Guangzhou's Shamian 沙面 District

I got off the metro at the Huangsha station, which is the closest station to the area I wanted to go, Shamian 沙面. Shamian is an "island" (connected to city by very very short bridges) in the southwestern part of Guangzhou. I promptly got myself lost in a back street before finding my destination, but that back street was lovely. I felt the life of Guangzhou was in this back street.


Shamian was once the foreign concession for Guangzhou and hence, the buildings, the layout and the greenery were all of colonial design. I found it to be a feast for the eyes amidst the drab Chinese architecture I was so accustomed to. The hostel rate here, as I expected, was far more reasonable at RMB $50 per night. Once I had checked in and met several of my roommates (from Australia and Canada), I set off to explore Shamian.


Just on the main street around the corner, the finishing touches were being placed on a Starbucks. Painters were lacquering the outdoor wooden flooring as people inside were setting up the displays. As I continued along the street, I noticed a Blenz coffee, which I later found out was a Canadian coffee company. I decided to go in to explore. The interior was beautifully done in the colonial style. Two computers were set up for internet access and foreign travelers were stopping in to update their blogger or do whatever. A loud crowd of youngsters were talking in the back corner. I sat down to read the various local magazines on the racks, one of which was called "That's PRD (Pearl River Delta)" and provided a lot of useful information about the goings-ons in Guangzhou.


I continued on with my walk and admired the buildings, most of which had plaques which explained their original function (i.e. Japanese bank, Indian consulate, etc.)

As night fell, I stopped in a restaurant called Lucy's. An NBA game was playing on a large flat-screen and customers were being served VERY American fare: steak and french-fries and the like. But that wasn't what made being at Lucy's a completely surreal experience. On my walk around Shamian, I had noticed half a dozen "laowai", "haole", Caucasian parents carrying Chinese babies, or pushing them along the street in strollers. Here in Lucy's, every seat was occupied by caucasian (particularly American-looking) parents, uncles, aunts, kids, together with a Chinese baby in a high chair. They weren't all there together as a group either, it was just a random coming together of 50 people with the same purpose, adopting a baby from China. I felt like I was in the twilight zone.

My next post covers this topic a little further.