Our First Week in Guangzhou, China, 2023

Before the end of 2023, I would like to include our wonderful trip to Asia in the summer of 2023 so that we can look back in the future and remember the joyful time we had there. I will edit my posts on China later and will include pictures in them. If your are reading and are interested, please check back later as I am currently having problems uploading the pictures to my blog posts. Day 1 - China After spending a few days in Taipei and stayed at Rev. V's house, we flew from Taipei to Guangzhou. It was not a good experience at the airport. China was supposed to use an automated arrival procedure but the machines did not work for fingerprintes and I was surprised that there was only one uniformed officer available to help the travellers. He was busy helping everyone and he gave us a lot of assistance to make it through the process. At the Chinese custom, the officers were efficent. One of them took our pictures and finger prints, then off we went. J was waiting and he met us at the arrival gate. We were so glad to see him and he looked good! We had some big hugs as we haven't seen him for almost 4 years! Our first experience with the subway system in China. J. helped us bought a subway card each.(59 Y each) We took the train to the subway station closest to J's apartment and from there we took a taxi home. We arrived at J's apartment and he was proud to show us his place. We could see that he was very proud of buying the place himself. Small, but a very functional and convenient place in the heart of a big city. So glad that he has a place of his own! J. ordered take out from his cell phone and within 20 minutes, his beer and water were delivered. (25 y)

Day 2 - First Breakfast in Guangzhou and exploring the neighborhood We strolled around the neighbourhood and discovered there were number of nice North American style coffee shops. We chose one closest to the apartment and ordered lattes and pineapple buns for our simple breakfast. We also bought sheng fun from the next shop. We were informed by BOBO, our coffee shop server, that we could order the food, bring and eat in the coffee shop. That was convenient indeed! In Canada, the shop owners would not like that at all. As we sipped our latte, we talked to Bobo and started making our first friend in this big city of almost fourteen million inhabitants! The next thing we did was buying a sim card for our cell phones so that we could communcate eaily with one another. China Mobile was not too far and for 239.00 yuens, we could have unlimited talking and texting for a month in China. We also went to the Bank of China and exchanged some Canadian currency to Yuens there. We enjoyed our first dinner at a nearby caferia style restaurant. I had fish, veggie soup, congee (22 Y) J n S. had meat, veggie (22 Y). The meal came with soup, rice and tea. A evry inexpensive dinner! After our nice dinner, we walked to Walmart looking for a fridge. There were so many people there! I noticed that Chinese Walmart stores mainly sold groceries and clothing. We couldn't find any shelving or storage accessories there. We took the bus back to J'S place. It was a busy day. Day 3 I did my daily devotion in the morning and was getting ready to share something from the B.book with J. Amazing Delivery System in Guangzhou we had coffee n cheung fen for the 2nd day from the neighborhood's small restaurant. We have also befriended a nice server, Bobo, who helped me to send a parcel to my brother's friend in another part of China. Bobo found us a delivery company which came and picked up the parcel within 30 minutes for 11 Y, about 2 Canadian dollars. Bobo used wechat to pay the company on our behalf. The delivery system was so efficient in China! It saved us a lot of time not going to the post office and waiting in line to have the parcel weighted, then buying the stamps and sending it etc. Absolutely amazing! After a couple of days, we received a message that the intended recipient received the parcel.How cool was that!

Birthday Dinner at a Hot pot Restaurant We celebrated my birthday with our son in China! The last time we celebrated my birthday with him was more than nine years ago. Therefore this birthday celebration was very special for me. J. took us to a nice restaurant located within a shopping mall where We had my birthday dinner. The restaurant was called Hai Di Lao, a chain hot pot restaurant.(My husand told me there are three of this restaurant in Toronto. I never knew about this.) Hai Di Lao - a beautiful, spacious, clean, modern and welcoming place. The service was good; the food was delicious and different while the ambience was elegant and great for conversation. Since we were there for an early dinner, it was not too busy yet. We all enjoyed the food and the calm atmosphere a lot! Close to the end of our meal, the restaurant staff came, put a birthday hat on my head and presented us with a birthday treat - a plate of beautifully arranged sliced fruit with a candle on top of it. How creative was this. No sweet cakes, I liked it a lot since I was trying to avoid sweet desserts and watching my weight! They sang birthday song, took a picture of us and by the end of our dinner presented the birthday picture to us in a nice picture frame! That was a nice gesture by the restaurant to the customers.

One interesting thing I noticed was that for a diner eating alone, the restaurnat placed a huge stuffed animal sitting opposite from the diner giving the illusion that this lone diner had company with him/her while eating here. Very interesting!

After dinner, we went to watch a Chinese movie with English subtitle in the same shopping mall - Chang On 30,000 miles - a newly released movie about one of the most famous poets in China. An excellent animated movie produced in China, educational and informative. We all learned a lot about some Chinese history and the famous poet. I had and a great time with my family on my birthday. Thank God for His blessings! Day 4 Since Guangzhou was very hot for the past few days, we asked J. to take us somewhere cooler and we decided to leave town for a while. I got up early today and cleaned as much as I could before leaving for Gui Yang. I felt good that I could help J. doing something in his apartment. He made a comment 'Now the kitchen looks great! My apartment looks like a home now." This made me very happy that I could help him. I couldnt believe that it took me almost two hours to pack and got ready for our trip. We bought some takeout food and got to the train station. Unfortunately, J. made a mistake in S.'s ticket information and it took a little time to explain and correct it at the train station. We took the fast train at about 330pm. Our first experience riding on the Chinese fast train. It was a clean, spacious modern train. We sat comfortably along with lots of other families travelling. We arrived in Guiyang after 9pm and took the subway to our hotel. We only needed to walk a few minutes passing by a mini night market on our way. We bought a duck leg and other food from a street vendor, my first night market food purchase, and checked into our hotel. We slept like babies! RT, Guangzhou 07282023