The Cantonese Food Experiment.

We were picked up from the border of HK / China by friends and travelled to the industrial area of Guangzhou were we where to spend a few days at a zipper factory belonging to friends from Australia. As is customary apparently in the region we were taken out to eat late at night. The restuarants here can cater for over 1000 people and the foyers look more like exotic pet shops than an eatery. The Cantonese have a way to make everything edible and delicious. They could even make lawn clippings taste like heaven and probably do.
The factory we stayed at as previously mentioned made zippers. Not just assembled zippers but did everything from weave the cloth to smelt and cast the fittings. It employed about 150 people and churned out tens of thousands of zippers a day. (HK Zip).

The staff were mainly from the provinces and therefore slept onsite. A kitchen provided food and a wage of around 100 a month was good income for these workers. The nightly game of basketball was hectic although being about a foot taller and 20kg heavier made me the giant in the team, if only I could shoot baskets. Cantonese people in general are smaller people than I have met throughout SE Asia and average weight would be under 60kg's for everyone and not many people taller than 5' 6".

The next few days were more eating out, for breakfast, lunch, late dinner, supper around 11pm. 6 or 7 courses make up each meal and after a few days I was trying to avoid the mandatory meals. Not because the food was bad but if I went along I would find myself trying some new delicious dish and then eating till bloated again. I thought at times I had eaten so much that food was going to explode out my ears, but as they say it is some of the finest cuisine on the planet.

We went to the families tomb for the sweeping ceremony. The tomb is cleaned down, painted and food offered to past ancestors. It is respect for parents and those whom come before them and a chance to get the family together for, you guessed it, more eating! The fireworks are the most spectacular part of the ceremony as just before departure each family will ignite approx 3 - 4 kilo's of penny crackers that explode along a chain up to a final 1kg black powder charge at the top. Imagine hundreds and hundreds of families doing this over the course of the day and you have something that makes Iraq seem peaceful. It was insane as people on surrounding tombs lit there wares with no warning and people scattered everywhere to escape the explosions. Gotta admit though I loved it.

After several more restuarants and tours through the markets we organised our flights to Beijing. We then travelled into the city to stay with relatives in the city of Guangzhou proper. We spent the days touring the sites and eating out more and at this point I had not seen another westerner in 6 days. I was the only Guilo (white man) for miles it appeared as I suppose not many travellers seek Guangzhou as a destination unless for business. Virtually no-one spoke english and all maps and signs were in Chinese. We managed though to navigate the city and transport system with no ability to read chinese and some Cantonese language and a chinese map. A friendly city but dont expect people to want to comunicate in English as, after all you are in China and they have done very well without english for a few thousand years.

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Part of trip: China '09

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