Guangzhou

  Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Thursday, February 5, 2009

Guangzhou January 8-11, 2009
It's about time I wrote about the amazing month long trip that we had over the Chinese New Year holiday!  I will try to remember all of the interesting and funny stories from Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Philippines, and Vietnam!

Our first stop on our vacation was Guangzhou, China.  Some might ask, "What is in Guangzhou?" or "Why did you choose to go to Guangzhou?"  and here is why...  train tickets are REALLY difficult to come across in China during the Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival (same thing).  Many Chinese people travel to see family, students return to their homes, people search for jobs in different cities, and so on.  There is a lot of traveling.  In order to get a train ticket you have to know someone who works for the ticket office, wake up at midnight when they go on sale, or be really lucky.  There is no computer ordering system or easy way to go about getting these tickets.  We weren't lucky because we wanted tickets to go to Shanghai and then on to Hong Kong; but after trying for 3 days straight we just thought gave up.  We had heard of Guangzhou and knew it was really close to Hong Kong... so if worst came to worst we could take a bus or even rent a car to get from Guangzhou to Hong Kong.  

But Guangzhou was great.  It is a city of around 12 million people and was first founded in 214 BC.  It was a leader in the trade word becoming the 3rd largest city in the world at one point due to the trade with Portugal, India, Britain, and Philippines.  It was once ran by the Portuguese who were later moved to Macau, China.  Guangzhou was a key city in the revolution against the Qing Dynasty because Sun-Yet San lived in Guangzhou.  It was also taken over by the Japanese during WW2 and was rebuilt by the urban renewal projects set up by communist China.  It is now the largest city in Guangdong Province which is the wealthiest province in China.  

This is all from Wikipedia so if you want to know more, got there:)

We arrived in Guangzhou Thursday, January 8 after a 22 hour train trip the day and night before.  After a fall and winter in dirty Shijiazhuang it was a great feeling to see GREEN!  Green grass, trees, flowers...everything was green.  

At Yue Xiu Park in Guangzhou

 spent probably a day total just walking around Yuexiu Park which is the biggest park in Guangzhou just so we could soak up all the green-ness around us.  Being a farm girl it is hard to live without nature and the feeling of openness that you are so used to.  It was a refreshing experience.  

Camouflage in the park

 We also took a lot of pictures of some funny signs that are supposed to be in English!  

Funny English sign in Yue Xiu Park

Also  in Yuexiu Park is a famous sculpture called "5 Rams" or "5 Goats" I have read both translations.  Each ram or goat has sheaves of rice in the mouth and is supposed to represent how blessed the city is and how rich it is in population and in growth.

Famous statue of the 5 Goats

We also went to Guangzhou Insurrectional Martyr Cemetery Park.  

Martyr's monument

It  is basically a memorial to those who died in the insurrection led by the Communist Party of China in December 1927.   http://www.gzlsly.com/English/  The park had several statues of the young communists as well as huge memorials.

Me and a Martyr

The park was really lively for a cemetery and we enjoyed listening to some traditional Chinese singing and dancing.

Willie in the pavilion in Martyr Cemetery

Another highlight was the Sun-Yat Sen Memorial Hall.  He was a Chinese revolutionary and political leader who played a huge role in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty in 1911.

At the Sun yat-sen Memorial Hall

Fun fact: he was actually born in Hawaii (the territory of Hawaii!)  He was really influenced by the democracy of America and modeled some beliefs from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.   The memorial hall is simply a performance hall named after Sun-Yat Sen.

Willie inside the memorial Hall

It can hold thousands and is usually used for conferences and performances.  It is a beautiful traditional Chinese looking building whose roof was an architectural feet at the time.  

Guangzhou was a great city to walk around and explore.  There is a huge foreign population in Guangzhou and we stayed in a large muslim district of the city.  We enjoyed  our stay and wish we would have stayed more than 2 days.

Yue Xiu Park