The end of a magical mystery tour through Southern China

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Day 428: Monday 31st August - An unwise move: letting my stomach do my decision making

I arrive at Guangzhou following an overnight bus journey on a sleeper bus at 6:15am. It was probably the best sleeper bus I’ve taken, but that doesn’t mean much. I slept okay but am still half asleep as I try to locate where exactly I am in the city. There are several long distance bus stations but I don’t know which one I’ve arrived at so I decide that the only course of action is to get a taxi. I get offered a fare of 40 Yuan (£3.50) which is reduced to 35 Yuan when I refuse the offer but he won’t use the meter so I know the bargain is weighted in his favour. If nothing else I’m a stubborn bugger, especially when someone is trying to get one over on me, so I walk off in no particular direction to try and find a landmark. I’m even thinking to myself that I will walk all the way to the hostel!

The thing is Guangzhou is not a small city. It is one of the world’s truly mega cities, one of the two dozen that has a population in excess of 10 million people. In China it ranks as only the fourth largest by population. It is the capital of Guangdong province, formerly known as Canton in the west. This would be the province which typifies much of what we think of China in the west. It is China’s most populous province with 95 million people despite being not much bigger than England. Guangdong has three cities with populations in excess of 10 million people, all of which are within a little over 100 kilometres of each other. Imagine that, 3 London’s side by side!! Guangdong also gave the world Cantonese cuisine, the food which is served up in many of the ‘Chinese’ restaurants throughout the world.

How many people would walk through London trying to find their hostel? Exactly, none; they would get a cab or the underground. I soon realise the folly in what I am doing and jump in a taxi with a driver who will use the meter. He drops me on Shamian Island and the ride unsurprisingly costs only 20 Yuan (£2). However, the hostel I get dropped off at has no room. Or it does, if I’m prepared to take a double for 200 Yuan (£18), which I’m not keen to do. The girl behind the desk is rather unhelpful when I ask if there are any other hostels nearby. Outside on the pavement I weigh up my options. Guangzhou isn’t awash with hostels, but I do have a flyer for another one if I can find it. I decide that if they have a dorm bed then I will stay the night, but if they too are full I’ll head on to Macau without delay. My main reason (make that only reason) for coming to Guangzhou was too sample the cuisine from the home of Cantonese food. It would be no big issue really if I can’t get a cheap bed.

I locate the other hostel on the map, manage to get directions to the metro by pointing and gesturing and discover that the hostel is only one metro stop away, and then a further 10 minute walk. They have a dorm bed although it is 60 Yuan (£5). That’s twice the most I’ve paid to date in China, but in fairness this is the first time I’ve been in a really, really big city. I take the bed and with that decision, decide to stay the day in Guangzhou. I decide to start the day with some dim sum which is what the Cantonese are famous for. I get a recommendation from the staff at the hostel and set off to find the restaurant. I find it alright but I have to wait until they have a table free. The girl on the reception in the hostel did warn me that it was likely to be busy though. I decide to wait as I’m told it will be half an hour. The half an hour turns into one hour and the long wait combined with a language barrier makes me unsure when (if ever) a table will come free, so I leave on an empty stomach.

I’m now maybe 4 hours into my stay in Guangzhou. In this time I’ve managed to find a cheap bed but not much more. I have to admit to being a bit overwhelmed with the city. Its size one, but also I’m discovering that as I’m in a city and not a tourist location, that English is not widely spoken. Casting my mind back the same could be said for Kunming at the start of my China trip also. It just happens that in the intervening period I’ve stayed in small towns and villages which were tourist attractions and used to foreign visitors.

I get back on the metro and decide to visit Qingping market. It is regarded as one of the most notorious markets in China, but I find it more weird than notorious. There are vast displays of medicinal plants and herbs, dried mushrooms, tubs of squirming turtles, fish and frogs. Then the weird: tubs of dried seahorses, lizards and snake skins for sale. I can’t find how to get to the upper floors in the market; maybe this is where the notorious items for sale are? I walk up to one of the pedestrianised shopping streets which is like any other and then I walk to Shamian Island which is only 5-10 minutes walk from where I am. Shamian Island is where Guangzhou’s colonial history is concentrated and is an oasis of calm in a busy city. It is nice stolling around the leafy neighbourhood and relaxing on one of the benches which look out to the Pearl River.

By 1pm I’ve finished all the sightseeing I want to do in Guangzhou. I spend the rest of the day relaxing back in the hostel. After a couple of busy days in Yangshuo and feeling the effects of these as well as the overnight bus journey, a quiet day suits me just fine. My frustrating day is completed by being unable to find any restaurants with decent Cantonese food around the hostel (imagine in the capital of Cantonese food!!) and then an uncompliant wireless connection which frustrates my attempts to call my Mum on her birthday.

Today marks the end of my magical mystery tour in Southern China. I didn’t know what to expect from China (hence the mystery) but from Lijiang to Yangshuo and everything in between has been magical. Tomorrow I go to Macau which governed as a Special Administrative Region will feel a bit like another country although it still is classed as China. In effect though the magic of my first visit to China finished last night when I got on the bus to Guangzhou. I made a mistake coming here, I should have travelled two hours further and gone straight to Macau. People I’d met on my travels who’d been to Guangzhou had questioned why I was coming here. Now I’m doing the same. You live and learn.

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