the white swan

i confess that as much as shamian island is not "the real china" i love the white swan hotel. this is my third stay here. the first was in 2003 at the height of sars. our flight home got canceled and we had to stay here 2 extra days. i just went to the pool and pretended i was in hawaii.

today was really really hot- much hotter than hawaii. we spent some time shopping which the girls loved. they were willing to speak mandarin to a couple of the shop keepers and its amazing to watch them gain confidence and pride when they are recognized for speaking the language. they had a blast shopping for gifts for friends and family. bargaining seems like a fun game to them and they are getting pretty good at it. next time i see something i want, i'm going to have one of them get it for me...

much of the afternoon was spent swimming in the luscious pool. and after dinner we wandered the streets. this part of guangzhou is really quaint with lots of old colonial buildings. there is a lovely avenue lined with fun sculptures of life in china /life on shamian island and the kids enjoyed joining in with them for photos.

we said good bye to m and k tonight . they have been wonderful travel companions and we will miss their company as we venture off to zhangzhou where we'll be on our own for 4 days . we posed the kids on the famous red couch at the white swan for old times sake and they really hammed it up. no trip here is complete without a red couch photo.

back to "the real china" tomorrow.