Our surroundings (Thursday, Oct 14)

We are living on the tiny island of Shamian in Guangzhou, a city of 13 million. The smog is so thick you can taste it. I had a glimpse of the sun on the morning of Gotcha Day but haven’t seen it since. The big city of Guangzhou is hazy from every angle. The White Swan is very nice and a great home base: the lobby has a 3-story waterfall, lovely jade statutes, and a huge cage full of birds (green – love birds, I think). Our room is quite comfortable although we are all getting a little tired of it. Nearby the hotel we can wander through shops and talk with people who are very interested in Emerson – lots of questions and a simple thumbs-up from those who don’t speak English. The little streets are lined with trees and there are lots of butterflies. The architecture reminds us a little of New Orleans and there are many parks where we find people playing badminton. I hear they full of thai chi groups in the morning, but we haven’t been out early yet. A local Trade Convention (Trade Days) has started so the area is getting crowded.
The island is made by the Pearl River and another river (will get the name right later) and is easily walkable. The hotel is right on the water so we can watch boats pass by – some industrial and some flowery tourist boats (literally – decorated like flowers). Sometimes people swim by and every now and then we see a bather. It’s also very beautiful at night with lights that line the rivers and one bridge that changes colors, but we haven’t been out very late either.
The humidity is pretty rough. When we walk around, both Brian and Emerson sweat buckets.

Last night we had a group dinner at the Cow & Bridge (or Bridge and Cow), a delicious Thai restaurant. We’ve had many meals at Lucy’s because it’s close and familiar: lots of American choices.