Guangzhou
The biggest portion of the trip was spent in Guangzhou (广州), the capital of the Guangdong province. It’s a huge city of almost 19 million people. We spent a lot of time here with family and eating out, since it’s Chinese New Year and our family tends to eat out as a tradition. Guangzhou also has a big food culture since Cantonese cuisine originated from this area. I did do some exploring around the city as well.
That’s all the highlights of my trip to China. Overall it was a good trip. I had a little bit of a cold that I caught from a different trip, and one night with some stomach issues, but much better than the previous China trip where I ended with a bad cough and had multiple nights with stomach aches. It was good to see all the relatives that I haven’t seen in years. Most of my relatives are doing fine, but I’m at the age where some of the older relatives are starting to pass away or get health issues. It’s sad seeing some relatives doing worse than the last time I saw them, but that’s just life.
A few other notes about the trip:
- biggest difference I noticed this trip vs my previous China trip was the prevalence of electric vehicles. It’s easy to tell because electric vehicles have a green license plate, vs blue plates for other vehicles. They come in all shapes and sizes from ones that look like regular sedans, to sleek performance vehicles and boxy people/cargo haulers. And of course, most of them are Chinese brands. Definitely more Chinese vehicles on the roads vs foreign brands, which makes sense since Chinese vehicles are cheaper.
- The other thing is prevalent on the roads are the electric mopeds, which has replaced the bicycle as the small vehicle of choice. Unlike cars, the electric mopeds don’t seem to obey any traffic rules. They are on the roads, the bike lanes, and the sidewalks, and are silent unless the rider has the courtesy to beep at you. Was definitely something to watch out for when walking around. The cops won’t do anything about them, since the whole delivery economy depends on the mopeds.
- Speaking of delivery, everything is super convenient in China, provided that you got the electronic payment app like WeChat Pay or Alipay set up correctly. You can order food and merchandise off the app and get it delivered within an hour or two.
- Electronic payments via Alipay or WeChat is still the way to go, and that was the same from the last time. You hardly see people using cash or credit cards. I didn’t quite have mine set up correctly, so had to rely on other family member to pay for some stuff. Thankfully, the subways in Guangzhou and Shanghai accept credit cards that have tapping enabled.
- Having tissues on hand and being able to use squat toilet still applies. Thankfully I avoided having to poop much while out and about, and most upscale places have seated toilets.
I wish I could have stayed longer, but I don’t have enough PTO days saved up to extend the trip. Hopefully I’ll be back in China more often, and won’t wait another 7-8 years until another visit. With family members getting older, you never know when it’s the last time you get to see them. With my current income, I have the means to visit more often. Also China is a huge country and there’s a lot of places that I want to visit. Thanks for reading and Happy Year of the Horse.
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