Guangzhou Part 2

Amazing. This really short trip for business has really got me thinking a lot about cultural differences, about my heritage, so many things. Where do I begin.

So this being my first trip to China in general, as I mentioned in the previous post there was a bit of culture shock. I still am struggling to figure out why I feel like China and Guangzhou are different than other Asian cities I've visited - even Hong Kong. Tokyo is just a completely different world of it's own so that's no comparison. Similar to Hong Kong, the buildings here are mostly old and dirty looking. Maybe there is something to be said about the familiarity of the people here. I was noticing today the facial features of some people and found it astonishing how similar their features are to my own or my family. It's like a step beyond just everyone being Asian but everyone is from the same region as my family. I wish I could explain it better. My uncle mentioned to me how when he visited, he walked into a restaurant where everyone was speaking our dialect of Cantonese, which is Toisan, also spelled Toi Shan or Taishan or Hoisan. I hardly hear the dialect outside of my own family. In fact today, I was in a taxi where the driver was listening to a radio station where they were speaking Toisan. Weird!

My coworker and I took a taxi back to our hotels and he dropped me off first. He told me today that after I got out, the taxi driver asked him where I was from. He was really curious because I didn't speak Chinese and I am really tall (comparatively), but he thought I looked like I was from the area. That really struck me as interesting. So that is a good theory on why people look at me strangely here- my height. Again, it's the beast syndrome, I look like an amazon woman to the locals. Then I was thinking maybe it's the way I dress. A lot of people here who are just walking in the streets are pretty poor. The fact that I am wearing nice clothes and carrying a big red Coach back probably looks a little odd. I later ruled that out because I changed to just jeans and a plain old shirt and still got looks.

I actually ventured out after my meeting today to a mall. My coworker left to catch his flight but he wrote the name of a local shopping mall down in Chinese for me. I was going to hide out in my hotel room but decided I should at least try and check stuff out. So I braved it and gave the cab driver the paper and went shopping. I didn't realize things were so inexpensive in China, stupid me never really gave that much thought. Too bad I wasn't really in the shopping mood. I managed to get a taxi back to the hotel after walking around a bit. It really is not that easy getting around here not speaking Chinese. And the problem is amplified for me since I look Chinese. Even worse than I get in Tokyo, Japanese at least realize at some point I am not Japanese since I don't look it at all.

Yesterday my coworker took me to this seafood place where you pick out what you want from tons of tanks. Rows of tanks filled with fish, crab, all kinds of shrimp, clams, everything you can imagine and more. There were even tanks with turtle, snake, eel! There was a tank with these nasty cockroach looking things, so gross. I have a few pics I will post later. The concept was cool though, fresh seafood. You also get to choose the veggies you want and then they cook it all up and bring it to your table. Yummy.

Ok, I have more to write about but will save it for Part 3. I have an 8am flight back to Tokyo so have to get up early. My good friends Jenn and Larry are visiting me this week!! Yay! I am meeting them at the airport tomorrow.