Day 3: Guangzhou sights, shits and shirts

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Location: Guangzhou
Date: Monday 2 April 2012

No, not that type of shits. More the scary ones, as good as any theme park can offer and at half the price. More on that later...

Today was my last day of independent touring, so I checked out early and headed to the Guangzhou Opera House, which is in an interesting part of town serviced by an Automated People Mover. For ¥2 (30c) I boarded the driverless train that was built to service a corridor of the city used by the 2010 Asian Games. The train is similar to automated trams that service large airports, except that this one is in a 4km tunnel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangzhou_Metro#Zhujiang_New_Town_Automated_People_Mover_System_.28APM.29

I emerged into a scene reminiscent of post-apocalyptic movies, with empty buildings and large areas of empty, paved areas. This might have been a popular spot during the Games, but it is now unused. A similar thing happened to Sydney Olympic Park after the 2000 games.

While exploring the area, some youths said Hello to me and we had a chat and a photograph. They invited me to join them on a visit to the Guangzhou Museum, but we then found that it is closed on Mondays. I said my farewells and headed down the path to Haixinsha where the Asian Games ceremonies were held.

Visitors can enter the grounds for ¥20 ($3) but the only thing to see is a stadium, a water feature and some gardens. The area still had signs from the Games, directing Athletes and Officials in which way to go for the parades. It seems that governments the world over are able to waste money on silly events like this. Not an area worth visiting.

I then took the APM to Canton Tower, used for TV antennas and also featuring a "bubble car" ride at the top. I declined the tourist opportunity. The views across the Pearl River were very clouded. I suspect smog, but it doesn't smell bad here. Someone told me it is due to the humidity from a lot of water, but I'm not sure about that.

Next was a visit to a supermarket. I was surprised to find one under the Guangzhou East Railway Station Bus Terminal, just opposite my hotel. While the bus terminal was dark and grimy, the shopping concourse below was bright, colourful and full of pricey shops. I looked through a department store, sneaking a peek at the toys to see if they were made in China. The supermarket was hosting Australia Week, with pasta, long-life milk, chic-chip cookies and honey. I went in search of lollies and cordial for the trip but found nothing - it seems that he Chinese are thin because they can't even BUY stuff with sugar!

I then collected my bag from the hotel and took a taxi to the Tour hotel. The taxi ride is the "Oh shit!" portion of this story. We travelled along elevated expressways that weaved between buildings, even going through an elevated tunnel. The taxi never went below 70 km/h, but the cars around us were going slower. This led to many close-calls and a very scared bicycle rider. This ¥27 ($4) taxi ride was more scary fun than any amusement park would have offered.

I left my bag for a later check-in and headed to the Linhua clothing district. I wanted to buy a couple of cheap made-in-China T-shirts to wear after cycling. I found whole buildings specialising in maternity and children's wear, leather, underwear and a whole centre devoted to jeans. I soon found "The First Tunnel of Guangzhou", a 2-storey hugely-long arcade of clothing stores. However, I couldn't find any cheap t-shirts like I'd expect to see in Hong Kong markets.

Once out of the tunnel I emerged into crowds worthy of a Neal Stephenson novel. In the metro station the queues were so long to buy tokens that portable booths had been set up to sell them. The metro here uses stored value cards like Hong Kong and Singapore, or single-use tokens much like casino chips. When entering the station, I wave the token above a reader. When exiting I deposit it into a slot.

Back at the hotel I waited to meet the group as instructed at 5pm, but nobody appeared. I eventually called the tour company and was told that our tour leader was collecting people from the airport but I could go to my room. I checked-in but was given a room with a single bed. I knew I would be sharing, so went back to reception, made some calls and finally went to the room where my roommate for the trip, Lyle, had already been staying since the day before.

The whole tour group got together for dinner at a local restaurant and we introduced each other and swapped stories. There's Jane and Graham from Brisbane, Lyle from Wagga Wagga, Dimiter from Bulgaria via South Africa, Birgit from Norway via Holland and me from Sydney. Our tour leader, Frank, is from Xi'an.

Tomorrow our tour begins!

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