2025-01 Happy New Years

Happy New Years

Everyone, have you completed your last year’s resolutions, and have you made new ones? Mine have been the same for several years. Diao made reservation for a New Year Jazz concert hosted in Guangdong Museum. This is our first concert together, however we are not into modern jazz. I probably undertood the fifth chapter, “Lack of martial ethics”.

I’m going home to Shenyang for Chinese New Year. Before I left, Diao, White and I collaborated on a Fu character. We sticked the work upside down outside our door.

Baiyunhu Park

In the first weekend of the year, we went to Baiyunhu (or Baiyun Lake) Park to see plum blossom. It is a large park, which is splitted into east lake and west lake by the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway. We may have seen this place as we were taking the train. Also, I would pass through the park as I returned from Shenyang on a train after the holiday.

The plum blossom are concentrated in a small slop. Even though there are not that many flower admirers, the few plum trees are surrounded by a crowd. Plum blossom is a small kind of flower. You’ll have to be close to enjoy its delicacy. From a distance, it’s just a blur of pink, bees dancing in the air, and people posing for pictures.

Outside the park, the newly constructed communities are not delivered yet, and the metal name tags of a new industrial park are still covered by red silk. Compared to the parks inside the city, this one seems coarse. It’s a sunny day. People are sleeping on the lawn here and there, and sometimes I can hear snoring. Some are sleeping with family or friends, and some come alone to take a nap. Of course, we lay down and enjoyed a short sleep as well.

Dagang Village

It was already dusk when we walked out of the park and entered Dagang village in Shijing. Almost without exception, you can find at least one clothing factory or workshop in any village in Guangzhou. This village seems to focus on dealing old inventory. I saw a grilling restaurant named “254 BBQ”. As I was wondering if it was named after some old factory, I saw the bus stop board of line “254”. Nevertheless, there are indeed a former Arsenal of Guangdong.

Guoqiang Restaurant

This is the first time we visit a restaurant following a vlogger.

Guoqiang Restaurant is located on Fengyuan street. Guangzhou old timers are really good at naming streets. We have been to this street every time that we went to Xiguan or Hualin temple, but we just never stayed. We ordered fried rice noodle with beef and sanxing (beef offal) soup as recommended.

Liwanhu Park

After the meal we walked in Liwanhu (Liwan Lake) Park. We were lucky to catch a Guangdong opera at Lizhiwan Opera Stage. It was close to the Chinese New Year so the little house of dragon-boat club was used for vendors writing new year couplets (chunlian).

Dayou Restaurant

This is the second time we visit a restaurant following a vlogger.

We crossed over a busy market and found the Dayou restaurant. It is located in a busy little alley. There were a lot of people in the restaurant, some of which looked like coming from this neighbour and some of which were young folks coming for its booming fame. There was a line waiting for changfen (steamed rice flour roll), so we went to the place next door for changfen after we finished some dim sum. We were the only customers here. The owner was so laid-back that he enjoyed a cup of coffee sitting in front of his shop and watching his awfully busy neighbour business.

There are some downvotes stating that the service of Dayou is bad. I think they are just too busy to be amicable to everyone. We happened to pass by here again after we had our stroll. The changfen line was shortened to only few people so we tried it. The auntie in the shop saw us and asked “have you just ate here just then”? And she brought us a pot of tea.

Villages: Dashi, Dawei, and Huijiang

The villages in Panyu are not suitable to be called as “urban villages” any more. Most places of Panyu doesn’t feel like a typical “urban” area. The villages here are just natural villages on the outskirts of Guangzhou.

There is a small hill called “Guan Di Gang”, and certainly there is a “Guan Di” temple on the hill. “Guan Di” is the deified version of Guan Yu. The temple is just a shack built with metal sheet. Someone has just finished her ritual when we came. We went down the hill and had an extra meal of changfen in Dayou, and then followed the waterway through Dawei village to the subway station at Huijiang village. The elevator testing tower of Hitachi seems like the Canton Tower of Panyu, which can be spotted from various perspectives along the way.