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We woke up at 5 a.m., showered, and packed for the flight to the southern province of Guizhou. It was bittersweet to leave Beijing after such
an amazing time, but we were eager to see what the south had to offer. We made coffee and tea in the room, since we would be leaving the hotel
before breakfast was served. We watched the sun rise over the traditional roofs of Shijia Hutong through our window. We checked out at 7 a.m.
and met Alice and Mr. Chou.
On the ride to the airport, Alice told us about her family's farm in Inner Mongolia. They have 300 sheep and some chickens and cats. We exchanged e-mail addresses, and she showed us her language apps on her phone. She uses all of her downtime to study English, and she has learned some pretty obscure words. She gave me a peacock ring as a gift - she is so sweet! There wasn't much traffic this morning, so we arrived at the airport quickly. As we were approaching the airport, a huge Hainan Airlines plane crossed over the road. Wow! Alice went into the airport with us and helped us to check in and we said our goodbyes to her. She had been a great guide and we really enjoyed our time with her. We went through security. We didn't have to take out our 3-1-1 toiletry bags out of our carry-one, but we did have to take out ALL electronics, icluding cords and chargers. We had not expected this, so it took us a moment to get organized. Once successfully through, we stopped in to a convenience store. We decided to buy some snacks to get some change for our large bills, knowing that counterfeiting can be a problem when getting change from unreputable sellers. We bought two cans of Fanta for 2.50 yuan each (that's less than 50 cents. We also bought a Swiss "noir" chocolate bar and two Snickers. We broke a 100 yuan note and got a decent amount of smaller change. Chocolate, orange soda, and granola bars: the breakfast of champions! The airport was very comfortable, and the bathrooms were spotless. The bathroom attendants were very attentive, especially in the men's room. It may have been the cleanest bathroom Craig has ever used. Though we did have to laugh at the signage, which had an arrow and said "Toilet, drinking water." I'll stick to my Fanta, thanks. At 9:25, a shuttle bus arrived at the gate and we rode it for a surprisingly long way to get to the plane. We were flying on China Southern. It was a 2-4-2 seat configuration, and we had a 2. It was very comfy. We took off at around 10:20. I typed up notes, and we drank mulberry juice and ate lunch. We listened to three Elf albums on the iPod, which ended just in time to land. We arrived in Guiyang at 1:50 p.m. The skies were white here and the air quality didn't seem to be great around the airport. We went to the restroom and by the time we were done, our bags were just emerging from the luggage carousel. As we exited the airport, we met Wang Jun. He was taller than most Chinese men, and he greeted us warmly. We could tell immediately that we would get along well. He walked us out to the 9 passenger van where Mr. Zhou the driver was waiting for us. Mr. Zhou doesn't speak English, but we smiled and said Nihao to him. On the drive to the city center, Wang Jun explained that there are only 3-5000 western tourists who visit Guizhou province each year. If we attracted attention in Beijing, we would attract even more here. Locals would regard us with curiosity. He said that we were likely to attract a crowd, but that everyone was harmless. We are used to this, with some of the more obscure destinations that we tend to visit, and we relish the experience. Our first stop was the historic and picturesuqe Jiaxiu Tower, also called the First Scholar's Tower. It is in a very busy and developed part of town. Standing on on Fuyu Fuyu Bridge on the Nanming River, this 16th century structure looks anachronistic against the modern skyline of glass skyscrapers. Mr. Zhou pulled over and we got out of the van, looking up at the 3-story, 66 foot tall Jiaxu Tower, with its gracefully upturned eaves and traditional Chinese roof tiles. Wang Jun gave us background information about the tower: back in the 1500's, there were scholarly examinations across the empire. In the hopes that a scholar from Guizhou could attain the title of Zhuang Yuan (first place winner in the examinations), the local authorities ordered the construction of Jiaxiu tower in 1598. It would be a meeting-place for intellectuals to study and discuss academics. Since the erection of the tower, not one but two Zhuang Yuan winners have hailed from Guizhou. The structure has huge cultural and historic significance to teh people of Guizhou. Fire has damaged it twice, but it has been rebuilt and restored to its former glory. As we stood there with him, we did attract much attention from the Chinese tourists. We were the only westerners in sight. We were intrigued by the sight of a Buddhist monk who was engrossed in his cell phone. After explaining the history of the place, Wang Jun let us explore the tower on our own. We entered the tower. The windows are adorned with carved wooden screens. There are paintings of floral mandalas on the ceiling, and antique wooden lanterns hang as chandeliers. There are stairs along the perimeter leading to the upper levels. Women were selling beads and gifts on the second level. We climbed more stairs to the third level, where there was a nice sitting area. Heavy wooden furniture was carved with dragon motifs, and marfble panels were inlaid into the wood. We had 25 minutes to explore, and then we met back up with Wang Jun. We would learn that this is his modus operandi - introduce us to a place, give us some background information, and then let us explore on our own. Wang Jun took us on a very short walk to a spot where we could photograph the tower in the foreground with our modern Sheraton hotel in the background...a stark contrast of old and new. Next Mr. Zhou drove us over to the Sheraton. It was very fancy and had a grand lobby. We were served hot lemon tea at check-in. Our room was on the 29th floor (2920) with a view of the People's Square. The room was luxurious with a desk, Bose radio, bathtub and separate shower stall, etc. As we were so high up, there were also fire masks / hoods in the event of a fire. We had never noticed these in a hotel before, and we chuckled nervously, but it made us feel more secure. It would certainly be a lifesaver if needed! We had from 3:15 until 6:30 to ourselves before meeting Wang Jun and Mr. Zhou for dinner. It was very tempting to just stay in the comfortable room resting. We had been up for nearly 12 hours already, including a flight. But the weather was pretty nice, and there was a lot of activity outside visible from our window. We decided to rouse ourselves and explore the area while we had the opportunity. We headed out for a walk at around 20 past 4 o'clock. There was a nice park right next to the hotel which had meandering paths, koi ponds, and public art. Typical of Chinese whimsy, there were 6 foot tall fiberglass statues of of cats (one white and one black) with fishing poles on the edge of the koi pond. People were ballroom dancing, playing music from a thumb drive on an amp. One very flamboyant young man who was dancing by himself, waving a leafy branch around. When I took photos and videos of the dancers, he ran right over to make sure to be in the frame. He had a huge smile on his face. He tried to pull Craig on to the dancefloor, but Craig graciously declined. As we walked around the paths, we came across a statue of a globe which said "Welcome to Guiyang" in Chinese and English. A woman was singing with a microphone and men were playing traditional stringed instruments. People were looking at us and often returned our smiles and nihao's. We were the only westerners in sight. We went a little further down the same side of the street and admired one of the last surviving statues of Chairman Mao in China (erected in the 1950's). It was absolutely huge, towering over the square. As we were photographing it, a man walked by and gave us a big thumbs up. We took a pedestrian tunnel under a busy multi-lane road known as Zunyi Lu. The tunnel was lined with shopping stalls, like a little hidden underground city. We noticed loose tobacco for sale, which Wang Jun told us was the province's biggest product. When we emerged on the other side of the street, we found ourselves in the People's Square. This large plaza was constructed in October of 1999, to comemmorate the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. A large stage constructed in the shape of lusheng flutes dominated the plaza. This was a nice nod to the minority culture of the area, who use these traditional reed flutes in their festival rituals. There were lots of large LCD TV screens everywhere broadcasting ads. The signs of the Chinese zodiac were depicted in statues on the perimeter of the plaza. People were gathered here: children were riding scooters, bikes, and rollerblades, and people were flying kites. We enjoyed walking around. We took the pedestrian tunnel back to the other side of the street and returned to the hotel room at 6 p.m. We relaxed for half an hour, then met Wang Jun in the lobby at 6:30. Mr. Zhou drove us a couple of blocks down. We went up a small driveway which opened up into a parking lot of a restaurant. Wang Jun led us to a private room with the table set for two. He told us that he would eat with the Mr. Zhou at each meal and we would eat by ourselves (with the exception of our final night's farewell dinner). This is their company policy. Since drivers usually don't speak English, they sometimes feel uncomfortable or left out when everyone eats together and everyone speaks English but them. This arrangement makes the drivers more comfortable and less lonely. This surprised us at first, as we usually enjoy eating with both our guide and our driver. But we could certainly understand, and just accepted it. But Wang Jun was never far. He ordered our meals. There was a plate containing two towers of taro sticks, stacked three levels high in Jenga fashion, and topped with a sweet bleberry sauce. Pork was smothered in peanut sauce. Chilies are a staple of Guizhou cuisine, and come in varying degrees of hotness. Wang Jun wasn't sure how much heat we could handle, so he ordered our tofu with chilies at Level 1 on the Wang Jun scale of pepper hotness. This dish was a highlight for many reasons. The chilies were delightful. The tofu was smoother and creamier than any we have ever had before. Its texture was more like a custard or flan than the firm tofu that we are familiar with from home. It was round and looked like scallops. We also had glass noodles with cabbage, fungi, and white rice. Everything was delicious and we ate up happily. Little kids poked their heads into our room. I'm not sure if they were the children of other diners or the staff. One small girl ran in and when she looked up and saw two westerners, she got a deer in headlights look and backed away. One of the older girls said "hello" and waved to us, and soon the younger ones followed suit. I tried to get a photo of them, but they ran away squealing "Mama!" We had green tea to drink, and Craig had a "MONS" beer with a picture of a snowy mountain on the label. "Mons" means mountain in Latin, so this made perfect sense to me. (About a week later, we realized that we had been reading it top to bottom rather than bottom to top, and it was actually SNOW, which also made perfect sense. Too funny!) We got back to the hotel at around 8 o'clock. The view from our room was fantastic. The street was lit up like Times Square and we could see that the Chairman Mao statue was all lit up as well. I loaded the day's pictures onto the computer, looked at a few, wrote in the journal, and went to bed at 10 o'clock in the incredibly comfortable room. Jiaxiu Tower, Guiyang, Guizhou Sheraton Guiyang, Guizhou |
 Farewell to the lovely Alice  Jiaxiu Tower  Ancient meets modern: Jiaxiu Tower and Sheraton Guiyang  View from room 2920, Sheraton Guiyang  Happy man dancing with a branch  People dancing outside the Sheraton Guiyang  Craig with Chairman Mao  Lusheng flute stage, People's Park, Guiyang  Wang Jun orders our dinner  Dinner  View from room 2920, Sheraton Guiyang 
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