Shamian

This is a very pleasing tourist map.
I travelled down to the imaginatively named "Golden Sands" subway station and with a bit of luck navigated my way through a few highways to the place I set out to find. Not lost, for a change. Until I saw the map. You may have to take my word for it, but each of the five entrances to Shamian on this map is labelled "You are here". And not just in English. No, locals are equally catered for. I can only imagine how much joy this gives to the man in the security kiosk on the other side of the pavement. Fortunately (see blog 2 or thereabouts) the compass attached to my keyring provided the needed clues. If you are ever standing in front of this map, you are actually in the top left hand corner. The best way to go is to your right (but actually left is not a disaster in any way).

Liz and I noticed when we were in China in 1999 that whoever wrote the Lonely Planet entry for China really didn't like the place. At all. It was full of trenchant criticisms of the creme of mushroom soup in Hangzhou, and similar penetrating stuff. Not to be diverted, but we actually ate several fantastic meals in and around Hangzhou, including drinking the best coffee ever - in the world!, not just in China - despite speaking extremely primitive Chinese and having substantially less idea of how to read a menu than we do now. However, one place that that guy and I shared similarly dyspeptic views about was Guangzhou, although increasingly I'm thinking I may have been unfair. (That's another story) This afternoon I wandered along to the one bit of Guangzhou that he liked. I should note that he liked it because of its Western buildings and quiet charm. Should Lonely Planet be more accurately known as the post-colonial guide to nostalgia tripping? Hmmph. So what am I doing here?

No question, Shamian has Western buildings, all gazetted by the City Government, largely built between 1860 and 1910. They are indeed charming. It also has lots of trees, as do many of the bits of Guangzhou near the river. It is also quiet, and cool, and pleasant, and extremely full of tourist tourists. Not like me, you understand, who actually lives here, but seriously passing-through-complain-about-the-heat-and-the-humidity tourists. Today was NOT hot, nor was it particularly humid. About Sydney average for summer I would think. As well as tourists, it had lots of places for them to spend their money in. Art galleries. Craft shops. Very expensive bars.

But, lest I sound a little cynical, there is other testimony to consider.

What could be better evidence of picturequeness than a bride being photographed? This one is being man-handled by the photographer to make sure her head is at the precise angle required. The groom is obscured by the dress. I haven't included the photgraphs of all the other brides I spotted, but in an hour or so I saw at least 6. It may have been more, but I think some of them were repeats.

Where there are brides (and photographers) there is beauty. It's indisputable. And I have to say that whatever the Chinese feel about the colonial past, it isn't nostalgia. So something else is going on here as well as colonial nostalgia.

And in addition to brides, we have tourists! Not ones likely to complain about the heat or the humitidy either, 'cos they are locals (you can't hear them, but I could). The umbrellas are to keep the sun off. Pale skin is still a feature of Chinese beauty. They are photographing a group of rocks. I couldn't particularly fathom why, but coming from Australia, you can't criticise the use of rocks as markers of significance. Every Oz country town, to say nothing of every suburb, has a rock symbolising something. China is no different. It has a lot of rocks, and many of them about something. One of the great Chinese novels is called "The Story of the Stone", so it's an ancient tradition.

Anyway, these people aren't here to wallow in a glorious past either. They seemed to be very pleased with themselves in a thoroughly cheerful way. Just out for a Saturday afternoon stroll.

I also spotted a tai chi class, looking an awful lot like a Sydney Saturday-in-the-park tai chi class. Rather disorganised and down-at-heel. A couple of people who looked very expert, and a large number who looked faintly bewildered. You can see the aforementioned rock in the background., looking very brown.



From Shahmian it's about a kilometer or so to catch another subway line. It wasn't completely clear from the map, but it looked like it should be possible to walk along the river bank, and so it is.
This is a view back along the river from the bridge at the edge of Shamian, which is on the north bank at the point where the river splits in two if you are looking at a map. This is the view East, and the building are on the South side of the river, which I guess is newer, or less fashionable, or something. It doesn't get talked about much, although it looks pretty substantial. But, for instance, we have 4 schools on the North side of the river, and the fifth will be the first we open on the South side.