Whirlwind Travels! (this is gonna be a long on...) (Part 1: China)

Nimon Hao!
     So my goal was to get out of he coal of Luoyang and into anywhere warmer.  My first stop was the island of Hainan and the cities of Haikou and Sanya:

Day 1, Haikou:

As I wondered the Streets of Haikou, I Came across this entrance to a the city park

I'm not really sure how they manage to keep these trees from destroying the tiled patio, bu they sure blend well

Nothing says "Sunday in the Park" like ballroom dancing lessons... Walk-ups welcome...

Or maybe you'd rather be an eighty year old man dangling from a tree...

Haikou park has gone through many stages of landscaping .

"I wonder where this path might lead... oh just the bathroom..."

These Luchador statues are everywhere in the park, not really sure why... I mean besides their awesome-ness

How about some Karaoke in the park? run off of five car batteries strung together, I'm sure it's completely safe... Is that rain I feel?

Being a culture with over 3000 years of contiguous history it is hard NOT to find ruins everywhere, I ran into these while trying to find my way back out of the park.

There's been some repair, but these things are clearly very old.

That's not a hat... that's his massive melon, he was so wise that his head couldn't contain it all.  and he really loves onions, not sure the connection but I'm sure it's there somewhere.

Heck, the Monkey king loved his onions too, soooooo... yeah... go onions!?!

I'm not sure if this landscaping is on purpose, but I thought it looked damn cool.

AN EXIT!... a different exit... now I'm lost again...

Huh... I'm not sure you could find this much unoccupied grass on a day l8iek this in the states... Granted in America you rarely see the police chasing kids off of the grass...

This market street seems ripe for a series of comedic slips into the aqueduct, but maybe that's just my American sensibilities.  I mean what could a hand rail really cost here?

This unused soccer football stadium seems like a waste of space, Until you see the 300 bulk candy dealers setting up shop across from the impromptu flea market.

Millennium bridge.. and Haikou bay... and some driving range...

Did I mention that I came to Hainan for the sun and the heat... well it is warmer than Luoyang.

Even the locals think it's to cold to fish...

These aqueducts cut across most of Haikou, which meant that following one to get back to the hotel was actually a pretty stupid idea.

Giant human sized Chess anyone?

Day 2, Sanya:

China is rapidly connecting it's larger and more desirable cities with high speed trains, Including Haikou and Sanya.    (you can actually take a fast train from Beijing all the way to Sanya)

You can do your own math... but it's pretty darn quick.

It may look like this building fell over, but the guy on the train next o me swore it didn't...

He was less convincing on the next three buildings that clearly just leaned too far...

It's tough to take a picture at 250 km/hr, but the farmland we passed was actually very beautiful.

Many of the small farmer villages are directly next to the rails... I have to assume that the super fast trains can get a little annoying

I can only assume that this is not the "mud farm" it looks like...

A "Fellow Traveler"... get it?

I'm not sure what's being grown under the black tarps, but there were a ton of these along the way.

Sanya Station looks like it's made of bamboo, but it's not.

This is Phoenix Island, it's not finished yet, but they bill themselves as "The Next Sandals"... I'm not really sure that this a is a very intelligent approach.

The Bridge to the next Sandals... don't go making any wrong turns...

One of the more "Public" beaches, it stretches a pretty good length of Sanya, and not a single person was actually swimming... way to cold.

I'm not sure who this was for, but a relatively large family was burning paper "money" at a shrine for one of their family members.

Days 3 & 4, Guangzhou:

Guangzhou really offers some beautiful street views... lots of them... this is a HUGE city

Yummy... unknown steamed bamboo filled thing... Surprisingly tasty

This private park (which I discovered was private when I was yelled at by an old lady [who can be notoriously mean in this country] and then escorted out by security) is connected to the Pearl River Walk, nto as impressive as the Bund in Shanghai, but slightly more impressive than Luopou park in Luoyang.

Her is where the river walk meet Riverside Hotel

Some nice views along the river, but wait till you see it at night.

At first glance I thought I was coming upon a play ground, on second glimpse I realized that i was only half right.  It's actually a workout center/meeting area.  Many of the machines resemble weight and endurance machines you might find at your local gym in the States.

I find the number of man-made and man-reinforced islands in China to be surprisingly large.  This one doubles as a city park and a residential area.

Finally my first nearly blue sky...

...painted on the bottom of a bridge overpass...

Safety First... I mean this is the first sign of safe road crossing I've seen in China...

I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of this float might be, but I'm sure curious.

Every park in the country is probably going through this same transformation, Spring Festival is just around the corner.

This parking garage was constructed during the height of the Cold War, your Great Wall Voleex (a Chinese car) could survive a direct nuclear strike... in truth I have no idea why this garage has such imposing doors (they look a little like the door that opens at the beginning of the first Tron movie...sorry)

More burning of paper "money" for one's ancestors, this time in the middle of the sidewalk.

Guangzhou's only German restuarant... Don't judge me I needed a western beer.

A big one...

And it would have been rude to just drink and run...

I told you the night on the Pearl river was impressive.

Like the Bund you can take a dinner cruise to view the river side.

Not Green Bay fans... Many Guangzhou companies us the "Big G" in their logo.

The lighting on this bridge cycled through many colors, I loved the way it reflected off of the river.

Where we might put parking or storage, the Chinese put a workout area...

...and some badminton courts.

Wondering under overpasses here in China is way nicer than anywhere else I've been.

Beijing Lu; This is what you get when the Sixteenth Street mall mates with Michigan Ave.

This is a memorial to all of the fallen communist revolutionaries from Guangdong Provence. A very understated and pleasant memorial.

Cool... do you see it?

February 3rd will usher in the year of the rabbit... not the year of the freakishly red carrot...

The Sun Yat-Sen Memorial.  If you don't know who Dr. Sun was... SHAME ON YOU! (unless of course you just had a poor history teacher... then... SHAME ON THEM!

The Ming wall... not as impressive as the Great wall, but still really old and the roots of the trees are pretty cool. (No Climbing)

The Five Goat statue, very famous in Guangzhou. These five goats brought five immortals to the land to settle in this area and allow the development of the Canton people... or at least that's the story the one guy near the statue who spoke English told me... so do with that what you will.

The Asia Games where held in Guangzhou in this last November, these goats were the mascots... notice that there are five (wink, wink, nudge, nudge...)

The architecture in China is always fun to look at.

Here's My luxurious room...

This window can be opened, but all you can see is the hallway... the interior hallway...

So this concludes the China portion of my vacation... but don't despair, I've taken so many photos that I didn't want to overload one blog.  My nest post will cover my Thai vacation, so stay tuned.

Zaijian