Author: Louis Berney

Earlier this year when friends from America announced they were planning to visit me in Guangzhou, I had a momentary sense of dread. What would I do with them? Where might I take them? What attractions does Guangzhou have that can appeal to foreign visitors? After all, there is no Forbidden City, Summer Palace, or Tiananmen Square. No Great Wall. No terra cotta warriors. No noteworthy ancient fortifications, historically significant archaeological sites or world-class cultural meccas. And, of course, no panda research park.

          Guangzhou is a city without glamor or pizzazz. It does not dazzle. It is a commercial center, a factory town, a teeming community of hard-working men and women. Sophistication and urbanity give way to practicality and routine. Guangzhou is the third largest city in the country, yet its name does not appear on the regular Chinese tourist circuit with hotspots like Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Xi’an.

 

          Yet that does not mean Guangzhou lacks its pleasures, its wonders and its delightful surprises. You just have to look hard for them. Guangzhou is a little like a very good novel that starts off slowly, but then, without your even noticing, lures you in, bit by bit, so that before you know it, you are enrapt. You can’t put the book down. You realize Guangzhou is really quite a wonderful place to live.

          Perhaps that is because Guangzhou, in a way, is similar to London. They both are huge cities, yet more than that, they are hubs to scores of diverse neighborhoods. Sure, London is one of the world’s great metropolises. Yet what gives it its real flavor, its pulse, is not Big Ben or Buckingham Palace or Westminster Abbey but the uniqueness and even quirkiness of places like Chalk Farm, Elephant and Castle, Westminster, Belsize Park, and Tottenham Court. Perhaps Guangzhou’s neighborhoods are not as distinctively demarcated as those of London. Yet it is in those communities where one finds the core and the vibrancy of the city. Its humanity. And its true beauty.

 

          Guangzhou’s neighborhoods do not promote themselves. Perhaps they are too busy or just don’t care. Why should they, after all? So you must search them out. Their treasures are subtle, not dramatic. Sometimes you might hear about them from a friend. Other times you might rely on serendipity, taking a bus or the metro to an unknown section of town, hopping off and just walking or biking where you instincts might ferry you.

          Despite the modernity of the city and its efforts to paint over the old with the new, parts of historic Guangzhou still exist in the neighborhoods. Depart from the main arteries, prowl down a small street, and then spin off onto an even tinier alleyway and see where it might lead you. Or hunt for one of the scores of small canals that flow through the city. Most have lovely shaded promenades that meander alongside them. Meet the people who live just off the canals, delightful and proud people who look like they might have lived in the same home inhabited by their families for generations.

          Some of these neighborhoods are poor, some wealthy and others middle class.

          Whatever, you invariably will stumble (or bike) upon unexpected scenes, events, people, landmarks. A former art school from the 19th century converted into a small yet splendid museum commemorating the Lingnan painters. A spat between two families that grows verbally vociferous but never bursts into violence or real hostility. An elderly woman taking an hour to load a small bundle of wood kindling onto her shoulders, with no compunction or reason at all to rush. An artist holding an al fresco drawing class for a group of kids. A merry group of neighborhood citizens inviting you to their community supper to celebrate Dragon Boat Festival. Old men everywhere playing intense games of Xiang Qi, with neighborhood kibbutzers bickering over every single move. A young couple sitting back to back upon a bench looking quite amorous until you notice that their passion is focused not upon one another but on their separate mobile phones. A rainbow of kites soaring into the sky as their minders – from small children to old men – vie for air space. An isolated street vendor selling absolutely the most scrumptious potato pancake you’ve ever munched on.

 

          Nothing really spectacular. Nothing to place on glossy travel posters to beckon people here. Just a taste of Guangzhou, the way life unfolds in this work-centric city’s many neighborhoods, day after day after day.

 

Written in November 2013

 

 

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