Our Tour with Jane, Jenny and Amanda

After our tour with Liz it would have been hard to compete. A group of girls (Jenny, Jane and Amanda) had the second winning tour at Jenny's school. Jenny's coworker's sister was in town too, so she got to come on the tour with us too. I guess I should point out that the names that are used are there English names, not their "real" names. I don't want anyone getting the impression that they use all English names in China. It's actually really funny... Jenny says that since students get to pick their own names they get a little creative. One student asked to be called "Jingle" and another was "Cream." We met Jenny and Jane and rode the metro for an hour out to this area of Guangzhou way on the outskirts. After we arrived we jumped on a bus for 40 minutes to this area that looked like a beach. They called it "Seaside Park." It was so beautiful, the air was clear and the sun was shining... it felt amazing to be outside of the big city. We rode a golf cart type machine around the park just to see what it looked like on all sides. There were beautiful flowers, trees and views of the mountains and water. We arrived at this amazing looking temple. It was up the side of the mountain! It looked amazing. We explored the temple. With the heat and the sunshine paired with the hundreds of stairs we climbed up the mountain, we were all covered in sweat by the time we arrived at the top. It was worth it for the amazing view at the top. We could see way out and across the Pearl River mouth. The pictures of this view really don't do it justice. The temple was a Matsu Temple (I'm not sure if I'm spelling it right). There was not English to be seen in the Park anywhere, and the girls taking us did not know the English translation for the word, but the god was supposed to be the goddess of waters. We guessed later that the temple was a Buddhist temple. Our tour guide told us this was the largest Matsu Temple in all of China.

After we explored the temple, we had a Chinese BBQ on the beach. The girls had a difficult time starting it up, but Katie came in and saved the day. The food was interesting...emphasis was certainly on meat. It was true Guangdong cuisine. There was pork, chicken, lamb, beef, Guangdong sausage and mixes. It all looked so unappetizing. I ate to be polite, but I feared during a lot of the meal that I was eating pig neck or snake or something. We had vegetables, but they were all either mixed with meat, or had Oyster Sauce on them. It is really hard to eat in China. The meat tastes very different. It looked like we had steaks to eat, but the steaks tasted terrible...it more closely resembled pork. After suffering through the eating aspect of the BBQ for a long time, I finally cooked up some vegetables without sauce that I was happy with. They brought a loaf of white bread too, which Liz had devoured by the time the BBQ was over. We explored the beach and headed back. Amanda (who met us at the temple) took us to the metro in her car and that made the journey a little shorter.

Overall it was a great day but the BBQ was a little long and the food was not so good. The scenery and group was fun! The women did not speak English as well as Liz the day before, but we managed. I am so impressed that anyone can speak another language so well. The Chinese seem to speak tons of languages. These woman were studying English, they spoke Mandarin, two spoke Cantonese and two of them also had native languages from their village that they spoke. It was so weird that they could not always understand each other. When two of the woman were speaking Cantonese to each other, Jane, the other woman told us she couldn't understand what they were saying. When Amanda got a phone call from a family member she spoke in her native language that the other two women explained they couldn't understand.

Before I go, I have to debunk the myth that Chinese people only have one child. Amanda who was with us had four kids. A lot of the people we saw on the street have more than one. In some circumstances there are ways to get around the law, sometimes it requires paying a tax, but we've noticed in many cases its just not true.

Friday was a relaxing day for us. We got up late, went to see the Canton Trade Show with Steve. We weren't allowed in but we went to the door. The trade show was a cool experience. It is a very big deal for China, Asia and a lot of Eastern European nations. Steve has to go every year for a day for the plastics magazine that he writes for. We went back to Tomatoes (our Italian Restaurant) and it was delicious. It was nice to feel full again :) After lunch, we walked around town and went to Starbucks to catch up on our blogging. Our big triumph of the day was when we managed to make it all the way to the train station and buy our tickets to a place called Yangshuo. Jenny wrote us a note in Chinese to give to the lady at the train station. We handed her the note after asking if she spoke any English and she gave us the tickets. Unfortunately we had to battle rush hour in the third biggest city in China to do it. There is no regard for personal space during rush hour...you are basically on top of the person next to you. Feet were stepped on and bags hit people but the Chinese are very civil and not crazy like Americans. They are orderly and line up, and don't push at all costs until they get where they want to go. I like the people in Guangzhou. Jenny and Steve were surprised/proud that we were able to fend for ourselves and get the tickets...but I don't know what we would do without them.

That's all for now :)

Pics:

Pics by the beach
Group shot by the beach