Adventures in Guangzhou!

I got to the campus gate without a hitch and then set about the task of making friends with the nearest cell phone-toting college kid. Everytime I leave the Guangdong province I am reminded of how dependent I am on the cell phone and how frustrating it is to not have one. In reality it just makes me more outgoing though which is perfectly fine. I managed to find a friendly guy sitting on the curb who let me use his mobile after I butchered the Chinese phrase for "can I make a call with your cell phone." Lo and behold, I was in the right place and Tyler came to fetch me. After the grand tour of his apartment (awesome digs, I might add), we woke up Mal to head out and start my exploration of the city.

Step 1: get food. I don't remember reading anywhere that Wuhan is known for its food but it certainly should be. I will revisit this theme later, but right from the get-go (not to be confused with Geiko) I was blown away by the cuisine. For lunch we went a little bit upscale and hit up a restaurant down the street that had some excellent spicy beef, cauliflower, chicken, and rice. There was soup, there were unidentifiable vegetables, and there was local beer--everything you need for a good Chinese meal. I was geared up and ready to go after that!

Our first destination (after food) was to the East Lake. While it lacks the notoriety of Hangzhou's West Lake, the "Dong Hu" is still quite beautiful and has an awesome park that we explored for a few hours. Before we got there though, we got off the bus a couple stops early and just walked around for a little while. We got intentionally lost walking through some back streets on the hill by the lake and saw some of what I like to call "authentic China." There were run-down houses, people working the land, trash on the side of the road, and a public restroom that I wouldn't wish upon anybody. It's definitely a reality check and a reminder that most of China still has a long way to go in improving quality of life.

Back to the lake, we headed into Donghu Gongyuan (the park) to check out a bunch of the sights. We were collectively intrigued by the large map at the entrance that had a few idiosyncratic translations, crowned by a spot proclaiming to have an "Unfathomable Enigma of Nature." You can't go wrong with that. As we started walking in we noticed that most people were walking the other way towards the exit. Whether this was due to the slightly overcast weather or the proximity to dinner time we'll never know, but it made our afternoon so pleasant. We were some of the only people in the entire place! In a country where there seems to be a mob of people everywhere (and I really mean everywhere), this was a true rarity. Though we never encountered the infamous enigma, we did climb the watchtower gate, discover the alpine slide(!), play with the statues, climb the hundreds of steps up to the tower, climb the additional five flights to the top of the tower, light some incense, and then head out.

For dinner we went the street food route and had some shaokao, barbeque. There is a street by the back gate to the university that has dozens and dozens of different stands all making what looks like delicious food. You sit down at any of the outdoor tables, they hand you an order sheet, and you write down how many skewers you want and of what kind of meat or vegetable. We had an enormous feast and only spent around 8 or 10 kwai each (only slightly over a dollar). Wow. Now that's living! They love their cumin in Wuhan and I approve--all of the shaokao is doused with the stuff and it gives everything a nice kick. The more and more I experience China, I am finding more and more evidence that Guangzhou's reputation for having the best food in the country is greatly exaggerated. It's good, but so far I have had nothing here to rival the food in Wuhan (especially for the price).

After dinner, we met up with Serge (sp?), one of the other foreign teachers at the university. Along with his girlfriend, they both decided to help us experience the Wuchang nightlife. We picked a random bar and managed to finagle a deal on beers from a rather inebriated bartender. We played some of the dice game and chatted amongst ourselves, just enjoying the scene. As the night went on, they turned on the karaoke in the place and the Chinese patrons started to rock out. Suddenly we looked up and saw "My Heart Will Go On" on the television sets and the waitstaff handed us two microphones. Let me tell you--they LOVE that song here. I think I've heard it multiple times in every Chinese city I've been to. Seriously. Not really having a choice, we began to sing along with Mal taking the lead. Tyler and I did our best for Hotel California and a few others, but every 4th or 5th song was back to Titanic. By the end of the night I had had it with the tune but they kept playing it so we kept singing it. Tyler even recorded a beautiful rendition from about 2am that Mal should submit to American Idol :)

The following is a link to all my photos from the weekend. It includes shots from events I haven't chronicled yet so if you want to be surprised, hold off, okay? Hopefully they're better organized this time: http://www.flickr.com/photos/awolfe03/sets/1201189/