Guangzhou/Canton (2nd Half)

Presented by Group 5:

Henry LiuRussell LingLauren WongDaniel Huante

Sun Yat-Sen University

Sun Yat-sen University, originally known asGuangdong University, was founded in 1924 by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, a great democratic revolutionary hero of the 20th century. The university is one of the top rankeduniversities in the People's Republic of China.

Shudan, a Teochew student from Sun Yat-Sen University, as well as a new friend, gives a brief description of how in the last three decades, Guangdong province is the site of one of the largest migrations of people in the world as Chinese from other province migrate to the area, while on our tour around the University’s campus.

A SYSU student, also one of our tour guides around SYSU campus, briefly explains Sun Yat-Sen University being a name-brand institution of higher education with fine traditions in teaching and learning. In addition, the school motto is to “study extensively; enquire accurately; reflect carefully; discriminate clearly; practice earnestly.”

The tuition, per semester, for attending Sun Yat-SenUniversity is 8700 RMB, which roughly converts to $1600 USD.

On our tour around SYSU campus, we took a group picture in front of the North Gate of the North Gate Square. This gate is the pinnacle piece of attractive architecture on the square because on this memorial gateway is the name of Sun Yat-Sen etched in his own handwriting.

Sun Yat-Sen University consists of four campuses, which sits along the Zhu Jiang, in other words, the Pearl River. The Pearl River is named this because of all the pearl colored shells that lie at the bottom of the river in the section that flows through the city of Guangzhou. It is the widest distributor within the delta, although considerably short. The waters that converge east of the Bei Jiang are first referred to as the Pearl River just north of Guangzhou.

• During our time in Guangzhou, we stayed in Zijingyuan Hotel of Sun Yat-Sen University. Next to the hotel was a class room where students would attend lectures and study throughout the evening. Near the end of our stay in Guangzhou, we made a toast and said our good-bye to Wu Jian, a new friend from Xiamen University.

• Wu Jian’s Mandarin Chinese skill was also an invaluable asset to us in Guangzhou in terms of communication and navigating around the city. Due to Mainland China’s influence on Guangzhou to communicate in Mandarin Chinese instead, has led many Guangzhou local to speak Mandarin Chinese instead of Cantonese Chinese. Even Guangzhou media and TV station has been switch to Mandarin Chinese.

Food in Guangzhou ranged from being tender and creamy to succulent and savory. Some dishes that we ate at restaurants consists of: taro-root boiled in a thick creamy stock, steamed pork-filled dumplings, thinly sliced pork covered in a sweet & savory sauce, and roasted chicken glazed with sugar and soy sauce.

The Bruce Lee museum, located in Shunde Guangdong, is regarded as the largest museum in the world that is dedicated to the life of the legendary Bruce Lee.

Shunde was a thriving place of traditional agriculture but due to the reform policy in 1978, Shunde was given full control to its people. This allowed Shunde to developed into an industrial boomtown. This led Shunde to be economically competitive.

Some of the products that Shundeproudly manufacture are furniture and electric appliances. Some of Mainland China famous companies, such as Kelon or Midea are stationed here.

Bruce Lee Museum and ShundeGuangzhou

Some famous people are originated from Shunde such as Ip Man, Wong FeiHung and Bruce Lee.

Ip Man was an exceptionally talented martial art teacher. He opened up a few martial art school and trained many students, whom would later to become famous martial arts in their own right, including Bruce Lee. Ip Man was also a police officer during his time in Foshan.

Wong Fei Hung was also a famous martial artist who blessed many televisions and films with his martial art skills. His martial art style is called the Hung Gar. His martial art skills was so great that some argued that he could match Bruce Lee in a fight. Hung was also a physician that owned a private clinic in Foshan. Hung also has a museum dedicated to him with the aims of carrying on his legacy and his medical ethics at Foshan.

The legacy of Bruce Lee was his contribution in promoting Chinese martial arts and kung fu films. Both of Jackie Chan and Jet Li’s achievement pales in comparison in Bruce Lee legacy.

Due to his strong passion in films, Bruce Lee fought hard to build a good image of Asians in Hollywood films and refused to partake in any roles that could negatively portrayed Asians.

Bruce Lee fought the stigma of poor Asian image that was originated from the Opium War, where China lost to the western power. Despite defeat, China resisted the Western imperialism and colonization. This led the westerners to call China “the sick man of Asia.” This referred to China being weak, despite its massive size. Bruce Lee fought hard for the nationalism of China, showing that China is not “the man of Asia” anymore.

Bruce Lee was recognized as one of the seven best martial artist in the 1970s and was the only Chinese national, to be nominated as one of the most influential icons in the 20th century.

Some of Bruce Lee’s equipment for his training. He believed in absolute fitness and physical conditioning. He felt that many athletics would focus on one aspect of training, such as cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, muscles endurances and muscular strength. He balanced all of these elements which made him more of a well-rounded fighter and thus, made his skills in martial fighting to be at the highest level.

Bruce Lee basics styles of martial arts was taught in one of Ip Man’s school, who was also a renowned martial artist teacher. Ip Man’s martial arts style was Wing Chun. Bruce Lee only completed halfway through Ip Man’s courses before leaving and decided to innovated and incorporated new moves which created his own style of martial art.

Bruce Lee was an alumni to our beloved University of Washington.

Bruce Lee majored in drama and philosophy. His love of philosophy was so great that he owned an library of books. Due to his extensive knowledge of philosophy, he incorporated many of it in his personal life and his martial art philosophy. Lee believed that everyone should be constantly gaining knowledge in order to become self-knowledge. This seems be part of the reason of how he lived his life. Even though he lived only for 32 years, he has accomplished many achievements in such a short period of time.

Bruce Lee was also a believer of Taoism, in which he felt that in order to be free and go beyond your limit, once must think outside of the box because that’s where true knowledge lies. If a person only follows the systems that the society has laid out, then that person will not reach greatness.

Bruce Lee faced difficulty in landing a movie role due to Hollywood discrimination of his ethnicity. He would eventually land an supporting role in the movie “The Green Hornet.” This movie was a huge success, which helped him to become more recognizable. He would later have more negotiating power in landing more favorable roles in his future films. In one of his film “The Way of the Dragon,” he was given complete control as the writer, director, star and choreographer of the fight scenes.

Bruce Lee’s ancestry originated in Shunde, Guangzhou. Lee’s grandfather built the house with bricks and woods. It was spacious and had rooms to practice martial arts. It covered about 51 sq meters.It was overall, a very humble home, where Bruce Lee had only lived there for a short period of time.

Throughout this part of the tour, our tour guide, Louis went into some details of Shunde. Louis mentioned that the Shunde mayor, is considered to be the most nationalist in all of Guangzhou. He only speak Cantonese Chinese, which helped the Cantonese Chinese language to thrive in Shunde.

Louis also mentioned that there was a time where women in Shunde refused to take marriage with another man. They called themselves “self-combed woman.” Many women chose the route of being single. This decision gave them the education, freedom, some level of independence and a voice in a matter. In addition, it was also to support their family. During the silk production era, many of these factories would refuse to hire married women. By staying single, many women would ensure to their family that they would have a source of income in order to survive. Pretty Chinese females were quite unfortunate during this time as they were forcibly taken to marriage or have been forced to become concubines.

Our tour guide, Louis, has mentioned a great deal of Shunde Cuisine. Many famous Cantonese chefs are from Shunde, which made the place famous for being the precursor to the Cantonese dishes. Due to the frugal life of Guangzhou people, Cantonese chefs has mastered diverse and complex cooking skills, which makes seemingly easy cuisine into dishes that could be considered prestigious.

Many of these dishes were uniquely tasty due to the many mixture flavors that would burst into anyone’s mouth.

Among them, one of the dishes, the Jun’an pork, the dish on the bottom right panel, is an example of how a deceptively simple looking dish in Shunde, was imbued with many flavors. The chef would deboned the whole pig, marinated them in five-spice powder, salt, and sugar, which would be steamed for an hour with charocal. Then the pork would be thinly cut and be sprinkled with sesame seeds. This method of cooking intensified the pork flavor while also giving the subtle taste of the sauces.

ChimelongResort

• The Chimelong Resort is in the Panyu district of Guangzhou.• Panyu is one of the wealthiest districts in Guangzhou because

of the Chimelong resort. • The resort the biggest amusement park in China and is made

up of multiple parks.• Our group visited Chimelong water park and Chimelong

Paradise.

The Chimelong water park is the biggest water park in China and features multiple award winning rides. In the park men and women wore different bathing suits then we do in the United States of America. Women dressed more conservatively while men wore speedos, and because of these cultural differences, some people felt uncomfortable wearing long board shorts and bikinis compared to what all the locals wore.

The Chimelong Paradise has over 60 attractions that include three world breaking roller coasters. The roller coaster with the fastest acceleration, the roller coaster with the most inversions, and the roller coast with the biggest drop. It also has a 4D movie theater and shows like the American Lumber Jack Show.

Guangzhou – Shop til’ You Drop!

If there is anything that the citizens of Guanzhou know how to do, it is shopping! It is quite common to making shopping a daily ritual in Guangzhou. One can find just about anything they are looking for.

Shang-xia-jiu Pedestrian Shopping Street

A unique shopping area where one can find all the necessities ranging from clothes and shoes to ladies’ items. It is located in the old site of Guangzhou and consists of old-fashion, traditional architecture. Developed during the Ming Dynasty, it is regarded as the second most famous street in Guangzhou.

“Mall of the World”

It is located in Huacheng Square alongside of other incredible creations of mankind such as the Canton Tower. The Mall of the World is nothing short of amazing as it consists of over 400 shops within its walls, and it features a variety of merchandise ranging from clothes to high end boutiques. Besides all of the shopping one can do, people are able to enjoy themselves in a wide array of luxury such as fine dining and 3D IMAX entertainment.

Valley View Hotsprings Resort

Valley View Hot Spring Resort is a unique getaway in the sense that there are no other hot springs like it. Located in the Conghua Hot Spring Town and on the edge of the LiuxiRiver, this resort holds a variety of hot springs containing different properties. One such spring is of its only kind and contains special minerals like no other.

Valley View Hotspring Resort

The resort is a community all within itself. Aside from the hot springs, there are multiple luxuries the resort can offer. The restaurant consists of healthy, organic food concocted by renowned chefs. A massage spa also comes along with staying at the resort as well as games including table tennis and pool.