Guangzhou is 90 degrees today. 90 degrees. We can take it though, we have to start gearing up for Southeast Asia!
We got an amazing apartment with this view of Guangzhou! We also ordered some interesting lunch… Sorry we didn’t take a photo, but the translation below led our landlord to think we ordered pig intenstine. It was deep fried and smothered in sweet and sour sauce, so that made it delicious! Afterwards, Christina needed a chocolate chip cookie to curb the intestine taste… Couldn’t believe we found a shop that sold chocolate cookies in China!
Guangzhou is our last China city! We kicked it off with a sweet trip to Chen Clan Palace… Imperial digs where the emperor would stsy when passing through Guangzhou, the Lingnan architecture was fabulous, so intricate. We loved the wood and ivory carvings inside but this exterior architecture was awing.
The shrubbery was also beautiful in here, with copious trimmed bonsai!
After we headed to Six Banyan temple, a gorgeous Buddhist temple with wood medium, the iron and white color was pretty and different from what we had seen before. We did our research on temples before we went in and since there were monks around we tried to be mindful and careful. Christina even stepped to the side and walked far by them when we walked past them because if they even feel a woman’s hand touch them they have to cleanse and fast because of the encounter!
Some lunch was in order! We stopped by a street cart with some delicious water spinach, jalapeño teriyaki beef, green beans and pork!
Heading to a garden called Liyan garden we saw really cool lotus flowers in the water and lanterns in the trees. We also found a toilet… in pretty good condition as touted!
Day 2 started with dim sum! We ordered some sort of bird (probably pigeon) meatballs, sesame seed buns with date paste, fish rolls which tasted like pizza rolls, teriyaki glass noodles, bamboo wrapped rice and pork balls. We were stuffed, deliciously!
We went to another beautiful temple that was open to the public, so many more people were there. Seeing tall Buddha statues inside was humbling, a few girls taught us how to throw coins for good fortune into the mini pagoda, and joss sticks were being lit and smoked everywhere, it was a truly beautiful place.
We visited the 5 rams statue in the middle of the city which is the symbol of Guangzhou, whimsical and adorable… We have also been asked to post what the toilets look like, here is a pretty decent one so here you go folks, a basic squat toilet.
Ending the day with a wonderful visit to the Shamian island… An island that was basically colonized by 9 different countries for 100 years, we saw a a lot of English influenced architecture and saw convenience stores named Jenny’s place, Susie’s place, Sharon’s place and Sally’s place.
Day 2 started with dim sum! We ordered some sort of wild meatballs, sesame seed buns with date paste, fish rolls which tasted like pizza rolls, teriyaki glass noodles, bamboo wrapped rice and pork balls. We were stuffed, deliciously!
It ended with a scrumptious supper at a Muslim restaurant serving homemade noodles with beef, leeks, green beans, red and green peppers, fish fried rice, and beef and caramelized onions! We visited twice because the noodles went right from being made into the boiler, delicious! We definitely ate our way through Guangzhou, including a trip to Hooleys pub for a little bit of Guinness nostalgia.
We loved China, the people were amazing and remarkable, we met so many kind and friendly individuals even though we didn’t speak the language.
We absolutely can’t wait to meet more awesome people in our next Asia destination… Nepal! Stay tuned!
Christina & Josh in Asia 