day 5 & 6 - guangzhou, guangdong

woke up quite early in the morning to get ready for the last leg of our trip - guangzhou! i was quite excited yet tired. we had been rushing from point a to point b for the past few days.

took a kwee kwan (岐关) bus to guangzhou proper for rmb70. the ride took 2 hours with a stopover.

stayed in a pretty rundown hotel - hotel lido near beijing pedestrian street. it's a little far from the guangzhou metro station (公园前) though.

we went to this place called dishifulu (第十甫路) for some street shopping for the night, similar to browsing through the ladies street in hk. had a so-so dinner there. there wasn't enough time to get to the up-down-nine-street (上下九路), haiz.

the next morning, we had a great dim sum breakfast. even now, back in singapore as i am typing this, i still miss the food in guangzhou. i just cannot find any tastier dim sum in singapore, even red star loses.

the first picture is the chee cheong fun. yummy yummy *slurp!!

i still remember my china colleague teased me with this statement: "now you finally understand why we china people dislike the food in singapore!". i just had to agree.

visited some temples in guangzhou. went to an interesting place called the chen clan academy - 陈家祠. apparently this area used to be inhabited by the chens and they came to pool their money to set up a study academy in this area. even the metro station is named chen clan academy station.

so of course we visited the chen clan academy for a couple of 10 rmbs. i kinda like architectures from these eras. they just seemed so majestic yet organized.

alas, it's a pity i didn't get to visit the tomb of the nanyue king - the era before the present-day guangdong is incorporated into china proper.

next up on our itinerary is the pearl river cruise. went for a quick lunch and a last-minute shopping for gifts before the cruise starts. luckily we can dump everything in our hotel room along the way =).

so it has came to the end of the trip. it was quite an eventful trip and an eye-opener for me. the china portrayed by her people in singapore is in sharp contrast to the image projected within china. anyway, if possible, i would love to visit china again since i dun need a visa to go there=).