広州第２番
I skipped out early on the 2nd day of the conference to hit up a bank and do at least some sightseeing in Guangzhou before I leave the next day.
After searching out a bank to change some yen into yuan, I walked a little further towards the nearest subway station. I can't say I like this part of Guangzhou very much, next to Chongqing, maybe my least favorite Chinese city? I was hoping the downtown would be a little nicer.
The subway is almost exactly the same as the one in Shenzhen (which is a bit of knock-off of the Hong Kong subway). Clean and efficient. The only problem was that there was this kid on the train sitting near me that kept sneezing and his mother never told him to cover his mouth. SARS and that pig virus on my mind, I decided to switch seats.
I finally found a nice place, a park downtown (I think it was called Central Park) in front of the city government. Since it was a saturday afternoon, a lot of people were out, including a bunch with birds.
Since it said 'Guangzhou City Government' on the sign, I assume this is like City Hall or something. Note the people playing hacky-sack in the foreground. There were about 10 groups like this on this side of the park. They were using the ball w/ the feather on it (shuttle cock type deal I guess).
As the video shows, they kicked ass at it.
Nice example of some communist era public artwork (such as this and this one). How often do you find guns and bare breasts in the same statue?
Speaking of guns. I found this humorous slogan in the bathroom of a fancy mall I stopped at for lunch. It was distracting, since I stopped to read it I almost missed. :-O
Back on the street I came across this guy cooking lamb on a cart on the side of the road. from his cap and general non-chinese looks, its likely he's from Xinjiang.
I walked down Beijing Road, which has been 'pedestrianized' - as the signs advertise. Its been turned into a pedestrian only shopping street for several blocks. Apparently when they were redoing the street they discovered the ruins of the original Ming and Qing dynasty roadbeds and several gateways through the old city walls. They have them excavated and made visible through glass flooring. (brought to you by the Coca-Cola company).
As with most Pizza Huts in China, this one had a huge line waiting for a table. people can't get eough.
In one of the many arcades lining this street they had a big theater complex, featuring... yes thats right, more of Dan's new movie. The keen observer of the chinese on the sign will note that they actually had a PR event at this theater last week. They had Dan and Miriam's signature on a full wall display inside. Doh, if only I'd come a week earlier I could have met a real live HK movie star. :-P
Not to be outdone, this theater down the street had them up there with Tom Cruise.
Sony Ericsson finally smartened up and decided to put the Walkman badge on one of their MP3 phones! great. Sony is learning! But someone how I doubt this model or anything like it will ever make it to Japan... the phone companies won't let you put your own music on their phones if they at all help it. doh.
Very attractional
Night view from my hotel window was better. There was a huge thunderstorm this night, but I wasn't able to get any lighting flashes on my camera unfortunately. :-(
After searching out a bank to change some yen into yuan, I walked a little further towards the nearest subway station. I can't say I like this part of Guangzhou very much, next to Chongqing, maybe my least favorite Chinese city? I was hoping the downtown would be a little nicer.
The subway is almost exactly the same as the one in Shenzhen (which is a bit of knock-off of the Hong Kong subway). Clean and efficient. The only problem was that there was this kid on the train sitting near me that kept sneezing and his mother never told him to cover his mouth. SARS and that pig virus on my mind, I decided to switch seats.
I finally found a nice place, a park downtown (I think it was called Central Park) in front of the city government. Since it was a saturday afternoon, a lot of people were out, including a bunch with birds.
Since it said 'Guangzhou City Government' on the sign, I assume this is like City Hall or something. Note the people playing hacky-sack in the foreground. There were about 10 groups like this on this side of the park. They were using the ball w/ the feather on it (shuttle cock type deal I guess).
As the video shows, they kicked ass at it.
Nice example of some communist era public artwork (such as this and this one). How often do you find guns and bare breasts in the same statue?
Speaking of guns. I found this humorous slogan in the bathroom of a fancy mall I stopped at for lunch. It was distracting, since I stopped to read it I almost missed. :-O
Back on the street I came across this guy cooking lamb on a cart on the side of the road. from his cap and general non-chinese looks, its likely he's from Xinjiang.
I walked down Beijing Road, which has been 'pedestrianized' - as the signs advertise. Its been turned into a pedestrian only shopping street for several blocks. Apparently when they were redoing the street they discovered the ruins of the original Ming and Qing dynasty roadbeds and several gateways through the old city walls. They have them excavated and made visible through glass flooring. (brought to you by the Coca-Cola company).
As with most Pizza Huts in China, this one had a huge line waiting for a table. people can't get eough.
In one of the many arcades lining this street they had a big theater complex, featuring... yes thats right, more of Dan's new movie. The keen observer of the chinese on the sign will note that they actually had a PR event at this theater last week. They had Dan and Miriam's signature on a full wall display inside. Doh, if only I'd come a week earlier I could have met a real live HK movie star. :-P
Not to be outdone, this theater down the street had them up there with Tom Cruise.
Sony Ericsson finally smartened up and decided to put the Walkman badge on one of their MP3 phones! great. Sony is learning! But someone how I doubt this model or anything like it will ever make it to Japan... the phone companies won't let you put your own music on their phones if they at all help it. doh.
Very attractional
Night view from my hotel window was better. There was a huge thunderstorm this night, but I wasn't able to get any lighting flashes on my camera unfortunately. :-(
posted by ラフィ at 1:49 AM
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