Day 6, May 16th
Today was our last day in the
city of Guangzhou and we persisted through our tours despite heavy rainfall
most of the day. To begin our day we had breakfast and checked out of our rooms
from the Landmark Canton Hotel. From our hotel, we traveled by bus to the local
aquatic seafood market in Guangzhou which is the largest fish market in South
China, selling approximately 1.1 million pounds of seafood daily. The market is
open 24 hours every day providing fresh seafood and other products such
as: shrimp, various types of fish
including salmon, tuna, crab, octopus, eel, scorpions, turtles, alligators and
more. A really unique aspect of the market is that a majority of all the
seafood and even alligators were alive. It was incredible to see all the unique
sea creatures that the people of Guangzhou utilize for their cuisine and what
items were of higher value. Our tour guide joked that the Chinese people
describe Cantonese people of Guangzhou as people that eat everything in the sea
but the submarine, everything on land but vehicles and everything in the sky
but the plane. Following the fish market we toured the fruit and vegetable
market of the city. The fruit market included domestic fruit such as jackfruit,
lychee fruit, dragon fruit and mangos to name a few. Their imported fruit area
included numerous grapes, cherries and apples from Washington State and various
other fruits from not only the United States but also New Zealand, Vietnam and
other countries. The fruit market sells approximately 18 million pounds of
fruit a day on a wholesale basis to restaurants and grocery stores in city and
surrounding areas. The vegetable market was also very unique providing leafy
vegetables ranging from lemongrass to white carrots.
For lunch we traveled a short
distance to one of the oldest restaurants in Guangzhou and enjoyed fried
chicken and vegetables, steamed vegetables with mushrooms and fungus type
cuisine, and jack fruit, which had a flavor similar to bananas and pineapple
but far different texture than either fruit, but still delicious. Following
lunch we walked around a small island in the city separated from the main land
by the Pearl River. Our tour guide explained that this island was where
foreigners lived years ago, specifically British, influencing the architecture
and overall experience of the island to have a more British atmosphere, very
different from the rest of the city. The
native Chinese residents were not allowed in the island village until 1945. It
has been the location of the U.S. consulate before its current location and
where numerous American families stay while adopting children from China.
We are now on our way to Xi'an by
airplane which is about a two and a half hour flight. Most of us ate KFC
chicken or McDonalds for supper tonight at the airport which has been as close
to American food here in China as we have seen. We are hoping for sunny and 75
degree weather tomorrow.
by: Cheyenne and
Clayton Johnson
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