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Published: September 28th 2007
So the trip starts the night before. Mid Autumn Festivel is celebrated on the 26th of Sep. People stay out late, eat a lot of moon-cakes, and watch some fire-works.
First off- The moon-cake... The most revolting thing I have eaten here since I arrived! Please skip!
So Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong Province. I went there with one of the English teachers here, Dee. We got on the bus at 845AM and arrived around 1020AM. I tried to stay awake during the bus ride to look out at the scenery but I was too tired from the previous night... When we arrived we walked through the city, touring a bit. We stopped at a CD store, and you could buy any music/DVD CD you could even imagine! I bought Desperate House Wives - the first season for $3. Then we carried on to a huge Plaza called Tien Hu (a huge shopping mall)... got some lunch and then took the subway to Beijing Lu.
Beijing Lu!
Amazing place! It's a pedestrian shopping street with hundreds of boutiques selling everything you'd ever want! We went to this little ally and inside there were a bunch of
shops selling all designer clothes and accessories. Shoes, belts, wallets, bags, hand-bags, shirts, pants, and more!
After bargaining for around 10 minutes I bought a few Ralph Lauren polo-shirts for $6 each! And they are of great quality!! Probably even came out of the same factory as the ones sent abroad!! Then we went to a shop where I haggled for an Armani leather belt and reduced the price from $12 to $3. They are probably still making a huge profit ha! But its super easy. The lady did'nt want to budge so I walked out and she came after me and grabbed me by the arm... "mister mister you give me high plice and you buy" haha... So anyway if you go reduce the price by at least 2/3!
Dee bought a really sweet leather wallet, I think Lee... Also super cheap!
From there we got back on the subway, by the way, the underground system is amazing!! better yet, it is bi-lingual! And I have never seen a system so clean! Much nicer than NY or London. Ok so from Beijing Lu we carried on to Ikea! Yes thats right, Ikea of Sweden!
I
almost felt at home!! Got some stuff for my room (towels, hamper, etc)... We ate at the restaurant there!! They have Swedish food!!! Boiled potatoes and meat-balls with lingonberry! I even had a cinnamon role! Although they definately do not compare with my grandmas!
We left there at 730PM, and rushed to the near-by bus station which turned out to be only a local bus station, not a long-distance one!
So we were in trouble because the last bus back to Zhuhai leaves at 8PM. We jumped into a taxi and pointed on a map that was in Chinese for him to take us the the closest long distance bus station. Dee speaks some chinese so she made it very clear that we were in a huge hurry!
The bastard was driving slower than I could ride a bike!! And moreover he took us across the entire city! Dee started arguing with him in Chinses as I was counting the minutes on my watch thinking to myself that we will have to stay overnight. That idiot claimed he didn't know where the closer one was. Yeah right!
So we arrived at the bus station across the other
side of the city at 8:05PM... We ran to the ticket booth and luckily the last bus was only due to leave at 820. So we were able to buy our tickets and barely make it on!
All in all an amazing day! Definitely I want to go back! We wanted to go to a Market thats notorious for selling all kinds of animals like dogs and cats and monkeys for human consumption. Next time!!
So this Monday I am leaving to Beijing with 5 other TA's for 5 days! It's going to be the Chinese National Holiday and we get a little over a week off!
Hope everyone is well and safe!!
Chag sameach!!
me:-)
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Jack Yi
non-member comment
Feels like home
You're a so lucky. I wish I could visit you there.