All Good Days Should Start With Noodles

Sorry - we were temporarily pulled away by a week of report card writing, marking and field tripping at school. The week flew by though and we have all of 6 days left before the end of the school year. Hard to believe. So here's a brief update if you've been wondering what we've been up to.

Tom and Anne Marie visited us last weekend and we had a great time exploring the city on foot with no real agenda in mind. We started off as all good days in China should...with a bowl of delicious handmade noodles. Here is Scott capturing the noodle making process on camera much to the delight of the restaurant employees. We could go on at length about noodle making, but will save that for another post.

We then made our way to one of Guangzhou's beautiful parks to kick around the shuttle cock (China's hacky sack) for a bit.

Taking the metro

shuttle cock

Admiring grand babies - one of China's favourite pastimes

We followed up the park with a timely visit to the Sun Yet-Sen memorial hall while it thundered and poured outside.



When my parents were here 30 years ago, it looked like this.

Yes this is their picture!

Unfortunately, the pouring rain prevented us from getting a "30 years after" shot of the scene, but here's one I found on the internet (I think the blue sky may have been photoshopped in.)


From there we wandered the streets for the rest of the evening.

dried meat shop

We found this little alley and stopped here for a drink. A man at the shop befriended us and gave us the low down on the neighborhood. Apparently the pink building behind us used to be a hospital for pregnant women. The doctor that started it was quite well known, and so is the building. The doctor fled to Hong Kong when the communists came into power and now the building is used as an apartment building. That's the jist of the story - not sure if we quite understood all of it.

friendly cats

We then strolled the river banks in the evening, marveling at a surreal collection of sights.

Light gazing from the rooftops of miniature houses

a little dog in a funny little park with concrete mushrooms and trees that were half cut down. (think about this - if you were to create a park, why would you a) make concrete trees, and b) make concrete trees that looked as though they had been cut down?) It was a sad and strange little place.

portable karaoke by the riverside

A gym under an old building in what looks like it should be a parking lot - there were no lights except the ones on the street, but yet the place was full of teenagers drinking beer, grannies working out, kids playing on see saws and a man with a handlebar mustache sitting on the stationary bicycle, watching, just watching.

We also saw a watermelon restaurant, but forgot to take a picture. Its a real restaurant with tables, chairs and stacks of watermelon. Not a bad idea on a hot night. They cut the watermelons in half and serve with a bunch of spoons.

Sadly our camera battery died so we have no photos to document the second day of walking, but you get the idea. Guangzhou is never a dull place, always something to pique your interest if you get out and start exploring.