Adventures in Guangzhou!

It's easy to forget just how big China is until you go book an express train ticket from Guangzhou to Shenyang and you find out it'll take about 34 hours. My god. Lacking the funds to fly both ways, I swallowed hard and forked over a big chunk of change for the longest ride of my life. And, well, it was actually not nearly as bad as I thought it could have been. I basically got on at 10pm, fell asleep, woke up the next day and read for hours, went to bed, and woke up the next morning upon arrival. I've been on flights that were way worse. It was funny, too, because there was a group of professional basketball players in my train car so nobody cared less about me being the one white guy. They were busy staring at the 6'11" Chinese guy.

As I stepped onto the platform bright and early at around 6am, I was immediately hit with a rush of artic-cold air. In my mind I knew it would be cold all the way up there, but the reality was much more of a slap in the face. I glanced up at one of the digital displays outside the station and saw that it was -8 degrees celcius, easily the coldest weather I had felt in two years. Despite spending twenty four years braving New England winters, I had lost any and all ability to cope with the cold. I was FREEZING.

After finding myself a piping hot bowl of noodles, I made my way over to the PiA-ers at Northeastern University, a pleasant 40 minute bus ride across the city. I was welcomed with open arms and a heated apartment--exactly what I needed most, besides maybe a shower. Vivian and Jason immediately offered up anything and everything to me which was way beyond the call of duty. After we had lunch together, I headed out to explore.

Stop #1 was the old Imperial Palace, a compound similar to the Forbidden City in Beijing except smaller and with more Manchu architectural features. Despite the temperature, the sun was out and the skies were clear which made for a very pleasant walk around the grounds. Couple that with the fact that I was one of the only people there, and I loved it. The buildings were very interesting and seemed to have an air of intimidation about them, given the abundance of scary-looking lions, dragons, and monsters all around. I loved it.

After walking around for so long, it was time for a snack. I followed the advice of my guidebook and headed around the corner to a family dumpling restaurant that has apparently been in business for about 150 years. Needless to say, I ordered up some dumplings and they were spectacular. Not the best I've ever had, but it was super cheap. The waiter also made me laugh asking me funny questions in Chinese about myself and about America (does everyone in the states get a gun on their 16th birthday? do I think Shenyang is the best city in China? do people in America know how to use chopsticks?).

I have to say that Shenyang seems to be one of the friendliest cities I've been to in China. The bus stops don't post very clearly the routes so I found myself just asking people or having people come up and ask me if they could help. Wow! I'm guessing some (or all) of the help is because I'm a novelty being caucasian, but I don't think this happens in Guangzhou, and we don't have *that* many foreigners. I enjoyed chatting with each and every one of them.

I got back in time for dinner with the other fellows and we had some excellent Korean bbq, affectionately referred to as KBBQ by Vivian. It's always really interesting to me to hear about different PiA-ers' experiences since every post is so different. This was actually one of the reasons for my trip up north--because Shenyang and Dalian were the last two posts in China that I hadn't seen and I wanted to get up there to see what they were all about. This trip would complete the circuit! Jason and Vivian filled me in a bit over dinner and apparently Shenyang is a city that used to be the shining star of the region but has since deteriorated due to a decrease in the mining industry and government-sponsored production moving south (to places to Guangdong Province). There wasn't nearly the amount of construction in the city, which I suppose doesn't bode well for its future, but makes for pleasant living conditions. Though it is notorious for pollution, I venture to say that Shenyang had better air quality than Guangzhou. Hard to believe...