Guangzhou

During our visit Hong Kong we had a few extra days we didn’t know what to do with so we decided to go on an organised day tour to Guangzhou in China. We had an excellent guide who took us on a big commuter ferry to the boarder and were then driven through the area on a coach, we acquired a very informative guide at the boarder who had a lot of history on China. The thing with organised tours is that you don’t get much time to stop and look and always on the go so its hard to appreciate a new place when you are on a tight schedule. As a result you feel like you are looking though glass at a version of a city and it people.

When we were allowed off our bus we visited the local markets, saw some of the Terracotta Army statues in a museum, which whilst they were behind glass were still incredible to stand near and feel the history come off them, a zoo which was so sad, such a difference to the zoos in Australia I could barely look at the animals, it was a bit distressing. We did see a Panda and a lesser panda which were cute and happily munching away on bamboo. Then, we were taken to Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, a very intricate and enormous concert hall, and our last stop was the Temple of Six Banyan Trees, a peaceful and quite place surrounded by walls keeping the bustle of the city out. During all this is was unbelievably hot, thank goodness for air conditioning! Then back along the high speed rail network into Hong Kong.

It was a great entry into China, I hope to explore the mainland a little more someday without being with a bus load of tourists.