PANYU- 番禺区

Panyu is what we would call home. It may seem far from the city, but it´s actually a very convenient location due to the Bus and Subway route. The Bus stop I know in GZ is by Garden Hotel in Tianhe, GZ. Just across the street from McDonalds. It runs 24/7 and can be gotten at Qui Fu, or Clifford Estates, in Panyu. This makes Panyu great for going out to city bars and returning home even at odd hours of the night.

Clifford is basically one of those “foreigner” sub towns in the outskirts of Panyu. You will meet quite a few dorky people in bars there. Clifford also contains some more European supermarkets.. so if you´re craving Doritos, everything will be ok. As you would expect everything in these stores is overpriced and if you go to the actual “Panyu”, where we lived a 15-20min Motorcycle Taxi ride away things are much cheaper. At first everything will seem cheap when you arrive but the slight expenses begin to add up much faster than you expect. I recommend shopping at local shops.

One of the greatest things about the small towns is that Motorcycles are not banned. This means “Motorcycle Taxis”, and these things are the best. You basically just hop on the back of a motorcycle and get anywhere you want for $.50-3.00. They cut through red lights, go down back alleys and even drive down sidewalks to get where you want to go in a timely manner. For the months that we were there we rode them at least 2-4 times each day. Or basically anywhere we wanted to go.

You will have to get used to eating Rice or Noodles basically 2-3 times a day. Rice is pretty much like bread in China. So every time you eat it.. think you´re eating bread, and it makes it ok. I love rice but even then sometimes eating it every single day is a bit tough. Especially at first. Otherwise Chinese food is great; it´s just vegetables, meat and rice/noodles mixed.

Guangdong people prefer the natural taste of food. So many places in GZ and Panyu do not use many spices or seasonings. It is actually quite nice, and feels very healthy. Obviously there is plenty of food for your choosing. The only real things that I found hard to find are burritos.. the Chinese just don´t like burritos.

Guangzhou - 广州

Guangzhou is a giagantic spwraling city. It is very easy to get lost in at first since there is no real center. You could almost describe the city as one continous blob of city center that streteches on forever. It is one of 4 Large cities which make this part of the earth so diverse and interesting. Honk Kong, Shen Szen and Macau. They are all about a 1-2 hr bus ride for eachother. Guangzhou is the cheapest of all 4, and in many ways the best. It has a slower pace of life then HK, or SZ and overal the atmosphere much less chaotic. Also, It gets pretty hot here so be prepared to sweat alot. If you walk really slow like the Asian people you can actually avoid sweating so much. This is something that took me 4 months to learn.

---any places I mention are in the map at the top of the page

Some of the best shopping in the World is in Guangzhou: this is where many of the products which are sold in HK, SZ and all over the world are are made. Prices are great and you can buy / order basically anything you could ever want. SZ is somewhat better for newer electronics, but they are still all available in GZ. In China shopping is done by streets: basically one street sells something similar, such as phones, textiles, pipes, hardware, flowers, clothes, so it can be sometimes hard to find the district selling what you want but once you do. You find a lot.

Some good stations to get off are Martyr Park, Tiyu Xilu is kinda the skyscraper center. From Martyrs park you can walk to the Garden Hotel area pretty quick. I advise just exploring the city and asking as many people as possible. The waterfront although dirty is quite nice, there are free exercise machines and you can Rollerblade / skateboard very far along the water. GZ is very large and there are probably at least 10 good stations you can get off. There are many great places I went to but some are hard to find and mark on a map.

The Food in GZ is fantastic, you can pretty much get anything anywhere. However in China you will not find many burritos. While I was there I did not miss any of our American food one bit. I find the trick is going to places least made for Foreigners. The prices are much lower and the food is generally better. Most places have picture menus, but usually if your hungry you can figure something out, if you are not a picky eater you will love always it. The only thing that is somehow unavoidable is McDonald's, for 1. It has air conditioning, 2. bathrooms, as with any other part of the world McDonald's is its bathroom; and 3. A Good landmark.

GZ is definitely a place you should travel to. It also is a major Railway Hub which can take you cheaply to any other part of China or as far as Mongolia or even Russian for VERY cheap. China is also adding something like 25 highspeed rail lines in the next 5-10 years.

Hainan - 海南省

Hainan is the large Island that is south of China. It is basically a cheap Hawaii style vacation. The cost is around 100$ round trip from Guangzhou by train. I would say its definitely not bad, you should hike up 7 angel mountain, or 5 finger mountain, i forget which one, but its the closer one to Sanya. We had a full day tour (just me my friend and the driver) for 20$ for a day which took us up the mountain (the driver waited for us to come down). Then we got to eat home cooked freshly killed jungle chicken, omelet and this type of green bean which is only available in Hainan. I am not sure if its actual name but it was quite good and looking similar to a large strip of green beans.

There is a big bar street area for foreigners, one of the bars has a trampoline floor which is pretty cool. Overall Sanya is very nice. obviously very catered to tourists. There are many Russian store signs and some who speak it. Apparently its a Russian tourist place.
If your looking for a cheap getaway from GZ this is a pretty good place to go.

Yunnan - 云南省

Yunnan is a pretty large territory, we traveled through a pretty small portion of it. If you look on the map, it is the place where MANY countries and territories join. Yunnans culture can change very greatly from one part to another. Out journey took us from Kunming to Dali and then Lijiang. I wish we had more time to explore this part of the country. There was really MUCH more to see here but our time was limited.

Dali- is an incredibly popular tourist destination. It is an ancient city which is surrounded by a medieval style wall but has now obviously long overgrown its perimeter. There are actually 2 Dalis, when you arrive you need to go to the Old Dali, not the New one, they are about 10-15 min drive apart. There are many bars, restaurants, shopping and basically the most touristy of middle nowhere china mountains that you can find, but its still quite good. When you arrive try to find an information center. Its ne'er this central looking location that has some bar and an information center. The guy who works ther will hook you up with all the deals and show you a good place to stay.

Lijiang- Another even more ancient city... I think about 2000yrs. From here we went to the Tiger Leaping Gorge which is a hiking excursion that takes 2 days and takes you across a big mountain region and down to the river rapids. Its worth doing if you have the time but i wouldn't be surprised if there are TONS of better hikes in the area. Lijiang is also touristy with all the shopping and bars you can find. A good place to stay is the Mama Maxis house. Although their food has mixed reviews, some say its great others throw up alot. So decide yourself.