Yesterday I took the train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, to meet my Mom for two weeks of touring. My first night we basically got to the room and ate dinner. The next day we hit the ground running and went to Kowloon Island to shop and see the remains of the Kowloon Walled City. The Kowloon Walled City was formally the densely populated place on Earth before it was demolished by the PLA in the early 90s. Because it was technically part of British Hong Kong while surrounded by Qing run China it became a manufacturing center, for both legal and illegal goods. The little museum said 80% of Hong Kong's fish balls were made in the Walled City. There are a few things left in what is now a very nice park. My Mom and I then went to the Ladies Market to buy some 100% totally legit designer goods. We ended buy buying two belts from some Chinese lady and two purses from a Pakistani guy. He then recommended us a very good Indian place near by which, while base, was extremely tasty. Finally we walked through the Jade Market where we didn't buy jade, we bought a Chairman Mao watch. Finally we went out to a Cantonese place and had a very interesting fried brisket with a bean sprout and mushroom dish. The food continues to be good here, though I have to get use to eating at places several tears above Lamian.
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Two days ago by the time of posting I arrived in the city of Guangzhou, formally know as Canton, for a short visit before meeting my mom is Hong Kong. Guangzhou was a major treaty port and was one of the first Chinese SEZ. Now it is a major trade hub for mainland China in part because of its physical closeness to Hong Kong. The first night in Guangzhou I didn't do much besides get my train ticket, which I later learned was wrong, at around 8:00pm and ate some local specialties, a peanut rice crispy type thing and some candied ginger, of Fenghuang my friend gave me. The next day I decided to see all the kind of odd sites. I got a 24 hour "go anywhere on the metro for one price" cards and I was off First was the Martyrs Memorial Park where there were monuments to Communist revolutionary hero's, Sino-Soviet Friendship, and Sino-North Korean Friendship. I then visited the Peasant's Movement Institute, now a small museum, where many early communists, like Mao Zedong, taught. Interestingly it was a KMT institution that was formed before the KMT and the Chinese Communists split after the death of Sun Yat-sen. Dr. Sun apparently spoke at the Institute a few times. The museum was ok, it was free and has Mao's old office hidden away in a corner so I guess it was worth it. Continuing on, I then went to Xiaobai (小白), home of Guangzhou's African and Middle Eastern migrant communities. To be honest, while I did see more black people (about 10 in total) and sober Arabs (about 30) then I normally do the communities seem small. This may be because they are all off for Chinese New Year (a holiday they don't celebrate, but would get off regardless), the weather left much to be desired so many stayed home, or the size of the communities have been overblown by the foreign media. You can be the judge of that. I moved on to the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, an impressive building with a ok exhibit on Dr. Sun but not much else. Finally I got dinner on Beijing Pedestrian Street. I got some seafood noodles that were kind of overpriced and didn't provide me with enough food, I ended up getting some squid sticks form a roast meat guy just to satisfy my hunger/seafood cravings. I then returned back to my room to snack on more Fenghuang specialties.
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AuthorI am a junior at Juniata College spending a year studying abroad at East China Normal University. Please feel free to join my on my journey to China and beyond. Archives
November 2021
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