Hong Kong is a great city. It's beautiful, the food is great, and there are tons of things to do, including some really good hiking on Hong Kong island and on the surrounding islands.
Two days after Zoe flew back to the US, I took the metro from Hong Kong up to the border with mainland China. I crossed into the mainland and stayed in Shenzhen for the next three days, which is just on the other side of the border. Although it was only a small fishing village 30 years ago, Shenzhen is now China's wealthiest city. It's also the greenest (I mean the color, although it may also be China's most environmentally concerned) Chinese city I've ever been to. So it made for pleasant walking. However, except for some bustling clothing and electronics shopping centers, I never felt like there was much going on in the city.
Guangzhou, though, had a lot going on. I took a train from Shenzhen to Guangzhou and stayed there for another three days. Guangzhou has been a major port city for around two thousand years and is the third largest city in China behind Shanghai and Beijing. My first night there I ran into a Korean Chinese guy whose English name is Greg. We went back to the train station to but train tickets and got some dinner afterwords. Later that night, we went to a funny bar near the hostel that was attended almost entirely by a group of people from the Philippines. We stayed for a bit and then went back to the hostel.
The next day I visited a park dedicated as a memorial to the communist Guangzhou Uprising of 1927. The park had some beautiful statues and I was fortunate to have clear skies the day I visited.
The next day I was not as fortunate. I had planned on seeing various historical sights but had to change my plans due to a steady rain throughout the day. I ended up going to the Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall, which wasn't as interesting as the park I visited on the previous day but it was something to do while I waited out the rain. The rain held off for a few hours that afternoon so I went over to Shamian Island. Foreign, mostly British and French, businessmen lived on Shamian during the 18th and 19th centuries. After the Opium Wars of the 19th century the island was actually handed over to Britain and France but then retaken by the communists in 1949. Many of the old British and French buildings are still there and are now mostly occupied by government offices, cafes, and restaurants.
The next morning I took a train from Guangzhou to Ji'an. In Ji'an, I was picked up by Craig, who works in the English department at Xinyu University, and the driver. We drove back to Xinyu that night and I've been here for almost three days now. So far, Xinyu has been great. Everyone I've met who works at the university is nice. Two of the teachers took me to the supermarket downtown to buy things for my apartment. I also happened to meet a group of Chinese friends who were eating out in a restaurant across the street from my apartment building. One studied art at Xinyu University and the other three studied music. Now all four of them work. We were speaking in Chinese since none of them could speak much English and at one point in our conversation, I thought they were asking me if I liked to sing. I figured they wanted to invite me out to sing karaoke and said sure. Then, last night, one of the girls called me and told me to take a cab to the city exhibition center. They met me outside the doors wearing flashy dresses and with their hair done up. I soon found out that they had not asked me if I wanted to sing but if I wanted to listen to them sing. They were performers in a show of Chinese singers and they had arranged a ticket for me. I watched the performance and then went out to eat and celebrate with them afterwords. The two girls on the left in the bottom right picture are the ones I met. Xu Xiao ("little", a common diminutive) Fang is in the blue dress and Ma Ying Hua is in the red dress.
And today I think I have a cold. I might go searching for some Chinese medicine. I've seen it do wonders in the past.
Hi Sam, I got your thank you letter. I love the photos and blog. The impromptu musicians in the park sounds like people wanting to have some fun. - Sue B.
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