walls, very different from 20 years ago, the plumbing has remained the same. It's the first time this trip I've encountered these types of toilets since I've been in Asia this go around. Chinese style = squat! I took the 2-hour train ride into Guangzhou, sleeping and reading, and watching the sights - mostly country side. I knew we were getting close when I saw the big American and Japanese factories, one right after the other. Arriving in Guangzhou, I had to go through customs as China and Hong Kong are still considered two separate countries, under one government. As I walked through customs, I was greeted by a Chinese man asking if I needed a taxi. I responded and followed him outside to an unmarked van... should have been my first clue to turn around and leave. I forgot about the deceitfulness of the Chinese taxis that my father dealt with 20 years ago. Against my better judgement, I boarded the van with my backpack and asked how much it was going to cost. He answered, "480 RMB" which is close to $70. I was instantly outraged, in shock, whatever... the train station was 15 minutes away from my hotel! Because of my white skin, and because of staying in this 5-star hotel, he thought he could get away with charging me 10 times the price. I told him this and he proceeded to tell me that it was very far and needed to go on the expressway, that he was willing to pay the toll. 1-it was 15 minutes away, 2-the expressway did not have tolls. A big clue to that, was the map he was showing me, saying, "very far" had the expressway marked, but had the tolls spots hand-written... like I wouldn't notice. I told him it was too expensive and argued with him that it was more expensive than Hong Kong and American taxis put together. I told him that I wasn't paying more than 100 RMB about $12, and it was his turn to be shocked. He tried to barter me down, but I was not going to budge. When I told him that I'm not paying more than 100 RMB or I'm leaving, he proceeded to block my exit from the van and convince me otherwise. He wouldn't move. Knowing my strength, I grabbed my backpack, grabbed his arm and pushed him out of the way and got out of there. I walked furiously towards the station. The other man that was with him ran after me. He stopped me and again bartered with me, to pay 200 RMB. Sticking to my amount, I told him that I would pay 100 or I was leaving. Why didn't I just leave, to find a metered taxi? Oi! He said OK, and I walked back and boarded the van. It was stupid, but it ended up fine in the end. We used the expressway, and there were no tolls. We arrived at the hotel 12 minutes later. Grrr!
Thankful to be out of that situation, but still kicking myself for getting into that, I was ready to leave China. I didn't want to be there anymore! I saw The Garden Hotel, the one that I had lived in for 2 years, 20 years ago, and it looked exactly the same! There are 2 towers to the hotel: the right tower was strictly for hotel guests, which is where I'd be staying that night; the left tower was for businesses and apartments, which was where a lot of our friends lived during our stay. We lived on the 4th floor, right outside the pool, between the two towers. The school was located on the 4th floor, and our apartment was actually inside the school, my brothers' room being the old music room, not even connected to the apartment. I was excited to see the old sights!
I received my room key and went up to my room, staying as a guest in the hotel for the first time. It was nice, though the beds were hard. I had a slight view of the pool, though it looked very different. I was thankful to take off my backpack and look through the magazine in the room, to figure out what to do. I decided to take the subway as close as I could get to the Pearl 
River, the 2nd largest river in China. I had heard that they built a river walk that was beautiful, especially at night with all the lights. I went downstairs and talked with the concierge about how to get there. I walked about a mile to get to the subway station, amazed to see a McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and Kentucky Fried Chicken, right across the street from my hotel. We were SO jipped as kids! There was NOTHING in Guangzhou when we lived there. We had to wait for our monthly trip to Hong Kong to get McDonald's ;-) I arrived at the subway station to find NOTHING written in English.... not even the directions of how to buy a ticket. I went up to the customer service counter, I assumed, and asked them for help. They didn't speak English either. They found someone who did, and who helped me. It was a frustrating experience, I'll spare you the details. I did arrive at the destination I had hoped, thankfully.
River, the 2nd largest river in China. I had heard that they built a river walk that was beautiful, especially at night with all the lights. I went downstairs and talked with the concierge about how to get there. I walked about a mile to get to the subway station, amazed to see a McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and Kentucky Fried Chicken, right across the street from my hotel. We were SO jipped as kids! There was NOTHING in Guangzhou when we lived there. We had to wait for our monthly trip to Hong Kong to get McDonald's ;-) I arrived at the subway station to find NOTHING written in English.... not even the directions of how to buy a ticket. I went up to the customer service counter, I assumed, and asked them for help. They didn't speak English either. They found someone who did, and who helped me. It was a frustrating experience, I'll spare you the details. I did arrive at the destination I had hoped, thankfully.I proceeded to walk towards the river, running into a mall. I walked in, amazed at a six story shopping center complete with a Starbucks inside and a McDonald's outside. I should have stopped and looked around but I didn't recognize any stores and I wanted to get to the river. I 
arrived there, walked a bit taking pictures of the river and sights and realized that I was hungry. I had asked the concierge where to eat dinner near the river and set out to find the place. All I knew was the location and that it was a great seafood restaurant, famous in Guangzhou. I found it and asked for the menu. The woman I had asked waved her hand towards a room full of water tanks. I proceeded slowly, entering the room of maybe a hundred tanks full of live water animals. My first encounter was a baby alligator, tied up around the neck and mostly unconscious. It moved slightly, was bleeding, but not conscious enough to move around at the people walking by. It was sad. On the counter was alligator leg, head, or tail that I could choose from to eat. I continued walking and looked into tanks full of everything imaginable or not imaginable, eatable or not eatable. Crab, clams, maggots, eel, worms, snake, turtle, mussel, geoducks, sea urchin, and a lot of other stuff I didn't recognize yet still made my stomach uneasy. At this restaurant you can choose the meat, and then choose how you want it prepared. I could have ordered snake soup, but I've already eaten that, 20 years ago, so I decided to try something different at a different restaurant. I wanted to eat a local food, but wasn't that brave. I had seen another McDonald's a ways back, that was near a smaller mall looking building. I decided to see if there were any restaurants there. If anything I could eat McDonald's. I found a little hole in the wall restaurant that had a picture menu full of Chinese noodles. Perfect! I tried to ask what the meat was but again, no English speakers. I drew a picture of a cow, chicken, and a pig and they didn't serve any of those. I wanted the cashier to draw a picture of what the meat was but she didn't want to. By this time I was famished, knowing I had to eat soon. It was hot and humid, and I could tell that I needed water and food quickly. I picked a noodle with meatballs that looked decent. I somehow told them that I wanted the food to go, since the entire restaurant paused their eating to stare at me trying to communicate to the cashier. I grabbed 
my noodles and walked back to the waterfront where I proceeded to eat my meal. To this day I'm not sure what kind of meat I ate.... all I know is that this city is famous for serving dog and cat. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what it was. Maybe that's why she wouldn't draw a picture. There are a lot of articles on the web about this city and the abuse of dogs and cats, how they raise them in order to sell them for food. It's gross and sad to think about. The meat taste was OK, but the texture reminded me of trying to bite into a racquetball - CHEWY! I got through 2 meatballs and a lot of the noodles, but couldn't stand to eat another meatball, as I pictured eating a cat or dog. Noodles would have to do.
arrived there, walked a bit taking pictures of the river and sights and realized that I was hungry. I had asked the concierge where to eat dinner near the river and set out to find the place. All I knew was the location and that it was a great seafood restaurant, famous in Guangzhou. I found it and asked for the menu. The woman I had asked waved her hand towards a room full of water tanks. I proceeded slowly, entering the room of maybe a hundred tanks full of live water animals. My first encounter was a baby alligator, tied up around the neck and mostly unconscious. It moved slightly, was bleeding, but not conscious enough to move around at the people walking by. It was sad. On the counter was alligator leg, head, or tail that I could choose from to eat. I continued walking and looked into tanks full of everything imaginable or not imaginable, eatable or not eatable. Crab, clams, maggots, eel, worms, snake, turtle, mussel, geoducks, sea urchin, and a lot of other stuff I didn't recognize yet still made my stomach uneasy. At this restaurant you can choose the meat, and then choose how you want it prepared. I could have ordered snake soup, but I've already eaten that, 20 years ago, so I decided to try something different at a different restaurant. I wanted to eat a local food, but wasn't that brave. I had seen another McDonald's a ways back, that was near a smaller mall looking building. I decided to see if there were any restaurants there. If anything I could eat McDonald's. I found a little hole in the wall restaurant that had a picture menu full of Chinese noodles. Perfect! I tried to ask what the meat was but again, no English speakers. I drew a picture of a cow, chicken, and a pig and they didn't serve any of those. I wanted the cashier to draw a picture of what the meat was but she didn't want to. By this time I was famished, knowing I had to eat soon. It was hot and humid, and I could tell that I needed water and food quickly. I picked a noodle with meatballs that looked decent. I somehow told them that I wanted the food to go, since the entire restaurant paused their eating to stare at me trying to communicate to the cashier. I grabbed 
my noodles and walked back to the waterfront where I proceeded to eat my meal. To this day I'm not sure what kind of meat I ate.... all I know is that this city is famous for serving dog and cat. I wouldn't be surprised if that's what it was. Maybe that's why she wouldn't draw a picture. There are a lot of articles on the web about this city and the abuse of dogs and cats, how they raise them in order to sell them for food. It's gross and sad to think about. The meat taste was OK, but the texture reminded me of trying to bite into a racquetball - CHEWY! I got through 2 meatballs and a lot of the noodles, but couldn't stand to eat another meatball, as I pictured eating a cat or dog. Noodles would have to do. I finished my meal with more energy, feeling a lot better. I walked along the river walk as the sun went down, anticipating this great show of lights that I had read about online. I guess this was the thing to do in Guangzhou at night, eat dinner along the waterfront and watch the lights on the boats go by. It was SO cheezy! I walked for a few miles, taking pity pictures, wanting to be done. My goal was to walk to the White Swan Hotel, where the American Consulate General was 20 years ago. A lot of our Consulate friends had lived there. It was another very nice, 5-star
hotel. It took about 2 hours to walk there, and I was again feeling weak from the walk and heat. I stopped in at the 7-Eleven across the street from the hotel and bought a Gatorade and water. Electrolytes! I toured the White Swan Hotel lobby briefly, needing to get back to my hotel. I hopped in a taxi playing Micheal Jackson and arrived at the Garden Hotel 15 minutes later. Tuckered out, but starving at this point, I found the new Delicatessen that we, as kids, would frequent to eat French pastries. I found a chocolate croissant and PULPY! I used to drink Pulpy very often as a kid here. It's the complete opposite of pulp-free orange juice. All this drink is, is pulp pulp pulp! But it's intact pulp, so you almost have chew it. It's SO good! I settled in bed with my chocolate croissant and Pulpy, and watched Titanic until I went to sleep, wondering what I would do tomorrow.
hotel. It took about 2 hours to walk there, and I was again feeling weak from the walk and heat. I stopped in at the 7-Eleven across the street from the hotel and bought a Gatorade and water. Electrolytes! I toured the White Swan Hotel lobby briefly, needing to get back to my hotel. I hopped in a taxi playing Micheal Jackson and arrived at the Garden Hotel 15 minutes later. Tuckered out, but starving at this point, I found the new Delicatessen that we, as kids, would frequent to eat French pastries. I found a chocolate croissant and PULPY! I used to drink Pulpy very often as a kid here. It's the complete opposite of pulp-free orange juice. All this drink is, is pulp pulp pulp! But it's intact pulp, so you almost have chew it. It's SO good! I settled in bed with my chocolate croissant and Pulpy, and watched Titanic until I went to sleep, wondering what I would do tomorrow. 
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