Tag Archives: Guangzhou

Part 2: You shouldn’t go to Zhuhai but pay the ancient Guangzhou a visit

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The next day I got up very early and went to Zhuhai. Let me say you a thing about Zhuhai: don’t waste your time there!

Zhuhai is definitely NOT the cleanest city in China!

Wikitravel described the city as the cleanest city in China and I can really not confirm that! Because of Chinese New Year almost everything had closed, of course all the restaurants. I walked my feet off, because my mobile went out of battery and my powerbank didn’t work and I didn’t know which bus to take. Actually I rembered three bus numbers I could take. I walked up something like a small shopping street, but almost everything was closed. Then I found the lovers street, a seawalk near the muddy sea full of garbage! The weather was also grey and the bikes that passed me needed at least two people and looked very old. There were also some bikes with four peoples and mostly the people in the back didn’t cycle, how bad of them!You remembered what I told you about China and Toiletts? Yes? So forget that, no toilets in Zhuhai! I couldn’t find any public toilets! Finally I took a bus at the shore to get further up and found a toilette near the beach. What a relief! I mean, how clean can a city without toilets be? I visited a mermaid statue on the shore. There were so many people that you hardly could see the statue. I mean its a nice statue but really, why do we look at such things? I actually just didn’t know what else to do in Zhuhai so I went were everybody else was going. Bad idea! I also didn’t find a place to eat. I tried a seafish restaurant but I would have to wait too long and didn’t get if I had to choose my food alive. There huge fish tanks with all kind of small and big fishes and seafood. So I’d rather not. I went to another restaurant but couldn’t see the menue, that’s why I just sat down, big mistake! I didn’t get the menue at all and for safety reason I just ordered noodles. What I got was cold noodles with cold vegetables for 50 yuan. Cold noodles for 50 yuan? Please! Seems to be some delicacy but for me on this day it was just not what I wanted to eat! I can have a warm meal in Shenzhen for 20 yuan and plenty! I went on with another bus I had to wait on pretty long to see more of the shore. I found a big park with many people and on the shore there were still many more, but there was only one small toilet for all of them! I had to queue pretty long with everybody else and decided to look for a small mountain nearby. Unfortunately the bus didn’t come so I just took another one which of course went in a completely other direction. For I was very tired I sat there nearly to the last station and got off. I had no idea where I was and just wandered around to find another toilet, but of course, there was none! I could see something like a park or mountain but was just too tired. But I found a nice little art museum with very nice pictures. Unfortunately I forgot the name of the artist. I liked it very much especially because it had a toilet!  After visiting the museums toilet I went back by bus. Good decision for it took me over an hour to get back and I really wanted to catch my train! I also was pretty happy I didn’t book a hotel in Zhuhai and could go back to my lovely hostel with my lovely host and have a rest. Actually I found Zhuhai pretty boring, not really beautiful and not at all clean! I just eat something in a small restaurant, because they had a toilet and went back for my train.Back in the hostel there was another chinese girl immediately talking to me. She told me the chinese girl from the first day also wanted to go to Zhuhai! I was pretty said for I’m sure it would have been much more fun to go with her, but she wanted to go on the next day. She asked me how I liked it and I didn’t tell much for I thought maybe its just me. I mean I don’t know how the things really work here and maybe I’m just to stupid to see the beauty of Zhuhai or to find something to eat or even a toilet.What can I tell you! I have to jump over one day for short so the Zhuhai story sticks together. When she also came back from Zhuhai she was really shocked why I didn’t tell her that it was so ugly! I was actually relieved that it wasn’t just me! We laughed a lot that evening and told each other bad stories about Zhuhai and the few toilets. She nearly made her whole visit in a taxi and found it really ugly too! Also she didn’t manage to find a restaurant or a toilet!The day the first girl went to Zhuhai was the day I stayed in Guangzhou and met a guy I met over internet. Remember? I told you about how to make friends and that Internet is the new way doing it? I actually found it easier to meet people in the hostel, but I was pretty excited I could meet a local who could show me around! The second girl wanted to join us for she wasn’t local as well. I liked that for she was very funny and also for some kind of safety reasons. After all I didn’t know the guy. But I first met him alone at the subway station. Just a side note, people of the south are really very slowly when walking. And by slowly I mean slower than a snail! For a northern like me this is horrible because there are also many people on the street and you could hardly pass and I really want to go on quicker than this. The guy that I met was really very fast, faster than me! That alone should’ve told me that he was also coming from the north!We visited a giant book store (Chinese people must really love to read if I look at the huge and nice bookstores, I like that very much!) and had some lunch. After that we went to an island full of buildings in european stile. A very nice place with beautiful buildings and all pretty old! There we met by chance the girl again and she accompagnied us for the rest of the day. We visited some more of nice buildings and places, an old an very nice temple I liked much! We had some soup and then the girl needed to buy new shoes for she wanted us to go on a mountain. The boy also asked me to go on the mountain before and I wasn’t all so happy about that. Actually I would really love to! I love hiking but my feet hurt like hell after I walked about 8 hours every day! But in the end I didn’t go to Guangzhou to sit in the hostel, right? Unfortunately we didn’t find shoes. Guangzhou is the city were the cloths come from, but as it seems not the shoes. We saw a lot of jogging shoes but I wouldn’t go jogging with none of them! They were all not of really good quality but very expensive! Same prices as back home, wow!In the street we saw a giant jeans I found very funny and they took a picture of me under it. The seller had to stay aside for that what he kindly did. Why do I tell you about the jeans? Its actually the story of that day, the giant jeans story! We went to a big shopping center and left the boy alone for a moment to look for more shoes but didn’t find any thats why we went back on the street and I was really sure where to go, because I was in the street two days before. Like always when I’m very sure about something, I seem to be wrong, how embarrassing! When we passed the giant jeans she knew it instantly and I as well and we laughed a lot. She also said that I made a real funny face when I saw my fault. Of course I was also a little ashamed. Later the girl forced me to tell the story in Chinese to the boy. I tried but I’m just missing all the words to tell a funny story in Chinese now! I’m sure it didn’t sound all too funny. The girl wanted to eat some local food for dinner and I was happy I finally had some Chinese friends who could read the menue and knew what to order. But I found out that the girl also didn’t really know what to order for she didn’t know the food and that she looked everything up on a website, that relieved me a little. So even the Chinese have troubles finding the good food! We ate a lot of dumplings and it was the most expensive bill I ever had since I arrived, but the price of 150 yuan was still ok for 3 people. The next day I went with both the 2 girls and the local boy as our guide on the mountain. I wouldn’t call that mountain, maybe hill, it was pretty small but with the very slow walking of the girls it took us 5 hours to get up and down again! My feet were in the beginning really fit but when walking down again they started to hurt again like hell! But we were really lucky for there was no rain and the sight was very beautiful! There was also a very nice temple in the park we could visit, I liked it very much! After going down we had again trouble for finding a restaurant and were all (except the boy) pretty exhausted after the long walk. I also had to hurry up for my train would leave tonight for Shenzhen again. We said goodbye to the boy on the bus and went back to the hostel to get our stuff, when the rain started. It rained really much! The girl than said that this was the cleanest water I would ever find in China and laughed a lot thinking about Zhuhai!I have to say these were the best 2 days in China for me so far! People change everything! Friends change everything! It was so nice to hang out with people and talk to them! The one chinese girl could also speak a little german. For I was nearly a whole month on my own it felt so good to have company! So I was pretty said going back to Shenzhen and to my room I didn’t like so much. But of course I also like Shenzhen and it wasn’t all so bad too sleep alone in my room in my big bed for in the hostel I couldn’t sleep all so well with the 3 other peoples noise.I really hope I can see my new chinese friends again! The girls actually live near Shanghai were I’m about to be going to!

Part 1: You shouldn’t go to Zhuhai but pay the ancient Guangzhou a visit

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I had this idea of visiting one or two more cities when I had the time over spring festival and already knew that it’s not a great idea to travel when all chinese travel! I got that train ticket for a very slow train to Guangzhou. Normally there is a fast train which takes only half an hour, but there were no tickets left. I went to the station really early to check in, make the security check and find everything. And then I waited with all the others and there were pretty much of them! I already knew that this wouldn’t be all so easy. But I was pretty impressed that the train left on the minute although they had to squeeze that many people including baggage in! We also arrived on time!I booked a hard seat for this was the only thing I could get. It seemed not so worse first, but after the two hours ride my ass hurt pretty well. Also there was really not enough space for all the things the people were carrying back home to their families, presents mainly, but the guy next to me had that many computers and electronicle stuff he had to stove it under all seats, so there was no place left for another pour mans baggage and I had to sit half the way half on it. Luckily the man with the many computers didn’t use his seat so I could at least place my bag there although I didn’t really have space for my feet! The people were complaining about the guy maybe that’s why he didn’t stay and after half the trip he also took all the packages away and vanished with his whole stuff so I got some room for my feet! But I had enough time to learn vocabulary and read about Guangzhou on http://wikitravel.org, a great page for travelling that held more information on Guangzhou than my Lonenly planet! So when I arrived Guangzhou I already knew some places I could visit. First I went to the Beijing Pedestrian street. A big shopping street where at least everything was open even on Spring Festival. Because the rest of the city was pretty closed on the days I stayed, which was not so good. Most of the small shops including all the recommended restaurants were closed! Also in the Chinese Culture road there was barely a shop opened. In the pedestrian street I tried to find something for lunch and ended up in a restaurant where you can choose your food yourself and than the cook makes something out of it. Not very good if you don’t know lot about chinese food or vegetables. I had no idea if my ingredients fit, because I just chose what looked interesting or known. I also said please not spicy but in the end it was still spicy (the damn chilli is really everyhwere as well as coriander, the one spice I really don’t like! It was in every meal, really every!). The whole food was also swimming in oil, but tasted good. Unfortunately my decision wasn’t so good after all, because my stomach didn’t like it so much. But the one thing I really like about China is, that there are toilets everywhere in the big cities! At least the cities I knew by then (this will change, but I tell you later). After visiting some shops, the culture street and the river I got pretty tired, my bag pretty heavy and my stomach was still unwell, so I decided to look for my hostel. I found the street and the building but didn’t know which floor so I called the owner, a really nice guy, who catched me in front of the Ikea and guided me to the place. The hostel was actually a private apartment with three rooms, 4 beds in each room, a living room, a kitchen and a small balcony. He asked me if I knew that it is Chinese New Year and I said yes whatever that meant. He than told me that there is only one other guest in the hostel right now because it is Chinese New Year. I was very relieved as he told me, that the next day the hostel was fully booked again, because I’ve chosen it not only because it was so cheap, but to finally meet some people (a friend of mine told me to go to hostels to meet some Chinese people! Thank you so much, worked like a charm!) The owner told me further that he was going to cook dinner for us because of Chinese New Year and asked me if I want to join them. I was more than happy about that! He than told me about a flower market nearby I could visit before dinner for this market was only on Chinese New Year.I went to the market which was really beautiful and I liked very much that everybody was buying flowers and plants and small wind wheels. There were also some market stands with handicraft things and of course stands with toys for the kids. The handicraft things were really nice and I bought a small sheep for my bag, because it is year of the sheep this year. Than I got back, a little too late. But I found a guy on my way back home selling beautiful made flowers of some kind of plant. Unfortunately I missunderstood the price for the Guangzhou people have Guangzhou accent and don’t pronounce ten as I’m used to, so it sounded for me more like four. It was then not four yen but fifty yuan in the end and like this I had bought a pretty expensive gift for my host!The other guest was very interesting, a guy from Nigeria studying medicin in China! He lived for the last 5 years near Beijing and could speak Mandarin pretty well. We had a similar personality for we both like more to explore many things than going too deep into one and he also could play many instruments and was interested in the culture of China. Unfortunately he had to leave early the next morning. His flight was leaving from Shenzhen!The dinner was simple but nice, it felt so good to talk to somebody (in English)! There was also a guard of the building invited who was very funny, smiling all the time and wanted to take pictures of me, of the other guy of all of us together of him. He wanted to know if any of us was married. The guard could only speak Chinese, that’s why I didn’t understand much. The host explained me that he was rather a simple guy and that they had only one thing in mind. The host translated that the guard said he was horny and the guard wanted all the time that I searched another girl for my country for him. Actually I was pretty happy that I couldn’t understand him!After dinner we watched THE chinese new years show. A very big show over several hours and the host explained me the Hongbao, a kind of money gift you can give to others or receive from others. There was also a big Hongbao given by the government over WeChat. At a specific time we all could shake our phones and get some Hongbao. I didn’t get any but my host got about maybe 3 yuan. He told me the statistics the next day, I can’t remember but I think that about every Chinese (not only in China but every country on the world!) shaked their phones!The next day I visited more of Guangzhou, at least the stuff that had opened. I went to a nice book mall mentioned on wikitravel, but didn’t manage to get breakfast, because all Chinese seemed to have been clever enough to have a reservation for the dumplings restaurants! I decided to go to the train station first for I wanted to finally manage buying a train ticket of my own for I wanted to visit Zhuhai. The station was pretty far away and I said my line and didn’t understand the answer as always, but the girl could also speak English. Actually a lot of people in Guangzhou can speak English and I had the thought that maybe I should have studied in Guangzhou (would have been possible). Also I liked the city pretty much for it’s so old and full of history, nice buildings and trees and many cool people I saw on the pedestrian street. But I decided for Shenzhen, so my fault and I couldn’t change it anyways. But I might decide different now, although I also like Shenzhen. I got my ticket for Zhuhai for the next day there and back and went on visiting Guangzhou.I found a wonderful gothic church to visit, but was still very hungry. For really no chinese restaurant was opened I was so desperate I had to go to McDonalds. McDonalds! I went to China to eat Chinese food every day and what do I get? But at least I know what I can expect and get. I know how to order and I know the menue also very well. After eating I went with about 1000 other chinese to a temple. Thats what Chinese do on New Year, so maybe not the best idea to visit a temple on that day but I really wanted to get the full feeling of that New Years day! It was actually very nice but pretty dangerous because of all the incense sticks. I got burned several times and was pretty happy that no one burned my hair!My feet hurt like hell after the whole walking for I was on my feet for the entire week. Walked 7 hours through a real beautiful park in Shenzhen on Tuesday, went to Guangzhou on Wednesday and walking, walking, always walking. As soon I was back in the hostel a Chinese girl talked to me on English (I couldn’t even take off my shoes) and wanted to know all about me. That made me feel that it was the right decision to go to the hostel! A chinese guy who couldn’t speak English at all added me on WeChat and showed me a lot of photos from his travels, but I didn’t understand much of what he said.