Day 3 (14 November 2009)

We rose for breakfast at a small eatery near our hotel. We had 20 dumplings, 20 小笼包, 4 big pieces of 油条 and another four cups of soya bean milk. The price? Only RMB 18 (SGD 3.60). We could not believe what we heard. A breakfast meal for a person in Singapore would cost around SGD 4.00 inclusive of coffee. But our meal was only SGD 0.90 per person! Daddy was so contented with the deal that he recommended the store to all his friends back at the conference (who went the next day for breakfast) and we even returned for their steamboat dinner that night.

We spent the morning relaxing in the hotel swimming pool and watching football matches in the room while daddy was attending the second part of his conference on osteoporosis and coronary heart disease. The hotel pool was well heated at 29°C and other facilities included a Jacuzzi, a whirlpool, a sauna and a steam bath (you have to pay).

We then took the subway to 长寿路 station to walk along 上下九街, the shopping haven of Guangzhou other than Beijing Street. Located at an old town of Xiguan (西关), it stretches from Shangjiu Lu (上九路) and Xiajiu Lu (下九路) in the east to Dishifu Lu (第十甫路) in the west, and traverses Baohua Lu (宝华路) and Wenchang Lu (文昌路), about 1.2km long with more than 300 shops.

上下九街is composed of the unique and ancient architecture of Tong Lau and teahouses, featuring the characteristics of European and Chinese styles. It has a group of old famous stores, such as the Guangzhou Garment Store, the Herring Shoes and Hats Store, and the Dalu Clock and Watch Store. The place boasts the best eateries in Guangzhou, including 陶陶居 restaurant, the restaurant having a hundred-year legacy.

We did not buy much from this place as there was just simply nothing more to buy, after grabbing all the cheap deals at Beijing Street and 海珠广场 on the previous two days.

We had lunch at a restaurant called 西关人家 in 荔湾广场. Once again, the pricing was incredible! For a meal with 2 roasted pigeons, roasted goose, 白切鸡, specialty pork knuckles, fish, tofu, Chinese tea and rice, the price of around RMB 170 (SGD 34.50) was unbelievable, considering the fact that we were so full we could only have dinner at 9pm that night.

We bought some books at a bookshop in the shopping centre, including a 谚语词典 for RMB 20 (SGD 5).

From there, we proceeded to Guangzhou’s top attraction -- Shamian Island (沙面岛). The territory was divided into two concessions given to France and the United Kingdom by the Qing Dynasty government in the 19th century. The island is gazette as a historical area that serves as a tranquil reminder of the colonial European period and it gives Western tourists a sense of national pride when they come here. It was an enclave for foreign merchants. The foreigners had previously lived and done business in a row of houses known as the Thirteen Factories, near the present Shamian, but due to local resentment after the Opium Wars, they were confined at a protected area, which was linked to the city by two bridges that were closed at 10pm every night. The most famous architecture there is the Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel.

This attraction reminds the Caucasians of their supremacy in the past, where they had extensive projects acquiring colonies to build a far-fetched empire, in particular the French and the British, who during that era were very strong, compared to China. In the present world, the tables have been turned. China is now one of the forerunners based on economic growth, while Western countries are financially unstable. White man supremacy is all now history.

The island is a hot-spot for wedding couples to take their bridal shots. I wonder how they could endure the cold weather. We saw them in their numerous poses and we suspected they were from the same bridal studio.

We also saw Caucasians driven in VIP cars as they admire their glorious past from within.

We bought 冬果 from the nearby 清平市场 at only RMB 4/斤 (SGD 0.80). Ah Ma bought a far less amount for SGD 7.50 at an NTUC supermarket back home.

We chanced upon the Guangzhou Culinary Art Competition at Grandview Mall (正佳广场). The creativity of the different restaurant participants just impressed and amazed me. Some dishes were just so beautifully decorated, and most importantly, they also looked appealing to the mouth.

We headed back to the same breakfast store for steamboat dinner. We had beef, fish, cow intestines, tofu as well as many other foods that will make us comfortable due to the cold weather outside due to wind chill. The interesting thing was that one of the soup bases for sale was dog soup, something we would never see in Singapore. However we did not order that because we felt it was too disgusting.

After grabbing some DVDs at the roadside outside 7-Eleven, we returned to the hotel for a good night’s rest and got ready for our return flight to Singapore on TR 987 the next day.

More Photos from Day 2

Day 2 (13 November 2009)

We had our breakfast at Taste restaurant in the hotel. Although the spread was good, the taste was substandard and I only enjoyed the 油条 and fruit juices. Even the water there tasted terrible! We vowed not to return for breakfast the next day hoping that we could get tastier food at the nearby eateries just outside the hotel (we were not disappointed the next day).

We walked past 天河广场 on the way to 林和西 subway station. It was just a beautiful park in the middle of the city with the stadium in the background. Nearby was Ikea furniture shop, another evidence of China’s active participation in a globalised market.

There were also slogans to promote a civilised society for the upcoming Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games.

We headed off to the Museum of the Western Han Dynasty Mausoleum of the Nanyue King (西汉南越王博物馆). This is the oldest and largest Han tomb south of the Nanling Mountains. The museum covers 14,000 square meters and has ten exhibition halls. The memorial belonged to Zhao Mei (趙眜) of Nanyue State of the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-24 A.D.) His tomb is made up of 750 huge stones and colourful murals. With over 1000 pieces of cultural relics, this mausoleum has one of the largest collections of funerary objects in Southern China. Many different cultural influences can be seen at this collection, such as the central Chinese culture, Chu culture and even the foreign influence when the ancient Marine Silk Road was still in use.

It was a historical eye-opener for all of us. It was the period of time even before Jesus Christ, when the world was not really well-developed. The Chinese of that time were well ahead of their western counterparts, who were still living a very primitive lifestyle.

China with a rich history of over 5,000 years is really a place of contrasts and change. There is truth in the phrase, “中华民族，历史悠久”. In 5,000 years, the development this country has made is just stunning, not forgetting the fact that she had only started to open herself up to the world in recent years, since it had been a communist country under Chairman Mao Zhe Dong (毛泽东).

The museum was built on the tomb of the Nanyue King Zhao Mei and was opened only in 1988 when archaeologists discovered his tomb at that particular site.
The Kingdom of Southern Yue was established about 2,000 years ago in the area where southern China's Guangdong Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region meet. It lasted for 93 years, and had five kings. Zhao Tuo, a general of the Qin Dynasty, unified the Lingnan area during the reign of China's first Emperor, Qin Shihuang. In 204 B.C., the Kingdom of Southern Yue was established, and Zhao Tuo made himself King Wu of that kingdom, choosing Guangzhou as his capital. In 111 B.C., the small kingdom was destroyed by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

Three out of the five rulers built tombs for themselves, but nobody knew where they were located before the discovery of the Guangzhou tomb. During the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280), Sun Quan (孙权), the ruler of the State of Wu, heard that there were many treasures in the tombs, so he ordered his troops to search all the mountain slopes in the area of the extinguished kingdom. They found nothing, and the whereabouts of the tombs remained a mystery.
On the tomb's 12-meter-high outside walls are carved designs of a man, the Sun and Moon gods, with a gigantic serpent beneath their feet, a symbol indicating that they are capable of dispelling evil spirits. The tomb has been turned into a museum, illustrating the history of the kingdom.

We visited the exhibition hall which had been constructed in front of the tomb, consisting of several rooms, spread over three floors. The tomb was built on a slope on Xianggang Ridge. The layout is modelled on a palace of that time, consisting of four chambers and two halls.

We passed through a huge stone gate before entering the coffin chamber. A jade suit sewn with silken threads worn by the tomb's owner, decorated with gold, silver and jade objects around the hem, was found intact when the tomb was opened. Also found in the tomb were nine seals, one being made of gold with a knob in the shape of a coiled dragon. This gold seal enabled archaeologists to identify the tomb as that of the second ruler Zhao Mei.

The jade suit is particularly valuable because it is the oldest of its kind found so far. I find it amazing that the suit consists of more than 1,000 pieces of jade, each having holes in all four corners. The silk fabrics have decayed long ago. In addition, ten iron swords were found, each inlaid with gold and jade. The biggest is 1.46 m long, making it the longest iron sword dating from the time of the Han Dynasty (206B.C.-A.D.220).

Numerous valuable burial objects were discovered in the side chambers. They include ivory, gold, silver, bronze, iron, pottery, glass, bamboo, jade and lacquer wares, demonstrating that workmanship in Guangdong had already reached high artistic levels 2,000 years ago. In addition, they also show that the Southern Yue Kingdom and the Central Plains had close ties.
Most of the objects on display were made of either stone or jade. Even the pillows were made of stone and there was an exhibition hall dedicated to pillows as they were of a wide variety. I wonder how their necks could be comfortable sleeping on stone pillows! There was another one dedicated to jade pieces and the God they believed in.

He was buried together with four concubines and 15 other soldiers and a cook. The remains of some domestic animals were also found inside. As for the emperor himself, his body was decomposed except for his teeth and fragments of his skull.
We then proceeded to the nearby 越秀公园 to have a look at the Rams statue. The Five-Ram Sculpture is one of the most famous structures in Guangzhou. It has become the emblem of Guangzhou City. Legend has it that more than 2,000 years ago, Guangzhou was a barren land with people who despite hard work were suffering from famine. One day five immortals in five-color garments came riding on five rams, playing their legendary music. The rams held sheaves of rice in their mouths. The immortals left the sheaves of rice for the Guangzhou people, gave blessings to the city and left. The rams turned into stone and the city of Guangzhou became a rich and populous place. Guangzhou got the name of the City of Rams.

We went to the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall (孙中山纪念馆) next. Sun Yat-sen was born on November 12, 1866 at Cuiheng Village of Guangdong province. He was the forerunner of China’s revolution against the Qing government. In August 1905, he formulated the Three Principles of the People - nationalism, democracy, and social well-being. He believed they were the guidelines for building a modern China, and he contributed his whole life into developing this great task.

Sun Yat-Sen (12 November 1866 – 12 March 1925) was a Chinese revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Republican China, Sun is frequently referred to as the Father of the Nation. There are memorial halls in Guangzhou, Taipei and Singapore. His final resting place is the Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum in Nanjing.

The phrase “天下为公”on the top of the building means to bring justice all over the earth, which also reflected Dr Sun Yat-Sen’s aim and desire.
We then proceeded to the “Orchard Road” of Guangzhou -- Beijing Street (北京路) near the 公园前 subway station. This was the place to buy many authentic replicas, the specialty of the Mainland Chinese. They look genuine and they can be bought at inexpensive prices.
We walked past many shops selling trendy women and men fashion, children clothing, sports goods, as well as shoes and purses. (We had seen enough shoes at 海珠广场 .) There are also some book stores and departmental stores just off the street. The alleys are full of small stalls and shops (also quite crowded). That’s where the best buys are.

Teeming with large and medium sized shopping centres such as Xindaxin (新大新) and Grandbuy (广百), Beijing Street is also home to several 'themed' bookstores that run the gamut from dictionaries to music to children's books. Sanduoxuan (三多轩) and Jiya-zhai Studios (集雅斋) feature traditional Chinese stationery, paintings and calligraphy.

We bought 3 pairs of jeans for RMB 470 (SGD 94.80). That was considered expensive by China’s standard but the deals there were still a lot better than that in Singapore. The jeans were indeed fitting and comfortable to wear and I’m quite convinced that it is an authentic product. They even did alteration free of charge within 20 minutes. We would never be able to get such a service in Singapore.

We went for lunch at a restaurant called 幸运楼国际宴合.We had to wait for a long time as the restaurant was full. They had a number system so the queue went quite fast. However, due to the huge demand for seats, we still had to wait for 30 minutes.

On the lunch table were crab noodles, porridge, pig intestines, Dim Sum dishes like dumplings and chee cheong fun, as well as many other Cantonese delicacies. The final price of RMB 193.50 (SGD 39.07) was still acceptable, given how much we ate.

Daddy then returned to the hotel for his conference on the Hot Topics in Medicine, the section on hypertension and diabetes, while we continued to shop in Beijing Street. I bought another two football jerseys, one Manchester United and one FC Barcelona, for RMB 120 (SGD 24) each. For the type of quality the jerseys had to offer, I couldn’t help laughing within me, satisfied with the good deal.

We then returned to 海珠广场 for more shopping. Grace bought her toy rabbit while we bought a cartoon 佛菩萨 display item for Ah Ma. We even managed to buy Croc shoes going at extremely cheap prices as compared to Singapore. A pair that costs RMB 130 (SGD 26) there costs SGD 130 back in Singapore. A pair that I bought for over a hundred dollars here was on sale at only RMB 150 (SGD 30) to my dismay. If only I had waited till now to buy that pair, I would have saved almost SGD 80.
We then headed back to Beijing Street to go to one of the bookshops there. Grace went on to read her Chinese books while I enjoyed reading the Communist Manifesto in English.
We had noodle soup for dinner and it tasted quite good. It was in one of the fast-food restaurants there.

By the time we reached the hotel, it was already 10pm, but Daddy was not back yet. He had gone to 粥城 for porridge supper despite having had a buffet dinner aboard a cruise on the Pearl River (珠江).

More Photos from Day 1

Day 1 (12 November 2009)

We rose in the wee hours of the morning for our flight to Guangzhou (Canton) at 0620 on Tiger Airways flight TR986 from the Budget Terminal. We were on the trip because Daddy had a conference at the Westin Guangzhou and we were allowed to follow for 3 days of eating and shopping. Daddy would take Singapore Airlines flight SQ850 departing at 0805 so we had to wait for two hours before we could leave the airport upon arrival. On the whole, the flight was boring. There was nothing to eat, no entertainment on board and not even a drink. The four-hour flight really seemed like 6 hours to me.

At 1010, we arrived at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (广州白云国际机场). The place looked better than I expected. It was high-tech, with efficient immigration officers but they were also very strict when it came to the health checks due to the widespread outbreak of H1N1 flu virus across the country. The best thing was that we were directed to the queue for Mainland Chinese citizens only, which was much shorter, the reason being that Grace was around. Priority was accorded to families with elderly and young children.

The city will be host to the 16th Asian Games from 12 November to 28 November next year. Guangzhou 2010 has driven the Chinese government to educate the citizens to be more civilised so that the event will be as successful as the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Slogans to educate the people in this area were present from the city centre to the boundaries of the airport. 《创文明窗口，做文明使者》 was the main theme around the whole city and possibly the whole of China. The Chinese government seeks to build a place of civilisation with civilised behaviour.

Guangzhou is the third most expensive city in China behind Shanghai and Hong Kong. It has developed quickly over the past five years and has set a goal to expand Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (广州白云国际机场) into the world’s biggest airport. It has an advanced metropolitan subway system and the cleanliness in the city has well exceeded my expectations. The people are very polite and have the spirit of “老吾老以及人之老，幼吾幼以及人之幼”. They care for the elderly and love the children in their society, a virtue they call 敬老爱幼. In the subway, the people readily give up their seats to the elderly or young children. At the airport, elderly persons or young children are given priority when clearing the immigration, allowing them to go first. This is something which Singaporeans need to learn --- the acts of courtesy and respect displayed by the Mainland Chinese.

We proceeded for breakfast at the Oak Tree Café in the airport while waiting for Daddy to arrive at 1220. The price was exorbitant and unexpectedly expensive! Two bowls of noodles cost us RMB110 (SGD 22.20) far above our budget of RMB 30 (SGD 6.10). Fortunately, the prices in the city itself were completely opposite, and obviously tastier.

When Daddy arrived after a long wait, we took bus line number 6 to Citic Plaza, which was near our hotel, Westin Guangzhou, situated in the 天河 district in Guangzhou.

As it was raining cats and dogs, the temperature felt like 15°C when it was actually 18°C. We sprinted the 100m to our hotel, and were delighted to find ourselves in a large room with 5-star amenities (well, it was supposed to be a 5-star hotel anyway). There was a “king-size bed” (in real fact it was bigger than one), a plasma television for my soccer matches and a panoramic view of the city with the stadium right in front of us. It would be a main venue for the upcoming 16th Asian Games held here.

We proceeded to the electrical street of Guangzhou at 岗顶 in a cab due to the heavy rain. It is the equivalent of Sim Lim Square in Singapore and Akihabara in Tokyo. There, in the various shopping centres, are numerous electrical stores in buildings adjacent to one another, with the various famous brand names. Canon, Xerox, Nikon, Sony, Acer, IBM, Levono were all present, just to name a few. I went there with the hope of buying a small laptop that would cost around SGD 300 to 400, but I was to be disappointed. Despite stiff competition in the Chinese market, the prices of SGD 700 to 800 for laptops and the price for an ipod nano were also far more expensive than my expectations. However, it was an eye-opener for us to see for ourselves the stiff competition to attract a specific target market in China. There were many people walking around and window shopping but there were not many purchases made.

We proceeded for afternoon tea in a nearby café. The prices there were a complete contrast with the prices in the airport restaurants. Two bowls of pig’s organ porridge, a plate of beef chee cheong fun, carrot cake and Chinese tea cost us only RMB 23.50 (SGD 4.75). It was also much tastier and cheaper than our meal at the airport.


We then took the subway to 海珠广场, the wholesale market in Guangzhou. The area consists of the wholesale market selling all kinds of goods, genuine and imitations, at very inexpensive prices (at least to us as everything is 5 times cheaper), and the Guangzhou Metropolis Shoes City (广州大都市鞋城).

The Metropolis Shoes City was filled with more than 100 shops selling shoes of different types ranging from boots to Crocs to leather shoes to sports shoes. Mummy bought a pair of walking shoes RMB 80 (SGD 16) and daddy bought a pair of leather shoes for RMB 170 (SGD 34).

The wholesale market was really an eye-opener. The competition for customers was rife, with many shops selling the same products. Since it was a wholesale market, some shopkeepers would insist we buy in bulk. For example, a toy that Grace wanted could only be bought with a minimum of 200 pieces. However, most of the shops were already closing at that time so we had few choices available. Hence we were keen to return the next day to continue shopping.

We returned to天河 district for dinner at 广州酒家 restaurant (Tiyudong Branch: No.112, Tiyu Road (East), Tianhe District, Guangzhou (at the right side of Tianhe Sports Centre)) based on strong recommendation from the internet. The meal was delicious but a bit on the pricey side compared to the other meals we had here. For the price of RMB 320 (SGD 64), we had pig’s lung soup, Wenchang chicken, braised tofu, squid salad and prime ribs. The restaurant occupied the whole fourth storey and there were another two restaurants occupying a level each on the second and third storeys.

On the way back to the hotel, we chanced upon a man selling Kappa jackets. These jackets were original and were going at extremely low prices. The same jacket that would cost me RMB 568 (SGD 115) in a departmental store was going at only RMB 60 (SGD 12)! It was so cheap that we regretted not purchasing more.

We then headed back to Westin for a well deserved rest.