Calm Spirit/Ying Yu Jade China Trip 2006
Guangzhou China
We left for the airport before noon for our flight to Guangzhou on China Airlines. The Chinese airlines used to have really good airplane food, but they also have deteriorated their service and the hard and dry fish sandwich wasn't edible. But I still had my "gorp" and some fruit things I bought in Beijing.
Guangzhou used to be called Canton, and the people speak mostly Cantonese, which sounds completely different from Mandarin. They do understand Mandarin but it's a different dialect. It's not a tourist city, mostly business. It has a reputation for being dangerous, robberies, pick pockets, and a lot of cheating. But it is also the capital of the Burmese jadeite carving and selling business in China. And the capital of the fake jade and crafts in China. If you look for jade on eBay, you wonder why you should pay Ying Yu Jade prices when you can buy "the same thing" from Guangdong for less than $1 on eBay. So I have to say, you get what you pay for. And if you want glass or plastic, that's what you'll get for $1, IF you actually get it
Jackson met us and we had dinner at their buffet on the river front. It was truly fabulous, offering gourmet international. But the most interesting items on the buffet were the desserts. I'd never seen anything like them, very intricately done. On the ala cart menu, they were $10 apiece. Some were in parfait glasses with a carved chocolate swan decoration on the top. I indulged. There was escargot, several varieties of caviar, rack of lamb, prime rib, raw seafoods, lots of foods I didn't know what they were. There's a saying in Guangdong that people will eat anything with four legs except a chair, but most of the food was international so I sampled it all. But ate a lot of desserts. They were worth the price I will pay fasting when I get home
Next: Sihui and Jade Market, Gong Fu Tea
