Mission to fine hometown village
by amy_leong
English is rarely spoken or understood (for that matter) in China. Luckily my family is Cantonese (naturally since we hail from Guangzhou) and were able to get by speaking Cantonese and some broken Mandarin.
Rapid development in China has demolished alot of old hutong clans. Where my granddad's cillage was (previously only accessible on red earth road) is now a 6 lane highway.
Sample the Food
by nomad127 about Many Resturants
Most of the resturants in GZ that I ate in were very clean and nice. I was a little shy to try the local cuisine because all you ever hear about is the crazy stuff they eat, I even took Pepto-Bismol, Alka Seltzer and Tums with me. Now I'll admit, I never used them and never had a problem. Prices ranged from just a few dollars, the most I spent was the pizza which was around $10 bucks. I tried many dishes from Goose, Pig's Ear, Ox and other things I have no clue what they were. I wasn't too fond of the Pig's Ear because it tasted like a cold, fatty piece of uncooked bacon but, everything else was great, especially the goose. There are plenty of "American" resturants to eat at if your worried. I had McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Starbucks while I was there. Most all the resturants in town were clean and had excellent food. I would not recommend eating from a street vendor, the shops with the chickens hanging in the windows or the backalley joints but there's enough upscale resturants to choose from you never need to worry about going hungry.
The Great Leap Forward.
by Guantanamera
By sheer fortuitous luck, while visiting the Peasant Movement Institute, I stumbled upon the inspiration for Mao Zedong's most infamous debacle, historically known as the Great Leap Forward...! A sudden downpour of rain swept in, typical of Guangdong province, and as I was taking shelter under the rooftop of the cafeteria building, I noticed at my feet, this small amphibean...!