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Trip to Guangzhou (August 2019)
So recently, with all that riot in Hong Kong, it was advised best not to go there.
But, I wanted to go get new curtains from Ikea, and I felt like exploring a bit.
So I went to Guangzhou, China.
Alone.
A very gutsy thing to do as, I was brought up with the background saying of "China is dangerous! They rob you in broad daylight!" and things like that. But, I did a bit of research, and figured out Guangzhou could be like Hong Kong. It's well connected with subways and all that. Easy.
The first thing to do is to actually step out there. I used the app Trip.com to purchase a round trip train ticket from Zhuhai to Guangzhou and back. As I use the passport lane, I left Macau rather early to beat the queue at immigration. Turns out pre-8:00am is a slow time. Then I went to the train station to pick up my tickets, long queue again. When it was my turn, the lady said "no tickets, just use your passport," and I was instantly suspicious. It's China. They can very well say this at the ticket counter, and then say something else like "no ticket no boarding" at the check in gate. But, all was well, they let me through.
An hour later, I arrived at Guangzhou South Railway Station. I still had to take the subway up to downtown, I already had a local top-up money card sort of thing (from last year), so it was easy peasy. I wanted to go to Ikea but I knew I would buy something heavy, and I just noticed I forgot to bring my shopping bag with wheels, so I didn't want to lug stuff around. I swapped my plan around and headed to a place called the K11.
K11 is sort of a mall with Art as focus, seems like it's a chain of sorts as well, as I know there's a K11 in Hong Kong. No, I think there's 2 K11 in Hong Kong. Whatever. Weird art installations and all that abound in this place. My second reason to swap this around is because... I needed the toilet, and China is notorious about horrible toilets. And to my luck, this place was pretty empty and had clean toilets. Good call!
And I wanted to wandar around this bookshop. I've sworn off buying DTBs but nothing is going to stop me from checking out a bookshop. This is a very interesting one. It also has an artist corner "Blank Page" where there are easles for rent (I think?).
Time to get some lunch. I walked around the restaurants street and couldn't find anything that pops out until I saw this Vietnamese place.
The internet was saying this is a hit store. It's mainly for its cakes and patisserie but I was feeling like having an ice cream so I got the soft serve. Should have chosen a cake instead.
Made my way to Ikea to get my curtains. I got them and as Ikeas are huge I had to wandar around. Look at these cute piggies! I did not bring them home though. It was early and I contemplated heading back, but I couldn't change my train tickets, so I meandered around and went to one more mall.
Parc Central is a huge (though I guess small by China standards) mall. Again, malls, retail shops and such. I could almost convince myself I was in Hong Kong. There is a huge Apple store as well, but I've always wondered in Apple actually sells in China, as they have all those Samsungs andGalaxies and Huaweis and Redmis... The Popcorn was super expensive, saying it was all hand-made. So I chose the weirdest sounding flavor (raspberry and hazelnut). It tasted a little weird at first because of the sour from the raspberry, but the taste does grow on you. Though RMB$90 for a small bag is like ridiculously expensive. I eventually got tired of walking around lugging a heavy bag of curtains, and not daring to shop for anything more since I didn't have my shopping trolley, so I went to have a bite to eat then made my way back to Guangzhou South Railway Station.
A bit of a blunder on my way back though. I went on the same subway line and I went on coming in, and thought it would go on straight down to where I needed to go. However, at a certain station, the subway went back the way it came from. So I had to get off it, and take the next one. Again, at that one station, it started going backwards again. After some serious listening to the overhead announcement did I find out that I had to get off at that stop then change the train which is still the same train line, but just another train on another platform (WTF?). Anyway, I finally managed to get to where I needed to go, interchange and arrive at Guangzhou South with enough time to spare.
Starbucks China has different merchandise from Starbucks Hong Kong and Macau. And the Starbucks merchandise are SO CUTE! But I didn't buy any of those. I just got a Peach Fizz something and waited for my train.
And that was my quick getaway to Guangzhou China.
But, I wanted to go get new curtains from Ikea, and I felt like exploring a bit.
So I went to Guangzhou, China.
Alone.
A very gutsy thing to do as, I was brought up with the background saying of "China is dangerous! They rob you in broad daylight!" and things like that. But, I did a bit of research, and figured out Guangzhou could be like Hong Kong. It's well connected with subways and all that. Easy.
The first thing to do is to actually step out there. I used the app Trip.com to purchase a round trip train ticket from Zhuhai to Guangzhou and back. As I use the passport lane, I left Macau rather early to beat the queue at immigration. Turns out pre-8:00am is a slow time. Then I went to the train station to pick up my tickets, long queue again. When it was my turn, the lady said "no tickets, just use your passport," and I was instantly suspicious. It's China. They can very well say this at the ticket counter, and then say something else like "no ticket no boarding" at the check in gate. But, all was well, they let me through.
An hour later, I arrived at Guangzhou South Railway Station. I still had to take the subway up to downtown, I already had a local top-up money card sort of thing (from last year), so it was easy peasy. I wanted to go to Ikea but I knew I would buy something heavy, and I just noticed I forgot to bring my shopping bag with wheels, so I didn't want to lug stuff around. I swapped my plan around and headed to a place called the K11.
K11 is sort of a mall with Art as focus, seems like it's a chain of sorts as well, as I know there's a K11 in Hong Kong. No, I think there's 2 K11 in Hong Kong. Whatever. Weird art installations and all that abound in this place. My second reason to swap this around is because... I needed the toilet, and China is notorious about horrible toilets. And to my luck, this place was pretty empty and had clean toilets. Good call!
And I wanted to wandar around this bookshop. I've sworn off buying DTBs but nothing is going to stop me from checking out a bookshop. This is a very interesting one. It also has an artist corner "Blank Page" where there are easles for rent (I think?).
Time to get some lunch. I walked around the restaurants street and couldn't find anything that pops out until I saw this Vietnamese place.
The internet was saying this is a hit store. It's mainly for its cakes and patisserie but I was feeling like having an ice cream so I got the soft serve. Should have chosen a cake instead.
Made my way to Ikea to get my curtains. I got them and as Ikeas are huge I had to wandar around. Look at these cute piggies! I did not bring them home though. It was early and I contemplated heading back, but I couldn't change my train tickets, so I meandered around and went to one more mall.
Parc Central is a huge (though I guess small by China standards) mall. Again, malls, retail shops and such. I could almost convince myself I was in Hong Kong. There is a huge Apple store as well, but I've always wondered in Apple actually sells in China, as they have all those Samsungs andGalaxies and Huaweis and Redmis... The Popcorn was super expensive, saying it was all hand-made. So I chose the weirdest sounding flavor (raspberry and hazelnut). It tasted a little weird at first because of the sour from the raspberry, but the taste does grow on you. Though RMB$90 for a small bag is like ridiculously expensive. I eventually got tired of walking around lugging a heavy bag of curtains, and not daring to shop for anything more since I didn't have my shopping trolley, so I went to have a bite to eat then made my way back to Guangzhou South Railway Station.
A bit of a blunder on my way back though. I went on the same subway line and I went on coming in, and thought it would go on straight down to where I needed to go. However, at a certain station, the subway went back the way it came from. So I had to get off it, and take the next one. Again, at that one station, it started going backwards again. After some serious listening to the overhead announcement did I find out that I had to get off at that stop then change the train which is still the same train line, but just another train on another platform (WTF?). Anyway, I finally managed to get to where I needed to go, interchange and arrive at Guangzhou South with enough time to spare.
Starbucks China has different merchandise from Starbucks Hong Kong and Macau. And the Starbucks merchandise are SO CUTE! But I didn't buy any of those. I just got a Peach Fizz something and waited for my train.
And that was my quick getaway to Guangzhou China.