HISTORICAL VISIT & WALK AROUND GUANGZHOU

Guangzhou is the historical name of what the Europeans called Canton.  Today we visited a couple of historical areas of the city.  First we went to Chen Jia Ci also know as the Chen Family Temple.  It's name is temple even thought it never was used as one.  When built in the late 1800's, it was a school and later after the 1949 Revolution it was confiscated and used as a warehouse.

The stone carving is spectacular and it's rather impressive how the colors have held up.  Inside there are many artifacts some historical and some rather new.  I get the impression that many of the ancient historical structures and items have been lost or destroyed during the struggles of the 20th Century.

For lunch we traveled to Shamian Island an area that was developed as a European enclave, hence the architecture is very much a classical representation of Europe in the 1800's.  We enjoyed lunch at Lucy's on the shores of the Pearl River.  Food types at Lucy's are mixed, Norene and I had Thai dishes, Brad had a currie dish and the girls had pizza, a quesadilla and french fries.  An interesting note on the pizza, the sauce was ketchup!  But that didn't phase Hannah, she ate most of it.

After lunch we spent some time walking around the island and visiting some of the shops.  Norene found a fan that pleased her, but did not find the silk umbrella for which she has been searching.  We saw several photographers with models donning clothes for some fashion catalogue.  Whilee we were melting in the heat, they looked cool, calm and collected while dressed in leather coats, fur coats, etc.

Everywhere we go, Hannah and her blond hair catch peoples eyes and turn their heads.  Today we were taking a rest from the heat when a couple of girls spotted Hannah and began taking pictures.  After just a few minutes there were a dozen people taking her photo.  Hannah, ever the ham started posing like the models that were doing the nearby photo shoot.

Taking a break from the heat we took refuge in a Starbucks.  Not your normal Starbucks,, but in a very  old restored building.  

Tonight the kids are all going to dinner with their Facebook group while Norene and I are going to a Cantonese Restaurant.  We hope to have some good reports from the dinner tonight.  Talk at you later, Rodg and Norene