So, Guangzhou!

After about 45 minutes sleep I got up at 4am to pack up my last few things and cart my two heavy bags down several flights of stairs to the taxi waiting to take me to the airport. I'd chosen to fly with China Southern as their excess baggage policy is pretty sweet - only $75 for an entire extra bag up to 20-something kg compared to most other airlines with their ridiculously high charges of $20+ per kg. It did mean a 22 hour layover in Guangzhou, but when I was changing my original booking the ladies at the ticket office told me that the free transit visa was now available at Guangzhou, and I could also get a complimentary night at a hotel there. I was dreading putting up with 22 tedious hours in a Chinese airport in order to get all my stuff home as cheaply as possible, so to hear I'd basically get a free day in the city was a bonus! It wasn't mentioned anywhere in the booking process or at Guangzhou airport so I'm glad I had to change the original ticket otherwise I'd never have known about it and would have had a grim night in a Chinese airport.

At checkin the woman told me that as my first bag was over the limit I'd have to pay for it, and that my second bag was heavy so I'd have to pay the higher excess baggage price, then I was hustled over to the side to wait for Mr Bao the excess baggage man to arrive while scowly checkin lady got on with her job. When he arrived he just glanced at my bags, said "$75", and that was that! He took my money and went off to fill out the excess baggage slip then gave it to Mrs Scowly who scowled some more, then put the tags on my bags and sent them on the way.

The flight to Guangzhou was pretty short so I arrived late morning and made my way to the transfer desk to pick up my onward boarding pass for London, and then went to the hotel counter to arrange my hotel for the night. I was told to go to one side and wait and ended up spending almost 90 minutes there. Nobody really spoke English beyond the basics so I couldn't work out if they were waiting until more people arrived to take us there together or if they were trying to get in touch with the hotel to see if they were ready for me. Nobody else joined me despite many people going through the transfer section, and eventually someone came to take me to the hotel. I was marched off to immigration and taken through the special lane with my escort, then handed over to some guy who led me on a route march pretty much the entire length of the airport (it is a BIG airport!!), then we sat and waited for a bit before another guy came and took me out to the car park where I was deposited in a bus and sent on my way. We drove past all the airport hotels and out onto local roads past fields and construction sites which made me wonder where on earth we could be heading, then we came into a suburb of the city and I was dropped off at a hotel surrounded by restaurants and right next to a metro station. Much better location-wise than any of the airport hotels!


I headed into the city on the metro (which took forever) and made my way to the tower along the waterfront. It was a bit of a grey winter day so the view wasn't spectacular, but it was nice to walk along the river and through parks. I didn't bother going up the tower as it was pretty expensive, and instead I found a nice park with a pagoda to sit in for a while and watch the locals doing their tai chi. When I started to get cols I headed back to the tower to go to the cafe at the base and warm myself with awesome ginger coffee.

After warming up and reading for a bit I headed back outside for a fairly uneventful sunset, then stuck around to watch the lights come on on the tower. The whole water front was lit up, including fountains, and there were lots of people out walking along the river.

I then crossed the river to the venue of the Asian games and had a wander around there (accompanied by a rousing soundtrack, somewhat reminiscent of my trip to the Olympic park in Beijing!) then walked through the massive square in the city past various fancy fountains and buildings. I called it a night after that and headed back to the hotel, stopping for some food on the way - a traditional Chinese meal of meat-on-a-stick from a random market stall and then some dumplings.

Guangzhou is a bit of a weird place, and it didn't feel very Chinese, but it wasn't like any Asian city I've been to either. While I wasn't expecting it to be exactly like Beijing, it's pretty close to Hong Kong so I thought it might be a bit like a mixture of the two cities, but it definitely wasn't. I'm fairly sure I was in the centre of the city so the lack of people and traffic on the roads, even at 5pm which is mental in any other big city, was a bit disconcerting. Maybe the tower is a strictly tourist area without much business around it, as I can't think why else there weren't many people around. There was minimal honking on the roads, and very little spitting so it really didn't feel like I was in China!

The next morning I had to get up early again as the bus was heading back to the airport at 6am, and the hotel was offering a free breakfast that turned out to be the worst hotel breakfast I've ever had. There were all sorts of weird foods that didn't look remotely appetising, cold congealing trays of egg fried rice and noodles, and warm orange juice. Not warm as in room temperature, but actually heated up orange juice. I gave it a miss and headed over the road for a traditional Chinese breakfast of an Egg McMuffin!

At the airport I had plenty of time to kill before my flight, and made the mistake of going through security too early, assuming that there would be the same selection of shops and cafes on the other side as were in the main departure area. Turns out that isn't the case so I got nice and bored waiting for my plane.

The flight to London was fairly uneventful; as always I spent it watching kids movies and any TV comedies that were available. The trick to an easy exit from Heathrow seems to be to arrive in the afternoon as there were no lines at immigration, compared to when I've arrived early in the morning and have had to spend ages in a line slowly shuffling towards the counter, feeling sorry for the people in the non-EU passport line that is so long it snakes out of the immigration hall and a long long way down the corridor.

Momentary panic at baggage claim when pretty much every single bag had come off except mine, but finally my bags appeared last (I guess they were first on as they got checked in so early). In the end the whole experience was better than expected, as I'd heard many horror stories from people who'd flown China Southern in the past and grimaced whenever I told them I was flying with them. I guess that helped as it had set my expectations so low that the only way was up!

The rest of my photos from Guangzhou are here.

Now I'm no longer in Asia the name of this blog doesn't really work, so once I've set up a new one for my next adventures I'll post the link here so you can continue to read about my adventures around the world!