A Short Trip Before A New Job

I have been a bit worried about my first few days of teaching. I have been wondering what to teach and how to teach it. In an effort to calm me down, I decided to head across the river to “mainland” China. Hong Kong is part of China, but people around here refer to the rest of the country as the mainland. When crossing, I needed a visa and needed to pass through customs and immigration.

I have been to Guangzhou before, during Christmas, but I wanted to explore a bit more and get out of the city. The trip there was easy, as I took the high-speed train from Shenzhen to Guangzhou, which took an hour and a half and cost about $12 CDN. The train is similar to the KTX in Korea. It was very comfortable and got me there quickly.

In Guangzhou, I found the hostel I always stay at called Guangzhou Youth Hostel. It is on a small island in the city called Shamian Island. The island was home to the European powers that controlled the city in the late 1800s. All of the buildings are very colonial and beautiful. They are in the process of cleaning up the area for the World University Games in October of this year. There were tons of construction cranes and such. More buildings were being built than in December.

I spent the night and came back to Shenzhen the next day. The plan was to meet up with a friend of mine named Byron. He and his boyfriend run this really interesting salon. It is in their home in an apartment building. What makes it interesting is that it is in their apartment, and they live in the back area. The whole place is well designed with tons of paintings and such. They have been together for 5 years and seem quite happy. I was impressed that they were living together and that they both have amazing creative output. Byron is in art as well, doing paintings and clothing, which they also sell in their salon.

I came back at night to relax. It was a nice, relaxing trip, and I felt so good.