Attending Sunday Service in a Heritage Church Building in Guangzhou

We went to an English speaking church service in China the first Sunday we were here in Guangzhou. Thus was our second Sunday, our last Sunday on this trip and we would really like to attend a local church meeting. Since google has been blocked in China, we had to searched online using another search engine.

It was not easy for us to find a local church here as they were not widely advertised. So I got info from a church friend in Canada and she gave us a few recommendations.

 Unfortunately, we could not find the service hour and got there at about 10:30 am when the service was just finished at that time.

This church is a beautiful historical building in Guangzhou

We found out that the service at this church started at 9am!

A nice lady recommended us to another church where the service started at 12pm.  On our way to the second church, we stopped at the Heng Bao Shopping Centre,  had our breakfast and then headed to the church.

Located very close to the Jie Tai Plaza, this church has been declared a heritage building and under the Guangzhou City Government's protection since 2008.

This church is a historical building under the government's protection 

This is truly a magnificent church with some interesting architectural detail such as the semicircular balcony outside one of the  front windows.

We got to the church around 12pm, a lady pastor was already preaching to the congregation.

Once inside the church, we tried to find a seat and sit down as quietly as possible. Heading towards a pew, I was called back by the usher and was informed that I could not be in the main sanctuary because I was wearing flip flops !

We sat in the balcony of the church for the Sunday Service

The young people leading the last hymn

She told us to go to the upper level where there was a TV set up. But we peeked into the balcony level and there were not a lot of people so we went and sat there.


We could understand little of what the pastor was saying. Later, we found out that the service started at 11:30 and we missed half of the program already.

When they sang the last song,  a team of young people led the singing with a female drummer accompanying the team.

I was touched by how the congregation worshiped at that church

When I saw the family in front of us raising their hands to praise God,  my eyes were filled up with tears, not sure why.

Address of the church in Guangzhou in Chinese

I was sorry that we missed the beginning part and almost half of the service. I would love to have attended the service in its entirety.

After church, we did some shopping in the area and bought some pretty sandals, also went to Ikea and bought some stationery items for J.

It was a busy afternoon for us as we went to the Rosedale Hotel  and bought the coach tickets for our direct ride back to the Hong Kong airport for the next day.

R.T.
Guangzhou
China

Visiting Taishan, Guangzhou

Guangzhou  Station

We visited my husband's ancestral village last week and today we would be visiting my parents' villages in southern China.

We got up at 6am, and took a taxi to the Guangzhou Station. After presenting our passports to the ticket agent, we bought tickets to Taishan (63 Yuan per person).

We took the bus to my parents' village

The bus left at 8:30am right on time and arrived at Taishan city at around 11:30am. My father mentioned Taishan City to us often when we were young.

He told us many stories about that city, therefore I paid special attention to this town as the bus approached this place. I could imagine my father as a young man traveling back and forth in this town.

We enjoyed the scenery on the bus to Taishan

After arriving at Taishan City, we had to take a local bus to Dofu, (10 yuen /person, very affordable indeed!) and it took another half hour.

By the time we got to Dofu, it was around 1pm. We did not see any taxi at the Dofu bus station except for a couple of  motor cycles and tricycle converted to seating passengers.

I remembered those stories my father told me about his village 

We opted for the tricycle and it took us another 15-20 minutes to get to Yachi's village.

Yachi's sister was there at the entrance to the village. She led us to her house and we met her parents and uncle. They had prepared a feast for us. We ate, got to know the family better and visited with them for a little while.

One of the ladies took us to my dad;s old house

Ya's village was a small one with around a hundred residents. There was not much to see. Ya's sister booked a taxi for us and the taxi driver drove us to my mother and then my father's village.

The house has been vacant since my father left

It was a lifelong wish that I could trace my root and visit my parents' villages. I was surprised that there were some who still remembered my parents and grandparents.

Weeds and plants have overtaken the courtyard of my father;s old house

We were led to my father's house. My father left the village long time ago back in 1940's before the civil war broke out in China.

The house has since been abandoned and it has fallen in disrepair.

Many houses have been left vacant in the village as young people all went to the cities for employment.

My mom's old village

After visiting my dad's village, the taxi driver took us to my mother's.















I was very emotional as I met and conversed with one of the elderly women who remembered my grandmother when I mentioned her name.

Tears swelled up in my eyes when I saw my mom’s village and house.

The same thing happened here with many of the young people having left the villages in the rural area of China


My mother's side family was better to do therefore her paternal house was one of the biggest and better built house.









Neither of my parents showed any desire to return to China to reside in their ancestral home.

However, my mother still has distant relatives living in the village and someone is currently occupying her father's house.











The population of the villages we visited have declined steadily and dramatically leaving only old people and the very young behind.












It seems to be a growing trend and a problem which the government has to deal with.

Then, we got a call from J. who asked us to return early so that he could spend more time with us.

We did and asked the taxi driver to take us to Taishan Station so that  we could take the coach directly back to Guangzhou at 7:30pm.

We spent some time at J's place. Using some construction paper, we made some art work to decorate the shelves at his place. We were glad to be able to help him. J. seemed to like it too.

It was after 9pm before we went out to have dinner at a Japanese restaurant in the area. The cooked sushi were  very good, much better  than those we ate in Canada!! Wish we could stay for another two weeks or so!

R.T.
Taishan/ Guangzhou
China

0723, 2016

Pangyu - Visiting a Suburb of Guangzhou, China

Somehow I didn't know what was wrong with my cell phone, I missed a few of J's calls and again this morning when we were at the hotel.

Realizing our trip was ending and that we would be going back to Canada after a couple of days, he asked if we would like to visit Pangyu with him in the afternoon. Off course we would!

We were so glad that someone told us about the ICBC where we could change our Canadian dollars to RMB. With cash in our pockets, we were more confident to travel and continue our trip in China. 

We could go pretty far by taking the public transit in Guangzhou. Travelling with J., we took a train, changed to another one and then hopped on a bus which took us to Pangyu, a bus ride of about half an hour.

We went to visit the apartment located in a gated community, a nice and spacious place. We met Dobson, his roommate and a very nice guy.

To my pleasant surprise, we had sometime while J. was waiting for his mattress cover to soak for a little while. Good thing I brought my computer and we could sing some hymns downloaded and stored on my desktop! Hallelujah!

At least we had a few moments of singing some hymns together. We always treasure such moments with our loved ones!

J,  being extremely busy these days, didn’t have time to have dinner with us. We grabbed a few buns and ate them on our ride back to Guangzhou.  He went to meet his friends.

I went shopping for some clothes while S. waited for me patiently in the store! I bought quite a few outfits because I could try each one on in the store. Thanks to my husband's waiting without complaining. Nice husband indeed!

A long and busy day for us!

R.T.
Guangzhou, China
0722, 2016

Where to Exchange Foreign Currency for RMB in Guangzhou, China?

Prior to our departure for China, we converted a certain amount of Canadian dollars to RMB at a Toronto bank in Canada.

Since credit cards are still not commonly accepted in everyday transactions in China, we have to pay for our purchases with our RMB once landed here.

However, for Chinese these days, shopping and paying for their purchases are easy, convenient and fast. Using their cell phones, many Chinese can instantaneously pay for their purchases to the stores, online, even taxi fares. The exact amount would be deducted directly from the customers' bank accounts and transferred to the merchants' within minutes.

After vacationing for almost two weeks in China, we almost ran out of Chinese money and needed to replenish our wallet. We wanted to exchange our Canadian dollars to RMB in Guangzhou, China, but it was not as easy as we thought. For the past few days, we encountered the following:

1. First we went to the Bank of China which is a big bank with many branches in Canada. But they would not exchange money for us unless we had an account with the bank.

2. Then we went to the Bank of Guangzhou,  a big bank here. They would exchange money for us. But to our disappointment, the bank would only exchange U.S. dollars, not Canadian money! This happened before on our other trips in other countries! I couldn't believe it happened again in China.
For the past two days, we went from bank to bank without success.

3. Finally, on Friday, after asking a few people around, we were directed to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China ( ICBC )  closest to our hotel. To our pleasant surprise,  they exchanged our Canadian money for RMB!  And there was no charge either!

Hurrah for the ICBC in Guangzhou! You have saved our tour in China!

R.T.
Guangzhou
China

Yuntai Garden - Displaying the Colours of China

We took the cable car down to the bottom of the BaiYun Mountain

After our visit to the BaiYun Mountain, we took the cable car and went down to the bottom of the mountain.

Displays of stories and pictures on BaiYun Mt 

On our way out of the BaiYun Garden, there was a really good detail display of history, stories, photos and poems about BaiYun Mountain.

One of the sculptures displayed

I wish we had more time so that we could spend sometime reading and learning about this famous mountain and enjoying the artwork and sculptures displayed.

 Yuntai Garden located right beside the Cableway 

After we descended the Baiyun Mountain via the BaiYun Cableway, we discovered Yuntai Garden, a garden located right beside this famous mountain.

Located at the southern foot of the Baiyun Mountain, the Yuntai Garden covers an area of 250,000 meters, making it the largest landscaped garden in China.

A very interesting tee with a flat trunk!

Since there was still a few hours before darkness descended, we paid a visit to this beautiful garden.

At 10 RMB per adult for admission, it is very affordable for the local people.

There were a wide variety of plants and flowers bursting in brilliant colour in the Yuntai Garden when we were there.

We saw some very special plants and exotic flowers from various places around the globe and we loved looking at everything!

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Many interesting plants and trees!

Yuntai Garden is a huge garden with a number of theme gardens such as the Rose Garden, a Friendship Garden, a Rock Garden.

Rock Garden - one of the theme gardens

It would have taken us a whole day to walk through all the theme gardens.

A huge garden with a lot to see, it was easy getting lost among the flowers, shrubs, exquisite buildings and other artwork.

We would have loved to have hiked all the trails,  seen everything but we were too tired to cover all the highlights. 

With numerous gigantic colourful figures placed all over the park, it appeared that the park has a heavy emphasis on children's theme.

What I liked most was the gigantic pottery pieces dotted among the flowers and shrubs around the garden.  

I loved all the gigantic pottery pieces placed in the garden

When the sun started to go down, we ended our fun day enjoying dinner in the restaurant located next to the Yuntai Garden.

Statues decorated the restaurant located beside the Yuntai Garden 

With a window view of the garden and an indoor tiny bridge over a man made pond, the restaurant was the perfect place to relax after a busy sightseeing day!

We ended our busy day enjoying a relaxing dinner !

R.T.
Yuntai Garden
BaiYun Mountain area
Guangzhou, China