Guangzhou is so cool after the typhoon! I wish it would just keep raining until I leave China, even though I don’t have waterproof shoes.
So far, I have visited Shamian (沙面) Island, Tai Gu Warehouses (太古仓) , the Chen Family Ancestral Hall (陈家祠), and Huangpu (黄埔) Village. My aunt has taken me to see everything and she has been footing all the tasty meals… I feel bad for cutting into her housework time, but she seems to be happy to have the chance to visit more of Guangzhou.
I am so bu ke qi (不客气).
When we were visiting the Chen Family Ancestral Hall, there was a French couple behind us in line for tickets! I told them in terrible French to go to Kaiping to visit le temple d’ancêstres de la famille de Yu, Fengcaitang (风采堂). The lady was delighted to hear it anyway, but damn! If you don’t speak a language after two months, it deteriorates to almost nothing! It was so hard to work my way up to my level of French in May, and in two month’s time, I undid all my efforts. Wow.
The full price entrance fee is only 10 RMB, and if you have a student ID card, you could get half price. They have 50 minute Cantonese and Mandarin guided visits for 100 RMB, English guided visits for 150 RMB, and expert guided visits for 800 RMB.
Apparently the Chen Family Ancestral Hall was not for only one family. A ton of different Chen families gathered together to raise money to build this temple, and none of the families were related by blood. The Chen Family Ancestral Hall is, according to CJ, fairly traditional Chinese architecture. “中国传统.” But amongst all the Chen families, there were some overseas Chinese Chen families! And being in Guangzhou, the Chen Family Academy cannot escape the east-west cultural exchange. Here are some examples:
The iron pillars are untraditional. The stone entranceways with the fancy little arch are also untraditional. Glass is untraditional. And the cutest untraditions of them all are the two little upside down angels on the brick relief! The docent pointed out that these angels are not nude (which is untraditional for the west) and that they are wearing du dou (肚兜), which are traditional Chinese undergarments.
Our docent mentioned something about how at one point, the Chen Family Ancestral Hall was also used as a sort of rest stop for various Chen family members doing business. They would stay at the Ancestral Hall for some rest and repose before they went along with their travels again. Maybe I understood it wrong.
One of the things I absolutely adore about coming back to China is feeling like everyone is related. Shionyi and my aunt both have the surname of Yu (余), which is the same Yu as the Yu Family Ancestral Hall. Grandpa Deng and Rocky both have the surname of Deng (邓). My mom and Professor Selia Tan and the Kaiping Minister of Culture all have the last name of Tan (谭). And not to mention everyone who is named Xie (谢) or Guan (關) or Situ (司徒). It feels like we’re all a big family.
The other day, when the artists visited Cangdong Village to do their pieces for the November exhibition, there was one artist whose name was Chen (陈) as well. When he left, he said, “Little Chen (小陈), I’m leaving!”
It made me feel so happy!!! I’ve never been called Little Chen or Little Chan in my whole life!
Yesterday we went to the Huangpu village and saw the Huangpu Port. It looks so tiny! I could not see how ships from America and Europe landed in this little port for all of China for hundreds of years. My cousin says that they turned a large part of the water into land to develop. I’m not sure what this uncle is doing. I asked him if he was fishing but he ignored me. I see a lot of people fishing everywhere in Guangzhou. Just casually, guys in their flip flops and t-shirts with fishing poles…
This is my cousin, Runlin (谭润霖), and me. It’s been a long time.
(ALSO, AM I TANNER THAN MY COUSIN?! 😱 WHAT?! 💀 ok thanks Kaiping. 😞)
So my aunt and my cousin and I wandered around the Huangpu village all day, very carefreely eating snacks and the local foods. I had the Double Skinned Milk (双皮奶) that Jim wanted me to try back in Xinhui. I also tasted the ginger milk pudding (姜撞奶) that my aunt ordered. It reminded me of when Shionyi ordered ginger milk pudding in Chikan once upon a long time ago this summer.
We visited as many ancestral halls as we could. But a good amount of them were unfortunately closed. We visited this Beidi Temple (北蒂庙), which had a tree with a lot of wishes. I’ve only ever seen this in manga and anime! They were filled with wishes that were very traditional and Confucian and Chinese, such as “health to my parents.”
The whole grounds smelled like incense. The temple was very smoky. My aunt started to pray. I asked if we could make wishes. My cousin said, “Don’t be too careless with wish-making!” I asked why, and he said that if our wishes came true, we’d have to come back to the same temple to thank the gods.
Today I didn’t go anywhere touristy. I accompanied my aunt as she went soup ingredient shopping. She bought these little scorpions to make soup to help me detoxify. 😭 I am breaking out really, really, really badly. Like, this is probably the worst breakout I’ve had in my life. I’ve had really bad breakouts at school during finals seasons, but right now, I think I look the worst that I’ve ever looked. When ladies stopped to talk to my aunt, they would look at my face and recommend Chinese medicine soup ingredients to my aunt.
“Baihe (百合), lianzi (莲子), and a tiny bit of sugar…”
Ok, thanks everyone. So I look terrible. Alright.
A summer in Guangdong 