What Kills Us this Week!

I'm doing this very late this week because what I had to say on this week's big issue is so rude and contentious, I was attempting to avoid arguments for as long as possible. But now the wonderful Hong Kong columnist Chip Tsao has actually said it all which means I can humbly jump into his wake and allow myself be carried along pretending I'm merely quoting him.

This week's big drama has been, naturally, the Christies' sale of the two bronze heads looted by the French from the Beijing Summer Palace back in 1850, with China carrying on like a Mainland flight-misser at Lap Kok Airport, with much flinging to the ground and screaming about how deeply angry and offended all Chinese are about this.

Mmmm! Although the anger may be real up North, it's an obvious beat-up here, with all the protesters outside the French Embassy looking deeply embarrassed and like they'd prefer to be any place else and doing anything else. Shopping at YSL, maybe? And it's all rather worrying that they think they have to be doing it. Support for Beijing? Or are they being paid? Or forced? Curious, huh!

And, gosh, I did laugh when YSL's life-partner said he'd return the heads if China returned Tibet! Love that guy!

But here's what I really wanted to say: All this screaming about their lost legacy; their missing art; their stolen treasures! All this carrying on about the French and English looting treasures from their Summer Palace back during the Opium Wars! The tragedy! The heart-wrenching travails! How could we, the rest of the world, constantly do this to them?

Umm, here's the real question here: why are the Chinese practising such hypocrisy! And why are they rewriting their own history this way?

We all recall, although they seem to have conveniently forgotten, that in November 1967, at the behest of Uncle Mao, the Sino-Taliban - oops, sorry, I mean The Red Guard - went into the Summer Palace and, in a month-long orgy of destruction, smashed the place to smithereens. Chip Tsao says that over 6000 infinitely precious artifacts - much that was ancient and irreplaceable - were destroyed wholesale.

This event was, as we all know, the ushering in of the Cultural Revolution ... and from there Sino-Taliban took it out into the rest of China and for 10 long years, they "unleashed the juggernaut" and everything precious, irreplaceable or worth anything culturally, spiritually, artistically or historically, was ta-ta-ed bigtime.

So this Chinese outburst over the sale of these heads? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! What they should be saying is "Thank heavens YSL had those heads in 1967 or we'd have smashed them to pieces, silly big duffers that we are!"

Lost Legacy? Ha ha ha ha ha! Only Legacy, more like, since the only treasures China has left, apart from the stuff hidden by brave souls, are those pieces removed from the country prior to China's decade-long Temper-Tantrum - sorry, I meant Cultural Revolution! - so China should be weeping tears of gratitude and shaking hands of those Nations and people who "lost them their legacy", crying out "Thank you for saving us from ourselves, big stupid dunderheads that we are!" instead of strutting out these Big Fat Angry Lies that are serving no purpose beyond annoying the rest of us who believe that History doesn't become History until it's told in total, analysed, synthesised and written up as such. And that lying-about and covering-up things that happened in the past means they aren't IN the past! And if they're not in the Past they're still in the Present and thus it is still possible that they will again "unleash the juggernaut" and what has been regained will then be lost.

Admit it, China! YOU lost your legacy! You willfully and of your own volition destroyed your own precious past! Admit it! Confess it! Learn from it! Put safeguards in place so it won't happen again! THEN, maybe, the rest of the world will be more sympathetic and help you reassemble what is still around, safeguarded by other Nations and people.

Or maybe not! Here's another thing: remember how, once, not too long ago, there was a Museum of Modern Art up there in Dafen? Full of fabulous paintings? And remember how the price of Modern Chinese Art skyrocketed and how Margaret and I walked in on The Red Guard packing it all up and shipping it out? Where are those paintings now, we should all be asking? Who took them and what did they do with them? Those paintings were supposed to be owned by the Chinese People collectively, so under what ruling did this become not the case?

And by this I mean that China is currently so capricious and corrupt, there are no safeguards that ... well, the stuff that China gets back won't just ... well, be recycled when some corrupt and capricious individual is strapped for cash! And then all this screaming will start again about "Stolen Art and Lost Treasures!" when it comes back on the market again ...

Oops, slipping into dangeous waters so here's where I should dunk myself in Chip Tsao's wake and quote him:

"School children in Germany are nowadays taught about the crimes of Hitler. Meanwhile, Mao's embalmed body is still enshrined in a Beijing mausoleum. Wouldn't it be in the greatest interest of mankind if more Chinese antiques remain safely outside the Middle Kingdom? At least as long as there is no guarantee that the nightmare of the Cultural Revolution will happen again.
Artworks like these that enrich the world are best kept safely preserved in institutions such as the British Museum for an indefinite period of time, or at least until China is deemed mature enough to possess them again."

Oh yeah! You go, Chip!

So that's my choice for this week's ...

Threatdown:

Revising history for the sake of self-righteous rhetoric!

Bic Runga! For Louise!

A darling old friend is in touch and we've been talking about 80s trends and fashion and singers, bands etc and she says she finds it annoying how everything from the 80s she thought was "Totally Cool!" she looks at now and just cringes, but how all the folk I loved - David Bowie, Patti Smith, Marianne Faithful etc, etc - are still unquestionably cool, and she wanted to know how I picked 'em.

The answer is I have absolutely no idea but whenever I mention this to Keith he says "You liked Yoko Ono! No one who ever owned a Yoko Ono album has the right to imagine they can judge cool!"

However, I still contend I know cool ... and I've recently noticed someone who, back in the 80s, I found wayyyy cool, is currently being picked up by young Emo-Goth Chicks all over the world, who all think she rocks more than anyone around today, and I agree.

BIC RUNGA! Heard of her? Kiwi chick from the 80s! Loved her to death. Amazing voice and so endlessly beautiful. Her dad was a Maori soldier who, on R&R during the Vietnam War, in Hong Kong, met a woman called Sophia Tang, and they married and moved to NZ and had two stunning daughters who both became rock stars ...

But enough talk! This is Bic Runga back in the 80s. You tell me if she isn't the coolest singer you've heard in the past 30 years, apart from Patti Smith and Marianne Faithful that is.

Last Chance to See #2 - Guangzhou, China!

All the way from Beijing Road to Li Wan Square are the "famous vernacular 19th century arcade/coupons gallery style buildings of Guangzhou", "designed in Canton, by combining the characters of western and traditional Cantonese, to make modernised the city" and dammit if these buildings aren't completely splendid.

Let me show you a few:


Loving them so far? And do note the windows. Those are all stunning and I sooo want to own windows just like them one day. In fact, let me see if I can find more examples of those amazing stained glass or cut-glass windows:

Double-click to see properly.

And there's also a lovely element of "play" in the fabric of these buildings; stunning little decorative bits that serve no function. I'll just show you one so you'll know what I mean.

Love this ceiling?

Don't know why things like this make me happy, but they just do.

Look, instead of being all so overly-prescriptive like this, why don't I show you stretches of street scape and let you choose the buildings you want to fall madly in love with.


In love? OK, now comes the bad part. It's all going! Guangzhou has selected one Coupon-Gallery-Arcade Building that they think is the best, and all the others are to be razed to make way for steel and glass skyscrapers!

It's bad, I'm telling you, BAD! How can they let all this just go? It's all so beautiful. And it's vernacular too; indigenous to Guangzhou; endemic! Nowhere else on earth has buildings quite like these! And it's all still intact; an entire stretch of road that still has all it's architectural integrity. That's just so rare. AND there's nothing structurally wrong with any that I could see, so there is no real grounds for getting rid of them.

Does anyone know anyone at UNESCOs World Heritage? Can someone let them know that the world will lose something special and significant if this stretch of street is demolished, and ask them to, you know, talk to Guangzhou City Council and maybe ...

There's no harm in trying, is there, when the alternative means we're going to lose something that is truly worth saving.

And if we can't save them ... can I please have my choice of those windows?

Panyu District, Guangzhou, China!

Have just been told something most intriguing and exciting, and exactly the sort of thing to get me all stirred-up and wanting-to-tear-in-and-solve-it:

Ancient records from 211BC show that the area of Guangzhou that is known now as the Panyu District was then called Poon-Yu City and was described as "a city that traded with the rest of the world".

So we're talking about right around here, perhaps that very spot there ...

... in fact anywhere from there down to that sport there on the river bend ...

... a person could maybe find the remains of an ancient city that was visited by Persians and Romans and Phoenicians and ... who knows who else!

Remember we have a still outstanding mystery going here. Remember this strange bearded fellow in the Museum at Macau?

Celts!

I've shown you him before; a statue carved round about 300BC in memory of a bunch of sea-faring men who called themselves "Celts" and who were in the South China region.

Remember me saying that this intriguing little piece of pre-history didn't make any sense in light of existing knowledge of this region ... but suddenly, yes, something that makes you go "Ahhh! Poon-Yu! An existing international trading centre! There is finally the possibility of some logic behind these Celts being here!"

Too intriguing and exciting? An entire unexplored area of The Past! All right there and no one looking! Oh, what I wouldn't give to be a Chinese-speaking archeologist instead of just a sad mono-lingual History Teacher! I would so be in there right at this moment requesting a grant to find out more; maybe to hire an imaging device for that entire river bank, just for starters.

OK, next time I go to Guangzhou, I want to stroll down that side of the Pearl River, kicking over stones and rocks and bits of mud, hoping that ... well, you know what I'm hoping for ... and I think I should stop talking about this now if I want this mystery to remain all mine, at least for the time being.

Last Chance to See #1 - Guangzhou, China!

Since becoming a designated S.E.Z. and thus "A World City", Guangzhou is modernising.

The Old backdropped by
The Looming New.

Old sections of this enormous city are currently being demolished to make way for glass and steel skyscrapers, and being, as you know, an inordinately and enormously curious sort with a penchant for old buildings, I casually asked Halley if she'd show me around what will be soon lost forever, thinking it would simply be a walk around several old streets, and/or maybe a visit to Xi Guan Old House; the Qing Dynasty courtyard-house Guangzhou has decided "the best of its kind" and thus to be preserved as a museum displaying houses and lifestyles of this period of history.

But Halley surpassed my expectations and deeply honoured me by taking me on her very own sacred and epic journey of "Farewell and Thank You" around her Very Own Old Neighbourhood, meant to already be demolished but stalled through negotiation issues with the final residents.

Down there in The Old 'Hood

This was Halley's world and, well, if she doesn't mind it all being torn down - and she doesn't - it's hardly my place to say anything different. However, the best bit about this is that ... well, I didn't actually want to say anything different. In her "Hood", the residential buildings looked ...

No protest from you either?

... tired, old, dangerous and ready to go! So, yes, it all can go without a word of protest from me either.

However, even with most of the residents already gone, there was a real kicker of a street life:
The entire area was full of people out and about in the streets, eating, shopping, trading, playing boardgames, minding the grandchildren, playing soccer, talking, laughing, gossiping, living large and publicly; old friends and acquaintances with lifetimes of shared events behind them! That is a treasure I'm sorry to see go!

But, in addition to that exceptional feeling of "neighbourhood", there several material features that I will also be sad to see go, and when I told Halley, she agreed. In fact, those things she was suddenly realising she loved were the same objects I was admiring on aesthetic grounds.

Like the signs I've already shown you that used to adorn these buildings:

Portable, and already for sale!

Or these bonsai trees everyone seems to cultivate:

Portable, so no loss here.

And these alleyways made of large carved chunks of granite:

Aren't these wonderful?
I do hope they recycle these someplace.

And these doorways:

Three layers deep:
the glass-door layer,
the lock-up layer and
the leave-open outer layer.

Here's a better example:


Looking at these doors in particular, Halley came over all nostaglic and explained how everyone always kept the first two layers open, with only the slat-door shut, day and night, and inside all the buildings were always so cool, never registering heat below 38 degrees centigrade, and how no one ever had or needed air-conditioning, the way they all do now in their new places, and that's when she realised how much she missed the deep cool of these old houses in the Old Hood she thought she'd found so easy to leave behind.

Ah, yes, the unexpected poignancy of the Sacred and Epic "Farewell and Thank You" Journey through The Past! I know that one well!

However, Halley also took me to her favourite shopping district also soon to be demolished, and here my heckles rose and I feel the need to fight! Wait until you see why!

The City Of Guangzhou, China!

Those folk who don't believe that Guangzhou, this city in South China ...

... on the banks of the Pearl River ...

... is 8000 thousand square miles in size ... well, you're right. I have the Official Guangzhou Tourist Guide book here with me, and it says categorically that the city is 7434.4 square miles in size, which means I was wrong by roughly 500 square miles!

Still, 7434 square miles! Do you know how HUGE that is? Viti Levu, the main island of the Fiji Group, is roughly 4010 square miles, so this city is nearly twice the size of Viti Levu. My mind boggles! The entire island of Viti Levu entirely city and then double it! Oh wow!

So, really, put like that it's hardly surprising locals don't know what they have in there, so I now take back my criticism that no one knew where Bao Mo Gardens were.

Honestly, I can't get over such a size. You know, going out to Panyu District, to Bao Mo Gardens, took over one and a half hours, and that was all city. And we travelled on by-passes ...

They have literally thousands
of fly-overs and by-passes.

... and freeways ...

The roads to the outer suburbs
nearly all look like this.

... the whole way without a single moments hold-up anyplace, so that entire 1.30 hour journey was all city, city, city ... although I must confess that it quickly started to look like this:

The still-under-construction city

And then this:

The more-rural version of city.

But still! Wow, this city is immense!

And old. This kick-arse modern city of Guangzhou is also astonishingly, amazingly, mind-bogglingly old:

Model of the city as it was back
during the Ming Dynasty,
when it was already known as an ancient city.

I've already told you that Peaceful Markets, over there near beautiful Shamian Dao, were discovered by archeologists to be over 10,000 years old. Yup, even before they had a concept of money, the Cantonese were already entrepreneurs; Peaceful Markets were the place where Tanka Fishermen traded wares with Hakka Farmers! Ahhhh! Doesn't that just grab you! 10,000 years of trading, bartering and much, much later, selling, and, unlike other not-quite-so-ancient cities like Ur which exist now only in ruins, legends and folk memories, this Market existed on this very spot from way back in the dawns of time, always the site of trading - oh, apart from during the Cultural Revolution when Maoists shut it down ... but no one has ever accused the Cultural Revolution of understanding the significance of HISTORY!

But here's something else I came across this visit that blew me away. This is Beijing Road:

Trendy shopping district.

Several years ago, while widening Beijing Road to turn it into a Pedestrian Mall, they stumbled across this ... no, I can't identify a decent photograph in among the thumbnails so I'll only throw in a whatever to give you the idea, and then do an individual and proper post on it later ...

Beneath modern Beijing Road are other earlier Beijing Roads. Yup, Beijing Road existed in five other incarnations, during five completely different periods of Chinese history, in exactly the same place!


They were so astonished, they didn't want to cover it all up again, so covered the area with glass so everyone can now see all the different roads this road had once been. This so blew me away, I will show you more on it at some other time.

So that's all on Guangzhou today, kiddies. Can you remember that? Guangzhou: HUGE and OLD! Massive and Ancient! Got it? Good. Exam on Wednesday!

Sorry, I've been a teacher too long and I just can't help myself when I come over all Pedagogic like this! I'll go now!

Cute Little Piece of History.

When Halley was showing me around her old neighbourhood in Guangzhou, soon to be demolished and which I do intend to show you any day now, we came across a shop selling all the old signs they'd gathered up from around the area.

Cantonese, huh!
Knee-jerk entrepreneurs!
Never let a sale go by!

There were several of them that made her feel all nostalgic since she'd known them all her life.

One of these, which she really wanted me to buy, was a sign from the turn of the previous century that read "Smoking adds to your Health!"

I think this is it,
although this could be the

definition of happiness.
Not being able to read
much Chinese, I can't be sure.

Of course, it could be this one: Or this one:

If you wonder why so many elderly Chinese smoke ... I'm sure signs like this are the reason.

Don't you just love coming across genuine pieces of important Social History! I'd buy them all only ... don't want to pay Foreign Devil prices. Maybe someone would like to send money to Halley and let her bargain them down for the lot, and then I'll send them on to you. And all I'd want for my commission is the one that says "Smoking adds to your health!"

Rounding up the African News!

There I was, so convinced Robert Mugabe was already living on Tai Po - a little island here in the South China Sea where they appear to be setting up a luxury bolthole/sanctuary for him - when he rocks up at his 85th Birthday Party in Harare! There goes that theory!

He's still in Zimbabwe, folks, although I don't think it'll be for much longer.

Did you read about that birthday party? For a once-proud nation, now so broken and bloody, in ruins, with 90% below the poverty line and a raging cholera epidemic, it's kinda obscene spending zillions on a party. But hey, no one said Monsters were logical!

And the speeches!!! "You are a crocodile! Strong, resilient and ever-lasting." I'm not kidding! Fulsome praise from all around. And even if it is just blowing smoke, you'd think that now, as he teeters on the edge of his fall, is not the time people should be seen aligning themselves with The Monster ... something which China needs to realise; that only really really stupid people are currently showing support for Mugabe!

Stupidity? China! Oh yes indeed! Must tell you, China is definitely getting stupid again! It goes it cycles! In fact, it's so up-and-down, it's almost like the Chinese Communist Party is bi-polar.

Let me tell you the latest: Hong Kong asked China why they are pressuring us to give sanctuary to Mugabe and were told "You support Falen Gong! You let them buy land! You don't extradite them! This is the same thing!" THIS IS NOT A JOKE! THIS IS WHAT CHINA SAID ABOUT WHY WE SHOULD SUPPORT THE MUGABES!

I'm having a hard time getting my head around their thinking: Because we say that our collective conscience refuses to let us extradite Falen Gong folk - who basically just want to do a particular type of Tai Chi - back to China where they will be tortured and killed, we must then also accept these Monsters in our midsts; folks who themselves tortured and killed. Can anyone explain this to me?

Anyway, 500 former-Zimbabweans have begged Hong Kong to forbid the Mugabes entry saying that it's a nightmare for them that they were driven out of their country, and now he's following them. They also say HK will regret giving them santuary because their foul corruption and vicious bullying will travel with them. We've already seen that, what with Grace's mega-rage last week in Tsim Sha Tsui.

And that's brings me to the next point: police are now saying that because Grace's diamond rings tore through skin and made folks bleed, it constitutes "actual bodily harm" and that carries an automatic sentence of incarceration, so Grace must be charged and must go to jail. The question of whether she should be allowed to claim Diplomatic Immunity - and what we will do if she does - is now before the Justice Commission so we all wait on that ruling with bated breath.

The best possible outcome will be they say she must be arrested because what will happen then is that she will do a runner, so we will then have an outstanding warrant for her arrest for when she returns, which means she can't and won't return! Yayyy!

Oh yeah! You go, Hong Kong!

The other and final piece of news on the subject is that we've discovered Grace has been up in China, organising herself a diamond cutting and polishing factory. Seems she has millions of raw diamond. Possibly Zimbabwe's entire stockpile! Which, yeah, yeah, could well be the real reason China wants her? She has blood diamonds!

It's all so creepy and dirty, isn't it! So, please, be behind HK. We're the Good Guys in all this, so please support us in our Righteous Attempt to NOT SUPPORT MONSTERS!

Yeah, go Hong Kong, go Hong Kong, go Hong Kong!

Testing Google Translator

Have recently discovered Google Translator and was using it bigtime to send stuff around to people, except I've had a Korean friend and a Cantonese friend both, individually, says my notes to them in their language are weird and don't understand what I'm trying to say.

On those grounds, I want to try an experiment:

ENGLISH

Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full.
One for the master, one for the dame
and one for the little boy who lives down the lane.

TRADITIONAL CHINESE

BAA的BAA的害群之馬，你有沒有任何羊毛？
是的，先生，是的，先生，三包充分。
一個是主，一個用於聖母院
和一個小男孩的生命了誰巷。

ENGLISH AGAIN Baa baa black sheep some waves? Yes, sir, yes sir, three bag is full. She is a teacher, was one of Notre Dame Many small children to stay in Lynn

Bao Mo Gardens, Guangzhou, China.

You thought I couldn't do it, didn't you! You thought I'd over-reached myself with this foolish ambition to find a place everyone said didn't exist when I didn't know this 8000+ square mile city and couldn't even speak the language to ask anyone?

But I've done it before. Recall how I tracked down the Artists' Village of Dafen; another place that everyone said didn't exist?

And now folks are telling me that someplace else doesn't exist?! Pshaw! Like I'd let that stop me.

Bao Mo Gardens. I've blogged about them before; about how these mythical gardens were supposedly created 600 years ago by the artist ...

...whose name I've forgotten ...

... who invented that now-traditional style of Chinese painting involving black inks and wet rice paper; how these gardens had been on the "100 Great Treasures of China" list every century since they were first created; how they were supposedly destroyed during the Revolution but resurrected in 1995. With such a history, how could I not attempt to hunt them down? To be in Guangzhou and not do so would be like ignoring the Loch Ness Monster while it's eating your picnic!

Well, all you nay-sayers out there, let me show you what I accomplished on this latest visit to Guangzhou:

Dah dah!
The Loch Ness Monster
eating my picnic!

Sorry the picture is so grossly over-exposed. I had my camera on Automatic and it appears to make really bad choices. But I guess there should be an element of bad photography when you're snapping Mythical Beasts!

And this Mythical Beast is huge. Here's a map showing you the overview of the place:

Acres of it,
divided into different sections,
featuring different things.

I only spent two hours in here, so I doubt I saw all, but let me take you through only a small sample of the places I did see:

There is so much more I'm not showing you. Like, I haven't included a single shot of the gorgeous bridges that link these different areas. But, overall, I think I've given you a fair representation of what is there to be seen.

However, the actual gardening aspect of it? The greenery? Mmmm, I think I'll leave that for a different post, undoubtedly called "Guangzhou City Council, Get Yourself a Decent Horticulturalist!" Honestly, the crimes against Botany that are being committed in this entire city! And Bao Mo Gardens is no exception!

But that's for a different post, so I'll give you just one example here:

Love that mix of colours!

It's all very pretty, yes?, until it suddenly dawns on you ... those vines ... there, in the background. Can you see what they are? And the moment you recognise them it's all "Oh no! You fools! You idiots! You stupid, stupid people!" Really, if they had anyone in the City Council who knew plants, these sorts of "Let's plant a curse for future generations!" mistakes just wouldn't happen.

But ignore the botany. It's the material-culture things that make this place so special. Like, the Pleasure Area where you listen to Chinese Opera.

This family hired out the entire facility.
Grandma's birthday wish?

And there's a museum dedicated to the Artist who created these gardens and whose name I've forgotten.

The walls of the Museum.
Gorgeous, huh!

Display cases of his possessions.

Only some are the actual objects
he used to paint with.

And there's the room I've chosen as the Most Beautiful on the Planet that houses Our Artist's collection of blue and white china:

Enormous Vases!

NEED! NEED!

I collect blue and white china. Yes, I know, people have told me - often! - that it's a very Lesbian-chic thing to do, but I can't help myself. However, there's nothing in my collection that comes near to the preciousness of the ones in here.

And the place has passageways-to-die-for. These link the different areas and are all so special, I think I'll do a separate post on them, so here's just one for now:

OK, a second one:

You'll have to wait for the others.

And there's an area devoted to Bonsai:


And several areas devoted to koi:

Way too many!
I think they sell them.

And they have lots and lots of those objects Lady R. thinks are "the most beautiful on the planet." Moon-gates! I took lots of photos of different ones for her, but I'll do a special post on them just for her, so here's just one for now:

Although there are so many other areas devoted to other things, I think I'll stop. It's becoming unwieldy and difficult inserting more photographs, so I'll end now with telling you that there are several areas simply devoted to solitude and prayer, all featuring the Goddess of Mercy, Kwan Yin. Here's just one:

So, that's Bao Mo Gardens for you. I'm sure I'll be showing you more photographs in the future, but this is all for the moment.

Summing up? What did I think of my amazing discovery? Since I went to so much trouble to find the place, I would like to say I was swept away by the beauty of it all. However, I have a confession to make: there is something in the Chinese aesthetic that makes me really appreciate the Japanese. In Japan, they edit. They know "Less is More". They believe in Wabi - the perfect object in the perfect place - and Sabi - creating tiny moments that make you stop and pause and reflect on the meaning of your life and actions etc - which the Chinese don't do. Perfect objects? Yes indeed! China has these in abundance! In the perfect place? Maybe!

But ...

... Chinese do everything so exquisitely that everything says "look at me!" None of these great artisans want to back down and take second place to another great artisan so every piece demands your full attention and admiration and, in the end, I hate to say it, your head is spinning and it all becomes a little too much. In Bao Mo Gardens there is too much that is beautiful, too much to be admired, too much to take your breath away that by the end you feel exactly like this girl looks:

Ho hum!

But that's just me. You may LOVE nothing better than a surfeit of riches! And if that's the case, I can recommend Bao Mo Gardens highly.

How to get there? The city of Guangzhou is over 8000 square miles in size and even knowing Bao Mo Gardens is in the Panyu district won't really get you there easily. In the end I'm afraid I cheated. I hired a car and driver and made it his problem to find out where the Gardens were. And he, apparently, had no idea so went looking for it on the Internet ... and voila! Problem solved. I had discovered Bao Mo Gardens.

I recommend that, until Guangzhou discovers this treasure in their midsts for themselves, that this is the way you do it too.