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Published: July 17th 2006
Motherland, motherland, what to say here. I believe that pictures speak a thousand words, so I will let them speak for themselves this time. Although, I do have a few thoughts in this case.
One of my good friends asked me a good question. How does it feel to be in the country that determines my ethnicity in Canada? I thought I would feel out of place, away from home, lost, as a stranger in a land that is suppose to be familiar, however, I felt the complete opposite. In Zhaoqing, the area spoke Cantonese with an accent that is very similar to my Grandma's southern province rural country accent.
I also want to state that this weekend has helped me realize that being "Chinese" is very much like the term being "Canadian". It's a smorgasboard of people living here and the word Chinese encompasses so many different tribes and groups. There are >200 minority groups in China, all with their own customs, dialects and traditions. There are also 4 major minority groups, the Han, Tibetans, Mongolians and the people who live in north western China (I don't remember their title). Although I felt comfortable in the area I
Giant Buddha
If only I ate more rice.was in (southern Canton China), I'm sure this feeling is sure to change throughout my travels into different provinces and cultures.
I was quite comfortable being in the small sliver of China that I visited this past weekend. The scenery was nothing short of stunning, the people nothing short of friendly (too friendly at times, for instance, the 12am "Masssagie, Masssagie" calls from the women of the night. In fact, I think the most interesting part was that while doing some shopping at the local markets, the business lady approached me and asked me if I was a student, showing my foreign teachers around because I was speaking in Cantonese to her and english to my friends. I found it quite amusing because I was sure that my Cantonese was heavily accented with Canadian.
Although the first day, the heat was unbearable at 37C, visiting the imperial pagodas, the other days were wet and lovely. The humidity and the rain created surreal scenery while we were at the Dinghu mountains (where Sun Yat Tze loved to swim).
We visited Pagodas, a village (remind me to speak more about development tourism), as well as a famous mountain (Dinghu)
600 Year Old Village
The majority of this village was abandoned, but there were still inhabitants and the Seven Star Crag.
I don't really know what else to say. It's a huge contrast from Hong Kong and one can tell that we were in a developing zone, although I'm sure it's one of the well developed zones in China at the current moment. Once again, I've generalized my generalization of my very limited stay in China. Please if you have any questions, let me know and I can provide you with my views (I'll try to be as objective and as critical as possible) from this weekend.
Until then, enjoy the pictures!
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Peter
non-member comment
Uyghirs
I so agree. I been to China a number of times in the past 2 years so much that my coworkers think I have a family back there. The reality is that different parts of China is even more different parts of Europe. The people in Northwest China in the Xingjing province are call the Uyghers. They don't even look "Chinese". If you didn't know better, you think that you were in Pakistan. If you do get a chance, go to Kashgar (not Urumqi) to get a "real experience". Yeah, my family is from Guandong but I grew up in the States so I know exactly what you mean.