Guangzhou & Shamian Island

We had the option of going to the Jade and Pearl Market today with our group but we really felt like just doing our own thing and not being rushed to get somewhere.  Piper had a harder night last night.  She was up coughing and coughing and coughing.  I finally brought her into bed because that was the only way I could get her to sleep.  We woke up at 9 AM and headed down to breakfast.  We took a look at the pool and the play area for the kids and headed back to our room.  We finally decided to go on our own and take a taxi to Shamian Island to check it out and do some shopping.  We went down to the lobby and asked the hotel clerk to write down where we wanted to go in Ch*nese and the card had the hotel address on it so we could get back home.  With the help of the hotel, we got a taxi.  It is 20 Yuans one way.  It was about 15 minutes away from our hotel.  The taxi driver dropped us off and we looked around and wondered where do we go from here.  He dropped us off right in from of the Victory Hotel. We walked around for a little.  We really did not see much.  We came up to a Starbucks and I said lets go in and ask where the shops are.  I went in and there was a girl who pointed us in the right direction.  We were looking for little trinkets and things to bring home, some gifts for the girls and things to put aside for Piper.  We ended up finding a store where we purchased some silk traditional Ch*nese dresses for all of the girls.  They were pretty reasonable here compared to the Silk Factory earlier on in our trip in Beijing.  We got the girls really pretty handpainted bottles with their names that we had painted on the inside of the bottle.  They were really pretty.  I think that they will really like them :)  There is a famous statue here in Guangzhou where a lot of the families like to have their childrens picture taken with it.  We tried but it did not go so well.  I will show you our attempts.  Overall, the island was really not what we had expected.  There are stores but really not too many.  During our trip, some had told us wait to buy more until you get to Guangzhou.  If I could go back, I would have bought more when I saw things that I liked.  A lot of the shops have very similar things.  You can barter but honestly things are not all that expensive anyway.  There are a lot of stores and when you go in people want you to buy so they will keep trying to add things to entice you to buy more.  The one store we went into we had purchased a couple of things and then they brought out Ch*nese dresses and said do you like these?  20 Yuans which was too cheap not to buy.  So we ended up leaving with a bagful of Ch*nese dresses.  My advice to anyone traveling is to purchase things when you see them.  You will regret it later.  It was really hot here!!!!  With the humidity it is like 103 degrees. 

 

Getting Ready for Bed.......