Day 2: Guangzhou back street shopping & circus

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Location: Guangzhou
Date:Sunday 1 April 2012

Today I had the choice of exploring more of the city or visiting the Chimelong Paradise theme park. It's actually has a Water Park, Amusement Park, Circus and Safari. The circus got good reviews on TripAdvisor and everyone knows the Chinese are good at acrobatics. But, it's not everyday I get to explore a new city, so I decided to skip the amusement park, tour the city and then go to the circus. Besides, those roller coasters look nasty!

As with yesterday, I started with a FaceTime call back home and a good, filling breakfast. I skipped all the Western food and ate Asian - of course!

I went to the Hotel concierge and enquired which bus would take me down to the Pearl River shopping area. They couldn't understand why I'd like to take the bus instead of the subway and they spent quite a bit of time trying to convince me otherwise! Once on the bus, I recognised quite a few areas from the day before but the bus soon entered new roads so I checked my location on the iPhone, only to discover that it wasn't working too well. I kept getting a "PDP Authentication Error" so I had little idea where I was.

Out the window, however, I saw an area with many small shops and chose to investigate. It turned out to be a Mecca for electronic goods, ranging from switches to cables, stereos to CDs. There were dense, underground corridors filled with stalls each no bigger than a single bed. I have no idea how they get enough business, but I have noticed very few large stores in the city. While in Australia we would go to Dick Smith or JB-HiFi for electronic goods, here it seems people head to the closest electronics district and support small businesses. I still haven't managed to find a supermarket anywhere.

I bought some goodies for the children, which included a bit of haggling over a used iPod and Apple earphones.I got some good torches with a price so cheap it didn't deserve any bargaining. This was much more fun than going to an amusement park! I also bought some toilet paper and baby wipes for the cycling part of the trip - the former for convenience, the later in case there is a long disagreement between my mouth and bottom regarding the local food we'll be eating!

I followed alleyway into alleyway and got disoriented. The number and variety of shops was quite amazing. I also saw Water Vending Machines that provide clean water for locals. I guess either not everyone has water, or the water supply isn't good enough quality, even in my hotel room it says not to drink the tap water. I've read in The Economist how supplying water has even become a popular small business. On the topic of water, I visited a public toilet and was interested to see squat toilets - without doors! I guess when you live in a city with this many people, many forms of privacy are hard to maintain.

I walked many blocks down to the River, which was totally uninspiring. So I made my way to Beijing Road where I found a pedestrian mall with expensive shops and designer labels. I found an Apple distributor where I used the Internet to research my phone problem and send some emails. It turned out that I had insufficient credit because my phone plan was set to start in April and I started using it too early. Great online service from 3G Solutions who immediately helped me fix things.

Having spent about 7 hours strolling the streets, my feet were tired and I headed for the evening circus. The trains were once again extremely crowded, similar to a Tokyo subway. Fortunately one train came along that was totally empty and it was filled within about 15 seconds. People normally push to get on while people are still getting off. It's not very polite, but it is fast and efficient!

I arrived at the circus an hour early due to online advice about getting a good seat, but the audience was only half filled. I now know why they call it an International Circus - all the skilled performers were foreigners, with Chinese only looking pretty in parades. It was an impressive show, with 80-100 performers. Not quite a Cirque du Soleil but quite entertaining. I can see the advantage of having it next to a Safari Park because the show featured elephants, horses, swans, pelicans, zebras, giraffes, performing bears, birds, a lion, a tiger and a couple of monkeys. I'm probably getting older because, while watching the elephants and bears perform, I couldn't help thinking that it is probably cruel to the animals. The performing horses, however, seemed to be having an enjoyable time of it!

At the end of the show I let the crowd depart and followed about 10 minutes behind, only to find that all the busses had departed. After waiting for a while I grabbed a taxi and had a difficult time asking him to take me to the nearby subway station. His English was as non-existent as my Chinese, so we had a stalemate until I pulled out the iPad and showed a subway map. He understood instantly. Thank you, Steve Jobs and Dropbox!

I passed a KFC on the way back to the hotel and wanted a nice-looking fruit drink that was advertised in the window. I didn't know how to ask for it by name, so I borrowed the taxi idea and took a picture of it on my iPhone, showing it to the staff member behind the counter. "Oh," she said. "We don't have that at the moment." It seems that many of the young people know English pretty well!

Walking back to my hotel through the Guangzhou East Railway Station I saw people bedding down for the night. I assume they have an early train to catch and it's easier to sleep at the station than get here in the morning.

So, that's another day. Tomorrow evening I begin my organised tour, with a dinner and change of hotel. I'm sort of sad to see my Guangzhou time end, but I've still got time tomorrow to explore more of the city.

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