Guangzhou

Day 3
The morning did not get off to an auspicious start. I had insomnia from about 4. My camera, which had gone missing the previous day was not in the backpack that Andrea assured me it must be in, the VPN on Andrea's computer wouldn't work, and the kindle guide to China that she purchased just wouldn't download.

We got a lat start, after trying to sort all those issues out. Yan sent a friend with her van to pick us up and take us to Fosan for breakfast. We hit major traffic, and between the slow ride, the fact that it would normally be a 40 minute ride, and the late start we didn't start eating until close to noon.

The restaurant was on the second floor of the Crown Plaza hotel, which had a palatial lobby. The restaurant was huge and Yan greeted us at the entrance, standing on the far side of one of three ornamental foot bridges that went across a small pool. She was dressed nicely with a blue silk scarf. At least I wore a Polo shirt.

The restaurant was immense with food peripheral area on the sides that Joshua and Andrea toured and the food kept coming. Noodles, bitter melon sesame coated balls, red bean cakes, millet cakes, dumplings, spicy chicken, fish heads, taro squares, peanut steamed buns, peanut in squares of rice with water chestnuts, congee, mushrooms, noodles made from green beans, are ones I remember as I write this. We left stuffed and happy.

We went to the Ancestral Temple where we saw bronze work, canons, statues, and exhibits on local history. The buildings were interesting with traditional architecture and intricate ceramic friezes and statuary.

It was hot, really hot. We sweated as we walked around a small village of shops with traditional crafts after the temple and decided to head back to the hotel. Once we got there I downloaded Andrea's guide to China and collapsed while she and Li Feng toured the neighborhood that housed the world's largest collection of traditional Chinese medicine stores.

I was woken for dinner and dragged through it in my sleepy state.  It was delicious as usual. Ari got angel hair pasta with salmon roe. I stuck with shrimp in butter and garlic. Andrea had seafood curry in a stone hot pot. Li Feng order a set with vegetables and chicken and egg over rice.  Joshua had a Hawaiian fresh fruit pizza that was sweet and had pineapple and peach drizzled with a sweet cream cheese in addition to mozzarella. When it came he refused to try it until Ari had a slice and declared it OK.

We were supposed to go on a river cruise but we were all exhausted and it was putting rain so we returned to the hotel. I was asleep by 9 and slept until 6. I've never felt better.