China celebrates the birth of the new China every October 1. It’s the big holiday during the fall semester, and most people have a week off to celebrate. It’s also a hugely crazy travel time, and buying tickets can be so difficult. This is my third year to celebrate the Chinese National holiday and it’s cool to understand it more now.
This holiday I was so pumped. Not only did I have a week off of work, but so many friends were coming to Guangzhou to visit me – two friends from America, my best Chinese friend from Hengyang, and other foreign teachers from their new schools in Shenzhen, Dongguan, and Foshan. It was a week of happy reunions and trying new things around Guangzhou with some of my favorite people.
Here’s a little of what we discovered in Guangzhou.
Shawan Ancient Town
Take metro to Shiqiao on line 3. Take bus 67 for 20 – 30 minutes and get off when you start seeing signs for Shawan Ancient Town. (We got off a little too early and had to walk then take a taxi the rest of the way)
Food City and Party Pier
We took bus 9 from my apartment to meet my friends Amy and Michael, then took another bus to Food City
Shangxia Lu (Walking Street in Guangzhou)
Take metro to line 1, get off at Changshou Road. A great place for shopping, souvenirs, and street food
BBQ and KTV
BBQ has some of the best, cheapest Chinese food you’ll find. We got a whole tray of noodles to feed a family for days, tons of rice, chicken, beef and vegetables. We went twice during the holiday to a place outside of the metro line 3 Dashi stop.
Canton Tower
Take the metro to Line 3 – you can get off at Zhujiang New Town and walk a little to get a view, or get off at the actual Canton Tower stop
It was so fun to share my new city with so many friends and find new places I had never seen! Guangzhou is huge and there are so many sites I haven’t explored yet.
Happy Chinese National Day! Now back to work.
Rachel Meets China 