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.
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.
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