life's a riot

Sunday in Guangzhou was definitely not peaceful! We were scheduled to go out shopping with our agency for a little while in the morning, and with a private guide on the afternoon. When we got to the lobby we saw swarms of people outside waving Chinese flags and pictures of Mao and chanting something. Our guide told us it was a protest over a land dispute with Japan. The Japanese Consulate is located at our hotel so they were protesting there. After about 30 minutes of us taking pictures the police assembled and blocked off the front of the hotel so we were able to leave. It took us over an hour to get to the shopping district twenty minutes away because so many roads were closed.

 

 

Once we got to the shopping area we called the private guide that was supposed to meet us back at our hotel and told her we would just stay the shopping center instead. Our agency representative was not happy we were not going back on the bus. It turned out to be the right decision for us. We had a fabulous afternoon with our guide Ann. She took us at lightning speed all over the wholesale market. Probably the best part was that she spoke Cantonese. It turns out much of what we had been chalking up to babble from Lexi is really words. She understands a lot and has been talking to us too, we just didn't know it! She has gotten a habit of smacking me when she doesnt like something, so Ann found a policeman that spoke Cantonese and got him to tell her "do not hit". We have it on video for future use.

Those are strands of real pearls they gave her to play with

 

When we were done shopping we took the subway back to the hotel. It was crazy crowded! We had to navigate around a few blocks to get to the only hotel entrance they would let us in, and then we were on lockdown in our rooms because we were on the 27th floor and all of the elevators were Shut down. Apparently at some point In the afternoon it had gotten a little violent and the crowd broke several windows in the hotel lobby and the Japanese restaurant. We missed all the drama and just ate ramen noodles in our room. It was definitely an adventurous day!!

 

 

 

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