Guangzhou-Chapter One: First Impressions

En Route to China!
Before we ventured to China, we took a Wild-West Tour of the American Southwest with a quick stop in Los Angeles, NYE in Death Valley, Vegas for post-NYE, and took a helicopter trip between Vegas and the Grand Canyon (and back). Sadly, I was super-sick for most of the trip; however, very fortunate for Matt's patience and care during this time.

Then, on January 4th, we took a 13-hour plane ride SFO->BEJ. Thank goodness Matt's eldest brother was kind enough to lend us his miles, so we were upgraded to business class and got to rest well on the plane. Once we got to Beijing, we took a 3.5 hour plane ride to Guangzhou. That was very rough and it took us a few days to adjust to the 13 hour time difference (Eastern->China time). And a little more for me because I had been sick with the cold/flu for the past couple weeks.

Helicopter valley rides through the Grand Canyon were certainly breathtaking!

First golden rays of 2012 in Death Valley

Living in Guangzhou

Chinese people love taking random pictures of anything!

I love Guangzhou. It is China's third largest city, and the largest in Southern China. It's also where a few of recent pandemics started (i.e., avian flu, SARS). Scary, I know, but consulate folks have seemed to be fine in the past. The city is sprawling with skyscrapers and every metro stop has endless modern-shopping. It is certainly a shopper's paradise. There's also interesting shopping where you can find any creature alive or dead/dried, The food is quite good. Cantonese cooking is the primary Chinese cuisine found in the U.S. I haven't had too many stomach issues from eating here. Also, when we do miss American food, there's a McDonalds, Subway, or KFC on literally every corner. I'm embarrassed to say how many times I've already visited those places. Thank goodness, I'm getting tired of them.  The metro system is amazing. I've never waited longer than 2.5 minutes since I've been here. Also it's pretty cheap, like $.15 to $.50 a ride! I currently have a Hello Kitty metro card. The infrastructure in the city really puts many U.S. cities to shame! Pollution is not as bad as I expected it to be. A "clear" day is still pretty hazy. You can't see blue skies that well. It's been pretty gloomy since I got here. It's also cooler than I anticipated. Highs of low 50s and lows of mid-40s. Some rain.

Guangzhou's Zhujiang (Pearl River) new time skyline.

Matt and I live in the Consulate Towers. There are a few other places where consulate staff live around Guangzhou. Since we will only be staying in the city for one year, they put us in the Consulate Towers, which is about to be renovated (and looks like it needs to be renovated...very 1980s feel to it.) We're a little jealous of other housing, because it's way modern and nice (i.e., marble and/or wood-paneled floors)! We are happy where we live because there's a guest bedroom (when you visit), a gigantic master bedroom, not too far from their metro (5 minute walk), and it's free! We have an inconvenient work commute because we have to take a shuttle to work (30-45 minute one-way daily commute), but for someone who's from L.A., it's not so bad. We're going to hire a cleaning lady/cook, which is fairly customary here. It'll be nice because twice to three times a week, we'll have someone to do household chores and cook food.

Working in Guangzhou
I work as a consular assistant, which basically I have a buffet of responsibilities. I work in all four sections of the consular section, which basically means I fingerprint visa applicants who come in and do any research/admin work needed. It's lots of fun and I get to know a lot of people from doing it.

Guangzhou: This is a popular store here. Thought it had a funny/awesome name!

Guangzhou: When we first moved, the town was already decked out for Lunar New Year's.

Lunar New Year (The Year of the Dragon)

Shanghai: View of the Bund from our hotel room.

Shanghai: View of the Bund from behind us.

Matt and I just got back from Shanghai for Lunar New Year. Shanghai is certainly like NYC, but way larger. In fact, it's has the largest city-proper population in the world (when measuring just within city borders). Their metro map is super scary...it's looks like 3 intertwined octopuses. We didn't see many people because during Lunar New Year, many people return to their respective families, much of the homes being in the countryside villages. Thus, we were met with closed businesses and empty streets. However, the sights were beautiful. Our view from our hotel room was the view of the Bund, where you see the typical Shanghai skyline (i.e. Radio Tower). On Lunar New Years Eve, we hung out at our hotel room and saw fireworks from every corner of every street in Shanghai. It's a tradition to light off fireworks to scare aware the demons of the old year and welcome the new year with firecrackers. It was also awesome to see fireworks set off where it was invented. From 6pm and on til the wee hours of the night, we saw fireworks. I don't think I could ever see another spectacular fireworks show away...that is unless I'm in a Chinese city again for Lunar New Years. 



All photos are taken from my iPhone.