Peaceful Market and West train station in Guangzhou
23/02/2005
The next day, I was supposed to check out at 12am, but I woke up late, so I quickly took a shower, then went to the reception to get my deposit back.
After that I took the bus to Yuexiu Gongyuan, the biggest park in Guangzhou that covers about 93 hectares. There is the symbol of Guangzhou city there, the statue of the five rams, and the Zenhai towers. The legend behind this five rams statue is quite nice...
The park was quite big, so I spent the whole afternoon there watching big groups of Chinese tourists taking pictures of each other infront of the five rams statue, then I walked downward, enjoyed the fresh clean air..My backpack was so heavy that I didn't feel like buy anything eventhough I was very tempted in buying some stuffs ;-)
I left the park around 3.30pm, went to the Peaceful market, just curious to see what kind of exotic insects I could find...The thing was that I imagined that market differently in my head, I thought the snake/scorpion would be alive or the mushroom would be fresh ;-), but they were sold dried, and the murshrooms were in different shapes, different sizes (I do not know whether the smaller or bigger they are-can be gigantic, the more expensive they are), the market has plenty of ginseng in different sizes, different kind and sometimes, they were sliced thinly, ready for ginseng tea drink (the reason I mentioned this is because I remember my grandmom used to try to cut the ginseng root with a butch knife because it was so hard to cut them in small pieces for a tea)...I was a bit disappointed that I didn't see much thing here but I met a French couples who were also wandering around there, so I just chated to them a bit, then took a cap to the West Station to buy train ticket to Guilin.
When I was in front of the train station, I was abit overwhelmed...There were a lot of people in the front with their bags, luggages, children, old people, middle-age..etc. Later David told me those people came from the North area of China to look for job opporatunity in Guangzhou, however, they couldn't find anything yet, so the station was like where they were staying...Before it was worse, but since now opportunities also represents in Shanghai, many people are going there. When I went inside the station where all the ticket booths were, I got a bit panic...There were abit board which to my understanding for train schedule, and it's in Chinese ;-), everything except the "ticket office"
I went into one of those ticket booths to buy a ticket to Guilin, I said once, the very serious girl behind the booth just open her eyes very big, and replied to me in a very long sentence in Chinese ;-), obviously she didn't understand. I wrote "Guangzhou--->Guilin" on a piece of paper but she also didn't get it. So, I just took out the Lonely Planet guide, showed her the Guangzhou in Chinese character, then Guilin, she didn't smile yet though, still very serious, and seemed to get a bit annoyed ;-), she got it after all, but since I wanted to soft sleeper seat, I said "bed", she got it! Yippi
Ok, got the ticket but still panic since I didn't know which gates to get in (Chinese characters look good though), so I went to "?" section to ask, the woman told me "number 2" but there were no number on the gates!!! I asked a police, who looked very tough ;-), he said "three", and then didn't willing to say anything more, so I said "xie xie-thank you in mandarin although in Guangzhou they speak Cantonese, but ok, I supposed he understood " to him-left..OK...I just got in one of the door and figured out "3" means where I should be waiting to get boarding...
When I was waiting, there was a lady belong to the Chinese railway org going around with a big speaker in her hand, trying to sell a paper that looked like a map to me, and many Chinese bought it ;-). So, I also waved at her, she came, I asked her what that was, she did not understand of course, so she gave up in explaining on me, but looking at the paper, it looked like a train schedule connection or something...
There were ALOT of people waiting in the waiting room, lots og gabbage and very dirty, but the people were very friendly and helpful...
The train arrived, they opened the gate, and people just rushed in with their bags, I was squeezed and taken by them. I asked again for the correct train, correct compartment. When I was infront of the compartment, the girl changed my ticket to a plastic thingy, which also in Chinese...I got on the train, and one group of Chinese asked me if I would like to change my plastic ticket with one of the guy because they were travelling together, so they would like to stay together, so I changed it...On the plastic ticket, it actually said where I would sleep (upper or lower, right or left..)
The next day, I was supposed to check out at 12am, but I woke up late, so I quickly took a shower, then went to the reception to get my deposit back.
After that I took the bus to Yuexiu Gongyuan, the biggest park in Guangzhou that covers about 93 hectares. There is the symbol of Guangzhou city there, the statue of the five rams, and the Zenhai towers. The legend behind this five rams statue is quite nice...
The park was quite big, so I spent the whole afternoon there watching big groups of Chinese tourists taking pictures of each other infront of the five rams statue, then I walked downward, enjoyed the fresh clean air..My backpack was so heavy that I didn't feel like buy anything eventhough I was very tempted in buying some stuffs ;-)
I left the park around 3.30pm, went to the Peaceful market, just curious to see what kind of exotic insects I could find...The thing was that I imagined that market differently in my head, I thought the snake/scorpion would be alive or the mushroom would be fresh ;-), but they were sold dried, and the murshrooms were in different shapes, different sizes (I do not know whether the smaller or bigger they are-can be gigantic, the more expensive they are), the market has plenty of ginseng in different sizes, different kind and sometimes, they were sliced thinly, ready for ginseng tea drink (the reason I mentioned this is because I remember my grandmom used to try to cut the ginseng root with a butch knife because it was so hard to cut them in small pieces for a tea)...I was a bit disappointed that I didn't see much thing here but I met a French couples who were also wandering around there, so I just chated to them a bit, then took a cap to the West Station to buy train ticket to Guilin.
When I was in front of the train station, I was abit overwhelmed...There were a lot of people in the front with their bags, luggages, children, old people, middle-age..etc. Later David told me those people came from the North area of China to look for job opporatunity in Guangzhou, however, they couldn't find anything yet, so the station was like where they were staying...Before it was worse, but since now opportunities also represents in Shanghai, many people are going there. When I went inside the station where all the ticket booths were, I got a bit panic...There were abit board which to my understanding for train schedule, and it's in Chinese ;-), everything except the "ticket office"
I went into one of those ticket booths to buy a ticket to Guilin, I said once, the very serious girl behind the booth just open her eyes very big, and replied to me in a very long sentence in Chinese ;-), obviously she didn't understand. I wrote "Guangzhou--->Guilin" on a piece of paper but she also didn't get it. So, I just took out the Lonely Planet guide, showed her the Guangzhou in Chinese character, then Guilin, she didn't smile yet though, still very serious, and seemed to get a bit annoyed ;-), she got it after all, but since I wanted to soft sleeper seat, I said "bed", she got it! Yippi
Ok, got the ticket but still panic since I didn't know which gates to get in (Chinese characters look good though), so I went to "?" section to ask, the woman told me "number 2" but there were no number on the gates!!! I asked a police, who looked very tough ;-), he said "three", and then didn't willing to say anything more, so I said "xie xie-thank you in mandarin although in Guangzhou they speak Cantonese, but ok, I supposed he understood " to him-left..OK...I just got in one of the door and figured out "3" means where I should be waiting to get boarding...
When I was waiting, there was a lady belong to the Chinese railway org going around with a big speaker in her hand, trying to sell a paper that looked like a map to me, and many Chinese bought it ;-). So, I also waved at her, she came, I asked her what that was, she did not understand of course, so she gave up in explaining on me, but looking at the paper, it looked like a train schedule connection or something...
There were ALOT of people waiting in the waiting room, lots og gabbage and very dirty, but the people were very friendly and helpful...
The train arrived, they opened the gate, and people just rushed in with their bags, I was squeezed and taken by them. I asked again for the correct train, correct compartment. When I was infront of the compartment, the girl changed my ticket to a plastic thingy, which also in Chinese...I got on the train, and one group of Chinese asked me if I would like to change my plastic ticket with one of the guy because they were travelling together, so they would like to stay together, so I changed it...On the plastic ticket, it actually said where I would sleep (upper or lower, right or left..)
posted by Vagabonder @ 12:10 PM
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