Week 7

Week 7: Cultural Blog

05/04/12

This week China celebrated an annual holiday known as ‘Tomb’s sweeping day’.  During this holiday families return to their hometown and they sweep the tombs of their dead ancestors.  This basically means that they tend to the graves of their ancestors, lay flowers and food for them.  Chinese tradition believes that by doing this act for your ancestors you will be blessed and looked after by your dead ancestors who they believe are watching over them.  

This holiday meant that we got three days off university because all of our lecturers and classmates returned home.  However we had to make up the hours we were missing because of the holiday and we were in university all day on Saturday. 

After working hard all weekend we made the most of our three days off and visited some of the places we still had on our ‘to do’ list.  With our American friend Brad we went to ‘Chimelong Zoo’ and spent a whole day exploring the native animals of China and of course animals that we had all seen before. 

This week we also visited one of the biggest markets in Guangzhou.  Kate a girl we met from London took us to the market and gave us a quick ‘pep talk’ before entering.  We were warned of being pushed, poked and pulled by every stall seller in the market who would try and sell us every item they had.  She also said it would be very overcrowded and very dirty.  Kate was right about all of these things.  I actually enjoyed the market as it was so different to my shopping experiences at home.  I found it fascinating to see the diverse families and people that work at these stalls.  For many of them it is their only way of income for their family.  It was a stark reminder of the poverty that is very evident all around this city.  After the market trip Kate invited us back to her flat.  We were surprised to find the most incredible view of the city from the top of Kate’s building. She has her own private rooftop that overlooks all of Guangzhou.  It was absolutely beautiful.  We relaxed here for hours in the quietness and calm away from the buzzing city life.

We had been warned about one of the metro stations in Guangzhou and told to avoid it if at all possible.  This week we had to make a stop off at this station and it definitely was the worst place I have been in China so far. I have never been in a crowd filled with so many people before.  The four of us all held onto each other and had to battle our way through the crowd to get to our exit.  This is something that I know I will not miss about China.  I am looking forward to being back in Northern Ireland and travelling around without thousands of people constantly surrounding you

Guangzhou Railway Station – The worst place in Guangzhou!

Exploring more of Guangzhou this week has enabled us to laugh at many more of the funny ‘Chinglish’ expressions that we see on signposts.  ‘Chinglish’ is a real term that many Chinese people use to describe their way of speaking English.  It is basically the literal translation of Mandarin into English.

  

‘Don’t hurt me for your pretty’.  One of the funny ‘Chinglish’ signs around Guangzhou.