Guangzhou: Pearl River at night

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After a long day of walking around the city, it felt really good to take a short breather along the Pearl River :) I had a good hour just admiring the changing lights of the bridges and Canton Tower as well as the brightly lit cruises!

I love how the buildings in Guangzhou (and probably other big cities in China and Hong Kong) have amazing, bright lights and hence, decorating the entire city skyline too. Actually, I've see lights on Taiwan's and Singapore's buildings too. How come Malaysian buildings are not like that? :P (except for maybe KLCC and KL Tower)

More pictures along Pearl River :)




That's all about my Guangzhou trip! :)

I still have Boracay to blog about, and I'm mighty excited about that! Too many pictures, I don't even know which one to choose to appear on the blog yet :)

Guangzhou: Out & about

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Hey there, Mr Photographer!






Colonial Shamian Island // Streets off Chang Shou Lu // Police van on the lively Beijing Road // Cantonese street snacks


There is one thing I love about travelling, that is wandering around and savouring the sights, sounds and flavours of a foreign place!

Once, we got lost looking for a place, and I was pretty sure we walked a good 3km around the same place, over and over again. When I was just about to get grumpy and hungry (hey, it rhymes!) somehow, we stumbled upon a street littered with fruit peddlers. It must have been the season for grapes and cherries, because many of them were selling it! The cherries looked really big and juicy (and since they are my favourite!), we bought a couple of hundred grams. And they tasted as good as they look!!! Instant mood lifter ;)

The Cantonese are very entrepreneurial too. At any chance, they will sell something. Anything! There were many places with these 'pop-up' businesses (even along the underground walkway tunnels). However, I saw the local authority chasing them away too :P But the Cantonese are very fast. They always manage to pack up and leave before the authority comes by! I managed to capture two women selling sneakers on their car in a busy area with many locals and tourist around. Other than having sneakers on top of their car, they had many, many boxes of sneakers inside too!

So typical of Chinese, right? :D



A last picture of us fooling around in Shamian Island :) I like this quaint place!

Guangzhou: Tao Tao Ju & Guangzhou restaurant

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You must be wondering "WTH IS TAO TAO JU?"
Because I had the same thoughts hehe!

Such funny name this 100-year old restaurant in Guangzhou has. The Cantonese calls it Tao Tao Kui, but for some reason it appears everywhere in English as Tao Tao Ju.

I was really tired after the long walk at Chang Shou Lu, so I happily plonked myself at the table. Only to realize there were no waitresses serving us hot piping dim sum in push carts. It's self-service here! T____T



Here's the auntie at the food counter, distributing dim sum, and noting down it's price on customer's sheets. There were food counters at every floor. If I'm not mistaken, this place is 4-storey tall, and we were at the highest floor!


All the oldies (uncle & aunties) in the trip, were loving it, as it was very 'traditional' tasting, according to them! I don't know what traditional is, because I'm not that old yet, RIGHT? ;)

But to be honest, I was quite surprised by it's dim sum! It's not the usual Malaysian fusion style we have, with all the seaweed, mayonnaise and all, but the dim sum were fresh and tasty! Those prawns were succulent... and really juicy, I'm surprised!








That half-eaten Tau fu fah lookalike thingy, is called Siong Pei Lai or double steamed milk custard. I wasn't expecting it to taste really good.... but it was SO good, that I had to take a picture of it (although I've finished half a bowl!). I want to eat that again!

Another restaurant we went to try was Guangzhou restaurant (what a convenient name!). Apparently the best restaurant in Guangzhou, and was popular with both locals and tourist. But I didn't like it. Maybe I was too full from the previous meal.... or maybe there's really nothing special about the dishes we ordered.




However, the restaurant that I really like, was introduced by my uncle's local relative. This was the food that were on the table. Glorious! Outstanding dishes were Pak Cham Kai or steamed chicken (it came with some seriously awesome soya sauce and onions!) and meat balls.

I don't know the name of the restaurant, as everything is in Chinese! But it is very near the Peasant Movement Train Station (Line 1, Exit A).




But I have their name card tho ;) if you want some authentic Cantonese cuisine in Guangzhou the next time you're there!

Guangzhou: Posh airport hotel & Chen Clan Academy

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We checked into Pullman Guangzhou airport hotel, which was literally 10 minutes walk from Baiyun Airport! This is the view from our room, Pullman's garden and the airport terminal. We were that close!

 Since we were staying at the airport hotel, we took a many train rides into the city. Every day, we spent at about 3 hours travelling. Yes, very tiring!

There were so many people in the train (okay, I know it's China), but it's really quite mad. I took a quick shot of all of us train passengers, and this is non-peak hour. I really cannot imagine peak hour!

 I've been to Beijing a couple years back, so I was mentally prepared to face this amount of people at one time. But for first-timers to China like Bryan, he was completely thrown back hehe!


 I'd so rather chill in the room and eat breakfast all day :P

We don't really get to stay in fanciful hotels, like Pullman, during travels (budget, budget!), so I quite enjoyed our stay here ;)



The only historical building we checked out was Chen Clan Academy. Apparently it was a home of a very rich man of Guangzhou in the earlier days. There were many carvings, artworks, pottery and engraving preserved from the dynasties, around the house.



But what I most enjoyed about Chen Clan Academy were the corridors and courtyards. Very serene and quaint! How I wished they served some nice tea with yummy Chinese treats in the relaxing courtyards :)



That would be awesome, wouldn't it? :)

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