Adventures in Asia: Guangzhou, China

I came to Guangzhou by train yesterday.  This morning I fly home from CAN.

After checking into my hotel late in the afternoon, I headed down to the Canton Tower to see it at night.  It had been impressive in the day, but it was even more spectacular lit up at night!

The lights change colours and pattern constantly.

All along the river the buildings are lit up, so I walked along the river and over the bridge to the other side, enjoying the lights as I walked.

I was cold and hungry when I reached the other riverbank, so I stopped in an underground food court to warm up and get something to eat.  "Nostalgic pig feet" sounded good!

Adventures in Asia: Hong Kong

From Manila I was supposed to fly on to Brunei, but on Wednesday Cebu Pacific let me know that they had canceled my flight without any explanation!

I looked into alternatives, but nothing affordable or convenient was going to allow me to have the quick weekend in Borneo I hoped to; so, instead, I came back to China on Friday evening instead of Monday morning as I planned.  I fly back to Canada from Guangzhou on Tuesday, so I spent the weekend in Hong Kong.

I came to Hong Kong in May 2016 whilst cruising on the Sapphire Princess, but this time I came over the newly completed Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge.

As I came into Hong Kong over the bridge, I got a sense for the magnitude of shipping going through this part of the world!

The bustle, street food, and sky scrapper lights were all parts of Hong Kong I had experienced in 2016 as well, but they were as captivating the second time as they had been the first.

Something I had not been able to witness last time was these scenes of (mostly) ladies hanging out on cardboard in public spaces.  This article does a good job describing what is happening: http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20161109-a-sunday-ritual-for-300000-women.

In 2016 I had only been in Kowloon, Central, and on the Peak, so this time I took a ferry to one of the larger outlying islands, Lamma Island.  The ferry leaves from Central Pier and takes about twenty minutes.

The ferry takes about twenty minutes, the first few of which are in Victoria Harbour, with Hong Kong to the left and Kowloon to the right.

The ferry took me to Sok Kwu Wan, the pier on the southern half of the island.

From Sok Kwu Wan you can hike north, to Yung Shue Wan (the other pier with ferries to Central) for example, or you can do a nice two hours circle hike to the southern side of the island, which is what I opted for.

Despite its proximity to the rest of Hong Kong, Lamma Island's villages feel peaceful and rural, and hiking the island on a nice afternoon was wonderful.

Back at Sok Kwu Wan, there are numerous fish sellers that also have restaurants overlooking the harbour where they serve their fresh fish.

Adventures in Asia: Kaiping, China

In and around Kaiping, China, just a little west of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province, there are over a thousand towers known as "diaolou."

The diaolous are a UNESCO world heritage site, but the tourist infrastructure in the area (at least for Westerners) is surprisingly under-developed.  The most realistic way to see the diaolous (which are considerably spread out) is to hire a taxi in Kaiping and have the cabbie take you around.

There are four "clusters" of diaolous on the UNESCO list, and the biggest one is Zili.  

Zili is simultaneously a historical site and a living farming community, which makes it feel very authentic.  Several of the diaolous are preserved as historical buildings, and you can go into at least three of them.  Others, however, are still being lived in (one even has a parking pad!);

. . . and the farmers' fields are all around.

The diaolous were built in the early 20th century with money either sent back or brought back from Chinese families living abroad.  I gather that after making money overseas, families either returned or else sent money back to other family members still in China, and funded the construction of diaolous to simultaneously show off their wealth and provide defensive structures in case of bandit attacks.  Really, though, in terms of day-to-day significance, the diaolous were mostly dwellings for single or multiple families, and evidently this function continues for many of them today.  

The authenticity of the contemporary farming village combined with the ability to climb up some of the diaolous made visiting Zili quite magical.

The village is not entirely made up of the diaolous, but all of the buildings are old and have historic charm.  

Many of the farm houses had diverse objects on the walls outside, which I found intriguing.  It was something I have not noticed before anywhere else.

Here are some more pictures of the Zili diaolous.

And a couple of pictures from inside one of the diaolous:

It would be difficult to see all four UNESCO-listed clusters in one day, I think, but two was manageable in a long afternoon.  The Jinjiangli cluster is very different than Zili, and noteworthy particularly because it includes the largest diaolou, Ruishilou.

Ruishilou is nine stories high, and requires a separate ticket because it is still privately owned.  Besides being the tallest, it is by far the most decorated diaolou that I saw.

The view of Jinjiangli village and the surrounding countryside from Ruishilou was pretty cool, despite the haze in the air.  

Look at how tightly packed the houses are, with just very narrow alleys in between them.

As at Zili, farmers still live at Jinjiangli--actually other than the three diaolous, all the buildings are inhabited, and agricultural activity is everywhere.

Beside Ruishilou is a diaolou that was exclusively built for defensive purposes.

The third and last diaolou at Jinjiangli is called Shengfenglou, which is considerably shorter than Ruishilou.  

Shengfenglou had this plaque in it, which made me wonder if it had been built with money sent back from Calgary.

Shengfenglou also had this booster seat for a child in it!

Here are some more pictures from Jinjiangli.