Hello Guangzhou

After what was a really great, yet slightly intense few days spent with newly discovered family in Shenzhen, I headed to Guangzhou for a few days to meet back up with my fellow Tianjin ELA corridor mate Beth to chill out and celebrate her birthday. Maybe it was the fact that I was super glad to be back in China, or maybe there was just some kind of innate subconscious love of Guangzhou in me considering my family are from Southern China - but I really like Guangzhou because there was some sense of familiarity with it. We spent around 4 days there, and this is what we got up to...

一。Birthday Beth

When it comes to birthdays I always like to put in effort, even with the smallest of gestures, to make someone feel special. Beth is such a happy go lucky person and luckily for me, it doesn't take much to please her. Having just done a few trips to Malaysia and the Philippines, she was glad to get some rest time in a comfortable bed and catch up with what I'd been up to in Vietnam. Along with being glad to be back in China, I was also secretly really glad to be reunited with Beth. It's great to have a travel companion who has similar tastes and is on the same page as you for most things. It makes making decisions about what to do or eat a great deal easier - I'm all about that fuss free life.

On the morning of Beth's birthday, I snuck out in the hope of not waking her (but there was no need to worry, she was dead to the world after an exhausting few days travelling) to source some birthday cake for her to wake up to. A scout around a local Tesco (yep, believe it or not, they exist here in China too) and all the nearby bakeries, I came back to the hotel with some cake and peach ring sweets, a favourite of ours since moving to Tianjin, knocking on the door much to Beth's surprise.

Happy wake up call

The rest of the day was really chilled out and easy going. We went shopping, had a modest meal of Korean food and later headed to The Four Seasons Hotel for a cheeky birthday cocktail at Tian Bar on the 99th floor. Tian bar would have given us an awesome view over Guangzhou, including the Canton Tower's rainbow light show were it not for the awful smog that engulfed the skies. No matter though, we were both highly content with our boozy cocktails and observing a number of awkward first dates which were going on around us.

Classy cocktails were later followed up with some more drinks in the 'classy' establishment, Perry's. We're talking student bar vibes here. No complaints though, we had a great night after being invited by some friendly local Guangzhou-ers to join their table and play dice with them all evening. They even put us in a taxi with a post night out yakult drink to ensure our health was tip top on the way home. They're friendly people in Guangzhou, very friendly indeed.

二。Van Gogh Age

The following day, Beth and I hit up the Van Gogh Age Exhibition at the Guangzhou Opera House. I'd been dying to catch a similar exhibition in Beijing back in November but failed to find the time to do so. I felt like it was great timing when I found out there would be one in Guangzhou when I was around too.

“没有比爱人更为真确的艺术”

“Nothing more true than the love of art"

The whole exhibition revolved around digital projections of Van Gogh's paintings in the most vibrant ways. Each painting was animated, making aspects like the painter's yellow flower fields sway in the breeze, or the winds in his starry starry night whirl around the sun. It was a peaceful way to spend an afternoon. We ended up spending quite some time in each room, watching the same animations over and over in case we missed something the first time.

Van Gogh has a special resonance with me. I'm by no means an artist, but if you hadn't guessed by now, I do enjoy heading to art galleries and catching up with the latest in contemporary art. I'm not sure where that side of me all began but I have a vivid memory of being in primary school and being asked to paint our own versions of Van Gogh's Sunflowers. Seeing them so animated at the Van Gogh Age exhibition brought little memories like that back to me, so I'm really happy I got to catch the exhibition in the end.

三。Canton Tower

After a relaxing evening soaking up some art culture, we stuck around nearby the Opera House as the evening drew closer to enjoy the Canton Tower lightshow. Unlike the night before, there was far less smog, so we could actually see the rainbow lasers light up the sky and turn everyone around us into selfie taking zombies. You do have to hand it to Guangzhou though - boy does the city know how to put on a light show from one of the world's tallest free standing towers...

四。Xiaozhou Village

Yep, I said it before - I love me some art. So when I read that there was an entire village within Guangzhou known for being the home to local artists, I knew I had to visit. Enter Xiaozhou.

Mao mural

We took an hour long bus ride out of the city centre to the village. Upon entering Xiazhou, you feel like you're in a completely different world and would never believe you were in such a cosmopolitan city. The fruit markets and local people teamed with the lived in vibe of the whole place contrasts completely with the high rise buildings and fancy hotels of the city centre. We took a walk around the little bridges, got lost down alley ways whilst stumbling across quaint little coffee houses and handmade goods shops.

Oyster House

There's a few cool places to tick off the list whilst at Xiaozhou, and luckily they're all well sign posted. One of the more peculiar places is the oyster shell house. Yep you guessed it, the entire outer walls of the house are covered in old oyster shells. Why? I can't be sure but it's definitely quirky, which speaks volumes about the village itself. There are temples and art studios. In one, I was able to peer through a small crack to see hundreds of statues, some of Mao busts too. I really felt like I was discovering the secrets of an abandoned town.

Getting lost in temples 

Upon another turn, you come across a street which is home to student artists who practise their sketching and painting skills in workshops. For those looking to stock up on art goods, Xiaozhou Village seemed to have everything you needed. I couldn't help but wonder what the place would have been like had it not been the holidays. For the most part, there weren't many people around but I liked the peacefulness of the village. If I'm ever back in Guangzhou, I'd certainly like to visit again and see what else there is to be discovered.


五。Baiyun Mountain

After a relaxing morning at Xiaozhou village, Beth and I decided to spend the afternoon of our last day in Guangzhou climbing to the top of Baiyun Mountain. The park itself was pretty huge and it takes a bit of a walk to get to the main stair route to the top. Getting to the top of the mountain wasn't quite as hard as both of us anticipated (it was still a struggle though). When you get to the top, you are given panoramic views of Guangzhou, making the tiring ascent pretty worth it.

Apparently there's opportunities for bungee jumping off the top of Baiyun Mountain, although we didn't stumble across it. It could have been cool to say that I'd done bungee jumping in China, but the fact I was wearing a dress probably meant it wouldn't be my brightest idea, even if we did find the place to do it. 

At the top of the mountain stands a sign pointing to Beijing, indicating it was 1900km away. It was moments like this that showed me how far away from 'home' I was and made me realise just how huge China really is. I was literally a thousand miles away!

Still, I was ready for the next adventure and the final few destinations on my Spring Festival travels. next stop: the ever popular Guilin and Yangshuo!