Guangdong | Taste China

I returned to China for another documentation project. This time, the four of us (Nick, Ringo, Irfan and myself), were going to Guangdong Province in southern China. We were invited by GDToday (Guangdong Today) and in collaboration with Chinese Culture Development Center were going to spend 11 days photographing the province that is adjacent to Hong Kong.

Another absolutely amazing experience with lots of fascinating photos, places and people.

As usual I will go by day, recounting a bit of my personal experiences and observations |

Day One | Qingyuan | Yao tribal area

Left Cairo on an EgyptAir flight after midnight and arrived late afternoon in Guangzhou. After passing through customs and passport control in a breeze, I was met by an entourage of GD Today staffers and Ethan from the Chinese Culture and Development Center in Los Angeles. Felt like a VIP

After meeting up with the group - who had arrived earlier from LA - at a downtown hotel, we boarded our bus and headed into the mountains. They gave us gifts including a very cool photo vest which was reminiscent of my first photo vest that I had in Lebanon in 1981. I've gone through dozens of camera systems (didn't keep any of them) but still have that vest. It was rainy all day, but fortunately by the time we arrived at the mountain village where we were to have dinner it had stopped.

A delicious dinner of traditional Yao village fare and then the entertainment started up which included us. Irfan and I got dressed in Yao outfits and tried our hand at their traditional dancing and attempted the bamboo stick dance. Worked up quite a sweat, but managed to not to embarass myself too much |

Day Two | Qingyuan | Yao tribal region

Started the day with a visit to Zhongshan Nan Road in Lianzhou City where we "take photos of centenarians". There were quite a few old people - mainly women - and yes, they could have been a 100 years old and if so, they were in pretty good shape.

Visited a museum on the Yao people - we were the only ones there. Very nicely done museum and was a shame to rush through it, we had lunch to attend to.

then we ventured up into the Ten Thousand Mountain Range and to an ancient Yao village. A bit touristic, but fantastic views of impressively shaped mountains |

Day Three | Guangzhou | Intriguing mega city

After coming down from the mountains, we headed towards the mega city of Guangzhou. It was overcast and drizzly at times. We started the day at Yuexiu Park and visited Zhenhai Tower and museum. Today was jammed pack, so lots of photos |

Scenes from park and garden restaurant. There are so many fantastic food photos that I will show them later in the blog. So for the time being mostly places and people photos |

....then a walk through the downtown commercial center of Guangzhou |

.... and another great walk around Liurong Street where lots of social media types were hanging out in chic cafes | as well as residents doing their daily thing |

.... after an absolutely scrumptous meal with our sponsor GDToday, we headed over to the Guangzhou International Light Festival and concert |

Day Four | Guangzhou | contrasts | colonial quarter | Canton Tower

Another packed day of contrasts. From classical music performance, to Lion Dance, to the former French colonial island quarter, the Canton Tower and a night cruise on the Zhujiang River |

after another exquisite lunch, a visit to the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall |

off to Shamian Island which was divided into two territorial concessions given to France and the United Kingdom by the Qing Dynasty in the 19th century (1859 to 1943). It is a tranquil but vibrant place with colonial architecture, lots of statues, people doing social media photography, cafes and street performances. And from what I saw no vehicles, so I think it's only a pedestrian area |

as usual we were running behind schedule and had hoped to catch the sunset from atop the Canton Tower | Unfortunately, traffic prevented us from reaching it and we viewed what could have looked like a dramatic sunset from our bus

Still trying to make it up the tower for some glimpse of the diminishing sunset we rushed through multiple elevators and interior steps until we emerged onto the upper most level of the 112 story, 1.975 feet tall, second tallest tower in the world | and though the sun had left us it was a spectacular site |

and then off to dinner which was super rushed because we wanted to try and make the river cruise. A shame we had to rush this hot pot meal that was one of the best. Again traffic snarls further delayed us and the river cruise boat indicated they could not wait any longer. But GDToday persevered and the boat was delayed. I was of the mind that maybe it would have been better to get back to the hotel before midnight and have some time to relax. Thankfully that did not happen because the cruise was so relaxing and beautiful. The skyscrapers and bridges were lit up and popular chill Chinese pop music was playing - very cool scene |

Another great day - full of new experiences, places, sounds, sights and so many images

Day Five | Dongguan | cultural park | the coast

First stop was a technological park which like others we visited was pretty much deserted.

Then onto the Songshan Lake Ecological Scenic Area. This place was was alot of fun and some unusual pictures because of the re-created famous European landmarks like Versailles and Westminster Abbey. Lots of people enjoying the park and a fantastic setting for social media photography |

Every day we had exquisite lunches and dinners. I'll include a post with some photos of the delicious dishes we had. Today's lunch was no different and here are a few photos from the restaurant |

And some more goofing around |

After a stop at a shopping complex, I (accompanied by a member of the team) went in search for a toy for my six month old grandson. I found a few items and when I went to pay for them, the team member had already paid for them. No matter how insistent I was, she would not let me re-imburse her. And then on the last day, just as we were boarding the bus for the airport, she gave me some more gifts for my family in Egypt. So generous ....

We finished the day enjoying time along the boardwalk in Binhai Bay where we were rewarded with a peak of the sun at sunset |

Day Six | Shantou | Ringo's home town

We boarded the bullet train to Shantou. It reached speeds up to 300 kph as it raced through towns, cities, farm lands and long mountain tunnels. We passed by Ringo's birthplace and waiting for him at the train station were two of his cousins whom he hadn't seen for 40 years.

A great hot pot lunch |

And then an unexpected treat of Yingge dancers at the famous tower where Ringo as a child used to climb to the top and play |

Day Seven | Old Town Shantou

After a morning of editing through the images we had taken and then lunch, we headed to Old Town Shantou where we ended up spending the rest of the day and night. I headed out with Echo and wandered the back streets where most of the 19th century structures had been replaced with 1970s apartment buildings. It was quiet and came across people doing everyday things |

..had some great encounters with people. Ringo had mentioned that Shantou is known for its special tea, so when I saw these ladies drinking tea, I asked if I could take their photo. The proprietor offered me tea and I sat down and with Echo's assistance talked about her life as a tea and honey merchant. She showed me videos of her harvesting tea as well as at the bee hives. Her son is locally popular on social media. The woman crocheting offered me some of the flowers she was knitting and I jokingly said sure but I had no place to put them. She asked for my vest and ended up attaching them to the back mesh.

There was a big convention going on in Shantou and all around town special events were taking place. We heard that there would be a light show and dragon, lion, horse and ballet dancers, so we hung around. Atop a boutique hotel that had recently opened, I met the owner Nixon. He told me that as an English student back in the 70s they had been given Western names. He was initially called Richard - after President Richard Nixon who had recently made his historic trip to China. However, Richard is apparently hard to pronounce in Chinese so he changed it to Nixon. While we were up there talking Nick came up and I told Nixon about Nick and when he learned that Nick was the photographer who took the famous "Napalm Girl" photo he rushed after him. Embraced him and started to cry. He recounted how memorable and meaningful that image had been to him. It's a powerful reminder of how impactful Nick's image was and still is.

So now lots of colorful images from the night |

And lastly fire spitting dragon |

Day Eight | Shantou | traditional life | modern life

We started the day at the old commercial port of Honghua. Very quiet. Few people about. Nice old cobblestone streets and elderly residents that spoke their own language. I went into one house and needed two translators to figure things out. One from the local language to Mandarin or Cantonese and then into English for me. Met a couple whose father had been in Vietnam in the 1920s.

We visited an AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology center where there were dancing robots and a fun shooting game | and then took another high speed train to Zhongshan |

Day Nine | Zhongshan | China yesterday and today |

Woke up before dawn to an overcast drizzly day. We had hoped for at least a bit of sun as we were headed to photograph a new bridge at sunrise.

We next visited Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's ancestral home. Sun who was born in 1866 and died in 1925 and is considered the founder of the Republic of China and Foreruner of the Revolution.

We lunched at a popular and chaotic dim sum restaurant where one selected items

A visit to a local market where I bought a pair of shoes, socks and t-shirts |

Then an excellent dinner of pigeon before a stroll in downtown where a concert performance was taking place |

A night stroll downtown |

Day Ten | Foshan |

Each day had been packed full of adventures and so so many pictures. Our trip was winding down. We would be leaving tomorrow. We started the day at the Temple of the Four Immortals where visitors and school children had gathered for Lion Dance spectacle |

For lunch we went to an exclusive restaurant, Jiranyuanzi private kitchen, where we were invited to watch and photograph master chefs preparing dishes. The private dining room with a floor to ceiling window looked out over a pond.

We visited an artistic community where we met Master Sculptor Guo Yanlin who signed a beautiful book of his work over the decades. I told him about my son who is an artist and that his works will give him inspiration for the characters he invents. We then were given a beautiful paper cutting display set to music by Paper Cutter Expert Rao Baolian. We tried our hand at paper cutting with differing degrees of success. Nonetheless, so much fun and so amazing the intricacies of her masterpieces.

Evening was setting in and Nick had spied an ancient sunken town which turned out to be a heritage center. Spend the remaining day light there |

A long and rewarding day of culture, art, gourmet cuisine, history, dance and good times. We finished the day with a night stroll and some refreshments at a hip establishment in the old town pedestrian streets |

Day Eleven | Foshan | Last Day | Discovering China Together presentation | Farewell

The day started off with a visit to the Temple of the Five Immortals complex where we were given a Kung Fu exhibit in which one of the wooden training devices was broken. Beautiful gardens and buildings and the sun finally came out.

Before the presentation we were asked if we wanted to wear traditional outfits from China's past | It was quite an elaborate affair and required two dressers | I was dressed as a governor, Ringo as a scholar, Nick as a king and Irfan as a judge | so much fun

Discovering China Together presentation | GDToday really went all out on the presentation event. A beautiful VIP conference room with about 100 invited guests. After the presentation, we were rushed to leave to make it to the airport, but lots of the guests came up to us asking for autographs | Now I know how celebrities feel - the autograph seekers crowding around holding out their programs and pens while the GDToday staff were trying to move us along to the bus | Fun scene

Rushed onto the bus, we bid farewell to our new friends from GDToday |

Parting shot | and one last photo with the placards |

Farewell and thanks so much for making my visit to Guangdong such a wonderful and memorable adventure | So nice meeting you all and hoping to meet you again some where, some time .... Zai Jian