A Day In The Life Of…

I had the pleasure of being invited to a quaint little island in Guangzhou, by one of my close friends here.  She grew up on this island (otherwise known as Changzhou or 長洲) and was headed back there for the 15th day of Chinese New Year celebrations.  It was my first time heading to such a remote place in Guangzhou.  The bus ride that took us to the port eventually ended up on this long dirt road, and the sights along the way started becoming more and more rural.  There were more run down houses and factories than there were people. 

We finally arrived at the Xinzhou Pier (新洲碼頭) where we were to board a ferry to cross over to Changzhou.  We ended up missing the ferry by a couple of minutes, so instead of waiting a half an hour for the next one, we took a little junk boat instead.  It worked out well because it was 10RMB for the junk boat and we were able to round up 7 people, so the cost was minimal. 

After the 5-7 minute ferry ride, we finally arrived at Changzhou.  It was quite different from what I had imagined.  I thought it would be a pure Cantonese place with lots of retirees, but in reality, Changzhou is home to a great deal of migrant workers who work in the factories there.  I guess it makes sense, since Changzhou offers much cheaper living expenses compared to other parts of Guangzhou.

We decided to walk to around the island instead of taking a taxi.  When we arrived at my friend’s aunt’s house, we were welcomed with a traditional Chaozhou tea.  She made the tea by mashing up tea leaves and placing them into a huge bowl, before adding boiling water to it.  Then, she’d pour the tea into little bowls before adding sesame, peanuts and rice crackers to the bowl.  It was delicious and a very interesting mixture of flavours that I hadn’t tried before.

After the tea, we decided to go out for a walk before supper.  We walked through a nice little park and then made our way out to the promenade next to the water.  It was gorgeous watching the sunset on the water.  Along the way, my friend pointed out all the different places she’s lived in on the island.  It was really neat getting to see how she grew up.  It is so far removed from how I grew up that it was a bit difficult to imagine that we lead similar lives now.

On a side note, a few months earlier during my first Mid-Autumn Festival in China, one of my students had brought me some Chaozhou style moon cakes.  Prior to moving to Guangzhou, I knew very little about Chaozhou, but the Chaozhou population is very high in Guangzhou and I was able to be exposed to much more of the Chaozhou culture.