Bigger and bigger

Like most Asian cities, Guangzhou isn't without it's tall buildings. While the International Finance Centre, pictured here, isn't quite as tall as its Shanghai cousin (this is the 11th tallest skyscraper in the world whereas the Shanghai World Financial Centre is the 4th), it's still a sight to behold nonetheless. At night it's lit up beautifully, showing a symmetric cris-cross pattern from top to bottom. Equally striking is the clean curves of the Guangzhou Opera House - you can see part of it at the bottom left of the picture.

From out of nowhere

I walk past this strip of Guangzhou shops twice a day. Suddenly today there is a fancy opening ceremony for a new Pele Kona coffee store - a shopfront that I swear was not there yesterday. Either it was boarded up and I didn't notice - or chinese artisans have fitted out this shop complete with interior fittings ready to open for business - literally overnight. Both are real possibilities. This reminds me to write something on the extraordinary scale and speed of general construction in GZ - more on that later.

Different city

All Chinese cities are not created equal. I have noticed over the past couple of weeks that Guangzhou is slightly different to Shanghai in a few ways. Guangzhou does not use coins as currency - plenty of 1 rmb and Mao coins used in Shanghai but GZ uses notes only. Strange. Traffic is better in GZ - despite it's huge population. And oddly, there are no motorbikes allowed in GZ. Almost impossible to believe as two wheeled modes of transport are so commonplace elsewhere in China. People in GZ get around by car or via the relatively extensive underground metro network. Motorbikes were outlawed in 2010 - in an effort to clean up the city prior to hosting the Asian Games. Now streets like the one below are empty of bikes. A similar street scene in Shanghai would be so different.

Grey Guangzhou

A bright spot in an otherwise grey and dull GZ day. It could be leftover decorations from Chinese new year. But more probably it's more permanently enshrined - 2012 is the auspicious year of the dragon after all.

Canton!

Updates will be less this month. I am working in Guangzhou (formerly Canton) during March so am away from the family. Guangzhou is China's third largest city in the heart of the Pearl River Delta - and just a skip across the border from Hong Kong. GZ has a nice feel to it. Meanwhile, I'm enjoying the Cantonese food.

Lesson

Today I learned an important lesson. Don't stray too far from the bathtub when it's filling up. And don't rely on kids to holler when the bathtub is full. According to Zara she was too busy building a bubble house to notice. Thankfully there wasn't too much flooding.

Renamed

Today when Max and I tackled the golden arches for a French fry fix on a grey Shanghai day, I was told by Max in no uncertain terms that this shop is not called McDonalds. It's actually Whack-Donald's.

Guess what

Seen on the shelf at our local supermarket. If I knew what this was I would probably buy it for Zara! Apricot yoghurt possibly? She has fallen for the Disney Princesses marketing guff and would probably gulp it down regardless of the taste or texture.

Last day: how many swims can we fit in?

Max's swimming has improved markedly this week. When we arrived he would only swim if he had a tight grip on an adult's neck or arm. Now he has discovered the freedom of his floating ring, the water isn't as scary as he thought. He's a different kid!

Recommendation

We are having a fantastic holiday and can highly recommend the Mia Resort Nha Trang. Anyone remotely close to Vietnam should give it some thought. The beachfront villas with pool are reasonably priced - much more so than anything similar in Bali or Thailand. Free breakfast, free wifi free shuttle bus into town and a host of other points I can elaborate on if interested - email me.

Green green grass of home

The villas at our hotel in Nha Trang all have grass growing on the roof. All part of the efforts to insulate and keep the villas cool, so I'm told. Here is a photo of our roof being watered by a gardener.

Day 3: up close

Max checks out the chickens for sale at the local market in Nha Trang.

Day 3: summery summary

Zara models her summery best: white linen frock and new sparkly shoes bought in HCMC.

Day 2: We've arrived

A busy morning at the Ben Thanh markets in HCMC this morning and then a short 40 min flight up to Nha Trang. Arrived at a nice little spot by the beach and don't plan on moving too far for the next 6 days. After checking in, Max and Zara derobed in record time to jump into the little pool out the front of our room. Temps a very relaxing 27 degrees.

Max and Max

Our friend Sanuki in HCMC had a little pet chuhuiua named Max. Human Max tried to make friends with puppy Max. I think by the end of the two days they may not have been life-long friends but had a healthy respect for each other.

Day 1: Ho Chi Minh City

On our first day in Vietnam, Max slipped off to visit the sandman around 5.30pm completely missing the splendour of the reunification palace in HCMC.

Chasing warm weather

We're off to Vietnam tonight. A week at the beach is on the itinerary! After months of single digit temps in Shanghai and snow this week, sunshine and sand will be excellent. This photo was taken at Pudong Airport's terminal 1. Funky roof.

Snow!

Today, for about 30 minutes, it showed in Shanghai! It was quite a sight actually. The flakes melted almost as soon as they touched the ground though. It wasn't quite cold enough to create a white layer over everything. I was outside on the footpath for most of it - waiting for Zara's school bus. When she arrived home we had a little goof around before heading up to the warm apartment.

Bellissimo!

Tonight we are making mini pizzas for dinner.

Shanghai from above

A view of the former French Concession area of Shanghai taken from the local Qantas office - 32rd floor. Getting our tickets issued for our trip home in April!

Here comes the bride

School holidays again!  Chinese New Year this time.  Today we made puppets out of paddle pop sticks and glued cut out pictures from magazines onto cardboard to make the characters.  Zara also dressed up as a bride and stayed that way for most of the day!

Zara at Zara

We have been off line for a while during a short trip to Hong Kong over Chinese New Year. Here is a shot of a Zara clothes store at Hong Kong airport on the way home.

Chinese New Year

Shanghai is gearing up for the year's biggest celebration - Chinese New Year. It's like our Christmas and New Year rolled into one and it all happens next week. Shops have been selling red and gold new year-themed everything for a few weeks now. Here is a shot of apples in the market that have been grown with some sort of stencil or sticker over the skin to give them an eye-catching look.

Taobao

Today I took delivery of my first Taobao online purchase!  An umbrella stroller made in China - but to export quality (it's a French brand).  Taobao is the Chinese equivalent of eBay - the online shopping website and there are hundreds of millions of products and hundreds of millions of subscribers/users - bigger than eBay I understand.  eBay was a spectacular failure in China - the story is well documented Products are usually cheaper than you find in regular stores, and postage / courier costs are nominal in China (the stroller cost about $3 to be couriered from another province to our front door).  To prove that word of mouth is the best form of advertising, I can attest to the fact that Taobao comes up in everyday conversation all the time.  Something akin to: Dang I've been to 5 different stores but can't find x product!  Response: have you tried Taobao?  The difficulty is that the website is completely in Chinese - but with the help of Google Chrome's auto translate function and websites such as taobaofieldguide.com it becomes achievable for my non-Chinese speaking self!

Plastic affair

China seems to have an affinity with plastic. Lemons for sale pictured here in the supermarket are wrapped in individual plastic bags, as are the mandarins behind them. Pomelos, currently in season, are also usually wrapped in plastic. Apples often have a soft plastic netting around them. To buy the fruit you must put it all in another plastic bag (as we do back home) and have it weighed and priced. It is then paid for at the cash register and put into another plastic bag to take home. Thats three layers! Another good example is toilet rolls. Each individual roll is packaged in its own plastic, then the pack of say 10 is wrapped in plastic to hold them all together.

But in a step towards reducing dependency, shops in Shanghai are required by law to charge for plastic bags at the check-out. It's very common to see people packing their groceries into their own bags brought from home.