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1997

Around the world via China (CHINA - Guangzhou)

Bec
2004-09-19 15:42:00

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went to better restaurants, it was sublime! Getting fed well is no problem here.

Living in China like the Chinese do requires a little flexibility however to adapt to different ways of doing things like going to a public toilet that is really public such as this clean modern one on Enning Lu. The Chinese are gregarious, they like to crowd together and seem completely devoid of a need for privacy. They are naturally curious and I have experienced one coming over to examine if westerners were made the same way they were... It takes a little getting used to.

Guangzhou city has prospered through foreign trade which began with Indians and Romans as early as the second century AD. The Arabs traded here during the Tang dynasty (600 - 900), then came the Portuguese who opened shop in Macao in 1557 and finally the British in 1685. Guangzhou had a monopoly on foreign trade until the Opium wars in the mid 19th century. It then lost its predominance to Shanghai but regained it after the communist takeover thanks to its world fair and the proximity of Hong Kong. For the time being, Hong Kong holds the number one position since it has returned to China but it is bound to loose it to Shanghai since its suburb Pudong has been chosen to become the financial capital of the country in 1990.

Guangzhou city has generally prospered through the years but the overcrowded Guangdong province around it has often suffered famine. For this reason, the majority of the ancestors of the Chinese Diaspora all over the world came from here. Consequently, Chinese restaurants abroad generally serve a basic version of Cantonese cuisine.

Pearl River
My next stop after Guangzhou was lovely Yangshuo, only 400 kilometers away, which I finally reached after a 20 hour boat ride to Wuzhou and 9 hours of bus over a bumpy road. I took a third class berth on the boat to see how the average Chinese lived and travelled. The scenery was great and the sights such as these river fishermen pulling out their eel traps, interesting.

Steerage was crowded with people feeding and shelling peanuts on the floor but the passage was very cheap, only 50 yuan, a little over four dollars for 20 hours. The people around me were friendly and inquisitive as I was the only long nose on board. Unfortunately the language barrier limited our exchanges to a very basic level. It was an interesting experience.

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