Guangzhou, China － 中国广州

China is such a complex country. Only since leaving China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong have I really started to appreciate my time there. 

I have some much catching up to do an sharing my experiences. This post will be an overview of my time in Guangzhou, China illustrated through pictures. 

I started reading this book and it is constantly blowing my mind. Anyone interested in learning more about China should definitely read it. I wish I had started reading this while I was in the Mainland. 

East Guangzhou outside of my hostel. I was lucky in having a little park nearby where I could watch all the old Chinese ladies dance at night : )

And this is that same view a week later after Chinese New Year ended and everyone went back to work. You can see the lake and kind of make out the buildings on the edge. It may seem strange to say, but the pollution in Guangzhou actually wasn't that bad compared to Beijing. 

On one of my wanders, I stumbled upon an old museum and I was taken aback by the ivory carvings.  This shows how they made the layered ivory balls. I think this sort of artwork is fairly unique to southern China.

This is a large ivory ball atop a greater ivory structure. 

It is the year of the horse. My year!! : ) Good fortune for me : )

I just couldn't resist posting this.

I arrived just as Chinese New Year ended. This is a bridge in the park below my hostel lit up during the lantern festival. 

A particularly colorful shopping district in Guangzhou. 

Lots of old things in China. This tree seems to be hanging in there.

I'm kind of like my grandma.  I don't like taking pictures of myself and most of the time there is no one to hold the camera. But when I get the chance, I like to show that I am a star. The (less important than me) memorial behind me is to Sun Yat Sen who is a leader revered both in the Mainland and in Taiwan because he was the first leader of the Republic of China before the civil war. 

This picture captures one of the most common Chinese idioms - 人山人海 - people mountain, people sea - which means THERE ARE PEOPLE EVERYWHERE! I have several pictures capturing the essence of 人山人海. 

Hello kitty Jannie at the Guangzhou tower!

It's always so fun when I can meet locals and learn about their culture. I was really fortunate to live with Stefan and Jannie, two on the left, when I was in Sydney. They were in Guangzhou for Chinese New Year and Stefan invited me to meet his family. We went out and had traditional Guangzhou dinner which consisted of sautéed silk worm, earth worm quiche, fish, and veggies. I plan to make a separate post about food and animals in China. Yum : P

The district capital of Shunde (顺德). It is modeled after the White House. It is by far the most awe-inspiring building in Shunde. This is a characteristic shared by most government buildings. 

Guangzhou South Station (广州南站). The bullet train network and stations are really impressive. 

I don't remember where is this. I think it is coming into Shenzhen (深圳).

Down town Shenzhen. 

The high speed rail station in Shenzhen. Massive and beautiful.

I had to go from Guangzhou to Shenzhen and then from Shenzhen to Shanghai. The trains from Guanzhou to Shanghai were all sold out, which was actually quite fortunate. There are no high speed trains from Guangzhou to Shanghai, only slow trains that often run during the night. This really didn't make sense to me because Guangzhou and Shanghai are the two largest commercial cities in China.  There are bullet trains from Guangzhou to Beijing, even though Beijing is farther than Shanghai, and from Shanghai to Beijing.

Instead, I went from Guangzhou to Shenzhen, stayed a night, and then went from Shenzhen to Shanghai during the day, which was much better than taking a 19 hour night train. 

Sunset somewhere in Southeast China. The picture isn't great, but isn't bad considering I took it going 180 mph!

Industrial China fascinates me. On the way from Shenzhen to Shanghai.

China gets 80% of its electricity from coal and is the largest emitter of CO2 in the world.

Many second and third their cities consist of many one story homes surrounding a few towering apartment buildings in the center of the city. It is a really strange site.

China's rich history, secretive government, massive industrialization, rapid social change, and increasing importance in the world make it such an interesting place.