Winter holiday: Xiamen, ChaoZhou, Guangzhou


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January 30th 2011
Published: February 27th 2011
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Gulangyu IslandGulangyu IslandGulangyu Island

Many westerners lived on Gulangyu in the late 19th century so remains of large colonial mansions abound, although many are in various states of disrepair. It is amazing that so much of the islands architecture and history has remained through the cultural revolution of the '70. This tiny island is less that 2 square kilometers; narrow lanes, markets, dozens of small and large guest houses, cable cars, beaches, museums, gardens and good food- it has everything you could ask for in a holiday place.
Most of our colleagues at Maple Leaf planned on hitting the beaches of southeast Asia and other tropical places, but how can we leave China without experiencing the ultimate Chinese festival?? Spring Festival (Chinese New Years) in China was the goal for this year's winter holiday. That plus our good friends from Calgary wanting to spend some of their travel time with us set the agenda for our five week winter holiday.

Richard and Buff arrived on January 13 -it was so great to spend some time with friends from home and show them where we live and work. They loved the small restaurants and local markets despite little or no heat in the -15 C weather. Good thing they brought down jackets, gloves and scarves. Little did we know that they would be still wearing them in the 3rd week of our travels! This was exam week for us, so even though we had to be at school, it was a bit more relaxed and we could spend time showing them around. Thanks to Peter also for spending the day, taking them on the train and showing them around Dalian. It was cold and windy that day though,
Piano MuseumPiano MuseumPiano Museum

Gulangyu Island is known as the piano island because people here love the piano. With it's colonial heritage and the number of churches and schools in the early 1900's, music and pianos were introduced, The enthusiasm for music spread . Many piano families have since then come into being and produced accomplished musicians. Gulangyu is famous for being home to China's largest piano museum, where we were not supposed to take pictures, but how can you resist with beauties like this?
so not quite as pleasant as it can be in milder weather.

We started our trip with a three hour flight to Xiamen, in the south-eastern province of Fujian. This small city (600,000) was lovely, especially the colonial island of Gulangyu- a five minute "free one way" ferry ride across from the mainland. We spent a couple of days exploring Gulangyu by foot. No cars are allowed on the island, so there are many walking paths to take you various parts of the island. It was a bit cool still, so long pants, hoodies or coats and scarves were still the order of the day. Most the island only a couple of kilometers across, scattered with colonial buildings, museums, beaches, gardens, markets, restaurants and beautiful scenery. We knew why it was such a popular place for Chinese tourists.

Back at Xiamen for a couple of days, we found a hotel right off the main walking/tourist street, which had lots of side streets wth markets and small restaurants specializing in various seafood. Each night was an expedition to find something we would all like and that was in our budget - averaging about $5.00 a couple for a 5
Unique pianoUnique pianoUnique piano

Gulangyu has more pianos per capita than any other city in China (perhaps even in the world)-over 350 pianos, or one in every five homes. The museum was amazing - hard to pick a favourite piano but this right angle one was sure one of the most unique.
dish meal.

Because of the fact that we couldn't read menus, we relied on other customers to help us. Sometimes we would be lucky and find a western English speaker. If not, we would walk around and look at the food on other people's tables, then show the waitress what we wanted. This, in general worked fine except on the night we thought we were ordering wonton soup (well, it looked like wontons from a distance) but it ended up being bamboo shoots and intestines. We tried the bamboo, but no one could get the nerve to try the intestines, although Richard later regretted after not at least trying it.

In Xiamen, we tried out the local bus system which worked well once you actually knew which bus to take. We saw various parks, temples, beaches and the like; it is a lovely city with a large university. We also met Yvonne, an Australian, who has been in Xiamen for 7 years tutoring English. She invited us to an amazing night food market street where we feasted on a grilled whole fish and other favourites that we knew. Here we met a Chinese friend of hers, Fiona, who
Hard WorkHard WorkHard Work

No road vehicles, motorcycles or bicycles are allowed on Gulangyu, so walking and carts are the only means of transportation. Now, battery-powered sightseeing vehicles travel around the island, but locals must use a lot of muscle power to move their supplies. We saw some hardworking construction crews using wheelbarrowfuls of concrete and cement. A lot of hard work.
teaches at the university and by coincidence has a sister in ZhuHai, the city where we planned to spend our Chinese New Years. On hearing this, she phoned her sister immediately and made plans for us to visit her when we arrived. Good to have a connection, but we were not sure if it would really work out.

Also in Xiamen we took a tour to the nearby Yong Ding county which is known for its Toulous - or large round buildings housing up to 800 people. They were initially built for protection against intruders, and are an amazingly efficient use of space and materials (built of rammed earth). Some are hundreds of years old and still lived in. Here, we were surprised to run into a friend that we know last year at Maple Leaf- Thomas, and his wife FungWei. This was the second couple that we had met- amazing for the size of the country!

One thing that so impressed us the whole trip, starting in Xiamen was how friendly and helpful the local people were. We must either look very friendly or very frail and helpless! A fellow we met here in the hotel lobby
Hakka TulouHakka TulouHakka Tulou

Set among rice, tea and tobacco fields these Tulous are houses built of rammed earth. They have been built by the Hakka people since the 15th century. Several storeys high, they are built commonly with a circular floor plan (somnetimes square) as housing for up to 800 people each. They were built for defending purposes around a central open courtyard with only one entrance and windows to the outside only above the first floor. Housing a whole clan, the houses functioned as village units and were known as “a little kingdom for the family” or “bustling small city.”
where Rick and I were waiting to ask about bus tickets in my limited Chinese, volunteered to drive us to the bus station and stood in line to buy us the tickets (well, we paid for them, he just asked for them). It turned out that he was the manager of the hotel. He also came back to the hotel the following morning when we checked out to help us sort out our bill as all the staff spoke only Chinese. They also take quite a hefty sum of cash as a deposit, so we couldn't figure out the whole thing. So nice of him.

From Xiamen, we travelled about three hours by bus to the nearby city of Chaozhou, a city of 2.5 milllion people in neighbouring Guangdong province. All the busses that we travelled on were luxurious - like tour buses, new, clean and lots of leg space, not the local ones that we were expecting - a very pleasant surprise. We had been expecting crowds like we experienced last fall in Hangzhou with Barb, but we very happy that everything was as easy as it was when travelling.

ChaoZhou was one of my favourite cities,
Interior of the TulouInterior of the TulouInterior of the Tulou

The tulou's have no roof, but interior rings are topped by tiled roofs with wide over-hanging eaves. The buildings are divided vertically between families so each family would have two or three rooms on each floor. Some tulous offer accommodation to visitors, but because they are still lived in by local people, there are few luxuries provided. This one had a couple of hundred people living in it, but was half open to tourists, who bring in a lot on money buying trinkets and drinking tea.
despite the unceremonious welcome. We hadn't booked a hotel here as there were many shown close to the bus station, and since we were arriving early in the day, had lots of time to check some out. Our plans changed quickly, though, when the bus left us on the sidewalk in the middle of the city for no explained reason (well, we wouldn't have understood even if they told us a reason!). We were not sure if it was the 'express' bus stop or a plot for the Chinese to laugh at the foreigners and see what we would do! We now had no idea where the bus station was, none of the locals that I talked to understood me and the taxi drivers were asking outrageous prices. We did eventually find our way to a nice hotel close to the old section of town that we enjoyed for the 4 nights that we stayed. Never did find the bus station until the last day when we left!

The old section of ChaoZhou has beautifully restored old city. People were quite unused to westerners, so our jaws were getting sore from smiling and saying 'hello' to so many people-
Street market foodStreet market foodStreet market food

Some of best food (well one exception in Kowloon/Hong Kong) was from street markets or small restaurants. This fish was 'barbequed' with hot coals in a pan under the food. So many of the foods are things that we have never experienced before, so often we stuck to our favourites of tofu (our new best food), eggplant (our other favourite), bai cai (seems to be any green leafy vegetable), noodle bowls, shrimp, clams, brocolli, or things that looked safe on others diner's plates!
both young and old. Our routine was to go to the nearby market for steamed buns and fruit for breakfast, tour the many temples, back alleys, old wall, memorial arches, parks, etc. then again find a small local place for supper. Looking for places to eat seemed to take up a good part of our day in each place we visited!

We spent part of one afternoon wandering the narrow streets looking at the doors to the compounds that people live in. They were beautifully decorated and each one unique and beautiful. We also saw a small museum there and decided to pay the dollar to see it, ending up with someone's young son as our guide. He must have been about 10, but had obvioiusly done this before - explaining everything in very fast Chinese, then slapping his book in his hand if we didn't move on to the next area quickly enough. He was so funny, it was worth the money to have him as our 'guide'. This place had a room where local women were doing unbelievable embroidery and we stopped to watch until our friend moved us on!


One afternoon while standing on
Won't Eat These!Won't Eat These!Won't Eat These!

I hope that you can read this list of delicacies! We actually did stay and eat in this restaurant - they had really cheap beer- and on the next pages were things that we could recognize. At least the menu was in English so we could avoid some possible disasters!
the sidewalk looking at the guidebook, a young woman approached Richard and offered help. Wanting to practice her English, 'Cindy"stayed with us for the afternooon, guided us through the temple, her favourite sidewalk snack place, offered quick phrases in 'Chaozhounese' and told us local information. How wonderful - but the best part was that she was the host of a local cooking show so she phoned the chef that she worked with and set us up for supper in the restaurant where he cooks. We had a private dining room with a flat screen tv to watch the show while we waited for supper.


Saying goodbye to Chaozhou, our next bus trip took us to Guangzhou - a large city of 10 million where the Asian games were recently held. Rick had found a great deal for a hotel, so we were once again in the heart of the city on an old colonial 'island' called Shamian Island. We really had the lap of luxury for a mere $33 a night. The most interesting thing about our hotel is that it was one of two hotels on the island that are close to the US Embassy and cater
Lost in ChaozhouLost in ChaozhouLost in Chaozhou

We thought that when the bus 'attendent' indicated that we should gather our things get ready to leave the bus, that the station was close. Wrong! Here we are trying to find the bus station!
to a flourishing business of people who have adopted Chinese children. I think we were the only white people without a Chinese baby!

We enjoyed exploring Guanhzhou on foot and by subway. One highlight was the Mausoleum of King NanYue - a tomb in the middle of the city that was only discovered in 1983 intact with king, 4 concubines, and 15 servants. The museum displayed all the artifacts from this 200B.C tomb, and as well, the original tomb was open to explore.

The other highlight in Guangzhou was a trip to nearby Shiwan home of two long 'dragon' kilns, one of which has been in use since the Ming dynasty (13-1600). Production has never stopped, the antique kiln is well preserved.

Their process of making pottery is amazing. When large wood timbers are put into the kiln, the temperature can reach to 1,300℃ (2,372 F) and in this kiln, only traditional techniques are used. Temperature is controlled by the 'masters' according to their experience, sight and touch instead of modern techniques and each piece of pottery made is unique because of the wood burning fire. The older kiln is fired up once a month and the
The DentistThe DentistThe Dentist

We actually have been to the dentist here in Kai Fa Qu and they were great. If this had been my only option though, I would have been back to Canada!
other 2-3 times a month. Each one holds up to 3000 artifacts.

In Foshan we visited an 11th century Taoist temple where we were lucky to see a dragon dance, a marshall arts display, a traditional Peking opera and had our pictures taken with a lovely set of grandparents from Hebei province who had never seen westerners before. They were travelling with their English speaking granddaughter and this was likely a hightlight of their trip!

Leaving Guangzhou, we were getting quite nervous about the crowds travelling for the holiday. Chinese New Years sees the largest migration of people in the world and we were now right in the peak travel time. Everyone travels to their home by bus, train, car, motorcycle or any means they can find. Although we had been lucky with transportation until now, we were unsure how busy the bus station would be and had not purchased tickets ahead as we had done in the other locations.

With a bit of trepidation we hailed a taxi to the bus station, not knowing if it would be minutes or hours that we would have to wait in line for tickets. Everything had run so smoothly up to this time and the busses left every 30 minutes, but we were concerned about this part of the trip. When the taxi driver heard that we wanted to go to the bus station, he saw a good opportunity and offered instead to drive us to our next destination - about 2 hours away. It didn't take any of us too long to decide that this really beat the uncertainty of the bus station, so we really went in style to ZhaoQing, our next city. Gail in particular had the front seat of the cab while Rick, Buff and Richard squeezed into the back with the metal bars between us! Despite getting lost a couple of times and having to check on more than one occasion with the local taxi drivers in ZhaoQing, he did get us to our next destination in good time.




Additional photos below
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Bus to GuangzhouBus to Guangzhou
Bus to Guangzhou

The buses that we travelled on were great- large and roomy with seats on the upper level so that you got a great view of the passing landscapes. They were never crowded despite the holiday, so we had lots of room.
ForeignersForeigners
Foreigners

This young girl approached us at the Dragon Dance to ask if she could take a picture of us with her grandparents. They were visiting also and had never seen foreigners before. It was sure a time when I wished that we could speak the language more.
Dragon KilnDragon Kiln
Dragon Kiln

This picture shows one of the Dragon Kilns. At the bottom of the photo are the two openings where wood is inserted. The kiln is the rounded shape in the back that winds its way up the slope.
Kiln MasterKiln Master
Kiln Master

This is one of the masters who is in charge of the kilns. They have trained since they were young and know every aspect of the process. Here, he was demonstrating his skill at the wheel.
Shamian Island, GuangzhouShamian Island, Guangzhou
Shamian Island, Guangzhou

This small island 'oasis' in the middle of Guangzhou is less than a kilometer in length. It was a foreign concession after the opium wars where the British and French set up warehouses. Major renovations have restored many of the buildings to their original appearance, the gardens are spectucular and feature bronze statues at every turn. It was such a peaceful place in the middle of a bustling city. And we enjoyed free cookies and coffee every night at the Tulip Bar in our hotel while we played cards.


27th February 2011

Your writings and photos are a wonderful way for us to follow your adventures. I appreciate all the time you take to update the blog, Gail, so thank-you for sharing. Richard and Buff look great. It looks like every minute is full of either uncertainty, excitment or adventure so we marvel at the outcomes of your days. It all sounds so great and positive. We are continuing a cold and snowy winter here. We are preparing our travels to Israel and Jordan in a couple weeks. Egypt is put on hold. On a side note that you would be interested in, my sister and husband who have moved to Parksville have just experienced their 4th snow strom this winter so hang on to your winter duds!! We miss you especially last week on the Hento trails in PR.
27th February 2011

Your writings and photos are a wonderful way for us to follow your adventures. I appreciate all the time you take to update the blog, Gail, so thank-you for sharing. Richard and Buff look great. It looks like every minute is full of either uncertainty, excitment or adventure so we marvel at the outcomes of your days. It all sounds so great and positive. We are continuing a cold and snowy winter here. We are preparing our travels to Israel and Jordan in a couple weeks. Egypt is put on hold. On a side note that you would be interested in, my sister and husband who have moved to Parksville have just experienced their 4th snow strom this winter so hang on to your winter duds!! We miss you especially last week on the Hento trails in PR.
6th April 2011

Imagine - found you in China!
Thought I would look you up and so glad I did. Enjoying your blog on China. Will keep reading it! Hope to hook up with you sometime. Beth

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