Guangzhou

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China,

What do we expect, its a communist country with a Capitalist economy!!! It has the fastest growing economy in the world and it has one of the biggest economies in the world. But its a third world country, or is it????

When leaving Hong Kong, my main question was how much influence has Britain had over HK in its 100 year reign, and visiting China for the next 60 days will hopefully answer that.

Left Hong Kong to enter China by bus, and we were the only westerners on board, and by what I heard the only English speaking people, scary. Hopped off the bus, checked out of HK, hopped back on the bus, drove 200m, hopped off the bus with all our luggage, checked into China(took about 15 mins). Hopped on the bus(last ones on), while the local Chinese were waiting for us!!!

Then we drove to Guangzhou, passed many hotels, advertising boards, all with neon lights, passed many building/ construction sites on the way(this place is advancing fast). Arrived at the bus station in Guangzhou 2 hours after leaving HK. At the bus station no-one spoke English, so we popped into the local 5 star hotel and they organised a cab for us to our destination( thank god for that)

Arrived at our hostel (10 pound a night), it was amazing, large room, big double bed, clean white sheets and duvet, big bathroom, hot shower in a unit!!!, towels, flannels, soap, shampoo, toilet paper( hope the rest of Chinese hostels are like this, and at this price). Downstairs has a common room, internet access, 2 washing machines, its so organised for travellers, and has a really helpful crew behind reception, who spoke excellent English!!!!
Good first impressions.

Next 3 days we travelled around Guangzhou by their efficient underground, again clean and fast. We visited many temples( cool names such as Temple of 6 Banyan Trees, Temple of the 5 Immortals) these temples are centuries old and grand in size and very busy, but with no hassle. Saw many statues, visited a church on Easter Sunday, and it was packed with Christians( African), walked around the many shopping streets, booked our bus tickets at the local bus stand(with a lot of help from our Mandarin phrase book, with the Mandarin words printed next to the English word)so you just point to the words.

Also visited 2 parks, the first, a massive park, had a statute of 5 rams(the origins of the city), a staduim inside, towers, ponds and lakes. The locals were playing badminton, cards, riding pedaloes, a real family atmoshere. We watched and indulged in Ice creams!!!!

Then we popped over the road, to another park(orchid), walked around, Becks had a pot of tea, while I grabbed a quick 40 winks, sitting in the verandah of a teahouse, next to a small pond, containing many large Choi carp. For a city of 10 million or so, these parks are a great places to relax and enjoy life!!!


Also this place is pretty trendy(not as trendy or as affulent as HK), but the youth have trendy hair styles, they go clubbing, partying(karoke bars), dress Western, for a communist country there are not many visible constraints upon them that I can see!!!! But this is our first city!!! However you can't read BBC news on the internet, and all channels on satelite tv are Chinese(pointless having a tv, as we can't understand anything).
Becks and I have our haircuts for under 10 for us both, and you get 3 hair washes(lasts 20 mins), really relaxing, and you get your hair washed after the cut, and then they style it!!!!!! We both feel alot more fashionable, and are conscious that China has a lot of fashion and style, unlike our previous destination, where any old dirty clothing goes!!!!


This place is a good place to start, next Guilin, this place is very famous for its scenery!!!!

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Comments

[blonk]

English TV
CCTV 8 in Guangzhou is english speaking. Although I found all the advertisments are in Cantonese, so if you skip past the channel whilst the ads are on you miss the english programmes.