On the Road to Zhongshan

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Right after breakfast, we meet at 11AM to meet the bus to take us to lunch.  Yes, food right after food.  The one funny thing that happened this morning was the fact that we now simply had too much luggage to fit under the bus.  The entire back row of seating had to be used as luggage storage, and we managed to fill it nearly up to the ceiling.  We end up at the same restaurant that we went to for lunch yesterday.  I wasn’t hungry in the least, so I eat some green veggies and go across the street to pick up iced coffees and custard tarts at Kentucky Fried Chicken for people.  The KFCs have far fuller menus than the ones back in the States.  You have rice bowls, bentos boxes, milk tea, and even iced lattes that some with soft serve ice cream, not whipped cream.  Everyone was elated to have some food that wasn’t exactly the same as the day before.  Banquets seem luxurious for the first few meals, but after a while, you want something different, yet simple.

Vegetarians are few and far between in China.  All of the banquet meals we have been extremely heavy on meat and seafood with no rice and few purely vegetable-based dishes.  I already had a preconception that vegetarians would find it extremely hard to stay properly nourished in the Mainland, and each banquet has proven the case to be true just a little bit more.  Perhaps there are actually more choices than meets the eye, but since we don’t get to wander on our own with the packed schedule of appearances most days, I will have to stick to my preconception until proven otherwise.  Vegetarianism is far more prevalent in Taiwan because freedom of religion is allowed, and Buddhism mixed with Taoism and Confucianism is the most popular religion deeply rooted in Taiwanese culture.  Many Buddhists practice vegetarianism based on the principle of not harming other living creatures and less so for the health benefits; though, in recent years, there has been a rise of vegetarianism based on its health benefits.  It has become so popular that New York’s Chinatown sports an all Taiwanese vegetarian market at Hester and Centre called May Hwa.  You can check out my interview with one of the managers in Spring/Summer 2011 edition of Asian Fusion Magazine.

As we board the plane to Guanzhou, there are free newspapers at the cabin door, but I don’t really pay attention to them.  As I am ambling towards my seat, one of the staffers is holding up one of the covers of the periodicals featuring Angela Gao (Contestant #8).  There isn’t an article in between the covers, but it’s still really great to see.  Another cover that William Yip is holding up features the whole group with a little paragraph, but again, nothing between the pages resembling an article.  The final article I see is a full one-page spread with Jasmine Hayter’s (#14) full length photo and a headshot of Angela’s (#8).  The other passengers start piecing the puzzle together and start trying to match the girls to their photos in the periodicals.  This is just the beginning of their flirtation at being celebrities.

The bus ride from the Guanzhou airport is about an hour and a half.  The thunderstorms in the area that had delayed our flight cooled the temps to 79ºF, but the evaporation has contributed greatly to the humidity.  Zhongshan, renamed in honor of the father of modern republican China Sun Yat Sen (hanyu pinyin: Sun Zhong Shan), is in the southeastern part of China in the Guangdong province where Cantonese is the prevalent dialect aside – more so than Mandarin.  We are getting that much closer to Macau and Hong Kong!  As we roll into town, the city is lit up like a Christmas tree. 

One of the girls mentioned that Zhongshan is known for its LED (light emitting diode) industry, and as we pull into town, she was completely right.  The Zhongshan International Hotel was built in 1988 – as I found out from the commemorative sculpture fountain in the lobby, so some of the “amenities” are outdated, but the internet seems well faster than any of the other hotels we’ve been staying in so far.  Oh, and there is a 7Eleven just across the street.  We’re actually in a city center!  Tomorrow, corporate appearances and a fancy welcome dinner!