seems better. I am in Dalian, I have ever helped others in bus and also seen a lot of people doing this. I do know how about Guangzhou. I think, in generally, this is dependent on the education. However, it is impossible for China to give everyone high education now. Just step by step. Enjoy China!

[Billy]

changes need time to come true.
" 'In China, no one queues, no one really helps anyone else, no one gives their seat up on crowded buses or metros for the elderly or pregnant ---------------------------------------------- ' In some places, it's true. In some places, it is not true. Usually in big cities, it seems better. I think, in generally, this is dependent on the education. However, it is impossible for China to give everyone high education now. Just step by step. Enjoy China! " That's what I want to say.