16 April 2019
Shangxiajiu
Eating fruit salad in the ancient shopping streets of Shangxiajiu
It is a bit later than normal, for me, so I dont have time to think of a ridiculous title that will ensure google never indexes this article, instead, I name it Shangxiajiu, because tonight I walked to Shangxiajiu.
Shangxiajiu is number two when it comes to pedestrian shopping streets in Guangzhou, last night I went to number one, Beijing Street (not in Beijing).
Anyway, it has no fancy malls, no department stores, and not a lot of places to eat anything other than things on sticks while standing up. That doesnt mean it isnt worth a visit, it is very interesting. The buildings are all of the same older style, although still made of concrete. It looks to me like they are restoring a lot of these buildings to increase the size of the tourist area.
My walk did not end there, I filled up on fruit as you will see, then walked the streets beyond Shangxiajiu. There is a fancy new mall there, but the restaurants were too nice for me. I looped back around and found a very trendy art gallery area in restored back streets. The gallery owners were very concerned I was lowering the value of their art just by being there, untrendying their district.
Here I met a man and his 2 daughters who were busy playing with a mother cat and her kitten. We chatted in real Chinese for a while (mandarin). The children thought I was hilarious. Despite me appearing to me to be much younger than their father, these children referred to me as old foreigner. This has happened before on my trip last year, although that time they also made fun of my pig nose. Maybe anyone older than them is old.
Thats enough typing for now, somehow I managed 50,000 steps today, which does not happen that often, so I better add some quips about the pics then go to bed.
I liked this building. I guess there are lots like this but this one stood out because it literally stands out, there are not 10 others leaning up against it. Also, look at the clear blue sky!
Shangxiajiu pedestrian street. I have arrived at tonights destination.
Touristic. Featuring 200 shops selling old womens underwear. Thats underwear for old women, not old underwear for women. Each store has an old woman out the front clapping loudly to get my attention as I go past. I bought some full control 110% polyester supreme briefs.
I have been eyeing off the fruit for a while, tonight was fruit experience number 1 and it was great. So much fruit! I tried to select mainly fruit you dont regularly get in Australia. It is too much, I didnt quite eat it all. You select bigger bits then they cut it up for you into bits you can stuff into your gaping mouth.
Sunset. Me and everyone else were photographing the sun. -2ev compensation on my handy exposure dial. Probably photo of the day.
Just one of many many streets running off the main shopping street which are also shopping streets. This one lead me to a big new mall.
Inside this mall were mainly fancy restaurants. This one sells delicious dolphin meat! So succulent.
I headed into some back streets and happened upon a Japanese castle? Brand new I think, just like the ones in Japan!
The surrounding area has a number of storm water drains with bridges designed to survive a flood.
The castle was quite near the area that has all the art galleries and little cafes. A lot of these were shut already, but it still looked like a really nice area.
This is where I hung out with some local children and annoyed this kitten with my orange pre focus light thing that basically does nothing at all when I half press the shutter release to focus on my camera.
Crap photo, not sure why I didnt cull it!
I had looped back around to the main street, time for a few dark shots.
I headed further along the main street in the other direction, it got even busier, lots more lights.
A huge number of people for a Tuesday night. I was still full of fruit and dolphin meat, so decided to continue on without dinner...
Except when I got back to my hotel area, I found a fairwood, just like in Hong Kong. A nice cheap small meal with lots of vegetables including okra, something else you cant seem to get in Australia. Apparently it wont rain much tomorrow, the skies are clear now, heres hoping I can go do something that involves nature.