The City Wall

The next morning we packed up our bags and left them at the hostel lobby in a big heap while we went off to the city wall for a bike ride. The four sides of the city wall make up about eight and a half miles. Bryan got his bike rented first and he was off like a shot, leaving me to meander after at my own pace and Brennan and Max to figure out how to ride a tandem bike.

I would like to present this picture as proof that it is impossible to ride a tandem bike without grinning like a fool.



The surface of the wall was a bit rough, and my bike may as well have been named Rickety. The sun was out in spades, which made it kind of brutal. I had to stop at each of the directional watchtowers to rest in the shade. The orange juice and chocolate from my breakfast didn't think this whole heat thing was a great idea, but there were some pretty keen sights from the walls.










As you can see, by the end of the ride I was red-faced and sweaty, but ever so pleased with my Xi'an experience. From here we headed off to the airport and flew to Guangzhou, capitol city of Canton. I experienced a bout of pickiness and homesickness, all I wanted was recognizable food to eat. I ate a hotdog and a "fruit salad" at the airport, even though the fruits were cherry tomatoes and watermelon. Brennan also shared a potato from his curry and it was so decadent. I missed potatoes.

The Guangzhou airport was all curved glass from floor to ceiling and rain was pouring down it when we landed, so much rain that it looked like someone was standing outside and hosing everything down. We took a bus to our hostel, upping our modes of transportation to feet, bike, plane, taxi and bus (and we could have taken the subway and a boat, too!) The rain gradually slacked off, but the advertisement playing at the front of the bus repeated over and over and over again, so that we got to see more then enough of the 30-second shampoo commercial. I swore never to use Slek shampoo, in fact, if I ever saw that actress sitting on her damn swing thinking about using Slek shampoo I'd probably go and shove her off.

Our Guangzhou hostel was on Bai'e Tan, one of the city's bar districts. We walked past neon lights and live music and more neon lights and found our place, right across the street from the Pearl River. In the evening I walked along the waterfront, looking at flotsam in the river (which was mostly organic, big bunches of river reeds that had washed loose of their moorings) and the neon reflected on the water. Guangzhou was a beautiful city at night, for sheer gaudy neon delight. It was also a beautiful city during the daytime, because its grey concrete apartment buildings were decked with greenery, as each balcony held as many live plants as would fit and true to the humid tropical air, they all thrived by pulling moisture straight out of the air.

Since we were right there on the bar street we went out for a drink--and some heavily/heavenly salted french fries--at the Amigo, which had live music in the form of a woman in a denim shortshorts (bordering on hotpants) and cowboy boots and a man playing a keyboard, I think they were both Filipino. When she wasn't singing the woman dragged people bodily onto the dance floor, so Max ended up out there multiple times, dancing with the middle-aged Chinese ladies who were already dancing. The woman kept coming back and trying to grab me, but I was much more content with my fries and my beers and I would not be moved.