Adventures in Guangzhou!

Finding the right bus was a minor challenge, but once again a friendly crossing guard pointed me in the right direction. While the book said it would be a 45 minute ride, I think it was more like an hour, traveling far outside the city. As I arrived, it felt like showing up to a party an hour after it had been broken up. The parking lot was empty, there was a bunch of garbage around the entrance, and the two people working inside the enormous ticket booth were both asleep.

It turns out the International Horticultural Expo had taken place there the previous month, and had ended a scant week ago. It was a bit creepy to walk through the grounds of this place alone when it was clearly built for thousands and thousands of people, but I persevered. Upon reaching my destination of the bridges, I was part confused, part impressed, part annoyed, and part excited. Basically there is a small recreation area, clearly built years before the Expo came to town, in which there are a bunch of bizarre "bridges" spanning a section of a small man-made lake. There were balance beams, rolling barrels, swinging bridges, wires, and random other concotions. I crossed a few of them, coming close to falling in. I wasn't afraid of drowing (the water wasn't very deep) but I was very self-aware of hypothermia--didn't seem like a great idea.

I still can't decide if it was worth it or not, but I left the more adventurous, exciting bridges untouched because I was by myself. That said, I was highly tempted by this one where you could sort of slingshot yourself across the water and try to grab a rope, but I decided against it. Being an hour outside of the city by myself, I figured falling and hitting my head most likely meant certain death and I just wasn't up for that. I think with the right people and the right weather it would be a cool spot to visit, but as it was, I was more confounded than anything else.

After a nice Sichuan dinner with the fellows and Vanessa, PiA-er in Dalian, Jason and I said goodbye to the ladies who headed off to Beijing for the weekend. Vivian was nice enough to let me stay in her place and Jason showed me one of the coolest inventions I've seen of late. There is some little machine called a slingshot, which apparently you can connect to a cable box in the states. This little device then broadcasts the cable to any high speed internet connection. I watched Sportscenter. Sportscenter!! Drooling with jealousy, I drifted off to bed.