(It’s now Friday afternoon and I figure I should get to and try to finish the Guangzhou chronicles.)

We were up Saturday morning at about 10 and sat down for breakfast. I wouldn’t say I have been really missing having milk to drink, but a bowl of cereal seemed like quite a luxury. We ended up sitting around the table till about 12.30. Santiago and Korrinick have done a lot of traveling and also spent time in Jakarta (Indonesia). Despite it having been almost 10 years since we lived there it was nice to sit back and talk about the place, I actually found it quite funny to realize the things I do remember and the things I don’t. As well as Jakarta they have been to a ton of different places, sitting there listening to stories makes me very itchy to get up and go!

We got our things together and made our way down to the car park where Jackson was waiting for us. Santiago and Korrinick had given us the car for the day which was absolutely fantastic. Jackson had a list of places that might interest us, so we were on our way. The first place we stopped was the Tomb of the Nanyue King. It was a tomb discovered in the early ‘80s of a King who had ruled for during the time of the Southern Yue kingdom (which dates back to 100BC). I was discovered when the foundations for a set of apartment buildings were being prepared, and I guess someone’s shovel hit stone! The site has been very well presented. There was a headphone guided tour, which Dad and I decided to have a crack at (when we were in Beijing back in 1997 we had taken the headphone guided tour of the Forbidden City and it was fantastic, narrated by none other than 007 himself, Roger Moore). Unfortunately this narrator wasn’t anywhere near as interesting. I guess to a well studied historian he may have been very engaging, but to the anyone with just a basic knowledge of Chinese history (like myself), it was very long drawn out and, well, boring. I gave up about 20 minutes in.

The site consisted of the original tomb itself, and a museum of many artifacts from the period. The tomb was basically just that, a tomb. It was a series of small rooms with stone walls and doors. The floor had been refinished with hardwood planks, and there wasn’t a whole lot to see in there. The museum was terrific. They must have spent a lot of money on this place because it was really well done. There were not only artifacts from the tomb itself but also from the entire period. Weapons, seals, armour, everyday appliances, it had the lot, quite something. The suit that the King had been buried in was also on show, it had undergone major repairs, but was quite spectacular all the same. It was made from jade, hundreds of small tiles stitched together. Dad and I spent about an hour in total at the tomb before meeting Jackson out from for the next tour of duty.

The ‘Temple of the Six Banyan Trees’, was a Buddhist temple. The temple itself may date back at far as AD 537, and it is still in use. At the time we were there, there was a visiting monk from Sri Lanka present, and a ceremony taking place. Generally I am very sensitive to these kind of religious occasions, and photos are a major no-no. However after standing and watching for a few minutes, in the front row of monks taking part in the ceremony, 4 of 5 had cameras and were taking photos, and the other had a video camera! So I figured it was probably okay. Being the first temple I had visited since Xiamen on National Day, it was quite a relief not to have to worry about being incinerated by thousands of flame wielding patrons, the crowd was substantially smaller.

The temple itself is similar to every other Buddhist temple. The thing that makes this one worth visiting is the 55m pagoda (tower) standing smack bang it the middle. Constructed in AD 1097, from the outside it appears to have 9 floors, but there are also 8 internal floors. Dad and I put on our hiking boots and started the trek. We actually didn’t know a whole lot about the pagoda before climbing it, and had no idea of the number of floors. After climbing for about 10 minutes, we figured every floor we were reaching had to be the top. The design of the pagoda had the staircases running perpendicular to one another, you would follow a staircase to the next floor, then have to walk around the outside of the floor to find the next staircase. As a result it became quite intriguing that despite the ever narrowing passages, there always seemed to be more stairs. By the time we actually got to the top, the roof was quite low, and it was impossible to pass anyone on the outside of the pagoda, the passages being so narrow. The view however, was fantastic. The actual height of the tower was deceiving from the ground. You could really see some of Guangzhou, as can be seen from the photos. After admiring the view for a few minutes, we jetted back down, and out to meet Jackson at the car.

Next stop, the Chen Clan Academy. The Academy is a family shrine that was built in the late 19th century. It consists of 19 traditional style buildings with a number of both wood and stone carvings, and a number of statues. Unfortunately the site itself has been turned into what I thought was a market for souvenirs. A large number of the building contain people trying to sell things, which is a shame. However the original carvings are quite impressive. The stone carvings which cover a large proportion of the roofs is really something, as were the carved wooden doors. In the back couple of rooms were a number of ornaments, some of which were unbelievable. There was a boat carved out of ivory which was spectacular, the attention to detail incredible. I tried to get some photos to illustrate this but the glass casing proved my downfall. We didn’t spend a whole lot of time there, mainly due to the number of vendors, but it was definitely worth the visit.

By the time we met Jackson out front it was about 4.30 and we had planned to get back to Santiago and Korrinick’s by about 6.30 so we could head out for dinner. The last place Jackson had on his list was Qingping Lu, where I had been yesterday but Dad hadn’t seen. Without being able to think of any better ideas we went back to fill up the last hour or so. After wandering Qingping Lu for a while we jumped back into the car and were back at the apartment by 6pm. With a bit of time to spare Dad and I figured we head down to the pool for a dip. Can’t remember the last time I went swimming, but I proved to myself how unfit I actually was after feeling like throwing up having swum 4 laps. Thankfully I recovered.

Dinner was fantastic. Santiago and Korrinick took us to a French restaurant just near where they lived. Cream of mushroom soup followed by rib-eye steak, it almost seemed strange eating western food of such quality. Like I said about the milk, I haven’t really been missing western food, but it was quite nice to eat some of it. We sat around and talked till about midnight, then wandered back to the apartment. A shot of Santiago’s Ecuadorian liquor and it was time for bed.

It was a great weekend, I was up Sunday morning at 10 to get out to the airport for my 11.50 flight (which ended up taking off at 1.50). Dad gave me a bunch of stuff to take back, mainly chocolate and CSI episodes (my new favorite show). The two days had been just what the doctor ordered. Monday morning, straight back into the action.....