Saturday, November 14, 2009

Day 1 of GuangZhou

... only another 2 days until we get Ping!!!  YAAAAY!  Until then... gotta find stuff to do to pass the time.  So here are some pictures of us travelling to GuangZhou and walking through some store areas.  (hopefull the order is right... I'm guessing as to how this will all come together)

Kole:  Can't escape Homework... I think one of the reasons he was so excited to come to china was that he would have no homework... WRONG!  :-)  Poor litte guy, doing Math at 3am.

Waiting for China Southern to fly us from Beijing to GuangZhou.  I was quite impressed by the airline, no goats!  And there was a helpful video at the end of the flight how to stretch in your seat while waiting to de-plane.  Of couse had I done the excercies as described in the video, I would have killed the person beside me... oh well.

China... Crowded?  Naaaaaah.

View from the 35th Floor of our Hotel.  Very nice.  Oh so nice!

Roberta and our Guangdong guide - Beckie... ya, doubt thats her real name either.

Oh our hotel room... wait... why is there a crib in the room?!

Arches on an older building.  GuandZhou is a funny place.  It is big (10million population), there is money and business... but the city itself was founded in something like 234 BC.  So it is OLD!  Some of the high rise appartments would be condemded by Canadian standards.  And it a paradoxial mix of the old world with the new... here stands a brand new sky scrapper appartment building, yet on the roof, are shanties built out of sticks and grass... curious.  Of couse, if this picture is lined up with say me playing guitar, then that will make no sense what I just said.

Guy carrying Rice on a bike.

Lots of little stores... lets call 'em Micro stores.  And each store seems to sell 1 thing, and only one thing.  You have a suitcase store, a vinyl store, a light store, a bamboo ladder store, a hat store... again, very curious.

A back alley...

... the Chinese version of a Hot Dog Vendor...

... a lighting store...

... Caulking Store... the whole time I was looking at this, I was stuck with Weird Al's song "Spatula City" going on in my head.  Although, it WAS funny at the time!  And I"m sure that they DO have a Spatula Store.

Kole and a Stone Lion...

... another back alley...

... groceries store... crazy small! 

... messed up old window.  Sadly, window belongs to the GuangZhou commercial bank.  I would have expected nicer windows on such an important bank.

Some musical instruments.  I've got more pictures of more different kinds.  They have nice guitars there for CHEAP!  Crazy good stuff!

... oh yes, and they had shoes... bah...

... still diggin all the back alleys...

... where they boil tea... apparently... outside... on the sidewalk...

... just another guy on a bike, darting through traffic.


3 comments:

  1. Oh the memories of Guangzhou.... the people, the traffic, the toy market... and Becky too! Enjoy every moment!

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  2. Awesome pics! Keep them coming. Safe and happy travels!

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  3. Great pics!! Can't wait to see you with your beautiful daughter! Please say hello to Becky from "The Clows". We adopted Fu Qi (pronounced Foo Kay) in February of this year. We loved Becky!!

    Looking forward to reading more!
    Carolyn

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