Casual International Teacher Conference Day 5: Guangzhou Tour Group Part A -- Ancient Chinese History and an Allergic Reaction

Saturday, November 29th, 2025

9:34 PM

GUIS, Nansha, China

(Talking about Wednesday)

A hotel buffet in China is expansive. There's traditional Chinese breakfast, such as four different types of congee (traditional, with pork, with seafood, and oatmeal), with toppings you can add to it (chives, egg, soy sauce, chili peppers). There's dim sum. There's pastries. Cheong fan eggs, fried eggs, and an omelette bar. A won ton soup station. Cereal. Black tea. Coffee. Hot water. Fruit (including dragonfruit!). It can be overwhelming. Where do you start? What do you want?

I got about 4 cups of black tea with some congee and pastries, and then I made my way downstairs. I was wearing my new shirt from Hong Kong, which was pretty exciting (for me), but the tour guide told me it would get cold at night so I needed to grab a sweatshirt.

Thus began our hour drive into the city. I was in a van with the tour guide (English name: Shadow), Ben again (Chinese name: Xiaolei), Maria (a Brazilian woman who is a professor at a university in Adelaide), and Olivia (originally from Florida, now lives in Puerto Rico). Shadow started telling us about China, how it was first unified thousands of years ago by Qin Shi Huang in the 200s BC and started the Qin Dynasty. Since then, while dynasties have risen and fallen, and different provinces have been more powerful than others, China has continued to be inhabited by the Chinese and governed by the Chinese. 

It is honestly a very intimidating history in how long it is and how much we know about it due to the preservation of historical records, and I realize that, before the Europeans show up, I don't know very much about it. I did call Kenny the next morning to talk about it, and he asked me if I knew how Qin Shi Huang died, then proceeded to tell me the exact story I learned at the museum -- meaning Kenny knew who that was, and also how he died, just off the top of his head (nerd).

On the way into the city, Shadow and Ben told us a little bit about Chinese culture. Yes, everything is recorded, but that's okay -- that cuts down on crime. All governments are kinda garbage, so why stress about China's? Being gay is actually okay here, as long as you're not in people's face about it (whatever that means, but okay!). You can't get married or anything, but a lot of young people don't want to get married anyway anymore, so again, who cares! And actually, the "who cares" argument makes a lot of sense. China is more affordable, and it's not like the US is living up to its "city upon a hill" reputation. Technologically speaking, China has some very cool stuff that we just don't have, and you don't need cash for anything. In fact, they don't take credit card either. It's all Alipay or Apple Pay. Get that stuff situated on your phone before coming!

Our tour started with the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall, where people of the Chen Clan would come, in the 1800s, to be educated. They were immigrants to the region. Guangzhou actually has a very long history of being an international city. Originally named "Canton," it was known as the Gateway to the West, as foreigners would stop there before they went anywhere else in China. 

The entrance of the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall.

The dragons at the front were there to ward off bad spirits. There was always one male and one female. Which was which?

Yes, the one with the baby dragon was female, because females gotta care for the young every time.

More protection against bad spirits.

There were a lot of outdoor areas and gardens here, and this place has been changed to now reflect the history of the Chen Clan and a particular aspect of the city of Guangzhou. It is a cultural center.

Ben took this photo of me.

And this one. I really never know what to do with my hands.

Chinese gardens tend to have trees from different phases of life. As seen here!

This person saw me wait for them to walk down this corridor and then, right as I was taking the photo, stuck his head back into frame. I don't think he even wanted to be in my photo, so not sure what he was going for here, but I love it.

They also had an exhibit on sculpting ivory from elephant tusks. Wild! This is apparently a historical heritage practice in Guangzhou. Ben explained that, while the sculpting of ivory came from Guangzhou and is famous, the tusks did not. They came from Thailand. I did not voice my reaction, which was something along the lines of yes, of course they did -- the elephants are in Thailand. There are more regulations now on how you get the ivory, but some of the artwork is actually pretty recent! I don't know what those regulations are. Wild.

There is also tea sold here, because obviously -- if you are a student studying, you might want some tea. These are orange peels that have been dried and aged for 40-50 years. 

After the cultural center, we stopped in a shopping and dining area for coffee. Shadow told us that Guangzhou actually has the most amount of coffee shops in the world. While older generations love their tea, younger generations love their coffee. Some of the Chinese coffee shops are actually getting pretty big. Luckin Coffee has a shop on 5th Avenue in NYC and has surpassed Starbucks for total number of stores opened globally. I think a big part of that is China. Luckin Coffee opened in 2017, and if it's Chinese, and there's competition between two stores in a Chinese city, people might prefer the Chinese company over the American one. Luckin Coffee also appeals to different taste buds. Their best seller is a coconut milk coffee drink that's fantastic. Starbucks doesn't really have that.

An outdoor shopping and dining area where we walked around before stopping for coffee.

A traditional Chinese door with 3 panels of wood. The concept of Feng Shui at play here.

Clockwise from left -- tour guide Shadow, me, Olivia, Maria, and Ben.

Outdoor artwork carved from wood. It's 3D!

We ended up going to a chain hot pot place called Chaofa Beef, which was delicious -- and also where I had a sauce with nuts in it, which kind of put a damper on the rest of my afternoon. 

Considering I was meeting everyone here in the group for my first time, I was pretty bummed that my introduction to them consisted of having to stop every 30 minutes to use the bathroom to try and evacuate the thing trying to kill me in my stomach. On top of that, there are squatting toilets everywhere, so I had to hunt for a sitting toilet because, um, obviously? 

It's too bad, because our next stop was a museum about Cantonese Opera, which was really interesting, and which I couldn't concentrate on at all. Bruce Lee's dad was pretty famous for the role he liked to play as a sort of villainous character. They had 4 main character tropes that showed up in most shows, and a total of 9. 

A lot of stained glass in this part of China.

A ton of girls and women dressed up in traditional clothes and had a photographer take photos of them around this museum.

Museums in Guangzhou make a lot of use of outdoor spaces. It's really nice.

More guards to protect against evil spirits!

After this, we got back in the van and headed to a museum about the history of the Qin dynasty, centered around where they found the tomb of Qin Shi Huang back in 1983. Everything was pretty well-preserved and undisturbed, which is impressive -- over 2,000 years of this tomb being totally left alone. 

He was buried in a jade tomb to preserve the body, with 10 servants and 4 concubines buried alive with him, along with a lot of treasure to take with him into the afterlife.

As with all emperors, kings, and people in general throughout history, there was a big emphasis on living forever, in this life and beyond. It's why Elizabeth Bathory killed young virgins and used their blood as moisturizer. And it's why Qin Shi Huang consumed minerals such as sulfur, arsenic, and mercury -- which, ironically, is why he died at age 60 (which, again, Kenny already knew).

The "medicines" that Qin Shi Huang would take.

Can't keep cats out.

An exhibit of ceramic pillows that nobility would sleep on. Comfy!

For our last stop, we went to Beijing Road, which is an enormous shopping center that is kind of beyond anything I'd ever seen. It was a bigger version of 3rd Street Promenade, if 3rd Street Promenade still had visitors. It was like Times Square, if you could easily walk around Times Square with areas where cars were blocked off. This is also where I learned the store Miniso is actually Chinese, not Japanese -- even Shadow acknowledged it sounded Japanese with a name like that.

Beijing Road.

A fountain that used to be used for telling time. Not sure how, in all honesty.

A look at what the roads here looked like hundreds of years ago.

My stomach was finally feeling better, so when we sat down for dinner, I was able to have a fruit tea and some rice, which were both very good. Can't have a bad meal in China.

(This is also when I had my second conversation about Israel on the trip, and in neither situation was I the one to bring it up. The first time was with the British kid asking about US policy, and he was mostly just confused and asking questions. The second time started with one of the group talking about how West Africans were the original Jews and Israelites, and the banks in Europe -- NOT the kings and queens trying to enrich their kingdoms, but the banks who actually ran everything, didn't you know -- purposely chose that region for their slave trade because something something "original Jews in West Africa" and "European banks....... dog whistle," and she would have continued along that vein if I hadn't interrupted to say I was half-Jewish, actually. Fun!)

Lia Cafe, where we ate, all decorated for Christmas.

After dinner, we walked around a bit more, and made our way to a Buddhist Temple that had been built in 971 AD. It's kind of crazy to go from a huge shopping mall to a big ol' Buddhist Temple, but that's Beijing Road, baby!

I couldn't take a photo of what was inside, but it's pretty impressive from the outside!

On the way back, we all fell asleep, and I immediately crawled into bed upon returning to the room. Day 2, with more modern history and a bigger group, would start in the morning!