Guangzhou is my last stop for this round of China tour. Honestly it was chosen for convenience rather than any famous attractions, as it does have a major international airport to shoot me off to another country. It is a major commercial center, so there is no shortage of shopping centers. Other than that, there really isn’t too much to offer in terms of tourism, when compared to other parts of China. Don’t get me wrong, it does have plenty of attractions, just not in the same league as The Great Wall of China, or Terracotta Warriors, if you know what I mean.
As you expect of a large city in China, it is super-crowded, dirty, messy, and noisy. The older parts of town (e.g. 上下九龙街) will randomly stink and overwhelm your sense of smell you probably never thought possible. Of course, there are newer parts of town, where it is filled with ultra luxury brands, and I suppose it offers you a ‘variety’, whichever rocks your boat. For me, this place was great for taking a break from all the travels, and just ‘relax’ a bit. And hey, look what I discovered in town… Check this guy out playing a guitar on his head out in front of a shopping centre!
That just goes to show just how hard it is for street performers to get any attention these days. Looking at the amount of money in his guitar bag, I guess he didn’t do too bad for himself!
Being spring at the moment, it is fairly popular for locals to get out of town to one of the nearby relaxation spots. Well, we followed the locals and ended up at the so called Panlong Xia “盘龙峡”, where we were promised waterfalls, fresh air and Onsen pools (mineral baths) by a local tour agency. It’s only about 3 hours bus ride and with those promises, we went with it.
I suppose it lived up to most of the expectation, with plenty nice walks and waterfalls along the way:
And probably the prettiest lavender farm I have seen..
So you’re after lavender coffee? Sure. Lavender cake? Sure. Lavender oil? Sure! Lavender ice cream? Definitely! You can have just about anything lavender, and even some you probably never thought of!
We were also told Miss Hong Kong 2007 stayed at our little wooden house (not that we needed to know that, nor did it make us feel any better to stay there):
I suppose to air and atmosphere certainly did its job of relaxing us. The onsen pool was fantastic, if you’ve never tried them. It’s not quite at the same level as a Japanese onsen, but good enough if you are not keen on getting all naked, as required in a real Japanese onsen. Regardless, it was worth the time and money to come here, and a great way to end my trip to China!!
Overall, this trip to China has been a good one. It felt rather ‘short’ this time, even though I’ve been here for almost 4 weeks. Like my previous trip last year, I still felt like I have barely covered the whole country yet, even after spending a total of 2 months here! It’s definitely a country I need to make a 3rd trip back!! Or perhaps 4th?
