Saturday, January 5, 2013

China - December 2012

In early December, I stepped foot in China for the first time. Despite the worst flight of my life (no in-flight entertainment, fluorescent food, various broken bits of the plane lying about underfoot), the week was wonderful.  Guangzhou is an industrial city less visited by tourists, but we had a jolly time exploring, and mostly by foot.  We attracted a lot of attention as we were often the only non-Chinese people around.  It was fun to see how delighted people became when they realized one of us spoke Mandarin! My main impressions of the city: the food is amazing, the tiny alleyways exotic and mysterious, and everything is delightfully cheap (our apartment was about $30/day).  On our last day in China, we traveled outside the city to quickly check out Macau and Hong Kong.  Seven days was a tad too short to do everything on our list--looks like we'll have to go back someday.


Rainy Hotel View

Palm Trees

Guangzhou Pearl River

Architecture

High-Density Housing

Tea Market

Market Street

Market Street 2

Portal

This is China

Stuffed Noodle Street Food

Delicious Egg and Biscuit Street Food

Savory Pancake Street Food

Archway

Christmas in China

Vine-Covered Walkway

Traditional Porches

Ornate Railings

Tuk-Tuk

Restaurant at Night

Outdoor Mall Giant Poster

Housing



Sugarcane Juice

Tree-Lined Street

Macau!

Part of the Macau "Strip"

The Hong Kong Skyline