I flew from Melbourne to Guangzhou, with a short 3 hour stop over in Kuala Lumpur. I flew with Malaysia Airlines and it was comfortable enough. I had my window seat and although the seats are smaller spaced, I was only in a row of 2 though, and the man seated next to me was travelling with his two sons who sat in the row in front. So it was an alright 8 hour overnight journey. I got a little nap in on the flight which was good, and watched the movie Play Dirty, I also then checked out a few episodes of what I assume is a spin off from the Sheldon show, spinning off from The Big Bang Theory. I didn’t even know that universe was a thing that was around. The next flight was 4 hours and there were a lot of empty seats, so the guy seated next to me moved into the empty row in front of us, and we all got lots of room. My only issue on this flight was that the vegan meal selection I had made didn’t transfer over to this leg of the flight. Which was very annoying, but one of the attendants managed to track down a rogue meal that I could eat for me. I appreciated the effort, and now also know to double check the boarding passes. If I had of realised this in Melbourne there would of been enough time to correct it. In case you also didn’t know in the bottom left on the boarding pass is where it has your meal option. Always learning something.
Once I arrived the entry into China was pretty easy. Upon disembarking I located the fingerprint collection machines and did all that and got my receipt for that. Then headed over to immigration and got stamped in. I had already filled out the online entry prior to leaving so that was all good and they didn’t even need that qr code. It’s all just in the system. I then collected my bags, and very quickly found my driver who I had booked. He had messaged and sent pictures of himself and the sign with my name on it. I let him know I had pink hair, and we instantly spotted each other as I exited the gate. So easy!
My entire trip has been booked with trip.com, fyi. It’s great for all the things, even my train journeys between locations. Pretty much the main apps you need are Trip.com, Didi (China), Amap, and WeChat/Alipay. These are what I use every day without fail. I also use Google or Baidu translate mostly for written. The esim I got is actually on a Singapore IP instead of China so it allows use of apps, etc. I also have two VPNs – Surf Shark and Astril I am using for when I’m not using the Esim data connection.
Anyway, I got to my stay in Guangzhou, checked in, had a shower and went off to explore. Where I was staying was right near a large shopping centre (they are everywhere) – so I went for a wander around there and found something to eat. I just did a bit of snack shopping and picked up a few blind boxes before heading back to get some sleep.
The plan for Guangzhou was to shop, and that is exactly what I did on Saturday. I was staying on Line 5 and could easily transfer to Line 1 to get to lots of the main areas I wanted to explore while here. I ended up deciding against going to the wholesale shops and instead just stuck to a few popular shopping centres. The overwhelm I was feeling about wholesale, for the cost anyway I wanted the ability with retail to try on things. Knowing your sizing in anything anywhere is a challenge.
It took me a minute to figure out the ticket machine and figuring out how to use WeChat/Alipay to pay. I finally got there and received my little single journey token. I decided just to go with the single journey tokens for my few days, there is a 20¥($4.19AUD) day ticket or a 50¥ 2 or 3 day pass I think, but my trips didn’t really end up worth the pass.
So i did some shopping in the morning. I made my way to Guangzhou East Railway and visited the PO Park shopping centre. I picked up a few things here – lots of blind boxes and some clothes. I was getting peckish and had flagged a restaurant I had wanted to try so decided to go to another centre and find that. It was on the way back to where I was staying too, so figured I would get some food, and make my way back for a reset before heading back out again later for more shopping
Stay tuned for the Vegan Eats blog for more on the food deets. I had a chat to my folks while I wandered around the centre for a bit and then made my way back. It was nice to just shower and reset. The shops on Saturday were open from about 10am – 10pm, so plenty of shopping time available. I hung out for about 2 hours, charged the devices back up and then headed out again and was at the Fashion Tianhe underground centre around 6:30ish. Now this is where I really wanted to spend money, and I did. So this is generally the youth shopping district, and clearly my taste is more aligned here – I’m probs so cringe to the youth, but I’m too old now to care. There were lots of cosplayers dressed up and out doing photo shoots. There is lots of instaworthy spots in this place.
I’m not sure if I saw it all or not, as it’s an epic maze but I saw and spent enough that I made my way back almost 3 hours later. I think I spent more time in shopping centres on Saturday then I generally do in an entire year. Actually as I was ready to leave and making my way out, I walked past a shoe shop and just went in tried on a pair and $20 later walked out with a new pair of shoes. I need to come back with a completely empty suitcase. I think popping over for a weekend of shopping is worth it to be honest. It’s hard to pass up buying things when I know they would be 3x as much at home.
There was another vegan restaurant nearby so I made my way over to that just before midday to grab some lunch. I get how people who never have to think about eating vegan think how hard it must be when travelling. However when that’s what you have always looked for there are always options. I actually made up and printed some cards that I can show to staff (there is usually someone out the front of a place inviting you in), this is what helped me on my first night find something. I showed one of my cards and the woman nodded and pointed out the available dishes I could order.
After lunch I walked around a bit and then made my way over to the Nanyue King Museum (Palace Exhibition). Before going in, I just sat and chilled for a moment, taking in the scenery around me. There was a wall with a mural history that I tried to make some sense of. My Chinese history is quite lacking but I am sure will be greatly improved upon by the end of this trip. I am already armed with more knowledge than I had before I landed. I also got to watch on as two people practised their sword skills. It’s so bizarre that you can just be randomly swinging swords around like it’s no big deal. Just deciding, hey let’s go play with our swords over here today.
Once inside the museum, the first thing I was met with was walking into a huge open warehouse space. This was a two thousand year old palace grounds and the earliest waterside garden pavilion discovered in China to date. The Nanyue Kingdom was from 203 – 111 BC, and the architecture and landscaping that existed was just astounding. I spent about 2 hours here exploring the museum, learning about the history of the area. The walk through the garden areas, the descriptions of the water systems in place, and the preservation of the area was amazing!
I decided after this to head back to the apartment. It was about 4:30pm and I was starting to get tired and my body wanted to rest. I knew I was tired when I got on the wrong train and rode 2 stops in the wrong direction before having to switch trains. I was a bit annoyed by my mistake at that point and adding an extra 15 minutes to my commute.
Once back I did some washing and started contemplating how I was organising myself for the next day and my journey to destination two, Yanhshuo. I pretended to do some work and just put myself to bed early instead.
