I love CSP fashion. Seriously, I really do. Next on the catwalk, the CSP hat. Had to wear this one today. Check it.
Schexy isn't it?
First stop this morning was a 'model village' in Guangzhou. Not like, a scale model. But like, a 'leading model' of a village. It's like, a modern village, filled with medium-density housing and its own civic facilities. We're given a speech by the village leader, which is translated into English for our convenience. Basically outlined what facilities the village had, how it sustains itself through allowing businesses to establish themselves within the village, and the planned future development of the village. Big hand for the speakers afterwards.
Took a tour of the village afterwards. Huge halls.
Huge woks. That rusty centre is about the size of my spread hand.
Huge buildings. Well, not so huge compared to a city. But huge for a 'village'.
We were then treated to an hour long lion/dragon dance performance. Those performers are absolute tanks. It was like, 30+ degrees celsius that day (x2 + 32 for the Americans), and there was no air-conditioning in the huge shed they performed in. They wore long, heavy, decorated pants, as well as the heavy costumes.
They were spectacular. You think you've seen a lion dance? You haven't seen a lion dance until you've seen this lot.
Ever seen a jumping lion dance? I thought not.
If the place wasn't so damn hot and if we weren't so sleepy we would've given them more enthusiastic applause. As it were, we were glad to be back on the bus.
Lunch followed. Met a few big wigs. Toasted them. But the cool stuff was the food. Gonna borrow Hui Ming's photos for this. I call this, 'Farmer's Harvest'.
Yummy. Things you might not recognise: purple sweet potato, tarot root on the left, some nut thing that tastes like apple above that.
Baby suckling pig. Fatty.
Ok, this is the dish of the day. Looks quite unpresumptious. Honestly, I don't know what the green things are, but they're not important. It's the yellow stuff that matters. Looks like a quiche. If you don't know what a quiche is, it's basically baked egg pie with stuff inside it. Normally quiches have like, bacon, capsicum (peppers if you're from North America), and onion. Guess what this has.
River worm.
No jokes, it has insect in it. Small, about the size of your fingernail. White. Has a few legs on it. Tastes like nothing. I'll update this entry with a close up if anyone from the tour took a picture. Some people found it gross. It was like a dare to see who would eat it. Though I have to admit, there was a funky aftertaste.
Ok so after our interesting lunch we visited the Mega (MEE-GA) Centre in Guangzhou. Essentially it's six universities in Guangzhou built on the same campus. They share common facilities, such as sporting facilities, libraries and recreational spaces. It's really something. Again, it goes without saying if it's in Guangzhou, it's huge. I don't even know what this is.
Got presented a lecture by a professor about Deng Xiaoping's Open Door policy in 1978. I asked a question (yay, go me!) and Tina asked questions also. Too bad he didn't seem to answer questions very well.
Today was definitely a day centred around the meals. Dinner was another huge affair, with performances for our enjoyment. Class act of the night was definitely the mask-switcher. For those who don't know what he does, take a look at the following two photos.
HO SNAP! If you're blind, and didn't notice his face changes...well now you know. His face changes. He might come up to you. Extend a hand. What do you do? You shake it. In a flash he lifts his cloak to his face and brings it down again. His face has changed. It's childlike fun but that's what makes it so great. You can see the masks underneath his current mask. You could probably guess that he has some lever that makes his masks come off. But it's still great. Truly a class act.
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