Day 5: Guangzhou

We were up early today to travel to Guangzhou which is in the Canton Province of China. We were very excited to meet the students in the 2 + 2 program in Hotel/Restaurant management. The first cohort will be coming to campus this next fall so we were excited to meet them and talk about OSU. We had a full room of students (over 50) attend our meeting and it is a national holiday in China today! They were full of questions about OSU and Stillwater, and all of them seemed excited to see us and visit about the program. As with all students, they were concerned about roommates, food, the community, and what there is to do for fun in Stillwater. One young lady wanted to know if we had parties on campus. I thought Dr. Bird fielded that question very appropriately! :)

It was Lena's birthday today and we celebrated in style. Dr. Bird ordered her an amazing cake and we enjoyed it after our lunch. We had another large banquet meal upon checking into our hotel, and the most interesting thing to eat was the eggplant with sweet and sour sauce. I'll have to try that when I get home. I think Lena had a very memorable day and a birthday she will never forget.

After our meeting with the students (and a million pictures) we loaded on a bus for a tour of the SYSU campus. It a very large, beautiful campus. Guangzhou is tropical so there are lots of palm trees and rain forest flowers and plants.  After our tour we were taken to a very unique shopping center. It had hundreds of small shops, all under the same roof, and they each sold one unique item. One shop would sell watches, the next purses, another hair ornaments, etc. Very interesting because there was no end to what you could buy and the further you wandered into the heart of the center the more you feared you would never find your way out! Spooky, but interesting. Families were rocking babies, playing cards, eating and socializing in the hall ways. 

Guangzhou is getting ready for the Asian games that will be in town next week. They have also planted lots of flowers for the event and worked on the appearance for the visitors. However, I don't get the feeling that this city is a cosmopolitan as Shanghai.

This evening we went on a dinner cruise down the river. They served quail and a variety of noodles for dinner. It was interesting to watch our hostesses eat quail with chop sticks. The Chinese people love to light their buildings, and they have many video billboards (like you would see in Vegas) aside their buildings, and on barges floating up and down the river. All the lights are very colorful. It rained on us most of the afternoon (tropical showers) so it was very humid all evening.

Tomorrow we are up early to give a presentation, then off to Chengdu (where the panda's live).

-Dr. Ehlers