Dong Shan Kou, Guangzhou

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I had hoped to have an early start, but since I didn't arrive into Guangzhou late the evening before and didn't get into bed until after midnight, I was a little slow off the mark. Once sorted, I repacked my case ready for my late night departure and ordered some breakfast. I headed downstairs as the place I was staying at had a cafe on the ground floor and I ordered an iced americano as I was no longer used to the Guangdong heat since moving a bit further north. I got a nice surprise that as a guest my coffee had a slight discount. I drank my coffee and waited for my breakfast to arrive. I nearly missed the delivery bloke as he raced off up the stairs. I'm glad I saved him having to walk up all those flights of stairs. I headed up to my room to eat as outside food wasn't allowed in the cafe. I had ordered beef hor fun, a Cantonese dish of beef, veggies and wide flat rice noodles, that I really love and haven't had since I left Guangdong a few months ago. My expectations were high and unfortunately I was rather disappointed with the dish I got. The noodles were nice enough, but it was just lacking any form of spice. I'm not sure if hor fun is traditionally meant to be spicy, but I have always ordered it with a degree of spiciness. There wasn't much beef either and too much red onion on the dish.

After dragging my case down the many flights of stairs, I headed out to have a wander around Guangzhou. Since I had been to Guangzhou before and felt like I had covered the main sights. I need to find something new to see and/or do. The internet and social media in English didn't give me anything new, so I ended up making a 小红书 (xiao hong shu, literal translation little red book), which appears to be the Chinese equivalent of Pinterest. 'City Walk' is very much the in thing in China at the moment, so typing that in coupled with Guangzhou gave me quite a few different options of neighbourhoods and places to explore that I wouldn't have been able to find out about in English. I picked a couple of places that I wanted to visit. The first was Dong Shan Kou (东山口), which wasn't too far on the subway from where I was staying. The photos looked pretty good and I thought it would be worth an hour or two's exploration. I had a screen shot which gave me a rough guide for walking around the main streets in a circular way and I could always venture off from them to the back and side streets if anything interesting caught my eye.

From exiting the subway, I headed down Shuqian Street. Since this was adjacent to the subway station it was pretty busy with people and traffic. Luckily, I didn't have far to walk down this street as there wasn't really much to see on it. I headed right onto Miu Qian West Street. This street was a bit quieter and more like what I had envisioned after reading the post on Xiao Hong Shu. The street had smaller shops on it, a mix of some chain marts and indenpendent places. A few places looked like cafe and clothes shops all rolled into one. Since it was a week day it was pretty quiet, but I could imagine it being a lot busier on the weekend with young people out and about enjoying themselves. The buildings were a real mix, too. There were smaller older looking buildings of a few storeys and then some high rise apartment buildings, not the modern glitzy ones, but regular ones that would be a few years older. Some of the stores seemed to be secondhand/vintage looking places.

I walked along the main streets with covered walkways and the stores set back from the road. There were lots of cafes about. I also wandered up the side streets and alleys. While it wasn't too busy, there were plenty of people just going out their business and I loved the people watching aspects of the neighbourhood. Old men collecting cardboard which they can exchange for money, street sweepers keeping the place tidy and people working on gentrifying the buildings. I wandered down some quieter streets away from the central area. There were some great sculpture/mural type things on the walls and I loved the quietness of the place. It was quite easy to forget that you were in a city of over 18 million people. I love that you can find these little pockets of calm and quietness in China. It was a nice neighbourhood to spend some time, it didn't wow me but it had a nice charm to it.

From Dong Shan Kou, I took the subway to the nearest Genki Sushi. The mall was a fancyish one and spread out over several layers and different sections, so it took me a while to find the place. In fact, I walked past it the first time and it didn't register in my brain until I was a few stores further along as the signage and layout were different to the other places I had been previously. The restaurant was pretty quiet, but not totally dead. Since it was the tail end of lunchtime, there wasn't a lot of options going around on the conveyor belt. I did manage to snag a couple of plates of sushi that I like; shrimp tempura roll and an inari tuna gunkan. Both were yummy. Since the options were limited, I ordered a lot more from the menu. I love that I can just scan the QR code, order and it arrives at my table. I just wish they were quicker at making them. I don't understand why they are so slow, when it isn't busy. I got some takoyaki because I love them and they always hit the spot. The Genki Roll, which is filled with tempura soft shell crab and cucumber and topped with salmon. Always delicious and I love the crunchiness of the filling which contrasts well with the smoothness of the rice and salmon. I also had some basic salmon sushi and eel with teriyaki sauce, and a tuna and cream cheese roll, some of my regular go tos. I left the restaurant feeling happy and full.

I had seen a great place to view the CBD and Canton Tower from, but from looking at my map app, it was too far away to get to, so that would have to be saved for a future trip to Guangzhou. The city is just so big and sometimes the subway is just too time consuming with the need to change lines. Instead since I was pretty much in the CBD and closeish to the Canton Tower. I headed across to the park, where I could get a better view of it. I really liked the area opposite the mall that I walked through as it felt really vibrant and alive. There were lots of people out and about enjoying the later afternoon and early evening. Getting into the park area in front of the tower was a bit of a mish, as I was trying to avoid walking through (and up and down all the stairs) of the mall/food court attached to it. This meant I ended up on the wrong side of the road encircling the park, but I managed to make my way back over. I think I should have just done the steps as it would have probably been less effort. The park was quite nice, nothing special, but there seemed to be a mix of locals and tourists using it. The Canton Tower looked okay, a bit drab as the sky was so grey. It looks amazing at night all lit up, but was rather disappointing today. I think bright blue skies would have made it better. After my walk through the park, I headed back to my guesthouse for a coffee and to collect my luggage. Then it was onto the subway to the airport, ready for the next part of my travels.

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