We started the day
out by leaving our hotel in Xi'an at 6 a.m. with breakfast in hand as we headed
to the airport. We made it through
Chinese security, which was way more relaxed than U.S. security, and departed
at 8:35. The airplane was a lot nicer than
most of us were expecting. It had three
seats on each side and they served us "breakfast" (cherry tomatoes,
cake, a dinner role, and a slice of ham).
We landed in Guangzhou, a city of 17 million people, at 10:45, and it
was 85F with 90% humidity when we got out of the airport! We got all of our
luggage, and met our new tour guide Jocelyn.
Then we had lunch at a restaurant beside the airport where we were
served roasted goose, carp, mushroom soup and assorted vegetables. We also celebrated Katrina's 22nd birthday
with cake topped with some of China's fresh fruits-peaches, grapes, and dragon
fruit-for dessert.
After lunch we
were off on a two hour bus ride to the Nansha Grain and General Cargo Terminal
Branch Company. On the ride to the port
we saw a variety of different crops, as Guangzhou is a lot more tropical than
Xi'an and Beijing. Some of the crops
Guangzhou consisted of were banana trees, sunflowers, rice, grapes, corn, and
more tree farms. There are a lot of
rivers, streams, and aquaculture farms.
Just like the rest of China, the water here is very polluted and
unclean. The city of Guangzhou also
looks different than the previous two cities.
There are a lot more smaller houses and apartment buildings in
Guangzhou. But there are still many
high-rise apartment buildings too. For
many years, Guangzhou was the only port the Chinese government allowed
international vessels to unload at.
When we arrived at the Nansha Port we went to a meeting room in the
Port Affairs Building and watched a video in Mandarin or Cantonese about the
port (we're not really quite sure what language). After the video we had a question and answer
session about the port. We learned that
the port is on a man-made island. It has
only been in production for three years and they are still currently working on
completing phase three of their construction.
This port primarily receives iron, coal, corn, soybeans, and wheat, because
it is specialized to handle grain. It
then exports things like electronics, machinery, toys, and furniture. The island is 1.192 million square
meters. The port itself has a ton of
shipping containers and unloading cranes.
The port can load and unload six cargo ships at a time. We found out that it can take up to three
days to unload a cargo ship when it arrives.
We were able to ride our bus down to the area where all the containers
and cranes are located to get a close-up look.
A regular container ship can carry 8,000 containers, and containers are
basically what we see every day in the Midwest being transported by semis. It was incredible and indescribable. After the tour we headed to our hotel for the
evening and supper on our own.
Again from China
we have made it through another eventful day and look forward to ending our
trip with memories that will last a lifetime. From all of us in China, you stay
classy South Dakota!
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