My
trip to China – Guangzhou day, second in a series by DreamFinder agent Kim
Merrill
Twenty-seven
hours after leaving the house we finally arrived in Guangzhou, China. We had a non-stop flight to Beijing that
lasted 11+ hours, followed by a 4-hour layover before our connection to the
final destination. Add to that a
40-minute drive to the city center to our hotel and needless to say, I was
tired.
My thoughts on
the flights:
- · Leg one was on an Airbus A330-300. I was stuck waaaaay in the back, and I was pleasantly surprised at the legroom and seat pitch. The plane had a 2-4-2 set up and as I had an aisle seat it wasn’t too bad. The food? Notsogood. The wine? Well, the white was tolerable and the red tasted like Welch’s grape juice. The movie selection was mediocre, making me glad I rented and downloaded a few movies before we left. My daughter and I shared headphones and watched 2 movies back to back. I also read 2 books! (**tip….make sure when taking a long trip that you bring your own movies just in case!)
- · Leg 2 was in the new DreamLifter, Boeing’s new 787-900. I had yet to fly in one of these and while I found the takeoff and landing to be a bit noisy, the interim flight was pretty quiet.
After breakfast
we headed out to the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall for our morning excursion. This was originally built in the mid-1800’s
and appears (based on the signage, in Chinese with pictures) to have been
heavily restored. The grounds were
beautiful and there were several exhibits that showcased the local artisan crafts. The kids got to participate in
a few crafts and were thoroughly engaged.
We got to visit
a local “University” that houses/trains/teaches students in various
sports. It was shocking to see how
little these kids were…..think 5 and 6 year old little gymnasts away from
home. While I understand that the
culture here is totally different than in the US, I can’t imagine sending a kid
that young away to a school. The
government here supports high-level sports and it is evident. Kids spend a half-day training and half of the
day learning. Unfortunately we were told that this regimen causes them issues
later on as they are behind in studies as they can only learn for half their
day.
Our kids were
able to get in a quick workout (only about 90 minutes) that my daughter
described as “the easiest workout I’ve had in ages” with the team at the school
and it helped her to shake off some jet lag.
Tomorrow’s workout is supposed to be longer and hopefully a bit more of
an intense workout.
Lunch and
dinner today were Cantonese-style meals served family style. Our guides prepped us with cultural do’s and
don’ts (do NOT stick chopsticks straight up in rice or point with them), and
educated us on how to serve ourselves without double-dipping our chopsticks. Learning
the culture is interesting and it is so helpful to have the guides to help us
with that. The food was amazing. Green peppers are hotter than red, orange
chicken is universal, and broccoli comes in a white variety (and no, it isn’t
cauliflower!)
Items to note:
- Diet Coke or Coke Zero is impossible to find.
- Toilets here are ceramic holes in the ground. For a girl that does NOT camp, this is probably the hardest thing for me.
- Bathrooms are not stocked with toilet paper. Apparently it is normal to travel with tissues and/or a roll of the hotel’s toilet paper (just sayin’) in your bag. (Christine….you were absolutely right)
- I have not yet had a personal space issue. Guangzhou has 14 million residents with 100 million in the Guangdong Province. I will revisit this later in another of the blogs.
- The air quality is abysmal. The news reports on this are spot on. (be prepared, take a mask)
- The people are friendly (except on airplanes….people seem to be rude on airplanes no matter where you are).
- They really DO look at us as a novelty. Photos were being taken of US at the airport. I felt like a celebrity!
Up tomorrow is
a visit to a local school and more training.
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