Tombs and Towers: A Day in Guangzhou
June 29, 2015
By Sarah Ann
We stayed two nights in Guangzhou in a super fancy hotel. It
was the fanciest hotel I’ve ever stayed in. The breakfast at the hotel was
awesome. It was a really yummy all-you-can eat buffet.
After eating breakfast, we went to a museum called The Tomb
of the Nanyue King. The Nanyue King was an emperor – or really a king – of the
area that is now the Guangdong province in southern China who lived two
thousand years ago. They discovered his tomb deep in the hillside in what is
now Guangzhou and we got to go down inside it. They buried food and cooking
materials with him in case he got hungry after he died. They also buried
fifteen people with him who drank poison when he died so they could be buried
there too (they didn’t have a choice about drinking the poison). We got to see
the remains of one of his four concubines - it was only dust. They think one of
the reasons he may have died is because there were these stones they would
grind up and drink because they thought drinking them would make you live
forever. But actually one of them was poisonous.
Inside the tomb of the Nanyue King
After a lunch break, we went to the Chen Clan Ancestral
Hall. It was a place the Chen family, a rich family in the area, built to honor
their ancestors. The buildings were really colorful with carvings of animals on
the roofs, especially bats because they mean good fortune. While we were
waiting for my dad there (he gave a lecture at a university), us kids played
hide and seek. Christian had a really good hiding spot. I had a hiding spot and
Christian looked right at me and didn’t find me.
Rachel and my mom in front of the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall
Here’s my hiding spot
The third stop was a Buddhist temple called The Temple of
the Six Banyon Trees. It was only the second Buddhist temple my dad had been
to, but we’ve been to lots. We also made a quick stop of the Sun Yesten
Memorial Hall. We saw where he was buried in Nanjing too.
Next, we went to dinner. The type of dinner we ate is famous
in this area of China. It’s called dim sum, which actually means desserts.
Instead of brining big dishes, they brought out tons of really small dishes. I
loved the fried milk and this fried bread that you dipped in something that
tasted like icing. There was something our host called blueberry jello (but it
wasn’t really jello), shrimp dumplings, this pumpkin jello-like stuff,
meatballs, bitter melon (it was REALLY bitter), rice, and lots of other things.
We thought it was the best food we’ve had yet in China. We were stuffed afterwards
but they told us with that type of food, we would get hungry soon. But we
didn’t.
Then we went to see the Guangzhou tower in the downtown part
of the city. Because it was night time, it was all lit up with lots of
different changing colors. On the ground there were also lots of colorful
lights. First Christian wanted to play follow the leaders where we jumped on
the lights. Then he wanted to play tag but he cried when I tagged him.
In front of the Guangzhou tower (sometimes called the Canton
tower)
Because it was late, we went home after that and I got to
take a bath in the best bathtub ever. There was shampoo, conditioner, lotion,
and bath gel. I haven’t had conditioner anywhere else in China and that was the
first place in China I could take a bath (instead of just a shower).
I'm guessing that your hosts are paying for the hotels where you stay? It sounds like you guys are really receiving the royal treatment. Just don't drink any water that has ground up stones in it!
ReplyDeleteWhy were those fifteen people buried with him too? I agree with your grandma, you really have to be careful what you drink abroad. Also, your grandpa huber had a bat inside his laboratory building today. They had to call vector control but the bat was safely tucked away when they arrived, they think it's above the ventilation unit
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