Guangdong province – Page 4

In search of…a pool

It is pretty hot here in China. Much like the southern part of Florida. Very warm with high humidity. I run in the morning and still walk outside during the day but works love a pool.

I do miss the infinity pool at my last apartment. It is open but I moved because I wanted more space. The pool at my new place probably will not open as there are many kids. But since school is still in session for Chinese schools they may be waiting to fill the pool. Covid-19 had changed many things.

There are a few places to go and some tours to get to water. I took a tour with global friendship to a water area outside of the city.. it was a fun tour with people I know and others I have not met before.

Gulao water village

The water village is still in Guangdong province but outside the city. The ponds used for fish and the planting fields have been relatively unchanged since the Ming dynasty.

We then took a short bus ride to the restaurant that had the most awesome fish hot pot.

There are three varieties of fish we cooked in the hot pot.

Yes that is a chicken head. I didn’t eat it but the person next to me did.

We then went to a water hole but the locals were not very friendly at letting us in the water. They had us go further downstream. My friend is Chinese and was very upset that she heard then say we were bringing the virus to their village. We have all been tested before traveling (again!). It gets really upsetting.

Some images of butterflies and dragonflies…

I also went to my friend’s Trisha and Dan in Huadu. They were very generous to invite Morgana and I up to visit. I went up to enjoy their company, swim in their pool, eat dinner and then brunch, and watch a movie. I also went for a run in their much larger complex, finishing the RunOBX 300 mile run challenge with a 7k run.

Just outside the fence of Mulian residence complex is how some rural Chinese live.

The pool was lovely but even lovelier with the company.

It is blistering hot right now. 30C in the early morning and 40C in the afternoon. That is with high humidity.

Cycling rural Zencheng countryside and the eclipse

I took a tour with Cycle Canton to escape the city (after all I need to get out of this city of 17 million and get to nature). We cycled through the beauty of rural Zengcheng district and celebrated the arrival of lychee season in the countryside.

We traveled 2 hours by bus before assembling where they had the bikes. There was a Taoist temple there and snacks and water. It is supposedly bad luck to take a picture of the Temple. How could this year be any worse?

I took the shorter of the 2 bike rides for a total of 23 km. We stopped often as it was very hot and we needed to drink water and allow others to catch up.

We passed through lychee, banana, and papaya orchards as well as gardens.

Scarecrows to keep the birds off the lychee trees.

We passed through several villages. At one, there was an old factory that had a chimney. A banyan tree started growing at the top and it was considered bad luck to remove it. When the factory was abandoned the village decided to keep the chimney as the tree was growing roots through it to the ground.

Another had an old building that was used to protect the village before China was unified into a republic and warlords protected each village.

We had snacks of hard boiled eggs, sweet potatoes, cherry tomatoes, and fruits (enough for a lunch) in a village before finishing and ending up at the lake.

This is the largest village. The buildings are so small compared to downtown GZ.

Unfortunately I have no pictures of the lake as we were so hot we spent the whole time just standing in the water. During that time, we were about to see the solar eclipse. It was not as easy to see as it was very cloudy out but I was still able to get some good pictures.

It was also lychee picking season. This area is renowned for it’s lychees. We enjoyed them at every stop.

A very tired day and slept on the bus ride home. It was nice to get a different exercise besides running and walking.

Mt. Danxia

I took a trip with Pacha Mama over the weekend. They always find great hiking trips. This trip was to a geopark in the province that is made of red sandstone. With erosion over the centuries, it has created a variety of landforms.

Mount Danxia is about 1 hour high speed train to Shaoguan and another hour or so drive from Guangzhou. That drive takes you to a very different place in China. It is one of the two UNESCO heritage sites in Guangdong province. The draw of this place for the Chinese is the two rock formations that resemble male and female anatomy.

Mount Danxia was beautiful with s variety of trails all with amazing views. There were narrow paths along steep cliffs.

After traveling there and eating a yummy lunch we took a boat ride through the park.

The hike was pretty spectacular with steep, wet stairs. This was to be a sunset hike but impending rain changed our plans.

This is the rocks we need to climb. A series of steep stairs wind around and up this. Our destination is the pagoda at the top.

This rock resembles a male organ. Yangyuanshi is known as the male stone.

Morgana and I. The whole thing is pretty ridiculous, right?

If you look closely you can see the pathway we had to climb.

After making our way up the stairs along the cliff, we were now at the top.

The next morning were supposed to have a sunrise hike but they had closed the opening of the park until 8 due to rain. It didn’t rain though.

I found this guy at the entrance to the cable cars which we used to get to the top and then go down the other side. We were originally to climb the mountain but lost time when that hike was cancelled.

Grotto temple built during the Ming Dynasty. It was abandoned when China became PRC.

A few more stairs again to the pavilion at the top.

Then we had to go back down the stairs that were very narrow and steep.

Biechuan Temple

Walking back towards the entrance.

Xianglonghu lake means flying dragon. It refers to the shadows of the lake when flying overhead as it resembles a dragon. Here we saw children feeding the fish.

The female rock is called Yinyuanshi.

We stayed at a quaint little hotel in the base of the park. Our was a great weekend with people from all over the world.