November 14, 2023

Day 7

It has now been a full week since I left Dalian. I still didn’t buy a ticket back to Dalian at that point, so I had absolutely nothing to do in Foshan. My brother in law told me to do some sightseeing around town till Friday so I get to play with my nephew a bit more. He lent his car to me to drive to Guangzhou to sight-see. He gave me a few pointers on where to go.

1. Canton Tower

2. Huangpu Military School

——Juejue Pot for lunch ——

3. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Building, if I have time.

After dropping my nephew at his school, I went on my sight-seeing journey for the day. I have to pick him up by 5 PM, so I have to start driving back to Foshan at around 4 PM.

Driving to Canton Tower took about an hour. It was quite boring. If you read my travel blog Korea 2023, you could see that I don’t typically go into towers like these. Sure, I can see the entire city and the river it contained; but it was still boring. I spent 120 RMB on the ticket, which is roughly 20 dollars. It was such a waste of money.

I didn’t waste too much time at Canton Tower, and headed straight to Huangpu Military School. Huangpu Military School dates back to Sun Yat-sen, before the KMT-Communist war and before WWII. It trained the next generation of military leaders for China and is a crucial part of modern Chinese history. I have always wanted to go, and here is the opportunity to finally see everything for myself, and I loved every second I spent in there.

I walked through every room open to the public and snapped pictures of every room. As a student of Political Science and History, seeing such an important place with my own eyes, stepping onto the same floorboards that the people of history have stepped on was beyond exciting. I’ve had goosebumps for the entire 2 hours I had at that military school. It truly was the most awesome place I have seen.

I am guessing all of these are recreated because most of the buildings were bombed to shreds by the Japanese during WWII, but well done recreating everything!

Next to the military school was Sun Yat-sen’s home. It was a replica of his old home that was rebuilt from the ruins left by the Japanese. Since it is right next to the military school, that’s how I got the idea that maybe the military school was recreated as well. The building itself was converted into a museum of Huangpu’s history. Huangpu is just the name of the area, not the official name of the military school. At the second floor is a recreation of Sun Yat-sen’s bedroom.

I parked far away, since the attraction was closed off to traffic. I believe I have walked a mile both ways, so my legs were kinda sore by the time I got to my car. It was 1:30 PM, so I need to head out for lunch.

My brother in law recommend the 啫啫煲, Juejue Pot, to me. It is a Cantonese food item that I have never had before, so I definitely had to check it out. He gave me the name to the restaurant that he had it last, and I had to park all the way to the other block because there is no parking. Seriously what is wrong with the parking in Guangzhou, all the spaces were tiny.

Restaurant name: 惠食佳滨江大公馆 (huì shí jiā bīn jiāng dà gōng guǎn) [Huishijia Binjiang Restaurant]

Address: 广州市海珠区滨江西路172号 (Guangzhou City Haizhu District Binjiang West Road #172)

I arrived by the restaurant after walking for a while, and it was a fancy ass restaurant. My brother in law did not hold back when recommending restaurants to me. He told me to order the 生肠 (raw intestines) and beef Juejue Pot, and so I did.

The raw intestines one was good, but the beef one was pretty tame. I should’ve ordered the chicken, it might’ve tasted better.

After lunch, it was my time to visit the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Building. Unfortunately there is no parking at the attraction, and I had to find parking through the traffic app. The app took me to a nearby parking lot that is 15 minutes away by foot.

Once I got in the underground parking lot, all the normal spaces are full. All that’s left is a vertical parking structure that required me to back the vehicle onto a moving mechanism. It was very scary. The EQS, the car I drove that day, has a very wide body, and the mechanism is very narrow. I constantly feared that I was going to scrape the paint off the car. When I got out of the car to see how much space I had, it was about half an inch. It was a horrible experience and I wish I would never have to encounter that again. Seriously, what is wrong with Guangzhou and all its tiny parking spaces.

When I got out of the car, it was around 3:30, which means I don’t have much time, if any, to see the Sun Yat-sen building. I rushed upstairs, and found out that I cannot just cross the street to the memorial building. I had to go all the way up an overpass to walk 3 blocks that way. It was such a horrible experience as I had to constantly climb flights of stairs while sweating in Guangzhou’s horrible weather.

The building was under renovation, so I couldn’t see the exterior, but the statue was there, so I snapped the picture. Sun Yat-sen is like the founding father to China, and is one of the most important people in Chinese history. He is the one that overthrew the Qing Dynasty and the entire emperor system. He has a lot of flaws, but doesn’t make him any less important and great.

My brother in law called after I arrived by the memorial building and asked if I was on my way to pick up my nephew. I told him that I would just see the statue and walk back, which would give me enough time to pick him up on time. He suggested that I just take my time and go inside the memorial building. I agreed. However, I remembered that I promised my nephew that I would pick him up that afternoon, so I called him, saying that I will just do a quick tour inside the building, and I will race to the car and to my nephew.

And that’s exactly what I did. I bought a 20 RMB ticket, equivalent to 3 dollars, just speed ran it and didn’t read what was on the walls, and got out. It was about 3:50, and if I hurry, I could make it back in time.

So I ran up the overpass and to the car, where it was barricaded behind another car. The staff was able to quickly get the car out of my way through the moving mechanism, which was kinda cool, and I was on my way. However, when I checked out the traffic at 3:30, it only takes 55 minutes to get to Foshan. By that point, it needs to take 1 hour and 15 minutes. I couldn’t make it in time. So I called my brother in law, explained my situation, and asked him to tell the class teacher that I will be a little late.

I raced and speeded all the way to his school. According to someone else, I was only 2 minutes late, but still, the class teacher brought the students whose parents were late back to the classroom. I had to wait another 10 minutes before my nephew was allowed to leave. His school had some good looks, though.

My brother in law had another thing lined up for me that night. He arranged a drinking party for a couple of friends and I tagged along. At his office, there is a huge hidden dining room with a Lazy Susan table at his office, and I was tasked to bring the 鱼生 to the party. I’ll explain what it is later.

I drove to the restaurant, couldn’t find a parking space, so I had to circle around the block and park at a bus lane. I would’t dare to do that in America, but it is China baby. I picked up the food from the restaurant and drove all the way to his dealership. I’ll save the name for later because I will dine here in person again.

I also brought a bottle of whisky from my brother in law’s home. That night, we drank Chinese white wine, which is a kind of rice wine that is about 60 degrees, whisky, and beer. So yeah we drank a lot. Then we started eating.

This dish is about 50 RMB per bird, and I had 6 birdies that night, so basically I ate 300 RMB worth of birdies. It is a secondary protected animal in China, so it is very rare, hence the price. It is tiny, and you are supposed to eat the bird whole and swallow the bones. It may sound cruel, but the texture of the bones + the meat is great. My brother in law explained that the bird flies from the North to the South, and the Southerners eat them. Us Northerners think they are too small so we didn’t bother catching and eating them.

The second dish is called 鱼生, or Raw Fish. It is like sashimi, but instead of dipping the fish into the soy sauce, you put a lot of condiments and ingredients and stir the fish in a bowl. You need to put:

1. Shredded ginger

2. Garlic slices

3. Sweet garlic

4. Shredded spring onion

5. Onion slices

6. Shredded dried seaweed

7. Salted baked peanuts

8. Prawn chips

9. Pickled mustard stems

10. Salt

11. Peanut oil

So yes, a lot of ingredients. However, with all the ingredients coupled together with the fish, it tasted like heaven. It is the only food that I kept dreaming at night since last time I had it in Foshan a year ago, and it still tasted like heaven. I would dare to say that this is the best fucking food that all Southern China has, not one of the best, it is just THE best. It was so fucking good, and I had to use swear words to prove to you how good this fucking food is. Fuck.

We had some other food but it wasn’t that interesting nor unique to Guangdong, so I didn’t care to take pictures. But the raw fish though, fuck me, it was so good.

We drank for a while, and in the end, my brother in law could barely walk as he had a lot of Chinese white wine and whisky. We went through an entire case of beers, as it is recent Chinese custom to drink everything rapidly.

I believe this custom came from the Soviets, as they pummel down Vodka as a way to stay warm in their horrible weather, and came to China through communists’ connections. Either way, I don’t like this new custom, and I hope it dies soon.

After walking to the entrance of the dealership, I saw another EQS. It is an EQS 580, with all the specs that we’ve ordered. I thought it was just another EQS so I didn’t give it much thought, until my brother in law asked for the keys and opened the car for me. Yes, it is the car that we ordered.

Our family wanted to wait for the car to arrive in Foshan. Our original plan was to let me wait for the car in Foshan, and I will drive the car up North, and they will meet me somewhere so we can have a self driving tour throughout China. The car took too long to arrive, so parts of China are already snowing, which wasn’t ideal. If I left for Dalian yesterday like I was going to, then I wouldn’t be able to see the car for myself until it was shipped to Dalian.

We didn’t stay there for long though, since my brother in law was too drunk. I can drive, but yeah, I’m not risking anyone’s lives here. We can always wait till tomorrow to check out the car. We just called someone to drive us back to his home and called it a night.