Our first stop in mainland China was Guangzhou, China’s 3rd largest city, home to 18 million people. The three-hour train ride from Hong Kong was pretty uneventful. Getting through immigration and customs wasn’t too difficult but was time consuming, taking about an hour and half and required various forms and apps and showing our passports and bar codes to several officials. We were glad we arrived well in advance of our 1:15pm departure time.
It was a short ride to our hotel, the E-Charm (a Chinese hotel chain). It was located in a residential area and tucked away from the business of the city. The hotel staff did not speak English but with the help of a combination of translator apps (they have a funny way of deciding not to work when you need them), we checked in without issue and settled into our room, which was fine sized.
Traveling in a country where very few people speak English can be intense. It adds an extra sprinkle of anxiety to that which is already present simply because you are in a foreign country with new rules and customs and ways of doing things. We also can’t read the language and even when translated into the Roman alphabet, it is not easy to pronounce. Add sometimes glitch-y translator apps (Google doesn’t work here without a VPN) and it can be tiring on the brain. This isn’t to say poor us by any means. We chose to set forth on this adventure. No one is making us do this (something we like to tell each other when things are frustrating or don’t go as planned). It’s just the truth.
Once we were settled into the hotel room, Phil took mercy on me and went to the 7-Eleven and the McDonalds, which were both next door to the hotel, and got us food and a few supplies for the evening while I took a shower. He’s a good one. We would set out to see the city the next day.
Our hotel stay included breakfast, which was conveniently located on our floor. Our first morning we headed down, not sure of what to expect. The woman working the dining room was running a tight ship. She sternly directed us to scan our hotel room key on a plastic cube, then asked for our room number (“Room Number!” she said, in English) and motioned toward the dining room and buffet of food items.
Savory breakfasts are typical in China. I knew this going in. In fact they are common in much of Asia. At home in the U.S., when I am in a steady routine, I am not usually a breakfast person. I’m a several cups of black coffee person and good til lunch or a mid-morning snack. If I do eat breakfast, I usually prefer a sweet one; yogurt with honey, a sweet lil pastry treat, basically anything that pairs well with the aforementioned black coffee. But, when in Rome, or China, as it were, do as the locals do.
Since we are traveling on a budget, we wanted to take full advantage of the included breakfast. And what a breakfast it was. They had a window to the little kitchen where a woman was making steaming bowls of noodles to order (Phil is enjoying his below). This noodle soup with a little meat and veg is a very common Chinese breakfast. There were also dim sum baskets of various sweet and savory buns, plus a large buffet of vegetables, usually cooked with a little meat; hard boiled eggs, sweet potatoes, dumplings, congee (a hot, typically savory, rice porridge) and a few western-style sweet treats, bread, and toaster.
I was very pleased to find that they had an espresso maker as well. It is not very common for hotels to include an actual coffee/espresso maker (this is also true in Europe). Usually it is just a kettle, and while I will drink instant coffee if that’s all there is, I much prefer the real stuff.
During our stay, for breakfast I loaded up on the vegetable offerings, figuring that at least I could guarantee I’d get plenty of nutrition, even if the rest of the day we ate nothing but fried tasty treats (we did not usually do this, but it did happen). That, plus a couple of hard boiled eggs for protein, and a little custard-filled bun, you know, to pair with my coffee.
We set out to see a nearby museum, one we never actually found, but we did happen upon the historic old-town and a very cool opera museum. The museum had all kinds of costumes and information about the history of the opera, as well as a very nice courtyard and outdoor areas. Phil will write about the museum more in detail, but I have posted a few of my favorite pics.
At the museum and in the old town, we saw many women, dressed in traditional Chinese garb, having photo shoots. We think this was partially due to the Chinese New Year celebration still being in full swing. These two young ladies were kind enough to oblige my request for a photo.
The old town was quite busy, but very cute, with a little stream offshoot of the Pearl River and a lake we relaxed by and took refuge from the sun.
We spotted what looked to be a nice restaurant from one side of the little lake, and decided to head that way as our breakfast was wearing off a bit. We entered the restaurant from the busy pedestrian street, but seemed to be on the backside, or not the main entrance. A kind fellow who spoke a little English saw us standing, looking a bit confused, and directed us to another entrance. We followed his instructions and walked around the building and entered into a rather large hall, with a lot going on. It was a large foyer, leading to several different businesses. But I was determined and hungry, so after some looking around, I entered into a dining area (I am still not sure if it was the same restaurant we’d previously tried to enter as it was huge), and went up to a wait staff who directed us to a table. Success!
We ordered up several dim sum offerings. After all, Guanzhou is in the Canton region which is famous for their delicious dim sum. We did, however, order way too much dim sum.
We had a platter of meats: roast goose, pork belly, and roast pork, fried rice, bok choy, steamed buns with BBQ pork, and some other buns than were browned and crispy on each side and had some kind of savory filling. It didn’t matter what the filling was because the bun itself was insanely delicious. Buttery and soft with the crisped parts. They tasted a lot like the salt bread that we had in Korea.
Vowing we would know next time we ordered not to get too much, we agreed we would ask the waitstaff if we were getting too much food. Problem solved (or so we thought).
After eating so much, we needed to walk a bit, so we wandered around the streets of old town for a while. We noticed that all of the street utility boxes (and some of the walls) were often painted with some sort of pretty or silly scene.
Eventually, we happened upon a Buddhist nunnery. It was small and very relaxed and of course, festive for the New Year celebration, with offerings of flowers and fruits to the deities.
We decided to wrap up the day and take a leisurely walk back to the hotel. We wouldn’t need any dinner after our lunch feast. We passed the oddly placed astronaut below (not the only one we saw) on the walk back.
That was just day 1. We had a few more days to explore Guangzhou, including heading to the high rise filled downtown and basking at the Canton tower. Up next: Guangzhou part 2!
Jess Barrington Travels 