Guangzhou

This cool city is the capital of Canton. Now I expose my judgementalism and ignorance: driving through it when we first started our trip, weeks back, all one could see from the train was rise after rise of skyscraping apartment blocks, motorway, grey urban jungle with the odd grubby tea garden nestled into the concrete. I firmly decided not to visit it. But when my plans to head to Macau were vetoed, I decided to go up with Lemon and stay a couple of nights.
How I should have known that the capital of China's most affluent province (a province which has been trading with the world for centuries and in may ways represents China abroad) would be a haven of cosmopolitan, forward-thinking, on-to-it, bustling, interesting stuff! I spent a day shopping in the infamous Zhuang Yuan Markets.
These markets are not unlike being on the London Tube, at rush hour, on 'free tube' day, during the London Olympics and Fashion Centennial Fesival. The street is little wider than an alley, and even skinnier little covered alleys branch off left and right. Each of the branches hosts tiny - and I mean TINY - shops, about a quater the size of the interior of those coffee carts in Wellington. Each packed with wares. And the shoe shops had teeny stools to try on shoes upon. The shop, or rather booth, was just big enough to fit one person and the seller, very cosily. Or two good friends and the seller very akwardly. There were about fifty or more shops per branch, and perhaps a hundred branches. And every kind of thing.
The excellent thing about Guangzhou, is that (as should have been obvious to me) they have been accustomed to foro's for centuries, so no one stared! It was such a relief, it was like a holiday. Except one little girl said 'look, handsome foreigner' as she passed [translated by Lemon], but her mum tugged her away, quite rightly I suppose.