Got on a boat across the Pearl river from FangChun port

Old colonial building

Kicking a bird feathered ball, a type of Chinese sports

Got on bus 208 to the east train station. Passed by the main city center to TiYuGuangChang which housed most office buildings.

Took bus 175 to BaiYunShan (White Cloud Mountain).
Flower exhibition at BaiYun park

BaiYunShan is the most famous hill in Guangzhou. The highest peak is 382 meters high. Usually I prefer to go on foot if possible but because of time constraint, got on the cable car up to the hill (25 Yuan~USD$4).

It will take more than an hour to get up the mountain on foot and 15 minutes by cable car.

The words are saying BaiYunShan welcomes you

View of Guangzhou from the mountain

The weather in Guangzhou was quite warm. Took another car back down from the mountain (20Yuan~USD$3).

Took tour bus 1 from BaiYunShan to Chen Clan Academy. Chen Clan Academy (ChenJiaCi, in Cantonese it’s pronounced as ChanKaQi, 10 Yuan~USD$1.40)

This is very well preserved architecture from the 19th century. It used to belong to a wealthy family by the name of Chen and now houses many articles including ivory sculptures and artistic statues. Again, my camera ran out of battery so I wasn’t able to take photos inside the building and had to steal photos from the web.

Chen Clan Academy

Got on the metro

to FangChun bus station and took the 5.30pm bus (22 Yuan~USD$3, 70 minutes ride) to BaiYun airport located around 30km north of the city.

Got to the airport at 6.40pm for checking in.

I booked an AirAsia flight from Guangzhou to Kuala Lumpur about a month ago (837 Yuan~USD$120). That’s why I had to rush my trip around China. My original plan was to travel overland from China all the way to South East Asia but because of Chinese New Year, I decided to fly back to Malaysia first for Chinese New Year celebration and continue the journey later. Another reason is that my current passport is quite full and I will need to get a new one.

AirAsia is a low cost airline company based in Malaysia and has flights to destinations around South East Asia, a few cities in China, South Asia and flights are rapidly expanding to destinations further away.

Wiki page about Airasia

Currently there are flights from Chengdu, Guilin, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Tianjin to Kuala Lumpur for around 800 Yuan if book early.

Got on the 8.45pm flight to Kuala Lumpur.

Dinner on the aircraft (20 Yuan~USD$3).
Nasi Briyani (A kind of Indian cuisine from Malaysia)

The flight was delayed and landed at around 1.20am.

Malaysia is a multi racial and multi lingual country.

This year, Kuala Lumpur was ranked as one of the top places to visit under New York times.

Kuala Lumpur is the capital of Malaysia and has a population of around 7 millions.

Walked around the city of ChangPing.

This sign is saying don’t marry young.

Decided not to go to Dongguan since I don’t have enough time. Went to the train station

Took the 11.29am D7072 expess train (50 Yuan~USD$7.5, 30 minutes ride) to Guangzhou.

The train runs at a speed of around 200km/hour

Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong province and is inhabited by more than 10 million people. The Chinese dialect spoken here are more difficult to understand, one reason is because Guangdong is surrounded by mountains so the language are more protected.

Many years ago during Song dynasty, Guangdong was thought to be a place inhabited by barbarians so law breaker were sent to the province.

There are now 5 metro lines in Guangzhou. Took metro 1 to FangChun station and stayed at the only one hostel in Guangzhou located at ChangDi road (50 Yuan~USD$7).

The hostel is right beside the Pearl river and is situated at a pretty good location.

There were a lot of people on the street in Guangzhou.

Beijing Lu Pedestrian Street

Was trying to visit the provincial museum but it was closed for preparation work to migrate to the new museum. Like other provincial capital, the government seems to have a lot of money and is constructing newer buildings for museum.

Around the city

Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall

Yuexiu Park

View from the peak

Playing cards, Chinese favorite pastime

Stone Statue of the Five Rams, the symbol of Guangzhou

Met LiYuan, an old university friend for dinner at Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Street.

Camera shy

Dinner