Shaimian Island

Shaimian Island is the small island that our hotel is on. It is on the Pearl River and is separated from the rest of Guangzhou by a small canal. Most of the buildings were built by the French and the English following the opium wars - the island was a concession made by the Chinese as part of a treaty. Shaimian Island is where a lot of the foreigners to Guangzhou stay, especially those adopting as the whole island is set up for us. Therefore, it is essential to get off the island and into the city to experience the real China. Just over the canal is the famous Qing Ping market with winding alleys where you can buy anything from dried sea horses to turtle shells to antique trinkets. Shaimian Island is beautiful and covered with 250 year old trees and the parks that are full of locals doing tai chi and playing badminton. At night, all the buildings along the river are lit up with dancing neon lights and there is a perpetual laser show in the sky above the river. We have a great view of this spectacle from our 12th floor hotel window.
This morning we went out to drop off our laundry at one of the small shops and take a walk in the park. We were lucky enough to run into a huge group of uniformed school children (literally hundreds) who were demonstrating some sort of dance/martial arts routine. We also saw a group of preschool or kindergarten aged children who practiced their "hellos" on us. They are always a bit shocked when we can speak a little Chinese to them. One of their teachers asked about Nina who was sleeping strapped to my chest. As always, we showed her a picture of her 3 sisters back home to which exclaimed to the other teacher "zhen piaoliang!" - they are so beautiful. Yes they are. And we miss them terribly!