First Glimpses from Guangzhou

Starbuck's on the island. Qing Ping Market. The garden that rolls through Sha Mian Island. View from my apartment of the Pearl River.

I don't know whats up with Chinese firewalls but they are wacky. I can post an entry to my own blog but they don't allow me to actually view my blog or any others. I've been in Asia for a week now and in Guangzhou for 5 days. The weather so far has been hot, really muggy and humid. It rains just about every day. It's a strange rain-it will come down really fast all of a sudden and just last for 20 minutes or so and then dissipate. An hour or so will go by and then it will rain again. So, I've bought an umbrella-a large one that is covered in ads for 7-11. I live on an old island that was built for foreign embassies back in the 1800's. It is called Sha Mian Dao and it is full of beautiful old European architecture, coffee houses, souvenir shops, and western food. Many Chinese couples come here to have wedding photos done so there are several outfits on the island set up for that. I haven't walked through the island once during the day without seeing a Chinese couple getting wedding photos done. Most of the grooms wear cream colored tuxes and a lot of the brides are into Victorian-era dresses. Very interesting to check out. Next door to the Consulate is a large hotel called the White Swan where many American families stay when they are over here adopting. Guangzhou is the only city in China where foreigners can adopt children from. The children come from all over China but this where they are first introduced to their new families. So any stroll through Sha Mian is not complete with a Chinese wedding shot and an American family pushing a stroller with a Chinese baby inside. Sha Mian sometimes reminds me of the French Quarter in New Orleans albeit without all the bars, good food, and trumpeteers. But it has that feeling of being the OLD part of the city-kind of secluded and in of it self. Although by all means, Guangzhou is over 3000-4000 years old, people have been living here forever. It's an interesting time to be here in Guangzhou to witness first hand the changes China is going through. The economy is booming and you can see it everywhere you look-at the corner magazine stand with magazine covers full of high fashion and high-end electronics, looking up at the sky and having your view clogged by construction cranes everywhere, and riding taxis through the city-passing new car dealerships block after block after block.