At some place down the river people saw a pack of red dogs and Asiatic black bears. I remember it was really scary to fall asleep in the tent when there was barking of billy goats over the river, or when an hour earlier a female bear with bear cubs was coming nearer to us  on the leeward side but then got frightened and returned to taiga.

One day, near the mouth of the river, which was a favourite place of fishermen living at the hydro power, we tried to fish out at least one lenok out of a huge shoal of them in the shallow water  We spent half of the day trying to do it but failed because the fishes were as if contused, they did not take the bait and smoothly moved away to the depth when we, being excited and intrigued, tried to catch them by hand.

Once my classmate and I decided to take a short cut and found a channel which seemed to us quite passable. At the end of it there was an abatis and the water flowed under the obstruction. My knife was of great use in that situation, my Dad made it out of a cutting bit of a cutting machine. We had to cut  a couple of pine logs into pieces, we fiddled about for a lot of time and fimally dragged the kayak over.

In seven years I remember everything though the forest has become charred after a forest fire and  has overgrown with grass, the old hermit has left his house, and the gardens of the Old Believers have overgrown with young birch-trees.

At some place down the river people saw a pack of red dogs and Asiatic black bears. I remember it was really scary to fall asleep in the tent when there was barking of billy goats over the river, or when an hour earlier a female bear with bear cubs was coming nearer to us  on the leeward side but then got frightened and returned to taiga.

One day, near the mouth of the river, which was a favourite place of fishermen living at the hydro power, we tried to fish out at least one lenok out of a huge shoal of them in the shallow water  We spent half of the day trying to do it but failed because the fishes were as if contused, they did not take the bait and smoothly moved away to the depth when we, being excited and intrigued, tried to catch them by hand.

Once my classmate and I decided to take a short cut and found a channel which seemed to us quite passable. At the end of it there was an abatis and the water flowed under the obstruction. My knife was of great use in that situation, my Dad made it out of a cutting bit of a cutting machine. We had to cut  a couple of pine logs into pieces, we fiddled about for a lot of time and fimally dragged the kayak over.

In seven years I remember everything though the forest has become charred after a forest fire and  has overgrown with grass, the old hermit has left his house, and the gardens of the Old Believers have overgrown with young birch-trees.

At some place down the river people saw a pack of red dogs and Asiatic black bears. I remember it was really scary to fall asleep in the tent when there was barking of billy goats over the river, or when an hour earlier a female bear with bear cubs was coming nearer to us  on the leeward side but then got frightened and returned to taiga.

One day, near the mouth of the river, which was a favourite place of fishermen living at the hydro power, we tried to fish out at least one lenok out of a huge shoal of them in the shallow water  We spent half of the day trying to do it but failed because the fishes were as if contused, they did not take the bait and smoothly moved away to the depth when we, being excited and intrigued, tried to catch them by hand.

Once my classmate and I decided to take a short cut and found a channel which seemed to us quite passable. At the end of it there was an abatis and the water flowed under the obstruction. My knife was of great use in that situation, my Dad made it out of a cutting bit of a cutting machine. We had to cut  a couple of pine logs into pieces, we fiddled about for a lot of time and fimally dragged the kayak over.

In seven years I remember everything though the forest has become charred after a forest fire and  has overgrown with grass, the old hermit has left his house, and the gardens of the Old Believers have overgrown with young birch-trees.

At some place down the river people saw a pack of red dogs and Asiatic black bears. I remember it was really scary to fall asleep in the tent when there was barking of billy goats over the river, or when an hour earlier a female bear with bear cubs was coming nearer to us  on the leeward side but then got frightened and returned to taiga.

One day, near the mouth of the river, which was a favourite place of fishermen living at the hydro power, we tried to fish out at least one lenok out of a huge shoal of them in the shallow water  We spent half of the day trying to do it but failed because the fishes were as if contused, they did not take the bait and smoothly moved away to the depth when we, being excited and intrigued, tried to catch them by hand.

Once my classmate and I decided to take a short cut and found a channel which seemed to us quite passable. At the end of it there was an abatis and the water flowed under the obstruction. My knife was of great use in that situation, my Dad made it out of a cutting bit of a cutting machine. We had to cut  a couple of pine logs into pieces, we fiddled about for a lot of time and fimally dragged the kayak over.

In seven years I remember everything though the forest has become charred after a forest fire and  has overgrown with grass, the old hermit has left his house, and the gardens of the Old Believers have overgrown with young birch-trees.

Summer is coming soon to Auckland. On these warm days one can not only wet feet in the ocean but dip into its cool water wholly. For those who are lazy the choice where to go and have rest for a couple of hours is traditionally not wide: Piha, Muriwai, Anawhata, Karekare. All of them are approximately at the same distance from the city, which is about forty-minute drive away from it. 

Piha

It is a favourite place of surfers. They say that waves there are good and, so to say, well-formed, not big but glassy. I understand nothing in waves. From the hill “The Lions Head” people in wet suits look like sunflower seeds in a kitchen sink. The sand is brownish-black, compact and very hot on hot days. One should be very cautious about swimming at Piha because of strong current and pits. Those especially ardent about surfing are daily caught several kilometers away from the coast by lifeguards. Needless to say that there is no time for lifeguards at Piha to be bored. Volunteers are constantly wanted to join the lifeguard team. Piha is a good place to dip into the water, to walk, to look at sunsets, and thats all.

Muriwai

The sand there is volcanic: black and fine like dust. People have to wash themselves very thoroughly after a trip to Muriwai. This beach is also a very popular place for those who like to hang about in the water for twenty minutes for a ten-second wave ride. In addition the beach is home for a gannet colony. Explanatory tables tell that the gannet colony is constantly growing. I cannot stop planning to calculate how much time it will take for the birds to conquer the whole country. Chinese-Maori people usually come to this rocky coast to fish. It is not safe to swim at Murewai, either. But one can easily drive a 4WD vehicle along the beach. The place is nothing special. But there we celebrated Christmas – an alien holiday of the nativity of Santa Claus and some saint. There were barbecue, music and dancing.

Anawhata

Drive along the road to Piha and take the right turn, and after you drive a few kilometers of dirt road and come down a track for about twenty minutes you will get to the Anawhata Beach. A dirty winding road and the necessity to walk make that beach a lot less busy place than other beaches. Near the entrance the table tells something like, “Dear guests, this beach is a live being, so please, let it live quitely”. The text is signed by some dopeheads living on the pitch of the hill. You will ask why I call them “dopeheads”? Because the place is just perfect for various psychotropic and not actually psychotropic experiments. I remember once we met there several guys who were under the influence of hallucinogenic mushrooms. They were happy to see a natural fire. Oh yes, it is prohibited to make a fire (open flame) in New Zealand. So if you want to bake potatoes in the embers of the fire you will have to get farther away from people, for example, to Anawhata.

It goes without saying that swimming is not safe at Anawhata. It is even more dangerous than at Piha.

Anawhata was the first beach I visited in New Zealand. Perhaps, that is why it has been my favourite beach. When I was there for the first time, I obviously could not take good photos yet. And when we got there at the last weekend, the battery in the camera has traitorously gone.

Karekare

On the edge of the peninsula there is a beach with a nonmemorable name “Karekare”. Its character is a mixture of the beaches described above. Black-and-brown sand, huge sand areas, mountains with a lot of walking tracks. Here and there one can see beached jellyfish and algae. I think it is the best place if you want to make a holiday for your dog. Most of all I liked walking through the forest, it was a ten-minute walk from the car park to the beach.

Summer is coming soon to Auckland. On these warm days one can not only wet feet in the ocean but dip into its cool water wholly. For those who are lazy the choice where to go and have rest for a couple of hours is traditionally not wide: Piha, Muriwai, Anawhata, Karekare. All of them are approximately at the same distance from the city, which is about forty-minute drive away from it. 

Piha

It is a favourite place of surfers. They say that waves there are good and, so to say, well-formed, not big but glassy. I understand nothing in waves. From the hill “The Lions Head” people in wet suits look like sunflower seeds in a kitchen sink. The sand is brownish-black, compact and very hot on hot days. One should be very cautious about swimming at Piha because of strong current and pits. Those especially ardent about surfing are daily caught several kilometers away from the coast by lifeguards. Needless to say that there is no time for lifeguards at Piha to be bored. Volunteers are constantly wanted to join the lifeguard team. Piha is a good place to dip into the water, to walk, to look at sunsets, and thats all.

Muriwai

The sand there is volcanic: black and fine like dust. People have to wash themselves very thoroughly after a trip to Muriwai. This beach is also a very popular place for those who like to hang about in the water for twenty minutes for a ten-second wave ride. In addition the beach is home for a gannet colony. Explanatory tables tell that the gannet colony is constantly growing. I cannot stop planning to calculate how much time it will take for the birds to conquer the whole country. Chinese-Maori people usually come to this rocky coast to fish. It is not safe to swim at Murewai, either. But one can easily drive a 4WD vehicle along the beach. The place is nothing special. But there we celebrated Christmas – an alien holiday of the nativity of Santa Claus and some saint. There were barbecue, music and dancing.

Anawhata

Drive along the road to Piha and take the right turn, and after you drive a few kilometers of dirt road and come down a track for about twenty minutes you will get to the Anawhata Beach. A dirty winding road and the necessity to walk make that beach a lot less busy place than other beaches. Near the entrance the table tells something like, “Dear guests, this beach is a live being, so please, let it live quitely”. The text is signed by some dopeheads living on the pitch of the hill. You will ask why I call them “dopeheads”? Because the place is just perfect for various psychotropic and not actually psychotropic experiments. I remember once we met there several guys who were under the influence of hallucinogenic mushrooms. They were happy to see a natural fire. Oh yes, it is prohibited to make a fire (open flame) in New Zealand. So if you want to bake potatoes in the embers of the fire you will have to get farther away from people, for example, to Anawhata.

It goes without saying that swimming is not safe at Anawhata. It is even more dangerous than at Piha.

Anawhata was the first beach I visited in New Zealand. Perhaps, that is why it has been my favourite beach. When I was there for the first time, I obviously could not take good photos yet. And when we got there at the last weekend, the battery in the camera has traitorously gone.

Karekare

On the edge of the peninsula there is a beach with a nonmemorable name “Karekare”. Its character is a mixture of the beaches described above. Black-and-brown sand, huge sand areas, mountains with a lot of walking tracks. Here and there one can see beached jellyfish and algae. I think it is the best place if you want to make a holiday for your dog. Most of all I liked walking through the forest, it was a ten-minute walk from the car park to the beach.

Summer is coming soon to Auckland. On these warm days one can not only wet feet in the ocean but dip into its cool water wholly. For those who are lazy the choice where to go and have rest for a couple of hours is traditionally not wide: Piha, Muriwai, Anawhata, Karekare. All of them are approximately at the same distance from the city, which is about forty-minute drive away from it. 

Piha

It is a favourite place of surfers. They say that waves there are good and, so to say, well-formed, not big but glassy. I understand nothing in waves. From the hill “The Lions Head” people in wet suits look like sunflower seeds in a kitchen sink. The sand is brownish-black, compact and very hot on hot days. One should be very cautious about swimming at Piha because of strong current and pits. Those especially ardent about surfing are daily caught several kilometers away from the coast by lifeguards. Needless to say that there is no time for lifeguards at Piha to be bored. Volunteers are constantly wanted to join the lifeguard team. Piha is a good place to dip into the water, to walk, to look at sunsets, and thats all.

Muriwai

The sand there is volcanic: black and fine like dust. People have to wash themselves very thoroughly after a trip to Muriwai. This beach is also a very popular place for those who like to hang about in the water for twenty minutes for a ten-second wave ride. In addition the beach is home for a gannet colony. Explanatory tables tell that the gannet colony is constantly growing. I cannot stop planning to calculate how much time it will take for the birds to conquer the whole country. Chinese-Maori people usually come to this rocky coast to fish. It is not safe to swim at Murewai, either. But one can easily drive a 4WD vehicle along the beach. The place is nothing special. But there we celebrated Christmas – an alien holiday of the nativity of Santa Claus and some saint. There were barbecue, music and dancing.

Anawhata

Drive along the road to Piha and take the right turn, and after you drive a few kilometers of dirt road and come down a track for about twenty minutes you will get to the Anawhata Beach. A dirty winding road and the necessity to walk make that beach a lot less busy place than other beaches. Near the entrance the table tells something like, “Dear guests, this beach is a live being, so please, let it live quitely”. The text is signed by some dopeheads living on the pitch of the hill. You will ask why I call them “dopeheads”? Because the place is just perfect for various psychotropic and not actually psychotropic experiments. I remember once we met there several guys who were under the influence of hallucinogenic mushrooms. They were happy to see a natural fire. Oh yes, it is prohibited to make a fire (open flame) in New Zealand. So if you want to bake potatoes in the embers of the fire you will have to get farther away from people, for example, to Anawhata.

It goes without saying that swimming is not safe at Anawhata. It is even more dangerous than at Piha.

Anawhata was the first beach I visited in New Zealand. Perhaps, that is why it has been my favourite beach. When I was there for the first time, I obviously could not take good photos yet. And when we got there at the last weekend, the battery in the camera has traitorously gone.

Karekare

On the edge of the peninsula there is a beach with a nonmemorable name “Karekare”. Its character is a mixture of the beaches described above. Black-and-brown sand, huge sand areas, mountains with a lot of walking tracks. Here and there one can see beached jellyfish and algae. I think it is the best place if you want to make a holiday for your dog. Most of all I liked walking through the forest, it was a ten-minute walk from the car park to the beach.

Summer is coming soon to Auckland. On these warm days one can not only wet feet in the ocean but dip into its cool water wholly. For those who are lazy the choice where to go and have rest for a couple of hours is traditionally not wide: Piha, Muriwai, Anawhata, Karekare. All of them are approximately at the same distance from the city, which is about forty-minute drive away from it. 

Piha

It is a favourite place of surfers. They say that waves there are good and, so to say, well-formed, not big but glassy. I understand nothing in waves. From the hill “The Lions Head” people in wet suits look like sunflower seeds in a kitchen sink. The sand is brownish-black, compact and very hot on hot days. One should be very cautious about swimming at Piha because of strong current and pits. Those especially ardent about surfing are daily caught several kilometers away from the coast by lifeguards. Needless to say that there is no time for lifeguards at Piha to be bored. Volunteers are constantly wanted to join the lifeguard team. Piha is a good place to dip into the water, to walk, to look at sunsets, and thats all.

Muriwai

The sand there is volcanic: black and fine like dust. People have to wash themselves very thoroughly after a trip to Muriwai. This beach is also a very popular place for those who like to hang about in the water for twenty minutes for a ten-second wave ride. In addition the beach is home for a gannet colony. Explanatory tables tell that the gannet colony is constantly growing. I cannot stop planning to calculate how much time it will take for the birds to conquer the whole country. Chinese-Maori people usually come to this rocky coast to fish. It is not safe to swim at Murewai, either. But one can easily drive a 4WD vehicle along the beach. The place is nothing special. But there we celebrated Christmas – an alien holiday of the nativity of Santa Claus and some saint. There were barbecue, music and dancing.

Anawhata

Drive along the road to Piha and take the right turn, and after you drive a few kilometers of dirt road and come down a track for about twenty minutes you will get to the Anawhata Beach. A dirty winding road and the necessity to walk make that beach a lot less busy place than other beaches. Near the entrance the table tells something like, “Dear guests, this beach is a live being, so please, let it live quitely”. The text is signed by some dopeheads living on the pitch of the hill. You will ask why I call them “dopeheads”? Because the place is just perfect for various psychotropic and not actually psychotropic experiments. I remember once we met there several guys who were under the influence of hallucinogenic mushrooms. They were happy to see a natural fire. Oh yes, it is prohibited to make a fire (open flame) in New Zealand. So if you want to bake potatoes in the embers of the fire you will have to get farther away from people, for example, to Anawhata.

It goes without saying that swimming is not safe at Anawhata. It is even more dangerous than at Piha.

Anawhata was the first beach I visited in New Zealand. Perhaps, that is why it has been my favourite beach. When I was there for the first time, I obviously could not take good photos yet. And when we got there at the last weekend, the battery in the camera has traitorously gone.

Karekare

On the edge of the peninsula there is a beach with a nonmemorable name “Karekare”. Its character is a mixture of the beaches described above. Black-and-brown sand, huge sand areas, mountains with a lot of walking tracks. Here and there one can see beached jellyfish and algae. I think it is the best place if you want to make a holiday for your dog. Most of all I liked walking through the forest, it was a ten-minute walk from the car park to the beach.

It is warm in crowded Guangzhou. People do not understand my Chinese but my English, I guess, is much better. Guangzhou ranks as the third largest city in China and is located in comfortable proximity to Hong Kong with its overblown economy. Guangzhou is considered to be one of the most comfortable places to live for expats. As in two other cases with metropolitan areas of Beijing and Shanghai, there is no exact information about its population. The estimates of the population for Guangzhou are different and vary from 6 to 20 million people. I can assert one thing that there is an awful crowd in the city.

We arrived in Guangzhou with a sleeper at night. Then it turned out that the taxi-driver wandered out of the way and made circles in the city center trying to find the hotel. At 4.30 at night he asked tradesmen the way. I remember that I was thinking then about the way people worked and how much they got tired at work.

In the morning I was “on the expedition” in search of a subway station. I had to walk about twenty minutes to get to the nearest one. My path lay across “proletarian” districts where I felt the smell of simple meal being cooked, and where children played table tennis – there were two bricks and a stick-crosspiece instead of the net on their table. But the subway turned to be one of the best I had ever seen. The subway cars were warm and quiet. People could easily talk and at that their ligaments were not on the stretch. I guess it was the most advantageous way to travel about the city which was scattered along the river banks. By the way, as for the river, in the evening I found a cheap way to get to our hostel – I got there by a ferry. It really was the cheapest and the quickest way to get to the city center from out YHA hostel.

The Riverside district in Guangzhou is famous for its multiple cafes with tasty food and a variety of drinks, where one can easily overeat and overdrink. When it gets dark, old and young gather there to taste fish delicacies. There are lobsters swimming in a basin, spitted squids and octopuses on braziers. I will digress from my story and tell about street vendors who sell some “nonsense” on sticks. I do not know what the reason is but the sellers are Tajiks or some national minorities looking like Tajiks. City waifs and small-fry pickpockets are usually of the same “suit”. It is a rather strange observation if you take into consideration the fact that each nine out of ten Chinese belong to the ethnic group “Han People” (consonant with “khan”, especially in Russian (homonyms)  a title borne by medieval Chinese emperors and Mongol and Turkic rulers: usually added to a name).

Here is a funny fact for lovers of homonyms. In China there are about ten million people that represent the nation Hui – “a dick” in Russian.

Well, I am to return to the posts subject. I spent more than a week in  Guangzhou. After all that time I visited the largest amusement park in Asia where I tried a roller coaster after which my legs were sinking under me; I also took the night cruise on the Pearl River under the sparkling lights of skyscrapers and many-colored trees. I ate exotic food in a cozy small restaurant on Shamian Island and climbed White Cloud Mountain to look at the misty city landscape; I had coffee in Starbucks and got Vietnamese visa.

In contrast to monstrous Hong Kong, that metal anthill made of glass, concrete, cars and running people, Guangzhou is more humane. I will tell you the rest of the story in my photos.

In subway and in other public transport there is a public service advertisement on the zombie-box. It calls to wash hands before eating, not to litter, not to speak on the phone loudly, switch off annoying ringtones, give away corrupt officials, and, as you can see in the picture, be careful with eating mushrooms, something like a phrase from a Russian fairy tale, “Do not sit down on the stub, do not eat a doughnut! (an unknown mushroom!)”

It is warm in crowded Guangzhou. People do not understand my Chinese but my English, I guess, is much better. Guangzhou ranks as the third largest city in China and is located in comfortable proximity to Hong Kong with its overblown economy. Guangzhou is considered to be one of the most comfortable places to live for expats. As in two other cases with metropolitan areas of Beijing and Shanghai, there is no exact information about its population. The estimates of the population for Guangzhou are different and vary from 6 to 20 million people. I can assert one thing that there is an awful crowd in the city.

We arrived in Guangzhou with a sleeper at night. Then it turned out that the taxi-driver wandered out of the way and made circles in the city center trying to find the hotel. At 4.30 at night he asked tradesmen the way. I remember that I was thinking then about the way people worked and how much they got tired at work.

In the morning I was “on the expedition” in search of a subway station. I had to walk about twenty minutes to get to the nearest one. My path lay across “proletarian” districts where I felt the smell of simple meal being cooked, and where children played table tennis – there were two bricks and a stick-crosspiece instead of the net on their table. But the subway turned to be one of the best I had ever seen. The subway cars were warm and quiet. People could easily talk and at that their ligaments were not on the stretch. I guess it was the most advantageous way to travel about the city which was scattered along the river banks. By the way, as for the river, in the evening I found a cheap way to get to our hostel – I got there by a ferry. It really was the cheapest and the quickest way to get to the city center from out YHA hostel.

The Riverside district in Guangzhou is famous for its multiple cafes with tasty food and a variety of drinks, where one can easily overeat and overdrink. When it gets dark, old and young gather there to taste fish delicacies. There are lobsters swimming in a basin, spitted squids and octopuses on braziers. I will digress from my story and tell about street vendors who sell some “nonsense” on sticks. I do not know what the reason is but the sellers are Tajiks or some national minorities looking like Tajiks. City waifs and small-fry pickpockets are usually of the same “suit”. It is a rather strange observation if you take into consideration the fact that each nine out of ten Chinese belong to the ethnic group “Han People” (consonant with “khan”, especially in Russian (homonyms)  a title borne by medieval Chinese emperors and Mongol and Turkic rulers: usually added to a name).

Here is a funny fact for lovers of homonyms. In China there are about ten million people that represent the nation Hui – “a dick” in Russian.

Well, I am to return to the posts subject. I spent more than a week in  Guangzhou. After all that time I visited the largest amusement park in Asia where I tried a roller coaster after which my legs were sinking under me; I also took the night cruise on the Pearl River under the sparkling lights of skyscrapers and many-colored trees. I ate exotic food in a cozy small restaurant on Shamian Island and climbed White Cloud Mountain to look at the misty city landscape; I had coffee in Starbucks and got Vietnamese visa.

In contrast to monstrous Hong Kong, that metal anthill made of glass, concrete, cars and running people, Guangzhou is more humane. I will tell you the rest of the story in my photos.

In subway and in other public transport there is a public service advertisement on the zombie-box. It calls to wash hands before eating, not to litter, not to speak on the phone loudly, switch off annoying ringtones, give away corrupt officials, and, as you can see in the picture, be careful with eating mushrooms, something like a phrase from a Russian fairy tale, “Do not sit down on the stub, do not eat a doughnut! (an unknown mushroom!)”

It is warm in crowded Guangzhou. People do not understand my Chinese but my English, I guess, is much better. Guangzhou ranks as the third largest city in China and is located in comfortable proximity to Hong Kong with its overblown economy. Guangzhou is considered to be one of the most comfortable places to live for expats. As in two other cases with metropolitan areas of Beijing and Shanghai, there is no exact information about its population. The estimates of the population for Guangzhou are different and vary from 6 to 20 million people. I can assert one thing that there is an awful crowd in the city.

We arrived in Guangzhou with a sleeper at night. Then it turned out that the taxi-driver wandered out of the way and made circles in the city center trying to find the hotel. At 4.30 at night he asked tradesmen the way. I remember that I was thinking then about the way people worked and how much they got tired at work.

In the morning I was “on the expedition” in search of a subway station. I had to walk about twenty minutes to get to the nearest one. My path lay across “proletarian” districts where I felt the smell of simple meal being cooked, and where children played table tennis – there were two bricks and a stick-crosspiece instead of the net on their table. But the subway turned to be one of the best I had ever seen. The subway cars were warm and quiet. People could easily talk and at that their ligaments were not on the stretch. I guess it was the most advantageous way to travel about the city which was scattered along the river banks. By the way, as for the river, in the evening I found a cheap way to get to our hostel – I got there by a ferry. It really was the cheapest and the quickest way to get to the city center from out YHA hostel.

The Riverside district in Guangzhou is famous for its multiple cafes with tasty food and a variety of drinks, where one can easily overeat and overdrink. When it gets dark, old and young gather there to taste fish delicacies. There are lobsters swimming in a basin, spitted squids and octopuses on braziers. I will digress from my story and tell about street vendors who sell some “nonsense” on sticks. I do not know what the reason is but the sellers are Tajiks or some national minorities looking like Tajiks. City waifs and small-fry pickpockets are usually of the same “suit”. It is a rather strange observation if you take into consideration the fact that each nine out of ten Chinese belong to the ethnic group “Han People” (consonant with “khan”, especially in Russian (homonyms)  a title borne by medieval Chinese emperors and Mongol and Turkic rulers: usually added to a name).

Here is a funny fact for lovers of homonyms. In China there are about ten million people that represent the nation Hui – “a dick” in Russian.

Well, I am to return to the posts subject. I spent more than a week in  Guangzhou. After all that time I visited the largest amusement park in Asia where I tried a roller coaster after which my legs were sinking under me; I also took the night cruise on the Pearl River under the sparkling lights of skyscrapers and many-colored trees. I ate exotic food in a cozy small restaurant on Shamian Island and climbed White Cloud Mountain to look at the misty city landscape; I had coffee in Starbucks and got Vietnamese visa.

In contrast to monstrous Hong Kong, that metal anthill made of glass, concrete, cars and running people, Guangzhou is more humane. I will tell you the rest of the story in my photos.

In subway and in other public transport there is a public service advertisement on the zombie-box. It calls to wash hands before eating, not to litter, not to speak on the phone loudly, switch off annoying ringtones, give away corrupt officials, and, as you can see in the picture, be careful with eating mushrooms, something like a phrase from a Russian fairy tale, “Do not sit down on the stub, do not eat a doughnut! (an unknown mushroom!)”

It is warm in crowded Guangzhou. People do not understand my Chinese but my English, I guess, is much better. Guangzhou ranks as the third largest city in China and is located in comfortable proximity to Hong Kong with its overblown economy. Guangzhou is considered to be one of the most comfortable places to live for expats. As in two other cases with metropolitan areas of Beijing and Shanghai, there is no exact information about its population. The estimates of the population for Guangzhou are different and vary from 6 to 20 million people. I can assert one thing that there is an awful crowd in the city.

We arrived in Guangzhou with a sleeper at night. Then it turned out that the taxi-driver wandered out of the way and made circles in the city center trying to find the hotel. At 4.30 at night he asked tradesmen the way. I remember that I was thinking then about the way people worked and how much they got tired at work.

In the morning I was “on the expedition” in search of a subway station. I had to walk about twenty minutes to get to the nearest one. My path lay across “proletarian” districts where I felt the smell of simple meal being cooked, and where children played table tennis – there were two bricks and a stick-crosspiece instead of the net on their table. But the subway turned to be one of the best I had ever seen. The subway cars were warm and quiet. People could easily talk and at that their ligaments were not on the stretch. I guess it was the most advantageous way to travel about the city which was scattered along the river banks. By the way, as for the river, in the evening I found a cheap way to get to our hostel – I got there by a ferry. It really was the cheapest and the quickest way to get to the city center from out YHA hostel.

The Riverside district in Guangzhou is famous for its multiple cafes with tasty food and a variety of drinks, where one can easily overeat and overdrink. When it gets dark, old and young gather there to taste fish delicacies. There are lobsters swimming in a basin, spitted squids and octopuses on braziers. I will digress from my story and tell about street vendors who sell some “nonsense” on sticks. I do not know what the reason is but the sellers are Tajiks or some national minorities looking like Tajiks. City waifs and small-fry pickpockets are usually of the same “suit”. It is a rather strange observation if you take into consideration the fact that each nine out of ten Chinese belong to the ethnic group “Han People” (consonant with “khan”, especially in Russian (homonyms)  a title borne by medieval Chinese emperors and Mongol and Turkic rulers: usually added to a name).

Here is a funny fact for lovers of homonyms. In China there are about ten million people that represent the nation Hui – “a dick” in Russian.

Well, I am to return to the posts subject. I spent more than a week in  Guangzhou. After all that time I visited the largest amusement park in Asia where I tried a roller coaster after which my legs were sinking under me; I also took the night cruise on the Pearl River under the sparkling lights of skyscrapers and many-colored trees. I ate exotic food in a cozy small restaurant on Shamian Island and climbed White Cloud Mountain to look at the misty city landscape; I had coffee in Starbucks and got Vietnamese visa.

In contrast to monstrous Hong Kong, that metal anthill made of glass, concrete, cars and running people, Guangzhou is more humane. I will tell you the rest of the story in my photos.

In subway and in other public transport there is a public service advertisement on the zombie-box. It calls to wash hands before eating, not to litter, not to speak on the phone loudly, switch off annoying ringtones, give away corrupt officials, and, as you can see in the picture, be careful with eating mushrooms, something like a phrase from a Russian fairy tale, “Do not sit down on the stub, do not eat a doughnut! (an unknown mushroom!)”