Day 16: Guangzhou
Trip Start
Apr 16, 2009
1
10
24
Trip End
May 31, 2009
This is my third day here in Guangzhou, capital city of Guangdong. Loading up pictures on this blog is a bit more tedious, thus I canīt share them at the moment. Guangzhou is a big city, pretty much business/trade/industry focused, with a few charms in smaller lanes and a handful of sights to visit. Day by day, you can experience the dust/smog above the city which just underlines its noisy, busy and traffic congested character. On my first day, I experienced the western part of GZ by walking around the quite nice Yuexiu park with its Zhenhai Tower and Five Rams Statue as major sights, then paid a visit to the must-see mausoleum of the second Nanyue King, before entering the world of the back lanes around the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees and the oldest temple around, the Guangxiao temple. In the evening, Eduardo - my host here in GZ, a Spaniard living in GZ for seven months - myself and another acquaintance, Vivi - a local girl having been studied recently at the University of Florida - went out for dinner to a great Tibetian place, with Lhasa Ice beer, local dishes, and traditional dances. Yesterday then, I met Yating (she gave herself the lovely name "Sunny") with who I had an awesome day in GZ. We discovered back lanes, quiet places, enjoyed local food and strolled around shopping streets, Shamian Island and the Sun Yatsen University campus. Sunny, who has been to Austria before and loved the country and her experiences with locals there, was a great guide during the day, showing me places that a visitor normally would not find, and helped enjoy the local food which would be inaccessible without language skills otherwise. In the evening, Eduardo, me and further friends from Eduardo spent the night in some clubs, thus experiencing the specific local partying culture.
