My Orient: Guangzhou, from the Beginning

My accessible, friendly and communicative taxi driver

I quickly found out that taxi drivers are redundant in Guangzhou: the city has a wonderful subway system, while surface traffic is quite impenetrable at rush hour.

Taxi Line at Guangzhou East Station And after the initial compounded shock resulting from the impenetrable sky, polluted air, drizzly and rainy and far from warm weather (Guangzhou lays just north of the Tropic of Cancer), I reacted by going to the sauna downstairs. This was less health club, much more “service” oriented: there was even a passageway connecting it to the “massage parlor” upstairs (strategically located by the hotel’s elevators) where women where hawking “massages”. I warmed up, though the experience was not warming and concluded with an escorted run to the local Citibank branch to get money to pay the bill: no western credit card accepted. That’s when I was confronted with the fact that I was on gringo Island, except, incredibly, when it comes to means of payment. I had been told that Shamian Island is the headquarter for Western adopting couples, during my stay I saw quite a few with chinese children aged infant to toddler in tow. It is a continuation of recent history: the island was settled by Western powers following the opium wars, as a trading base in Guangdong. But on my walk to the bank, I was faced with the modern infrastracture the former invaders had beggotten: hotels more bombastic and more starried than the one I was staying in; and restaurants with the gaudy décor of gambling casinos were the only ones present on the island. I even considered eating in one, before deciding to skip dinner altogether.

Night Presences on Shamian Island