Guangzhou Tours

Tuesday April 16^th.

Today we started off having breakfast with our friend Shiyan. It was great to see her again.   We then headed off on a city tour which was fun.

The first stop was the Six Banyan Temple.  This is the oldest Buddhist Temple here and is interesting.  There is a large tower and yes it is leaning.  Kind of the Leaning Tower of Guangzhou.  We saw many people burning incense and making offerings.  Some of the families had the blessing of the children, we along with a couple of other families toured on around while this was going on.  We learned some interesting history and saw some interesting things here.

Next stop was the Chen Academy (Provincial Art Gallery) and it also has some other name.  This was once a school for the Chen family and was turned over to the government some years back and is now maintained by the government.  We have been here several times and the art is always changing.  This was the first time we have been here in warm weather so we saw many flowers and plants.  Very nice.  While we were there we purchased a neat scroll for Shaun’s room and the artist Mr. Chen drew Shaun’s name, the date and location on it and signed it.  This will be a neat keepsake in his room.

 

On the way back to the hotel we had a scheduled stop at a government store where they sell Jade and other items.  There were a couple of key items we were looking for and we managed to find part of what we needed and in any case had a great time seeing all of the things that are not in our budget right now.  Good thing we both enjoy window shopping.   The hard part was keeping little hands inside the stroller and not turning over things that cost lots of money.  But we survived and got out with no broken items.

The afternoon was down time as we had to stay in the room and wait for a phone call with results of Shaun’s TB test.  All clear and we are good to go.   

This afternoon we took group photos which will also be a nice keepsake.  We have made some friends in this group and hope to keep in touch with them.

 

 

Then for the evening we got to do something that we have always wanted to do but never taken advantage of, the Pearl River Dinner Cruise.  There are many lighted buildings, bridges etc. along the Pearl River and it is neat to see.  The weather was less than perfect it was foggy and raining a bit but we still had fun.   You have not lived until you are on a boat loaded with Chinese people that are all hungry and the buffet line opens.  Our guide Grace pushed us into the line and said “welcome to China”  The best way I can describe it is throwing a candy bar on an angry ant hill.   People here fight for their spot in line, a side effect of so many people.  People were pushing and shoving to get in line.  They treated us Westerners a bit better and would hand us plates, chopsticks etc. but it was still a fight.  The food went in a hurry.  This little old lady in front of me piled a huge amount of rice on her plate and then covered that in noodles and then piled everything else above that.  Her plate was as tall as round.  I did not even make it to the dumpling line in time it was wiped out before I got there.

Shaun did wonderfully on the cruise, he got upset a few times but over all was great.  We took him up on the top of the ship for a few minutes when it was not raining and he loved that so much. This boy loves to be outside.

Well it has been a long day so time to log off for tonight.   Tomorrow we spend time with our friend Shiyan and then off to one of our favorite places Shamian Island.  We will shop there and hopefully get to eat at one of our favorite places.

We are missing our girls and ready to get home to see them.  I have never been ready to leave China before but this time I want to get back to the rest of our family.