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.