With a morning flight departing Auckland at 10 am, we
had an early start to our day, leaving home around 6:30 am. We packed most of our things the afternoon
before, but we still set our alarms for 4 am.
The flight, which took about 12 hours, was on time and mostly pretty
smooth. Since it was a daytime flight
none of us slept much, and we all watched two or three movies each. But unfortunately this meant that we were all
exhausted before the end of our journey.
We landed in Shenzhen and caught the local metro to
the intercity fast train station. The
timing wasn’t so great, as the next available train to Guangzhou didn’t leave
until 10:30 pm (China time), meaning we had about an hour and a half to
wait. We decided to eat while waiting,
and found a restaurant in a mall by the train station entrance. Weirdly, with trains still coming and going,
and people still everywhere, they locked up the mall just before 10 pm and the
restaurant staff hurried us out while we were still finishing our last
mouthfuls. As we got to the mall
entrance, we met a guard with keys, having just padlocked the door, who told us
to go around the other way to exit.
Mama asked him to unlock the padlock, but he said no. So I tried in English, pointing to our huge
suitcases (carrying about 40 kg of pressies for family and friends), and he
reluctantly obliged (white person privilege!).
The girls slept for most of the 30 minutes on the fast
train, and we arrived in Guangzhou just after 11 pm, where we quickly grabbed
one of the last metro trains for the day.
This got us partway to our apartment, but metro line 8 had already
closed, so we couldn’t go all the way.
After several minutes we managed to hail a taxi, into which we all
squeezed tightly for the 5-minute ride.
We got to our apartment (Mama’s friend Kane’s apartment) around
midnight. Mama's Aunt Ada was already there (she was
staying with us), and she let us in.
Monday 2 July
Our apartment, on the 25th floor, is in our familiar
home area of Guangzhou, only about 10 minutes walk from our old apartment home
at Sun Yat-sen University. It’s only two
bedrooms, though, so it was a bit squishy with the five of us (Ada slept on a
sofa-bed in the lounge). In the morning,
we walked to our old Park n Shop supermarket, which we must have shopped at
hundreds of times before, rediscovering the old sights.
(From our apartment balcony, looking towards Xiaogang Park)
Mama had lots of her own things to do, so we
separated for lunch. The girls and I
took the metro to Decathlon, to buy a few needed sporty things, eating our picnic lunch there just like old times.
Coming out of the metro station on the way home we bumped into Mama's friend Limei —
just like old times again!
In the late afternoon, Tongyi and family (who we did a campervan trip with in New Zealand in 2016) visited, and we played for a bit at
the local playground underneath our apartment.
Tuesday 3 July
Once again, Mama was busy with her own stuff. So, in the morning, the girls and I walked to
the riverside, past Mulan’s old kindergarten and towards the playground we used
to go to a lot. The playground had been
pulled down and the area is now bare, but they have built a new
old-person-style playground just nearby, which we played at for a while. Having just come from New Zealand winter, we
were finding it very hot and sweaty (a typical Guangzhou summer, though not as
hot as sometimes), so we didn’t do too much exercise. On the way home we stopped off at the pet
shop that we used to visit, watching the dozen or so kittens in the cages. The girls wondered what happened to the
kittens who didn't get sold -- we didn't want to think about the answer to
that.
Mama's Uncle (who lives in Hainan), Aunt and their grandson (Danny) arrived
in the afternoon, and we all walked to Xiaogang Park to play at the amusement
park (again, just like old times).
Walking around the local area, which we hadn’t been to
for a couple of years, I felt that the traffic users were a little more
considerate of others than before.
Intersections and pedestrian crossings didn’t seem quite as chaotic, and
people seem to be following the lights more now. It is not quite so much that size rules now,
and cars actually slow down more often for pedestrians. This is partly enforced by traffic officers
with whistles at intersections, and partly it seems to be a cultural
change. Also, queuing for the metro
trains is much more normalised, and it is just the occasional oldie who still
thinks they can push in to the front (it was just ten or so years ago that
queues didn’t exist, and everyone standardly pushed).
All metro stations I have seen in China now routinely
have security at their entrances, with bag scanners and water bottle
checking. This was never the case
several years ago. As I observed to the
girls, this is visual evidence of the worsening of society in China, where the
authorities have to use more force to dominate increasingly unhappy social
subgroups. International Internet
connections also continue to be patchy, with most overseas sites, when not
directly blocked, slowed to the point of being practically unusable (for
example, I often had to wait about 30 seconds or more for each of my emails to
show, and I couldn't access the New Zealand government website to deal with my
tax paperwork).
Wednesday 4 July
In the morning, we said goodbye to Ada, who was going
back to her home. We then packed a
picnic lunch and headed off to the Guangzhou zoo with Hainan Uncle and family
(the same zoo that we went to a few times when we used to live in Guangzhou). The zoo was very similar to before, though it
was a nice family outing. It was another
hot day, and Mulan, especially, felt the heat.
We probably spent the most time watching the monkeys on their rock hill. They have a new pool, into which the younger
ones repeatedly dive from the rocks and chains above — it looked very comfy and
fun, and we wished we could do that too!
I was intrigued by the "core socialist values" propaganda sign in the zoo, which listed out 12 values. As I understand it, socialism is, at heart, an economic/political system in which the means of production (factories, farms, etc) is owned collectively by everyone, rather then owned by an elite few (as is the case in most societies, including in China). For this reason, socialism, by its nature, requires complete democracy -- we cannot have socialism without a democracy in which everyone gets their fair say in the running, and profit distribution, of their assets. Rule of law, freedom, equality and justice are also requirements of socialism, for this same reason. (The other values -- prosperity, civility, harmony, patriotism, dedication, integrity and friendship -- are not so much specifically socialist values.)
I was delighted by the timing of my photo. Perhaps the lion represents the Chinese Communist Party, and his actions represent their attitude to socialism.
The first (Guangzhou) part of our China holiday was
already over. For the rest of our
holiday we would be sightseeing new areas.
In the evening, we repacked our bags, storing our suitcases at the
apartment and prepared to travel light with backpacks each.
Thursday 5 July
Our next destination was Chengdu, and we left our
Guangzhou apartment at 6:10 am, catching the metro to the fast train
station. But we had a huge shock when we
went to show our tickets at the station.
We had wrongly gone to Guangzhou South Railway Station, instead of
Guangzhou Railway Station (trusting Mama was a mistake!), and there was no
way we could get to the correct station in time before the train left at 7:30
am. We raced to the ticket office to
get a refund and buy new tickets. With
the new departure time being 1:18 pm, we returned to our apartment to rest for
a few hours before trying again.
Next time we got it right, and boarding the train went
smoothly. The journey took around ten
hours, going at up to about 250 km/h. We
passed through Yangshuo and Guilin (at two hours and two and a half hours
respectively), which we had visited before with the girls (in those “olden”
days (2012), there was no fast train and the train journeys there took several
hours). Most of the time we travelled
through mountainous regions, with many and long tunnels. With the later train start, we got to Chengdu
very late, and Mama's friend Grace’s father picked us up from the train station in his
car. Once again, we arrived at our
apartment (Grace’s parents’ apartment) around midnight. This apartment is much bigger and newer, and
with three bedrooms the girls got a room each.
Friday 6 July
After a late morning start, we had lunch at a restaurant
just over the road from our apartment, sitting outside at tables on the
footpath. The weather in Chengdu was
cooler that Guangzhou, and the temperature was pleasantly in the mid 20s. Our apartment, on the 21st floor, is above a
large multi-level shopping centre, with a mix of office and apartment buildings
all around. It seems that this area is a
newly-built commercial hub, and our metro station’s name is “Incubation
Park”. The 6th floor of our apartment
building complex is mostly outdoor, with a (dirty) swimming pool, playground,
tennis/basketball court, trees, paths, etc.
About half a dozen or so apartment/office high-rises sprout from this
6th floor open area above the shopping centre.
(The entrance to our apartment is on the right -- number 6.)
I think this is the first time we have lived in this
sort of more modern apartment building area, and surprisingly I found myself
thinking that the lifestyle is not too bad.
Living here, I could almost understand the attraction of choosing to
live in an inner-city apartment.
(Though, of course, I’d still much rather live in a house with a
backyard!). The thing is, with most Chinese apartments I have lived in over the
years — even the fairly decent ones — the outside environment is typically one
or more of dirty, rundown, dark, narrow or crowded. It is simply not pleasant or relaxing to get
out and about outside, or often even to look out the windows. But, at least in my opinion, the outside
environment here is none of that and so fairly peaceful in feeling. The biggest problem here that I can see is
that the footpaths are so wide that cars park and drive on them, to the extent
that often walking areas are still crowded out of existence. Chengdu is also a bike-share city, and in
many places hire bikes line the footpaths to the extent that we have to walk on
the road to get around the bikes.
After lunch we caught the metro to get a new battery
for Mama’s computer. While out, we
tried the latest fashion drink of cheese-tea.
It was surprisingly yummy!
We had dinner with Grace’s parents at a restaurant about
five or so minutes walk from our apartment.
I am beginning to understand that Chengdu people are “even more
Chinese”, in the sense that a lot of the usual cultural things us Westerners
notice about Chinese seem even more extreme here. For example, at a restaurant
meal, Chinese typically order more than the people could possibly eat, but here
Grace’s parents ordered about 12-14 dishes for the six of us (including Mulan
and Miya). Of course, there was a huge
amount of food left over. Apparently,
also, Chengdu people don’t doggy-bag the extras (Guangzhou people typically do,
which apparently other Chinese think is stingy).
Another “even more Chinese” aspect is the generosity
to friends. Grace’s parents have been
amazingly kind to us, not only with letting us stay in their apartment but also
that they have gone out of their way so much for us. I hear that they drove six hours from the
neighbouring city to help us here.
Just before bed, we found that Mulan had got a large
boil on her side under her arm (obviously the super-sweaty Guangzhou conditions
got to her). It was after Miya was
asleep, so Mama and Mulan went to the hospital about 10 pm (they were away
about two hours). Mulan needed
antibiotics, and the boil was cut, so she needed to go back to the hospital
each morning for several days to get it checked and dressed. With no painkillers, from what I hear the
cutting was extremely painful for Mulan.
We decided to keep things simple for the next few days, and sadly it
also meant no swimming for this holiday in China.
Saturday 7 July
Keeping things a little more simple, we spent the day
wandering around our local area. First,
we ate lunch at the shopping centre under our apartment. The restaurant we chose focuses on selling
more up-market middle-class versions of a street-side takeaway breakfast food
we love to get in Beijing (we call them yummy bin-bins).
Next, we walked around the open-air playground on the
6th floor of our building. It wasn’t a
bad little park for the local residents to do their outdoor strolls and
exercises. A gardener was there keeping
it spotlessly tidy, but bigger things, like the swimming pool and courts, were
getting a bit run down.
Next, we went down to the ground level and outside,
walking to the nearby Jincheng Park, about 10 minutes away. It is a fairly decent-sized park, and it
reminded me a bit of the Olympic park in Beijing, though much smaller and
simpler and quite overgrown/unkempt.
There are lots of walking tracks, including a 650m walking/biking
fitness trail. We just walked around a
small part of the park before returning home.
The park is next to a massively huge building, The
Global Center, which is supposed to be the biggest (not tallest) building in
the world. We looked towards it, but
didn’t go in.
Sunday 8 July
This day was taken up, for the most part, with
activities with some more distant relatives — Laolao’s cousin and her
family. Much of that time was spent
travelling in the car, seemingly to opposite ends of the city, although I
really have no idea. A lot of the day,
too, was rainy.
The first stop was to visit Laolao’s cousin’s mother
(ie Laolao’s aunt), who is 96 and in hospital.
Apparently, she has been in that hospital room (which looked like a
standard-style hotel room) for about ten years, though sadly, she would now
seem to be in a persistent vegetative state.
At the hospital we met several other family members, including Mulan and
Miya’s third cousin, who is about Mulan’s age.
The children were all very quiet, and didn’t interact much with each
other.
Secondly, we had a restaurant lunch with the family
members.
Thirdly, we went to a cemetery to see the grave of
Laolao’s cousin’s father (ie Laolao’s uncle).
While there we also saw the grave of Laolao’s cousin’s brother (ie
another cousin), who sadly died in a car accident in 1995.
For a lot of the day Miya was feeling carsick with the
traffic and bumpy driving, and so on the way home we said our goodbyes and got
out, catching the metro the rest of the way.
Apparently, Chengdu people like their cars, even though their public
transport system is excellent. Once
again, they are “even more Chinese”, and this would seem to be an example of an
increased face-culture, where they would rather have their face-gaining cars
and be stuck in traffic than use the much-faster metro system (Chengdu metro
trains never seem very busy, compared with Guangzhou and Beijing).
Monday 9 July
We walked to the huge Global Center building, to have
a nosy around inside. We arrived at the
Jincheng Park side of the building, and struggled to find an entrance. Doorways inwards appeared to be to either
lift-lobbies, construction zones or abandoned massive concrete darknesses. It was a rainy day, and not so pleasant to be
walking along the massive side of the building looking for a way in. All in all, the building looked too big for
the area, as a lot of it is unused and becoming run down. Finally, towards the other end of the
building, we found an entrance.
Most notable inside was a water park complex, with a
wave pool, slides, stationary surfing, fake beaches, rafting rivers, etc,
etc. There is a glass ceiling above the
swimming complex, but it has quite a few leaks with the rain coming in. They had dotted around buckets as well as
large sponges on the fancy floor, to collect the rain water.
Inside the building there was also an ice skating
rink, movie theatres, a hotel overlooking the water park, and (of course) lots
of shops and restaurants. Miya, who is
very sensitive to noises and other sensory stimuli, really didn’t enjoy all the
indoor walking (she also wanted to go in the water park and ice skating
rink!). We ate lunch at a jiaozi
restaurant.
Compared with Guangzhou folk, it is very noticeable
that Chengdu women are quite fashion-conscious, and many wear makeup. Mama tells me that within China Chengdu
women rank behind only Shanghai women for their fashion-focus. Fashion this year is apparently ripped jeans
or frayed denim skirts. Short shorts or
skirts (again often frayed denim) are an option. Another common look is longer see-through
skirts over shorter skirts. Most men
still seem no different from the past several years — striped polo shirts
continue to be as popular as ever, or white shirts and black trousers for the
office-look. Rarely, more fashionable
young men opt for the ripped jeans look.
Happily for us easily-amused foreigners, weird Chinglish phrases on tops
is still popular with both sexes.
Occasionally we also see young adults with tattoos — both men and
women. To me, this is a new thing in
China. Some are temporary, and I saw the
occasional market stall doing fake tattoos for the young and fashionable. But more than a few are obviously
permanent. There is more coloured hair
about, too — often blue.
For a change in scenery and to get outside, we decided
to catch the metro to a supposedly old bridge and street area. Getting out at the Niuwangmiao station, we
wandered around and crossed the bridge, but it really didn’t seem all that
special to us.
So, as a second choice we walked to Wangjiang Park,
which is apparently famous for its bamboo gardens, with many bamboo varieties
collected from around the world. The
park overlooks the river, and there was a longish walk alongside the river from
the bridge. It was still raining on and
off, but it was nice to be outside. The
bamboo was indeed beautiful, and the park was very pleasant. The park also has a children’s amusement park
(a bit like Guangzhou’s Xiaogang Park, but maybe twice the price), which the
girls played on. With the rain, it seems
that we were the only customers all afternoon, and the woman in charge videoed
the girls on a ride with her phone. We
caught a bus then the metro home.
No comments:
Post a Comment