I originally intended to come to Guangzhou to experience a different kind of winter than in the north, but unexpectedly I ran into a cold front. The temperature readings were higher, but compared to the freezing weather in Tianjin, there was not much of a difference.
On the day before arriving in Guangzhou, I passed through Nanchang and stayed near Nanchang Station. It was already midnight when I arrived at the hotel, and I went to a nearby restaurant to try a dish of stir-fried bacon with Houttuynia cordata. The meat was fatty but not too greasy, and the greens were very fresh, but the rest of the dish was not particularly impressive. It was here that I first encountered a way of serving tea that involved using a plastic basin. It was only later that I realized that this was for the convenience of rinsing the cups and pouring water. The hotel room window was facing an overpass. Since I still had work to do, I was feeling restless. The chair next to the desk was originally placed facing the inside of the room, but I specially moved the chair to the other side of the desk so that I could see out the window, which is how I got this picture.
The most pleasant surprises are the ones you least expect. The next morning, when I opened the curtains, everything was covered in a thick blanket of snow. I had no idea that I would just happen to encounter the biggest snowfall in Nanchang in 20 years. The snowflakes were as big as goose feathers, and they were very beautiful. There were many people taking pictures with the snow in front of the hotel that morning, but it also caused a lot of inconvenience. I had specially changed into a pair of sneakers with mesh holes for my trip to the south, but they were not up to the task of dealing with the current road conditions. As expected, my shoes ended up being soaked all day long.
After dealing with work, I headed to Guangzhou in the afternoon. I heard from the driver that salt had been spread on the roads, so there was not much snow accumulation. It was already afternoon when I arrived at Nanchang West Station. The station was packed with people, and the train schedule board was full of delay information. The good news was that my train was only slightly delayed. Looking at the anxious passengers, I felt a little ashamed but also a little relieved. On the train, I encountered a mother and child arguing with a conductor. The general idea was that because the train was delayed, they had missed their transfer train. They asked who would be responsible for their expenses for the night, including accommodation, etc. The conductor was naturally not responsible, and after explaining that this was an act of nature, which was to no avail, he had to call the train manager for help.
Because the train was delayed, it was already late at night when I arrived in Guangzhou. It was drizzling and windy, and the down jacket I was wearing was not at all excessive. There were no chain hotels near the South Station, so I found a hotel with a prominent photo on the platform and walked over, only to find that it did not meet my expectations. By this time, my stomach was already growling, and it just so happened that there were quite a few restaurants in the area. I saw a Chaoshan restaurant and ordered frog porridge and stir-fried vegetables. I did not expect this frog to be the kind of frog I had imagined from the countryside, but the meat was very tender, and it was a little bit salty, but it also brought out the 鮮味 more.
The next morning, because I had gotten rained on the night before due to not having an umbrella, I bought one at a convenience store. The hotel was about 100 meters from the subway station, and this umbrella only served its purpose for that one journey.
I also have fond memories of several of the lunches I had. I finally got to eat my “countryside chicken.” It was a way of eating that I had never seen before, similar to the “hand-cut chicken” in Tianjin hot pot, except that the seasoning was changed to a more southern-style flavor. It should also be good with sesame paste. The advantage of this way of eating is that the meat is extremely tender. The only downside is that it is not very easy to chew. Later, when I was in Shandong, I had a similar way of eating chicken directly in a Chongqing hot pot, but the chicken that time was too processed. Although it was soft and 烂，it no longer had any chicken flavor. Another time, I had claypot rice made in an electric rice cooker. It may have been authentic, but there were no vegetables, and one pot per person was a bit too much. The other meals were nothing to write home about. They all tasted the same as they do all over the country. It may have been because of my personal preferences, but they did not conform to the stereotype of Guangzhou food being very sweet.
There were too many things to deal with, and when I was outdoors, I was basically switching between various modes of transportation in Guangzhou. Aside from walking, I was mostly underground, and I only saw the Pearl River from where I was staying. It was only later that I learned that the place I was staying was only a street away from the Xiaobailou where Mr. Lu Xun lived.
On this trip to Guangzhou, because I happened to encounter an unusual cold snap, the sense of novelty that I had originally expected from the temperature difference did not materialize. On second thought, if I had to find even the slightest difference between Guangzhou and the other cities I had visited before, it would seem to be only the trilingual announcements on the subway.