Downtown Guiyang

Friday was a holiday for us, so we left that morning for a supposedly 3-day weekend. We took a bus to Shenzhen, which is the large town just across the border from Hong Kong, then flew from Shenzhen to Guiyang, about an hour and 45min flight. As the flight was now a domestic one, it was cheaper than just flying from Hong Kong to Guiyang, but the trip in total also took longer. Always a time versus money debate! 

We got to Guiyang about 3pm, so the first stop was to our hotel, the Hyatt. Luckily, Luke our friend and travel buddy works for the Hyatt, so we got a great discount on the room. That evening, the hotel was hosting a wedding, so we saw these balloon bride and groom being escorted down the hallway. Hilarious!

Guiyang is separated into two main sections. There is the old section, where everybody lives, goes out, etc. There is also a new section where our hotel was, which was literally a ghost town with 20 new skyscrapers all being built at the same time. Apparently one super rich Chinese guy was funding ALL of the projects, betting that the city (which already has about 3 million people in it, compared to the entire population of Colorado which is 5 million) would take off and become a megatropolis. Wow. After we got settled in, we took a taxi to the old part of town to find a restaurant that served the infamous Suan Tang Yu, or Sour Fish Soup. We found a place, and told then the dish we wanted, but then I had a tough time communicating what ingredients I wanted, specifically, which veggies, what kind of fish etc. One cute waitress was very patient with me, and she eventually took me back to the kitchen and showed me these buckets of fish, letting me pick the one I wanted. In the end, it all worked out and the result was delicious! It was super fun finally getting to really use my Mandarin, but it was very obvious how much more I need to learn! 

Also at dinner, we had to try the Mi Jiu, or plum rice wine. It was actually incredibly delicious. I would certainly have it again! BUt at 17% ABV, one had to be careful! Eventually we switched to ice cold Snow beer, which hit the spot as we were trying to calm down our fired up taste buds. 

After dinner, we walked around the downtown area, to get a feel for the area. One street was full of street food, including this stand grilling kabobs. Don't they look delicious? And the meat is recognizable! That's a feat in China. 

There were also lots of small restaurants who serve people on plastic tables out on the sidewalk. Fine dining at it's best! But I bet the food is as good as what you can get at any fancy restaurant. 

Then we walked to the river which goes through the middle of the old town. There was a very quant river walk, which was very nice to walk along. Reminded me a lot of the Cherry Creek or Platt River Trail, except maybe the river was a bit bigger :)

You can see there is a cool mix of high rises with older architecture mixed in. Also, along the river there were these picnic pavilions, roughly 5 of them, every 100 feet. That night, every pavilion was packed with a group of old men, singing their hearts out to karaoke. It was so interesting, because the non-singers weren't socializing or drinking, but were sitting down listening intently to the singer. They were so serious about it! And to top it off, they were terrible! I bet there was 200 men in those pavilions singing/listening to karaoke that night!

Also along this river walk was an old building called the Jiaxiu Tower, or First Scholar's Tower. It was built in 1598, as an inspiration for the scholars studying for the national exam in China. Remember, proving academic excellence back then was a way to raise the social standing of your entire family. Apparently this building so inspired the scholars, that for three consecutive years after it was built, the province of Guizhou (of which Guiyang is the capital) produced the scholar with the top score for all of China! Also, notice the full moon. We just had the mid-autumn festival, which is always held on a full moon in the fall.