In the land of dogs

Past two days I spent in Guangzhou (formerly Canton), capital of Guangdong province and center of world famous cuisine. All of you eating 'Chinese' food back home are in fact eating Cantonese dishes because it was exactly this cuisine that was exported over past two centuries into western countries. Mainly this is due to the fact that Guangzhou was first only and later main port in contact with colonial powers engaged in trade with China. Bellow you can find summary of my experience with this city and it's past.

After my arrival to Guangzhou I walked through early morning streets to my hostel. If possible I prefer to walk to the place I am supposed to stay as I think that you can get to know the city most during early morning walk when streets wake up (I never get lost in the city I have walked in the morning - not for a long time :) ) - you can experience spirit of the city as during the sunrise nothing is hidden under the veil of hurried people. Anyone can easily spot that Guangzhou is different from the other Chinese cities. It actually has some spirit (for the suspense purposes it will be described later).

I stay at Shamian island, which is one of the Pearl river islands, in particular, one ceeded to Britain and later France after first opium war. On this island you can find buildings built in colonial style (similar to any other buildings found in colonies) with plenty of trees and wonderful park / street going across the middle of it. I have to admit that compared to busy downtown (crazy busy) and overcrowded streets it is pleasure to walk the quite Shamian DaiJie (the street) on your way back to the hostel ('location location location' is true more than anywhere else).

From the history of Guangzhou you can see that it was prime contact point of Chinese empire (throughout various dynasties and periods) with western world. Besides starting point of maritime silk road it was also used for trade with Southeast Asian islands. For some time it also held monopoly on this trade. After opium wars it lost it's sole status (another harbours were opened to foreigners - among them certain fishermen village of name Shanghai) but still was superior to others regarding its riches. Unlike in other Chinese cities, center of the city (old town) consists of narrow (really narrow) streets. These streets were not built for cars or other motorized vehicles but for pedicabs and horse drawn trailers, in the days when Guangzhou's harbor was main source of income of the emperor. Actually, for the first time I have feeling that this city exists for more than two centuries and did not suddenly sprung out of nowhere (e.g. Shanghai developed into a world metropolis in mere 20 years).*

With this goes the spirit of the city which is positively European. If in Changsha you had a feeling somewhere in the back of your brain that people are as nice to each other as anywhere in western world, here in Guangzhou you can actually see it. People are polite, do not spit on the ground (of course there are exceptions but I like to call them tourists :) ) and most importantly; people know how to wait in line. Furthermore, western civilization influence is visible also in their behavior and customs. They have dinners much later than is common in China; after 8.00pm it is absolutely common to see people wait to get seated in the restaurant, whilst in Changsha restaurants by that time were already closing. They also go out. I have yet to see busier center of the city in China. Even more disturbing; in the capital of Guangdong province you can see some real sculptures. In Renmin park (one of city's many parks) I saw not one, not two but at least four sculptures that did not look like early cubist lion / dragon / work (someone else might have called them physically disfigured or even degenerated from four generations of inbreeding, but lets be politically correct :) ).

All the above mentioned, together with English subtitles in the half empty train (positively European like :) ), might be attributed to the influence of nearby Hong Kong (waiting to get on the bus in line is probably copied from the custom of Hong Kong citizens who allegedly love to wait in line) or the location of the city which is so far south that it might require little late dinning due to hot summers (this is pure speculation as anything in this blog :) ). What can not be attributed to anything else but the western influence is the fact that brides are wearing white for the wedding (traditional Chinese color of choice for such occasion is red) - fact confirmed by sighting of at least 15 soon-to-be married couples taking their wedding pictures in the park of Shamian island.** Building on the previous paragraphs I can conclude / speculate that interaction of Guangzhou with the west have profound influence on the city and made it not only one of the richest cities in China but also the one that is more 'civilized'.

My activities during the past two days included visiting of the local museums (I had my half-year dose of impressionists in Guangdong Museum of Art where they currently show selected works from collection of Perez Simon :) ) and sights. I feel I have completed my 'red' reeducation by visiting Martyr's memorial, Dr. Sun Yatsen memorial and Peasant institute ('where Mao taught' for one year) and can enter the capitalistic Hong Kong without being afraid of giving in :)

Regarding the cuisine I am unfortunate again as Guangzhou is so civilized now that the dogs are hard to find (luckily I have a back up back in Shanghai - one restaurant where we were promised last time that 'gou rou' - dog meat - will be provided :) ). On the other hand I was fortunate enough to find secret corner and back alley full of seafood restaurants (rather street stalls). In this place (just north of pedestrian part of XiaJiu Lu) I ate so much mussels, oysters, scallops octopuses and sepias that my satisfaction almost erased any bad feelings preserved from previous day when I took advice (once again, but this time certainly for the last time) from Lonely Planet. If anything is incorrect, not precise or not good in Lonely Planet it is the restaurant listings. I always paid up much more or had the food of dubious quality. It is much more enjoyable to follow your own advice and search for restaurant by yourself.

Tomorrow awaits me transfer to Shenzen (not decided yet how much time I want to spent in this city) and Hong Kong. Next post will be from Hong Kong island hopefully written while looking on Victoria Harbour :)

Note on Chinese culture / soul
Looking and comparing Guangzhou with Shanghai and Changsha (both major cities and provincial capitals) I think that by trying to balance the wealth distribution across China more evenly and thus ignoring Guangzhou as a potential special economic zone (both Changsha and Shanghai have these) was in some way a blessing for this city. Unlike Shanghai and Changsha it preserved the spirit from it's past. Although the development is visibly less explosive than in Shanghai and Changsha, still Guangzhou retains upper hand with the people patiently waiting in line to get on the bus (what a difference from the fighting and running for their lives to get one last free seat on Shanghai's subway) and small bakeries spread allover the city. My hypothesis which I kindly propose and make available for your critical tests (lets play Popper for a moment) is that assigning status of special development / economic zone enhances growth of the city but destroys its spirit. The influx of migrant workers from rural areas will cause decivilisation of the city and end up in the ultracapitalistic attitude and environment. The question is whether it will be possible to spread Guangzhou culture and export it to other Chinese cities or other cities will overrun this island.

Note: * of course main roads and streets are wide and fit for any truck, what I mean here is the fact that if you wonder of the 'map' you will find true treasure. There are no enclosed apartment complexes as in other cities.

** in two days I saw 15 couples having their pictures taken, one wedding ceremony and one wedding gowns fashion show. I am not sure what is wrong with this city or whether somebody is trying to suggest something to me but this is absolutely crazy.