The Great Asian Race: Day 8

Day 8 started out with a long train ride to Guang-Zhou China.  Well, it wasn't that long, but long enough.  It took us 2 hours to cross the border and get into China.  Once we had crossed the border it was very evident!  There were a lot of Chinese guards standing at every train stop.  When we got to our stop, it was crazy!  China was definitely a lot dirtier that Hong Kong was (well, where we were anyway), and lots of people trying to vye for our attention.  We got a taxi, which was very cheap!!  And made our way to our hotel.  Our hotel was on a small island within the actual city that the British use to occupy, so that was interesting.  It was one of the nicer hotels I have stayed in, but the cheapest one of the trip!!  $60 for a 4 star hotel!!!  China was cheaper for everything.  This picture is a picture out our window.  It is of the kids at recess at a school.  They don't have much room, but they are making the most of it by playing tag back and forth!!

After we had our stuff settled into our room we decided to get out and explore since we only had a day and a half here.  We were both hungry, so we ducked into a little noodle shop for some ramen noodles.  I know I know, I can have ramen noodles here in the states, but these were very authentic, and they made us some great pork dumplings to go in them.  Delicious!  They were also excited to have some foreigners in their shop, especially one that spoke their language!

Next we went to the Chen Family Temple.  The temple was basically a museum for anyone who has ever had the last name Chen.  It was pretty sweet with all the detailed carving and all of the cool art.

The front of the building.

Some of the detailing on the top of the building.  All the carvings tell a story about the Chen family history.

These huge things are the doors into the Temple.  The paintings of the warriors are supposed to protect it.  They are so big!!!

These are what the walls looked like inside.  They were squares that were carved, and yes, each one telling a part of the history.  So amazing!
This is a building within the Temple.  It had a lot of the art in it.
There was a lot of clay art like this, this was one of my favorites.
I don't know why I thought this was funny, but it is a huge planter in the middle of the courtyard with like two tiny goldfish in it!  So funny!
This is one of the ivory carved art pieces.  It is carved out of one piece of ivory.  Very beautiful.  If you have anything ivory it was illegal to go back to Hong kong.  Just some trivia for ya'll.

The next two are pictures of the stained glass windows they had.  They were Chris's favorite part in the museum.

After leaving the Chen family Temple we wandered around the "park" area for a bit people watching.  I loved watching all of the children playing.  It was amazing that even though they didn't seem to have much everyone was very happy.  

Like I said, not much of a park as much as cement, so these kids are making do with what they have....the statues are their jungle gym.

I love this picture of this little boy.  I don't know what he is trying to do to the statue, but I think smother it with that plastic bag!!
This is the park area.  Everyone is having fun playing badminton, hacky sack and soccer...all on cement.

Next we went to the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial.  Sun Yat-Sen is the father of communism (I think)  so There is a pretty big memorial to him here, and there are others in China, and one in Taiwan I believe.
Chris contemplating the area, watching the kids play and just taking it all in.

This is a side view of the actual Memorial building.  Whoops we somehow came in the back way.

I love these next few pictures of the kids playing around the Memorial. I think they are playing war.


This is one of my favorite pictures that I took.  How classic does that look!  Kids and guns!!!
But at least they all know they are still friends.
The front of the Memorial.
The VERY front with the garden, statue and Memorial all there.
The statue of Sun Yat-Sen
This is ramdom, but there was a fire truck in the tree when I went to use the restroom.  Weird.  And by the way, it is really hard to use the restroom in China, all of the toilets are squatters in the ground!!!  It is like camping all of the time!!!  My quads were getting a workout!

Next we ventured down a modern Chinese street where all the young kids hang out.  I was decorated very cool!  Lots of lights!!  We found a very nice restaurant where I was starting to get a little bit better at the chopsticks.

So this is what quenched my thirst for about two weeks.  I had to get 7 up because I was not going to drink the water.  When you went into the restaurant they always brought you water....just like here....except it was boiling water.....and I was supposed to drink that.  Maybe if they had cocoa for me to put in it, but since they never did 7 up it was.
This guy was just wearing a rooster outfit in the middle of the street.  Weird.

To top off our night in China, we ended on a great note!!  Chris took me to a Chinese spa where we had massages for 2 1/2 hours!!!  It was amazing!!  They even massaged my eyelids!!  The foot massage part was the best because my feet hurt so much from so much walking in the last week.  The grand total of a 2 1/2 hour massage in China  *drumroll*  $20, including a $3 tip which the girls were very excited about because people don't generally tip there.  The perfect ending to quite a fun day!

Great Asian Race Day 9 to be continued....