Becoming Nomads: Four Days of Guangzhou (Canton) Touring

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Our five days in Guangzhou were wet and a bit challenging. We are in the middle of the summer monsoon season. It took us almost the whole time to get our Chinese footing. Little signage is in English, although our VPN is working well on our phone and PCs, the maps and such that come up are in Chinese. Thankfully most young people have a decent grasp of the English language and of course, smiles, handshakes, and bows create an immediate connection. Most tourist information centers have at least one person who speaks some English...and then of course there are the high end retail shops where you can usually get some assistance.

Our colds are raging again...just like in Russia almost a year ago, we have caught a persistent virus that just won't let go. That along with the thunderstorms and high humidity made for a dreary first day. We set our sights on the huge train station a few blocks away. The Guangzhou South Railway Station is new, purported to be the largest in the world, and it did not disappoint us. It was packed and seemed endless.

Our first challenge was getting some cash. I had remembered from six years ago how difficult it was to use ATMs in China and had hoped it would be different now. It took visiting three different locations before we succeeded and then our bank card was still useless. Thankfully we were able to get the cash advance to work on one of our credit cards. We are learning quickly that most of the small vendors only accept cash, or are unwilling to process a foreign card...so we got enough out to cover our hotel expense, anticipated meals, metro, and sightseeing...at least for a few days. The next challenge was to get our train tickets for the rest of our China adventure. They still have to be printed. With our email confirmations and passports in hand we stood in line at the ticket counter. I was amazing... with just a confirmation number and our passports the machine spit them out as if they knew us personally...finally, some success!

We boarded the subway system and headed into the city center. Pretty crowded for a Sunday, the ride took us 40 minutes with 14 stops. We "chatted" with folks on the train. It was a nice ride...fast, clean, comfortable.

Our first visit was to the Tomb of the Nanyue King. A great museum was built around the tomb discovered in 1980...sort of China's King Tut. These are a collection of ceramic pillows. Yup, they used these "rocks" to support their heads while they slept and there is no evidence that were was a cushion between them and the porcelain.

These are architectural models of tomb buildings that were placed in the king's tomb. None of them were a replica of his tomb. The signs said that his was a way to preserved the architectural technology of the time for future generations. Interesting.

The treasures found in the tomb were on display in a different building. Beautiful jade carvings and a little bit of gold...definitely not King Tut.

Ancient BBQ grill.

Musical instruments.

Skylight over on of the actual tomb rooms.

Gold seal of the king.

The centerpiece of the collection is this burial suit made of jade pendants held together with silk treads. The body was mummified and then encased in this bruial shroud.

The actual tomb.

For lunch we stopped in at a Muslim Halal restaurant. From this extensive menu...nothing over $3 a plate, we enjoyed three choices.

We were so impressed that we decided to get a bit adventurous tomorrow.

We climed the hill in the nearby park and visited the Five Ram Statue.

Enjoyed a cooler walk through the park's canopy. It was over 90^ today so this was a bit more tolerable. Once back in the sun it was HOT and HUMID.

The ancient city wall dating back almost 2,000 years.

This tower is over 600 years old and was the seat of the city government into the 1800's. It is now a musuem.

Beautiful Canton Porcelain bowl.

Embroidered silk robe.

Views of the city from the top of the tower. We wandered around a bit more weaving in and out of the city streets and alleyways. We arrived back home with 6.5 miles under our belt and a lot of stairs.

Our second day of touring took us to to significant historical sites. The first was the Temple of the Six Banyon Trees. It has a grand central pagoda and several small temples. Totally Buddhist we got there at the time of the feeding of the poor. Many of the locals come here daily for a substantial meal prepared by the monks. It was peaceful and the trees were lovely.

Our next stop was the Clen Clan Ancestral Hall. Now an art museum, it was the traditional guest house for visiting dignitaries to Canton. The complex consisted of a large meeting hall and then several separate lodging buildings. The collection was very nice...the carvings were magnificent. The most impressive part was the building itself with it amazing amount of prorcelian gods, critters, and dignitaries adorning every rooftop, cable, and pillar.

Beautiful gardens between the buildings...all enclosed withing a high exterior wall.

A little "Mao" goes a long way and there was only one room devoted to him.

Hand carved fish. nets, and traps...wow.

This painting is actually an embroidery.

A wooden carved panel gold leafed for dramatic effect. This is a modern piece done by a local renowned wood carver.

The ivory collection was magnificent and I was instantly caught up in the intricacy and quality of work...only shortly thereafter to be overcome by the realization of the number of elephants that were killed to collect the ivory.

On our last day we once again did the one hour subway ride into the city center, this time to visit both the provincial museum and the tower. The Canton Tower is now the third largest structure in the world, second to Tokyo's Sky Tower and the Dubai Tower. We went up to the top and enjoyed some pretty awesome views during a break in the latest thunderstorm. Our timing was great and we spent a bit longer up top than we had planned. The architecture in this city is quite unique.

To keep the tower from swaying large tanks of water are filled and the water moved back and forth to counter the movement of the building.

Before visiting the musuem we popped into the city library. The building was awesome with a huge glass interior atrium.

The museum is an architectural beauty, built within the last decade, its exterior was overwhelming. The rains had subsided by the time we got there and the sky was clear...giving us a great photo.

And true to the the online reviews, the museum was massive and the collection was small. Beautiful porcelain and wood carvings were spread out to fill the space. There was enough room for display ten times as many artifacts. China certainly has them...why are they so hidden from the public...especially when such a magnificent building was designed to display them.