A Travellerspoint blog

12 hours to kill

So, I arrived in Guangzhou at 5 am, and my flight to Chongqing wasn't until 6.50 pm, so what to do? A few days before leaving for Tibet, I realized this error in my judgement, so in preparation for the hours in Guangzhou I had brought copies from my LP Guide to China's pages on Guangzhou and Foshan, and they were of great help. In the airport I dragged all my stuff into the restroom for disabled people and changed out of my jeans and long sleeves into a pair of shorts, sandals and t-shirt, as this time of year is hot and muggy in Guangzhou. From the airport I took the brand new subway into town, found a Starbucks and got a very well-deserved breakfast. After a little rest I got went down into the subway system again and headed towards Foshan. When I first went into Guangzhou it was before 9am and everything was completely dead, no shops were open and people were half asleep and moving like zombies, but when I went into the subway after breakfast it was full of life and the subway station looked like a mini mall.

When I lived in Guangzhou as a kid in the 80s, Foshan was a near-by city, but not really "near" - now it's on one of the Guangzhou metro lines...

From the Zu Miao-metro station it was just a short walk to the temple, 20RMB later and I was inside. Zu Miao/Zu Miao Temple/Foshan Ancestral Temple was build in the late Song-dynasty and survived the Cultural revolution by being converted into a provincial museum, which it too is today. I mostely explored the out doors areas as the indoors where very hot and included a lot of badly translated information boards (sometimes I love it, other times I want to yell at the translator for lack of professional pride). The only thing I saw indoor were some young Chinese guys teaching a white guy kongfu...

As I exited the temple as richly decorated car with a bride and groom arrived to the temple, and were going in to give some kind of offering.

From Zu Miao it was impossible to find a cab, so I got on the back of a motorbike, and drove 15 min. to Nanfeng Ancient Kiln. What Foshan is most famous for in China, and amongst people with interest in China, is pottery. Foshan has been a pottery center since year 600 ac and Nanfeng Ancient Kiln is the oldest in China. Normally you can see the workers make pottery and the like, but I was so unlucky to visit the kiln in the middle for the May-holiday during lunch hour...

From the kiln I returen to Guangzhou and then to the airport to dry off, as I had started to rain heavily just after I left the kiln by motorbike...

Zu Miao 01

Zu Miao 01


Zu Miao 02

Zu Miao 02


Zu Miao 03

Zu Miao 03


Zu Miao 04

Zu Miao 04


Zu Miao 05

Zu Miao 05


Zu Miao 06

Zu Miao 06


Zu Miao 07

Zu Miao 07


Zu Miao 08

Zu Miao 08


Zu Miao 09

Zu Miao 09


Zu Miao 10

Zu Miao 10


Zu Miao 11

Zu Miao 11


Zu Miao 12

Zu Miao 12


Zu Miao 13

Zu Miao 13


Zu Miao 14

Zu Miao 14


Zu Miao 15

Zu Miao 15


Zu Miao 16

Zu Miao 16


Zu Miao 17

Zu Miao 17


Zu Miao 18

Zu Miao 18


Zu Miao 19

Zu Miao 19


Zu Miao 20

Zu Miao 20


Nanfeng Ancient Kiln 01

Nanfeng Ancient Kiln 01


Nanfeng Ancient Kiln 02

Nanfeng Ancient Kiln 02


Nanfeng Ancient Kiln 03

Nanfeng Ancient Kiln 03


Nanfeng Ancient Kiln 04

Nanfeng Ancient Kiln 04


Nanfeng Ancient Kiln 05

Nanfeng Ancient Kiln 05

Posted by EvaMariaTravels 17:00 Archived in China

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