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GuangzhouTrip200808

Guangzhou Trip August 2008 - September 2008

A Brief Note About Time and Slovenliness

Guangzhou is 15 hours ahead of Washington, and as this trip will mostly be spent in Lijiang, (whose timezone I don't yet know), I will avoid complications about time by sticking to local time. I also won't promise to take such copious notes and maybe not so many pictures as last time, since as of the start of this trip, I *still* haven't even finished putting up the pictures from the last one which was over a year and a half ago. But I'll see what I can do.

A Brief Note about Pictures

This trip, we have one camera between us, and it's one I know how to use. No promises on the timeliness of posting anything, though. I closed on a house a week before this trip and spent most of that time moving out of my previous apartment before the lease was up. When I get back, I have a lot of moving to do (from storage into the house).

2008-08-31 Washington (Seattle) Time

In order to dodge the huge airport parking fee, I found a private lot with a shuttle service to the airport which cost half as much. Despite allowing all kinds of extra time when setting out on the trip, I managed to waste an hour turning around and around on the highways trying to find the place. I still made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare.

Interestingly, at Sea-Tac International Airport they now have separate security lines for "experienced travelers" - people who know to take their laptops out, their shoes off, and to empty their pockets and have their passports out, and lines for other passengers who are either first time fliers, aren't too swift, like the attention inherent in being told what to do, have time to kill, or whatever. The "experienced traveler" line was short and quick!

But, that was the last quick part. I got on the plane, in my hand-picked seat, and we sat around for 2 hours while they were unable to start one of the engines, they had to go back to the gate and get a diagnosis, the mechanics said it was a broken starter motor (something about the shaft sheared through), and we had to have it replaced. All this after boarding 15 minutes ahead of the posted time.

2008-09-01 Tokyo Time

So, after leaving 2 hours late, we arrived at Narita Airport in Tokyo only 1 hour late. But they'd thoughtfully begun boarding my connecting flight to Guangzhou early, too. Needless to say that it was on the opposite side of the airport, and they were announcing my name in desperation on the intercom by the time I got through security. Someone actually caught up with me and ran along side me to validate my visa for China, and then they stopped me at the gate to the Guangzhou flight to search me *again*. Then they let me board. After which, we sat around for an extra hour waiting for them to fix *this* plane, too. But we were never told specifically what was wrong.

2008-09-01 Guangzhou Time

We made it to the Guangzhou area ahead of time, despite the delay, and then had to make up for it by "trying some delaying vectors" - pilot talk for flying around in circles to waste time until the thunderstorm over the airport had passed or at least lightened up. We were supposed to arrive at 11pm, and it was after midnight when I finally found Buttercup. I have to say that there was very little delay once we got off the plane. Cursory passport/visa check, short wait for baggage, and the security check was to have everything x-rayed briefly. It's certainly a breeze to arrive so late! I waited in line like 4 hours in Shanghai, when I arrived during the day.

Buttercup was waiting for me outside, and Guangzhou reminded me a little of Beijing on my trip there in August - hot and raining. We took a bus to the hotel, and I didn't get to see very much through the dark and wet.

2008-09-02 Guangzhou Time

Couldn't really sleep, and by the time we got to the hotel, it was 9/2 anyway. Today's big job is to go to the US Consulate (near the hotel) to get a form notarized for the house closing. Later, I'll explain why we are getting something notarized in Guangzhou...

Getting stuff notarized at the consulate was smooth as silk, and so that was the business, and now it's a vacation!

I met Buttercup's dad today! I've never met her family before, though I did briefly see her mom (and say ni3 hao3) over an MSN Messenger video chat once.

I'm not clear how much sightseeing we'll be doing today, but Guangzhou is supposed to have great food! After so many airline meals, no complaints! Actually, the meals on Northwest Airlines aren't that bad. Just difficult to eat in the tiny space one has in which to do it. And the bread is much too crumbly.

So, Buttercup's dad was nice. We had to communicate through Buttercup as it's been about a year and a half since my last Mandarin class, and while I still retain a lot of individual words and such, I'm not up to much conversation. Still, I'm surprised I recall as much as I do given what a busy year it's been and how little time I spent studying. This is good motivation for when I get back, though.

We went to lunch at a nice restaurant whose name I didn't catch. We had dim sum (though without the carts), and it was delicious. And, we won some free fresh vegetables to take home with us. No joke! There's a picture!

Dinner Theater

When dinner time rolled around, we went to a nice place that was well recommended. The menu was impressively provided with feet and faces, sea monsters, and other things one wouldn't find in a Chinese restaurant in the mall. Buttercup asked the waiter for recommendations, and he recommended roast duck and carrot juice. The carrot juice came, along with a conversation like this:

2008-09-03 Guangzhou Time

The big goal is to get to the airport to head to Lijiang. No big excitement this morning. Just getting to the airport, grabbing breakfast, lying to Kunming, waiting in a waiting area and then flying to Lijiang.

One thing I will observe is that there were far less shenanigans on the Chinese run flights than on the American run ones. People pretty much get in their seats and stay there. Sometimes people switch if there is room, but there is a lot less whining, jumping up and done to get at luggage, pestering the flight crew for non-standard stuff. Also, granted that this is a small sample, but there didn't seem to be any major mechanical problems delaying takeoff as both of my Northwest flights had coming here.

2008-09-03 Lijiang Time

We arrived in the afternoon in the rain, and took a fairly long bus ride to the new town area, and then a cab to the old town area. The old town area, typical of vacation spots here seems impenetrable to motor vehicles. This makes them quite strollable, but it also tells me that it's impossible to pack light enough to make the schlep to the hotel much fun. Next trip, I'm going to wear the same clothes the whole time and carry my laptop and medicine. Screw this heavy suitcase crap.

The first hotel we ventured to was pretty nice on the outside, but had the disadvantage of ceilings too low to stand upright under. Buttercup found another place "nearby" which is pretty nice. We had dinner at a local place, and it was tasty. How many of *YOU* can say you've eaten roast yak? We can! Here, it's called mao2 niu2 (牦牛). The taste is a bit different from American beef, but every bit as good.

We walked around the shops a bit until travel soreness overtook us, and retired to the hotel. I'm still noticing that Klingon trend in hotel beds - they aren't much different from sleeping on the floor in terms of comfort. The place is REALLY quiet at night, except for the occasional cat fight and one confused rooster.

Still, it's very pretty here, and there are a lot of touristy shopping possibilities - a lot of craft shops, in particular. Also, a lot of restaurants. I noticed a Mexican restaurant, actually. There was also a place called the Prague Cafe, which maintains a foreign book exchange. I noticed on their shelves several books in Hebrew and one about Seattle, among many others that were unfamiliar to me.

2008-09-04 Lijiang Time

Among the sights this morning were rain, a tasty breakfast, and a bunch of wandering around old town. One of the stores had in its window what appeared to be an authentic carved human skull!

After more wandering, we found some touristy areas, including one with some water wheels everyone feels obliged to take pictures in front of. Later, Buttercup bought a fruit from a woman with a pile of them. It is made of a zillion seeds, each with a tiny self-containted pulp capsule, thus giving maximum seed spitting possibilities. Actually, when first opened, the fruit looks a bit like a brain.

One of the neat features of the area is that the vast majority of China's ethnic minorities are represented in this province. And the largest of these, the Na Xi have a still-living pictographic language that their religious scriptures are written in. There are also a lot of murals around the town, and a lot of places where signs are written in Na Xi and Mandarin (and maybe English, too).

Also interesting is that like Tongli, this is a water town. Canals flow through, and there are arrangements of pools in threes here and there. The pool furthest upstream is to get drinking water from. The next one downstream from that is to wash vegetables. The one furthest downstream is for washing clothes.

Late in the morning, we climbed up the hilly part of town and found some spots where you could enjoy views of the town and the entire valley it's in. Also, you could enjoy the therapeutic pleasures of sweating and being out of breath. Now, as the underexercised and overweight American, I'm used to this, but it was a positive pleasure to see other people, all Chinese or at least Asian and Mandarin-speaking puffing, sweating and complaining more than I was.

Later, we went to the Prague Cafe for lunch, which in Buttercup's case was cheesecake. I had eggs and garlic toast. When they say "garlic toast", they aren't kidding! It was awesome! And it wasn't like American toast. Picture one slab of bread proportioned a bit bigger than regular US bread, but a bit thicker than a Belgian waffle. And now, don't think of restaurant garlic bread. Think THICK layer of butter and minced garlic. I haven't had anything described as garlic-something that lived up to it so well since the fresh garlic pizza at Mike's Pizza Adobe in Schenectady! The mocha cake and iced orange tea were just fine, too!

After lunch, we went back to see the place with the skull and take a look inside. Lots of interesting stuff in there, actually. And that wasn't the only skull! There was another inside, several carved skull caps (just the curved top of the skull), whatever appeared to be a couple of shallow goblets made of skull caps, and most of a human femur with a silver cap on the uphill knobby end. There's a few things you won't see at the mall in the US!

Next, we shopped, and as before, Buttercup "tai4 gui4 le" Greene left a path of haggling ruin behind her, and no doubt many shopkeepers' children will starve tonight.

There was a cultural display (like a mini-museum) about life in Lijiang and the Na Xi. In it, I found a plaque which clarified the whole fishing-with-birds thing we saw in Tongli. It seems the birds are cormorants, and it used to be typical for each family to have one. It turns out that the reason the birds don't just keep all the fish they catch is that they have string tied around their necks tightly enough that they can swallow little fish, but not big ones. These they spit out for the fisher family to keep. Live and learn!

In our continuing explorations, we saw a traditional dance, in native costume. Also, some of locals ride horses and ponies (and cowboy hats). We even saw some later walking their horses dow the street in new town.

Also, I got a close up look at a vehicle that uses an odd engine with external belts. It was probably something along these lines I'd seen pulling the farm carts on previous trips.

Also, in one shop, we found a Mao revolutionary alarm clock, in working order. Turned out we found another in another store. Still, awfully neat. There was a surprising amount of Che Guevara merchandise for sale here, too.

For dinner, we went to a place in new town that specializes in hot pot beef ribs. That's all they serve. Though you do get some choice of vegetables. Buttercup enjoyed it, though hot pot and bone-fragment-in meat isn't really my thing.

We headed back to the hotel to relax after that.