Da Sha Tou and the ferry that wasn't

I like Da Sha Tou. It has the fabric markets, the camera markets & a lot of trees. It used to have the wharf for the overnight ferries up and down river as well, so being big fans of ferries and following our trusty, if somewhat dated, guidebook we set out to find it.

Optimism tempered with fatalism was the mood - none of the locals, including the real natives of the city, that I work with believes such a thing as an inter-city ferry exists. But Liz & I know from experience that the lcoals don't always know everything - in Hangzhou in 1999 we had to find the actual riverside wharf to catch the ferry up the Grand Canal, no-one knew about that either. On the other hand, in Harbin in 2002 we had to hire our own boat to make a trip down the river.

We started well, with a very crowded looking ferry office - but they only sold "up and down the river" cruises. They also told us there were no more ferries, and helpfully gave us instructions to the bus station. The bus station told us that the bus we wanted didn't go from there, and helpfully provided what I am convinced was a random number - since no matter how bad my pronunciation is, I refuse to accept that our destination could possibly have been interpreted as one of the Number 57 bus stops.

Er Sha Dong
Xing Hai Yin Yue Ting
Da Sha Tou
Zhu Hai Guang Chang
Ai Qun Da ?
Shi Zhong Yi Yuan
Hua Di
Shi Wei Tang
Qiao Dong Xiao Qu
Zhao Kou Ke Yun Zhan

I ask you, which of those could really be taken for Zhao Qing?

Of course, the fault was to a degree mine, because I don't speak Cantonese & have made about as much progress with it as I have effort put into it (one new language at a time is enough for me), and the bulk of the conversation seemed to me to be in not Mandarin. So maybe I misunderstood some critical piece of information. It wouldn't be the first time that I have discovered an unhelpful local was actually an incompetent listener (me). It's very tempting to blame everybody else.

Anyway, the last stop on that bus route does actually take you to a ferry. One day I will catch that bus and find out where the ferry goes to. Not Zhaoqing though, because I am now convinced there isn't one. The reason that I am convinced is that I have discovered why there is no ferry, and it is a combination of 2 extremely plausible reasons. Firstly, people have been building roads, and roads are faster. That is the history of the world, so no reason why it shouldn't be here either. Secondly, there's a Chinese government department responsible for creating business opportuniteis for the locals - basically something I am in sympathy with - and one of theri favourite tricks is creating transportation needs. As for example at Huashan in Xi'an, where a perfectly good train station at the foot of the mountain has been closed in favour of the next station down the line, thus creating a need for taxis & minibuses. The Guangzhou-Zhaoqing ferry (formerly convenient, if not very fast) is now the Huangpu-Gaoming ferry. Huangpu is a one hour bus trip out of Guangzhou & Gaoming is at least an hour on the bus out of Zhaoqing. Sadly, these market creating activities have caused the ferry to vanish in any meaningful way.

I wonder if it's worth it to bring it back just for the tourist market? I can't be the only person that loves riverboats.

Anyway, getting back to the mainline, we set off to walk down the riverbank and visit every possible wharf. This we did & sadly, found only blisters. And a ferry that crosses the river to the other side - well that's not nothing.

We also found where the police boats park, and possibly where the police boatmen live. It's a little bit run down, and I guess it's so close to the water that it is rat infested, but the block of flats adjacent to the police wharf is potentially the best address in Guangzhou (well, no-one else has a private pier). You might feel the need to move the coconut sellers along - it's nice to see a police station that feels so openly comfortable allying itself to free-floating commerce, but the left-over husks aren't pretty.

This turned out to be a day when we were doomed to walk. Finding a taxi is a bit of a challenge a lot of the time & you have to position yourself very strategically close to where people debouch from taxis and then, fend off other competitors for the newly vacant cab. usually missing a couple of cans gives you enouh information to adjust the game plan but on this particular day, nothing was working. We must have walked another 3 km before we finally commandeered one on the edge of the art district.