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Arrive at Xin Ya Hotel Wednesday, January 17

We were happy to learn that the hotel was expecting us and so we checked in with no trouble and were even more happy when we saw the room which is at least 50% larger than our Shenzhen room and only Y70 more expensive (Y250).

We settled in quickly and set off to find supper, which we did in a fast food restaurant right on the water. Unlike the rest of the clientele that wanted to watch the TV, we sat under the TV set so that we could look out onto the river. While sitting there, we saw a river cruise boat with an open deck leaving the dock. We had already spoken to two salesgirls for the cruise boats and will probably take one tomorrow.

The only small problem we had in the Xin Ya was that of making phone calls to Shenzhen to our ISP account. For some reason they didn’t keep the IDD line open all the time, so every time we wanted to get our email, we had to call up and ask them to turn it on. The first couple of times it was frustrating but then became routine.

Temple visits Thursday,January 18

We visited one new temple and two that we had seen last year when we were here. Gerry took lots of photos recording the events. After dark, we walked down to the river and selected a cruise boat which gave us a very minimal, but acceptable dinner of soup, rice, ham, and vegetable. We supplemented that with beer and seven-up to make shandies. The cruise was very pleasant though of course we didn’t understand any of the Chinese commentary . In spite of the cool breeze generated by the movement of the boat, the night was clear and so the lights on some of the buildings looked very pretty. All told the cruise lasted about two hours.

Landmark Hotel, Pick up Vietnamese Visas Friday, January 19>/h3>

We ate a buffet lunch at the Landmark hotel, bought some porcelain figurines that we both liked, and picked up our Vietnamese visas - hurray! We can go for a month anytime before April 30.

Sun Yat Sen Memorial & Yuexiu Park Saturday, January 20

We spent the day visiting sites new to us related to Sun Yat Sen, (Sun Zhongshan in putonghua). Gerry took lots of photos that cover what we did.

Bai Yun park Sunday, January 21

After a lazy start to the day we finally took two buses to get up to Bai Yun Park where we spent a very pleasant afternoon. See the photo record for what we saw and did.

Foshan Monday, January 22

Our excursion to Foshan is admirably covered by Gerry’s photos.

Chinese New Year’s Eve - Lunch at Lucy’s Tuesday, January 23

Lucy’s is a restaurant on Shamian Island just down from the White Swan with a terrace facing the river, although not exactly on the riverfront. The food was acceptable and made a change as it was European. I ordered chicken in a basket (deep-fried chicken strips, eggplant, and onions with french fries) and Gerry ordered chef’s salad which came with plenty of cold roast-beef, ham, chicken, and even cheese!

Chinese New Year’s Day Wednesday, January 24

We spent the whole morning in the room with Jan working on photos and Gerry preparing stuff for packing and shipping to England. By 2 p.m. everything was ready and we left the hotel to go to the Post Office.

Jan was surprised to find that the streets were filled with people in spite of a light drizzle. We walked over to the Post Office, which we had been to the day before and were served by the same young clerk. The only surprise was his contention that we were not allowed to ship CDs, VCDs, or DVDs. So we shipped a little bit less than intended but not as little as the clerk intended as Gerry sneaked a few in when he was not looking. We shipped two boxes that cost Y620 altogether including Y10 for insurance for each of them. When we left the post office, we noticed that the light drizzle had turned into steady rain so for the first time in ages, we needed protection from the rain.

From there we walked over to the river and to the Ocean City Restaurant which was on the floor above the fast food restaurant where we had eaten on our first night in Guangzhou. Jan was pleased to find that they had dim sum and Gerry was pleased to see the seafood. Our menu was therefore steamed shrimp, mixed vegetables, and assorted dim sum. It was all very nice and the staff even put up a table just for us in a small room that had a big picture window on the river.

The food was great, the atmosphere pleasant and we chalked up another entry on the list of places to come back to. On the whole, eating in Guangzhou has been very good especially breakfast. After lunch we walked straight back to the hotel to talk to the lobby staff. We got them to photocopy the set of letters that Gerry wrote this morning to the IRS, NJ Dept. of Taxation, and Computer Associates re Benefits Express and his 401k account. Then we asked for help in booking a room in Xi Qiao Shan and were promised it in our room.
Upstairs in our room (812) the floor attendant came and indeed helped us discover that the hotel marked on our map (bought locally and all in Chinese) did not have a phone number. We fell back on another hotel called the Bi Yun and with her help booked for three nights there at Y268 per night. We don’t really know whether we’ll stay that long, but at least we’ll have the option..

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