Shamian DaoAfter three days of exploring, heart pounding from being in close proximity with such sublimity, biting my knuckles to stop myself from shrieking, constantly muttering "Why don't I know about this? Why haven't people been telling me about this my whole life?", let me rectify that for you:
Pay attention. This is important.
There is a spot on earth of enormous beauty and uniqueness that you really need to put it on your list of sublime places you must go see in your life:
Remember this name:SHAMIAN DAO
You actually do know about Shamian Dao. You just didn't know what it was called and no one ever mentioned it was extraordinary and so worth your time and attention.
It's in all the history books about European presence in China under the generic name "Canton".
A Tribute to the EuropeanPresence in China!
Yes, sure, you know all about the Portuguese getting Macau in 1563, and you know too about the British instigating the Opium Wars and ending up with Hong Kong and Kowloon in 1842, and you're also aware that China refused to let any Europeans into China-Proper in the intervening years ...
... except for a little sand spit in the Pearl River Delta where they had to do all their trade and business.
Well, Shamian Dao is the same of that little sand spit in Pearl River ... and it is soooo worth putting on your travel agenda.
OK, if you actually gave it some thought, you'd have guessed that sticking a whole bunch of rich European and Asian trading nations who didn't really like each other onto a single little island - only 900 metres by 300 metres - and within view of another great nation, China, that they needed to show off to, you'd have guessed that the architecture of the place would be uniquely splendid and a display of "the best our nation produces" aka "Nah nah nah nah nah!" or "Take that you suckers!!!"
A Tiny Sample of the Architectural Perfection:
Only a tiny sample!
Proportion, line, space,granite, mmmmmm!
Perfection!
And then you have to throw China's unique history over the top of that. I don't need to tell you about how all the Europeans were tossed out and blah, blah, blah ... and then the Red Guard moved in and took over the best buildings and the rest they handed over "to the people" so became little apartments for the poor.
Red Guard in Shamian Dao.But the Cantonese know how to take care of nice things - heck, they still have trams from the 1880s running on the streets of HK - so, apart from about a dozen building ripped down and rebuilt by, gosh, George Orwell Wong?, in the worst Stalinist Constructivist style (if it hadn't been for those buildings spoiling the place I would have spent the entire three days in tears, crying at being surrounded by such unimaginable beauty) it's all still there, kept clean and polished, but with no real aesthetic sense.
If ever there is a need for an invasion by a vast teeming horde of homosexuals, it's Shamiam Dao.
In shape the island's like a squashed egg, and there are three gorgeous bridges across from the Mainland - French Bridge and English Bridge and People Bridge:
Three Bridges!
The first two are only wide enough for two people to walk abreast, and the middle one is for general traffic. On the Mainland side, the bridges lead to the vast Peaceful Markets - which was the first place in modern China that was allowed, back in 1973, to again exercise capitalism and which you'd also know as Ground Zero for the viral species jump that gave the world SARS - and which we didn't visit, despite meaning to.
Then, around the entire outside of the island is a wide ring road - with show-off grand stone-facade buildings facing outwards along one side - and through the middle of the island is Friendship Avenue - a grand wide street with a park of massive European trees and strangler figs running down the centre - and lining both sides of that are all the embassies and banks and
the head offices of great European trading companies.
Friendship Avenue
In shape the island's like a squashed egg, and there are three gorgeous bridges across from the Mainland - French Bridge and English Bridge and People Bridge:
Three Bridges!The first two are only wide enough for two people to walk abreast, and the middle one is for general traffic. On the Mainland side, the bridges lead to the vast Peaceful Markets - which was the first place in modern China that was allowed, back in 1973, to again exercise capitalism and which you'd also know as Ground Zero for the viral species jump that gave the world SARS - and which we didn't visit, despite meaning to.
Then, around the entire outside of the island is a wide ring road - with show-off grand stone-facade buildings facing outwards along one side - and through the middle of the island is Friendship Avenue - a grand wide street with a park of massive European trees and strangler figs running down the centre - and lining both sides of that are all the embassies and banks and
the head offices of great European trading companies.
Friendship AvenueAnd then there are the little streets and alleyways leading between the ring road and the Avenue but with no space wasted and every building with grand columns and mighty stone steps and/or with quite lovely carved facades.
Oh, and then there are the smallest alleyways that only lead to the servants quarters behind the
Gate to behind the Embassies!
Behind the Embassies!
(Hey, maybe gossiping servants is the reason why England decided it needed to get it's own place - to get away from the others and do the things they wanted to do that the others wouldn't know about - and that's why HK came about.)
I will tell you the various stories about what happened to us there some other time. I just wanted to let you know about the place ... thus fulfilling an obligation that you too won't go another day without knowing there is a spot on earth of enormous beauty and that you really need to put it on your list of sublime places you must go see in your life.
various Embassies and where they join is always one enormous communal area, all seats and tables and running water and kitchen gardens, and you can't tell me that those servants didn't all talk and thus every Embassy knew exactly what was happening in the other Embassies.
Gate to behind the Embassies!
Behind the Embassies!(Hey, maybe gossiping servants is the reason why England decided it needed to get it's own place - to get away from the others and do the things they wanted to do that the others wouldn't know about - and that's why HK came about.)
I will tell you the various stories about what happened to us there some other time. I just wanted to let you know about the place ... thus fulfilling an obligation that you too won't go another day without knowing there is a spot on earth of enormous beauty and that you really need to put it on your list of sublime places you must go see in your life.
Remember this name: Shamiam Dao.
In fact, why don't you google the name and see what you can see for yourself about the place.
STORIES FROM OUR 2007 VISIT TO SHAMIAN DAO:
Background: Went up to China with Judy and Margaret and stayed for two nights at the White Swan Hotel on Shamian Dao.
White Swan Hotel
Although a visual eyesore within this glorious space, it's such a gorgeous hotel that once you're inside and enjoying their sublime service, you forgive it everything. I highly recommend it.
White Swan HotelAlthough a visual eyesore within this glorious space, it's such a gorgeous hotel that once you're inside and enjoying their sublime service, you forgive it everything. I highly recommend it.
I never told you any of the Shamian Dao stories, did I? Still won't since they weren't really stories; just nice visual stuff:
Like "Stuffy Old Margaret" sitting on the floor of a tiny dusty fabric shop with an elderly Chinese lady (you have to know Margaret to realise why this is so funny!) going through scraps of silk brocade, with E.C.L. explaining all about silk and how to tell what is excellent quality and what is poor quality, only she was talking in Cantonese which Margaret doesn't speak, but it was all so charming to watch and, yes, it was clear what she was saying, especially when she took matches to some of the scraps to demonstrate the difference between silk and polyester. Then, naturally, you wondered if you should be in fear for your life, given the diminutive space and the general crowding out with fabrics, but, whatever!
Oh, and then there's our charming young floor manager at White Swan Hotel telling me I was beautiful and that she was in love with me. Since I'm dressed only in a bathtowel at the time - I'm waiting for her to run my bath - they still do that kind of stuff for you at White Swan Hotel - (apparently they don't, it was just done for me, which kinda makes it extra freaky) I think "OK! This is wildly inappropriate!" so I just thank her and leave the bathroom ...
Oh, and then there's our charming young floor manager at White Swan Hotel telling me I was beautiful and that she was in love with me. Since I'm dressed only in a bathtowel at the time - I'm waiting for her to run my bath - they still do that kind of stuff for you at White Swan Hotel - (apparently they don't, it was just done for me, which kinda makes it extra freaky) I think "OK! This is wildly inappropriate!" so I just thank her and leave the bathroom ...
... and then spend the next couple of hours hiding around corners waiting for other people to turn up to use the lift - her desk was in the lift lobby - so I won't be alone with her ...
... but then the lovely old lady in the silk shop says to Margaret in English as a farewell "You are so lovely. I love you very much." and I think "Phew!!! It's just that Shamian Dao English skills need a fair bit of tweaking!" but I still hide around corners because I don't want to be alone with our young manager! Just in case!
But the only real story, which was so charming I laughed for hours afterwards, is this one:
But the only real story, which was so charming I laughed for hours afterwards, is this one:
See, Judy and Margaret were forever going to bed at 9.30 which is pretty much when I come alive, so each night I'd spend the next few hours sitting out in an outdoor cafe in Friendship Avenue watching these swarms of old people playing Mongolian-style shuttlecock ...
... or Chinese football ...
... or ballroom dancing or practising their fan dances and/or sword-play. I found them astonishing because they all had grey hair and old, old faces but when they whipped their shirts off their sweating bodies, they all had the physiques of 30 year olds, so I was studying them to see how they do it. (The answer is, I think, in their constant activity and general happiness with life.)
... or Chinese football ...... or ballroom dancing or practising their fan dances and/or sword-play. I found them astonishing because they all had grey hair and old, old faces but when they whipped their shirts off their sweating bodies, they all had the physiques of 30 year olds, so I was studying them to see how they do it. (The answer is, I think, in their constant activity and general happiness with life.)
Anyway, Saturday night, a very nice young man circles me several times before deciding I won't bite and then approaches to ask if he can sit with me and practise his English. He speaks it very well and we talk about these old people and how astonishingly fit they are and what their secret is. And then he invites me to his club. "It's a very nice club." he tells me. "Many important people come there. Tonight, for instance, Carol King is playing for us." I'm kinda flabbergasted and say "Carol King? THE Carol King? The 'You've got a friend' Carol King?" and he says "Yes."
OK, I'm surprised but not totally incredulous. Afterall, a nice little club in gorgous Shamian Dao is exactly the type of place I'd like to play at if I'm an old retired Carol King, especially if it meant I could also play Mongolian-shuttlecock out in the streets with all these wonderful old folk, and I knew old retired Suzie Quatro was forever playing at the little Bohle Pub just outside Townsville, so I think "I really should go wake Judy and Margaret. They'll kick me if they miss this." but then I decide to check it out first and wake them only if Carol King is in really fine voice, etc, etc, etc.
So, there we are, me and this young Chinese boy, dashing together down dark avenues and it's so dark and isolated and creepy and I'm wondering if I should be a little scared and thinking that surely it should be something more than the promise of a chance to see Carol King that lures me into a life-time of white slavery, until we finally reach these little stone steps leading down to this little basement and we go in, and sure enough, there's Carol King herself ... playing on the sodding turntable. Yup, it's a bunch of young Chinese Christians sitting around, drinking green tea and all with Carol King song sheets and loudly singing "When you're down and troubled and you need some loving care ...".
Well, I'm desperately trying not to laugh but I join them and take a glass of cold green tea and a song sheet and sing along with several of the songs and thinking "If this is how Shamian Dao learns English, from pop records, no wonder they're forever telling you you're beautiful and lovely and that they love you very much!" and then we all start singing about Jack the Smack Addict with identical Christian fervour and it gets harder and harder not to laugh out loud so I make my excuses and get out of there and laugh uproariously all the way back to the hotel.
And that's the story of my big adventure in Guangzhou! I know it isn't much, given all the stuff that could have happened, but, gosh, I just adore Shamian Dao.
OK, I'm surprised but not totally incredulous. Afterall, a nice little club in gorgous Shamian Dao is exactly the type of place I'd like to play at if I'm an old retired Carol King, especially if it meant I could also play Mongolian-shuttlecock out in the streets with all these wonderful old folk, and I knew old retired Suzie Quatro was forever playing at the little Bohle Pub just outside Townsville, so I think "I really should go wake Judy and Margaret. They'll kick me if they miss this." but then I decide to check it out first and wake them only if Carol King is in really fine voice, etc, etc, etc.
So, there we are, me and this young Chinese boy, dashing together down dark avenues and it's so dark and isolated and creepy and I'm wondering if I should be a little scared and thinking that surely it should be something more than the promise of a chance to see Carol King that lures me into a life-time of white slavery, until we finally reach these little stone steps leading down to this little basement and we go in, and sure enough, there's Carol King herself ... playing on the sodding turntable. Yup, it's a bunch of young Chinese Christians sitting around, drinking green tea and all with Carol King song sheets and loudly singing "When you're down and troubled and you need some loving care ...".
Well, I'm desperately trying not to laugh but I join them and take a glass of cold green tea and a song sheet and sing along with several of the songs and thinking "If this is how Shamian Dao learns English, from pop records, no wonder they're forever telling you you're beautiful and lovely and that they love you very much!" and then we all start singing about Jack the Smack Addict with identical Christian fervour and it gets harder and harder not to laugh out loud so I make my excuses and get out of there and laugh uproariously all the way back to the hotel.
And that's the story of my big adventure in Guangzhou! I know it isn't much, given all the stuff that could have happened, but, gosh, I just adore Shamian Dao.
You know, I wouldn't mind at all being an old person living there, residing in some beautifully restored old Georgian mansion with stone steps and wonderful carved doric columns, surrounded by people who run my bath for me and who teach me about silk, and maybe even drinking glasses of green tea and singing raucous faux-Christian songs nightly in some nice little club, and/or spending my late evenings fan and/or sword dancing with lots of gloriously fit old dears!!! Or even just sitting in some nice outdoor cafe and watching it all go by:
Ah, there's the life!
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