Thursday, May 14
Renae and I went to bed at midnight on Wednesay. I woke up at 4:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. Gotta love getting the body used to 13 hour time differences.
I had what could be considered big Texas toast with crunchy peanut butter and more of that delicious espresso/cream/sugar for breakfast.
Things got real as soon as we were through border customs and in Shenzen, mainland China. There were several armed policemen in camouflage and what looked like hardcore guns. Their uniforms looked somewhat like those from Mao's Red Army days. Whether that's intended, I didn't stop to ask.
We also were introduced to squatter toilets. That's all that needs to be said.
On the way to Guangzhou, we received a history lesson from our tour guide, Jocelyn, who grew up there.
Shenzen, the border city into mainland China went from 30,000 to 15 million in 40 years due to an experiment set up by the prime minister involving free trade. The prime minister, Ping, helped to get Hong Kong from the bridge and opened up free market trade. Thanks to only Shenzen having free trade, it flourished. However, it's hard to find local people there.
Hong Kong and southern China speak Cantonese, but Mandarin is prominent in Shenzen because of imported people. Local people are very well off because the government pays them compensation for their land.
The Chinese use the phrase "Shenzen speed" when someone is doing something quickly, referring to the quickness of Shenzen's expansion.
We traveled through Donguan, which is a manufacturing city with Hong Kong, Taiwan, and western investments.
Ninety percent of the world's jeans are made there.
As Janet, a member of the travel agency who is traveling with us, put it: you get Wranglers, Levis, and prostitution. They're cracking down on the latter.
We passed over the Hunan Bridge, which is named after the island where the Chinese burned all the British opium, which set off the Opium War. Which is how China lost Hong Kong for 153 years.
There is so much history here and so little to go over it. You think D.C. is rich with history? Nothing compared to a civilization that's been around for thousands of years.
Enough of a history lesson, Guangzhou can get up to two harvests a year because it's so hot and humid.
When Guangzhou began to show itself, it was a vast difference from Hong Kong. Fields of rice and sugarcane and trees of bananas and dragon fruit sat in every possible space--under overpasses, taking the place of medians, and consuming the landscape in emerald green like only a place so humid could thrive.
Twenty-five years ago there were no sky scrapers in Guangzhou. Again, another city that has flourished.
I like the tour bus because it's a perfect vantage point during a traffic jam. You get a glimpse of their lives--and sometimes awkward eye contact.
Guangzhou has a great port that makes trading with countries that much easier and accessible for China. Other cities along the shore were closed to free trade, except Guangzhou, making it so successful.
For supper, we had Dimsum, which is a lighter meal that is served and only a piece of each dish is distributed about the table. Most were familiar to our American pallet: egg rolls, pot stickers, fried rice. My favorite was the steamed roll, an airy roll drizzled with honey and filled with pork.
What I've learned so far from these huge cities is that small town folk are spoiled. Everything is easy - access. Not here. Though everything is so crammed together, it's huge distances to get from one place to another.
I had what could be considered big Texas toast with crunchy peanut butter and more of that delicious espresso/cream/sugar for breakfast.
Things got real as soon as we were through border customs and in Shenzen, mainland China. There were several armed policemen in camouflage and what looked like hardcore guns. Their uniforms looked somewhat like those from Mao's Red Army days. Whether that's intended, I didn't stop to ask.
We also were introduced to squatter toilets. That's all that needs to be said.
On the way to Guangzhou, we received a history lesson from our tour guide, Jocelyn, who grew up there.
Shenzen, the border city into mainland China went from 30,000 to 15 million in 40 years due to an experiment set up by the prime minister involving free trade. The prime minister, Ping, helped to get Hong Kong from the bridge and opened up free market trade. Thanks to only Shenzen having free trade, it flourished. However, it's hard to find local people there.
Hong Kong and southern China speak Cantonese, but Mandarin is prominent in Shenzen because of imported people. Local people are very well off because the government pays them compensation for their land.
The Chinese use the phrase "Shenzen speed" when someone is doing something quickly, referring to the quickness of Shenzen's expansion.
We traveled through Donguan, which is a manufacturing city with Hong Kong, Taiwan, and western investments.
Ninety percent of the world's jeans are made there.
As Janet, a member of the travel agency who is traveling with us, put it: you get Wranglers, Levis, and prostitution. They're cracking down on the latter.
We passed over the Hunan Bridge, which is named after the island where the Chinese burned all the British opium, which set off the Opium War. Which is how China lost Hong Kong for 153 years.
There is so much history here and so little to go over it. You think D.C. is rich with history? Nothing compared to a civilization that's been around for thousands of years.
Enough of a history lesson, Guangzhou can get up to two harvests a year because it's so hot and humid.
When Guangzhou began to show itself, it was a vast difference from Hong Kong. Fields of rice and sugarcane and trees of bananas and dragon fruit sat in every possible space--under overpasses, taking the place of medians, and consuming the landscape in emerald green like only a place so humid could thrive.
Twenty-five years ago there were no sky scrapers in Guangzhou. Again, another city that has flourished.
I like the tour bus because it's a perfect vantage point during a traffic jam. You get a glimpse of their lives--and sometimes awkward eye contact.
Guangzhou has a great port that makes trading with countries that much easier and accessible for China. Other cities along the shore were closed to free trade, except Guangzhou, making it so successful.
For supper, we had Dimsum, which is a lighter meal that is served and only a piece of each dish is distributed about the table. Most were familiar to our American pallet: egg rolls, pot stickers, fried rice. My favorite was the steamed roll, an airy roll drizzled with honey and filled with pork.
What I've learned so far from these huge cities is that small town folk are spoiled. Everything is easy - access. Not here. Though everything is so crammed together, it's huge distances to get from one place to another.
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