Travel in China - The First Days II

My first day in Guangzhou was spent walking.  I'm not sure how far we walked but we were on the go for about 7 hours.  Walking around a city on all that hard pavement and concrete is hard on feet, legs and backs.

Guangzhou Train station

We used the subway to make our way to the train station to pick up our tickets.  Those would get us to Tibet.  Arranging a visit to Tibet is a complicated process and difficult, if not impossible, to arrange on one's own.  Fortunately, our trekking company in Nepal had an agent in Lhasa who was able to look after all those details: train tickets, travel permits, guides while in Lhasa, accommodation, and so on.

Lots of walking interspersed with subway rides to get us to different areas.  The subways are crowded.  Standing room only.  Just a great flow of people in and out, up and down the escalators, but it keeps moving.

This section of the river has basically a wide park-like promenade along it on both sides.  We believe it stretches for about 25 km, not that we're going to be able to confirm that.....

This is certainly the modern China.  Many stores, much merchandise, loud music in some stores, lights, glitz...  although it's certainly not all like that.  There are quiet parks.  I haven't seem a single motorcycle.  I understand they are banned here.  Maybe just in Guangzhou?  Many electric bikes.  Also electric carts.  Lots of cars.  New cars.

Also Buddhist temples.  We've seen a couple.  One was brand new.  Many adherents chanting and burning incense.  Evidence of ancestor worship.

Although Joel and I are on our own during the day, we meet a colleague of his for supper.  Her name is Jingyan.  That means "Peking swallow".  The story behind that is her father was from Peking (now Beijing) and moved to Guangzhou, a "migration" to the south, like the swallows.  She was writing this out in Chinese characters for me in my book as we talked.

Speaking of names, according to Jingyan, women do not take their husband's family name when they marry, but keep their birth name. 

Lots of police, but what I think we're seeing are traffic cops.  Unarmed.  I think I've seen one armed police man and that was last night.  Many security cameras.  Lots and lots of people.  Even last night at 9:30, there were groups out in the parks, walking, dancing to music, riding bikes. 

At night, the river ferries are all brightly lit up.  With many tall buildings featuring bright, colorful lights, it's quite a scene as you walk along the river at night. 

There is some English here and there.  I've seen some English street names on road signs.  KFC, Subway and the Golden Arches are here.   Other than the numbers for prices, it's pretty much impossible to understand anything, although I now know the Chinese characters for exit and entrance.

In the morning we go to the main train station to leave for Lhasa.  That will be a trip of about 5000 km in 55 hours.  As with many things here, it's hard to know what to expect.

The trip continues.