The Newmans

Last Saturday found us returing to Guangzhou, with the intention of finishing what we initially set out to accomplish a few weeks ago, but did not complete, due to becoming sopping wet. In short, we went back.

The main object of the day’s trip was to visit the “Museum of the Nanyue King in the Western-Han dynasty”, aka some king who lived 137-122 BC, and who was buried with lots of stuff around him. It was actually quite interesting. Incidentally, it is the largest find of tombage from this dynasty that has been discovered in southern China. According to the brochure, anyway.

In the main museum there were a few different rooms you could walk through. One held general artefacts found in the area, another icons and art (vases, ceramics and the like) and another contained ceramic pillows. All right, hands up everyone who has a ceramic pillow hidden in there house somewhere? To be honest, they didn’t look like they were built for comfort. They were comparatively quite high; a lot higher than I would suspect a pillow of any practical relevance to be. Each to their own, I guess. The ceramic pillow below is a very famous one, and has been decorated with a poem. All of them had been decorated to a great or greater extent, which demonstrated a high level of craftsmanship. Being for use in the King’s home, they were quite ornate. This may have been to give the user something to do while he couldn’t sleep for the discomfort. You had to admire the artistry, though.

They really love their jade here. Whether green, bone (the bone, the white, the cream, the off-white, the ivory or the beige - just kidding), white-ish or brown, it was and is very valuable. The King was buried with more jade trinkets than you could poke a very long stick at, and consequently his burial chambers needed 4 or so storage rooms to handle all the gear. He also aparently needed to be buried with his favourite Steward to organise his posessions, servants, concubines (4, each with a numbered jade disk and trinkets, so the gods knew who was most important), miscellaneous people and even muso’s. I guess those death-marches can be so darn catchy. Here are a set of bells found in one of the chambers of HRH. (Use the size of the little explanatory plaque as a size reference.)

Above is a jade drinking horn. It’s here becuase I found it interesting, and was one of my favourite things from the museum.

The piece de resistance of the entire mauselaum is the actual remains of the Nanyue King. His body, or probably all the 39 grams of it that was left after 2000+ years, is spread out for you to view behind glass. The corpse had been entirely covered in small jade plates, like those on plated armour (there was a plated armour that was exhibited in the museum), about 1″X3/4″ long. They were fastened together with red silk. As you can see, his head, feet and hands had slightly different treatment, but were still plated with jade.

Compare him to this attractive specimen below, who is obligingly lying where the King’s body was found. Some Chinese tourists found this quite amusing, for some reason.

King Andrew the Not-Dead. Someone get him a pillow.

There was a lovely view of the entrance from a small glade, where we sought refuge from the weather. When we saw a group fellow lao wei (white foreigners), I realised that we’d actually acclimatised fairly well. It’s taken about 3 months, but the heat and humidity is now less something to comment on, and more just ‘the weather’. I did feel very sorry for the recent female retirees, sitting down and fanning themselves while the guide droned and explained. I was reminded of Deidre…

Here is a lovely sheltered grove, complete with boulders and stone benches for sitting, trees for shade, archaeic cannons and photographic opportunities.

Middle-Eastern Food

We were fortunate to come out of the MTR and meet the doors of the 1001 Nights Restaurant, which looked very classy and whose 50 or so tables were only patronised by a mother and her daughter. I guess it was early for a Chinese lunch, and very early for a Middle-Eastern. The surroundings were stunning, and really did make you feel, as was proudly proclaimed on some advertisment or other, transformed to somewhere in the Middle East. Nearly all the furnishings for the entire place were imported from Arabia; a good way of preserving Middle-Eastern authenticity. Everywhere you looked, everything was very ornate. Even the toilets were beyond belief. Take a peek at the ceiling.

For lunch, I had Iranian Sausage with rice, flat bread and miscellaneous bits and pieces, and Andrew ordered some sort of a steak and chips (called a Tornado steak). His steak came with a sizable roasted onion over it, which was barely cooked. The sausage was very, very tasty. It was lamb mince with lots of spices in it. I’d love to know how to make it, but tried looking on the internet and drew a blank, so can’t really say what was in it. If anyone knows a recipe, please hand it over. It was hand-rolled, and without a skin. I can’t comment of the steak, but Andrew assures me it was likewise very satisfactory.

While we’re on the subject of food, we picked up some takeaway (beef curry for me, spag bol for Andrew, which apparently had the last laugh the next day), to eat on the train on the way home. The menu was of particular interest… French Friends, anyone? This is definitely the menu for you if you like your ham crilled, your bread as toasf, your fried capelin (never worked out what that is), your roasfed wholf sauid, or your bacong.

Check out how long this elevator in the Metro station is! Andrew resisted sliding-down between the handrails, which would probably have led to him travelling a similar length once he hit the bottom, due to a semi-waxed floor.

Guangzhou Park

About 4pm we walked to a famous park in Guangzhou, where there are many sights to see, statues to view, walks to walk, and the only remaining bit of the old city wall. We arrived there, still in the heat of the day, promptly bought an ice cream each, then lay down on the grass with our shoes and socks off for half an hour or so, having a nap on our bags. Guangzhou is even more humid than Shenzhen, and the greenery was, well, verdant.

After our nap (during which two little girls enjoyed saying ‘hello, hello’ from a nearby ridge, then self-conscously running away when I waved at them), we decided we’d wander around for maybe 1/2 hour so, then go back. We walked for an hour, and saw a few of the sights. It is a very popular place for people to practice tai chi, as there are many little concreted ledges jutting out over the mountain. Groups of older men were sitting and talking in the shade, while there were other spaces where people could play badmington (which an older couple was doing), and a variety of walks. Every so often we came across spaces that looked as if people had had lunch there, and left there litter lying around, which was disappointing, but there was much of nature to simply be enjoyed. We never got away from the rumble of the city, but it was refreshing nonetheless.

We had a look at the single existing side of the original city wall, snapped this guy who was taking a rest from the heat and captured a group of older women playing hakki-sak near a mausoleum on the top of one of the tallest hills in the park.

Legend has it that there were “five celestial beings, each riding through the air on the backs of five flying male goats. Each goat carried in his mouth a stem of rice to guarantee that the place they chose to land would ever be free from famine. Finding a spot to their liking with sub-tropical climate combined with a rich delta land and a long coastline, they landed and named the spot Goat City.” http://www.romartraveler.com/RomarPages/SChinaGoatCity.html.

So that’s how, in the pre-dusk light that remained bright enough to ensure only one or two good photos, we came to have a look at the statue of the 5 goats (one of which is most certainly depicted as female, judging by the suckling kid), who were grinning most suspiciously.

Shortly after, we left and went to the Metro entrance, complete with exchangable vowel.