More China Days

We had a great week with many happenings, but I'm heading back to China for a little while.  If I don't finish this soon, I'll forget it all!

Day 9, December 31

I had been looking forward to this sightseeing part since we left China the last time.  Our guide asked us what kind of sightseeing things we'd like to do, since we had already visited once before.  We suggested a few things, but I knew I wanted to visit the Chen Family Academy again.  Before I became a knitter, I enjoyed doing counted cross-stitch, but the embroidery done in Guangdong is some of the most beautiful artwork I've ever seen!  If you want more information, you can read about it here.  I knew I wanted to buy a piece to have at home, so we wandered around the shops at the Academy and finally settled on one that I liked.  I'm going to hang it in my kitchen so I can see it every day.  Of course, I still enjoyed all the other folk art there as well.

We also visited a Buddhist temple with our guide that I found on the list of "things to see in GZ."  Our guide's family is Buddhist, so she was able to share a lot of the traditions and practices represented at the temple.  I was able to share a little bit about our Christian beliefs, and she seemed very curious about it. 

 

Ivory Carving

 

Glass etching 

It was actually warm enough to visit the swimming pool this visit, although not nearly inviting enough for me to suit up.  David took Titus in, but he wasn't having much of it either.  We don't know if it was too cold or if he was nervous, but he didn't last very long.  We had dinner in the executive lounge again and called it a night.

This is fun, I think!

 

Never mind...get me out of here.

 

That's a little better.

 Day 10, January 1

Happy New Year for us!  We had a free day, so we ventured out onto the subway for the first time.  It was so easy--I wish we'd known about it the first time we visited.  I had done some investigating on GZ tourist sights, so we decided to visit the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart.  It was about five blocks from the subway stop, and we basically walked through a sea of red to get there (all in preparation for Chinese New Year).  Of course, when we actually got to the cathedral, the ushers were guarding the door and turning away tourists due to the service inside.  We wandered over to the side, and I guess we looked like English speakers to the usher, because she let us in!  We caught the last 15 minutes of the English mass, and even sang a few songs.  Thankfully these were songs that are etched into my childhood (like As the Deer), so the words were no problem.  It was lovely to ring in the new year surrounded by brothers and sisters. 

Our next stop was the Sun-Yat Sen memorial, but while the grounds and building were beautiful, all of the displays were in Mandarin.  Titus was also getting tired, so we didn't stick around very long. 

We were pretty close to the hotel, so we decided to walk back...or we would have been close if we hadn't taken a wrong turn! We managed to end up at the north side of the park (our hotel was near the south side), so we weren't too far out of the way.  Of course, I will always be grateful for this wrong turn, because on our way home, we walked by this:

The lady was filling dumplings, and although I had no idea what we were getting, I just pointed to the tub and made hand motions to indicate we wanted them to go.  Out. of. this. world. delicious.  Let's just say, we had lunch plans for the rest of our time in GZ.  And I want to go back now and get more.