Nov 8, 2007

Nov 8, 2007

Arrived in Guangzhou in the wee small hours. Wonderful panorama from my bedroom window on the 36th floor. Huge skyscrapers giving onto what looks like a mountainous landscape, but on looking harder, the mountains are just part of a park and the city stretches way into the distance all around them.

The streets  appear to be an endless complex of multi level flyovers. At several points last night it seemed more like driving through a multi-storey car park than a road system, with the driver having to zigzag between rows of concrete pillars. I would never be able to drive here.

Breakfast was dim sum with chickens feet amongst other things. Rather chewy.

	Made it to Guangzhou. Nine hour delay to flight. Spent six in a rather run down airport hotel but finally took off at midnight and got to the hotel at 3:00 am. I'm in a room on the 36th floor and this is the Swindell classic "view from my bedroom window" photo. My father took such pictures all over the World. Few images can be of less interest to an audience.
I gave my second talk today and all seemed to go well. I had to pare it down to just an hour and a half. My voice is gone. I think they liked it and talk is that I might be asked to come back next year. That would be a wonderful compliment.
	Lunch and dinner were in the 47th floor revolving restaurant. I am a sucker for these, I love watching the scene slowly change as you eat. At lunch time we looked out over this view, which was very hazy. At night you looks out over an illuminated cityscape. Speaking of haze, we heard that Chengdu was blanketed in fog today and no flights could get in or out. If our plane had been delayed any longer we would have been stuck there for at least another day. Makes waiting 9 hours seem trivial.
	After dinner I was taken for a cruise on the Pearl River to see the lights. Quite extraordinary. All of the lights on the buildings are computer controlled so that they can be used as huge display screens. They either have geometric patterns running over them, or more often scenes of the coming Olympics in Beijing next year. You cannot escape the Olympic promotion, it is everywhere.
	It really is hard to photograph the lights. Some of the buildings on an island are old European Buildings of the Edwardian period when this was a concession trade port. My guide, a delightful young lady called Zeng Wei (English name Azure), told me that the government is starting to wake up to the value of some of its old buildings, but hardly anything is left from before the Second World War, despite this city having a history stretching back well over 2,000 years. Azure is responsible for the English language edition of the official Guangzhou website at http://english.gz.gov.cn/vfs/web/gzeng_new/gzeng_new.html Go and have a look. I gather I am off to see some Imperial tombs in the morning before flying back to Beijing at lunch time. I shall be exhausted by the time I get home on Saturday.

Nov 9-10

This section will be un-illustrated as I haven't had a chance to photograph more. After breakfast I was rushed to try to do some shopping as there wasn't time for the visit to the tombs. The driver got lost several times, but eventually we arrived at the main antiques market, which was not where I really wanted to go. even the smallest porcelain item was several hundred pounds. Not souvenirs. I found an art supply shop and bought myself a set of Chinese brushes, a stick of ink and a lidded ink stone. You grind the ink stick in a little water on the stone to create the black calligraphy ink. will try when I get home. Flight back to Beijing was without incident. The taxi drive back to the hotel took 2 hours because firstly it was the rush hour, and secondly the driver was new and got hopelessly lost. We passed the extraordinary looking Olympic stadium on the way. Called a bird's nest and I can see why.

In the evening I took myself for a walk as it was too late to go right into town. walked for about two hours in the cold night. The streets are quiet and Beijing lacks the buzz of Guangzhou. I saw a group of elderly people very formally dancing in two rows to the sound of a drum and cymbals. They each had two fans with long loose edges which they waved before and behind in time to the rhythm. A group of younger people had lined up slightly away from them and were dancing quite differently, but to the same music.  All were in their ordinary street clothes and people just seemed to join in when they saw what was going on. This was all happening in the parking area in front of a big shopping mall. A fairly fierce looking policeman was standing on the steps, frowning at them. Authority?

Further on I saw squads of young soldiers being drilled in front of what look like and urban barracks. They were grinning and waving at me, but snapped to attention when an officer shouted at them. Other young Beijingers are trying so, so hard to look just cool. curious 1950's baby-doll dress sense amongst the girls. The boys clearly want to look like Japanese manga cartoon anti-heroes.

Back at the hotel I couldn't resist the Wiener Schintzel. I am something of a connoisseur of the WS and like to see what non-Wieners make of it. This one was very good, but they wouldn't have recognised it in alt Wien.

Nov 10

Back at Beijing Airport. Only half an hour when you know the way. I think the driver charged me double but so what. He needs it more than me. I have loaded myself down with all of the goodies in the airport shop that I didn't have time to buy in town. Hope they let me on with it all!

All being well, if things go to plan, I may be back here in the spring next year. Shall come with enthusiasm.

TTFN

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