More about Guangzhou
This is probably my last blog entry. As promised in my previous entry, I will talk more about my hometown Guangzhou.
1. Food
Guangzhou is famous for having good food, of almost all styles in the world. Food in Guangzhou has its reputation not only for the numerous choices and styles, but also for its quality. Cooks in Guangzhou are very creative. You will always find exciting new items on menus. For example, when we think about Vietnamese food in the US, we are mostly limited to Pho and spring rolls. In Guangzhou, the menu from a Vietnamese restaurant can include items from Vietnamese style stirred-fried tofu to steamed-cooked crabs with coconut. This is merely one tiny example of the Guangzhou food. Besides those set-style restaurants, many other dinning places goes with fusion style, which tends to bring you more amazing food that are out of your imagination.
2. Architecture style
Guangzhou has its special Lingnan style in architecture. I am not an expert in architecture, but I can give one typical example. Look at the corridors of Gerlach Hall, Schoenbaum Hall and Mason Hall around the Fisher Courtyard. The style of these corridors are actually of one of the lingnan building styles—Qi Lou (骑楼). In ancient Guangzhou, many buildings were built with Qi Lou. Qi Lou in Chinese means “buildings over the roads”. These buildings were built above the sideswalks of the avenues and streets. The design of Qi Lou increase the usable space of the buildings as the second and third floors extend over the sidewalks, while the pedestrians on the streets are also benefited. Guangzhou is very humid with lots of rains. Qi Lous provide long corridors for the pedestrians so that they can walk along the street without umbrellas even when it’s raining. On sunny days, the corridors create shades to cool down the sidewalks as well as the buildings themselves.
3. Something new
I am happy to have found the citizens of Guangzhou are more aware of environment protection. The stores in Guangzhou no longer give plastic bags to their customers for free. Walking on the street, I see very few people walking with plastic bags. Most people go shopping with their own shopping bags instead. One day while I was having breakfast in a local restaurant, a customer came in to get her breakfast to go. The waitress put a pair of disposable chopsticks in the food package but the customer politely returned the chopsticks saying “I have my own set so please save this one for the sake of our earth.”
Last but not least…….This is my last blog entry. I would like to thank all of the Fisher staff, and you, my dear blog readers for all the support during the past year.