Adam and I had decided from the beginning of our time here that we wanted to spend Chinese New Year (or Spring Festival as they call it here) in China. Up until a few weeks ago everyone agreed…you have to do it once. However lately people (Chinese and foreign) have given us a look of confusion and said Oh…OK. They mention how loud and crazy it can be, how many people there are all over the place and how we should stay at home. However we were determined to truly experience this holiday. We decided last week to go to Guangzhou (the 3rd biggest city in China and only 2 hours away) for 3 days. We figured this would be great because we wouldn’t have to take a bus or cross the border during this time of the great migration. Our driver will take us to the hotel and pick us up after our little holiday. We only need to use public transportation for very short distances. Before we left we decided that if it was truly crazy (where I was getting knocked around or bumped too much we would happily have a relaxing couple days with some great meals).
We really couldn’t get a straight answer about what we should do or where we should go or what to expect. The thing about Chinese people is they don’t want to give you false information, they don’t want to say “I don’t know” and they don’t want to say anything that would make you unhappy. Meanwhile I would love it if someone would tell me taxi drivers are going to charge you 100 RMB just to get in or last year lots of people got hurt because of the crowds or whatever would help us plan better. We really couldn’t get information off the internet because the best info is all in Chinese. Our best resource was a coworker of Adam’s who lives in Guangzhou. He gave us a few of the best areas to stay in and Adam ran the plan by him to make sure things would be open or if he had other suggestions for us. I retired from my trip planning after Australia…at least for now. So I handed my travel books and my favorite website over to my husband, who really got to see how hard it is to plan a trip where information is in a different language and you don’t really know the area. He got to see how hard it is to find a place on the map when you don’t have any idea where to look. He got to see how hard it is to decide which hotel to stay in (the close one, the cheaper one, the chain you know…it’s a craps shoot!).
We are staying at the Holiday Inn…after Japan I decided that it was just easier to stay in a Holiday Inn…they are usually conveniently located, their standards are basically the same anywhere you go and we collect points. The only reason I will choose something else is if we are going to a resort area (Bali) then I like to stay in a local chain resort (chains to me say people liked the first one so they were able to afford to build another).
ANYWAY we have been looking forward to this experience since we moved here a couple weeks after the holiday last year. I can’t wait to document this trip!
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