We started
the day at 8:15 am with a nice hotel breakfast in Hong Kong. It’s not every day
that we can have fried fish, pork dumplings, and egg noodles for breakfast.
After breakfast, we boarded the bus to head to the northern border of Hong Kong
to head into main land China. Since we are all struggling with jet lag, our bus
ride was a little tough. It seemed that all of the drivers had a better place
to be. They honk and sneak in between every open gap that they can find. It did
not matter if the gap was only two feet or twenty feet. We drove over a lot of
canals that lead to HUGE container ports that never seemed to end. I guess all
of our stuff does come from China! Once we reached the northern border of Hong
Kong we went through the customs check to enter mainland China. After we crossed the border we saw plenty of
oyster farms in the one of the canals and saw our first cow of the trip. We
then entered the City of Shenzhen. Forty years ago, it was a small fishing
village and now it is home to 15 million people. It is considered the magical
city for its rapid economic growth. Because the city grew so rapidly they do
not have much heritage. Individuals from all over China have come to live in
this city as well as people who wish to work in Hong Kong since the housing
here is cheaper than it is in Hong Kong.
We
continued to travel via bus to Guangzhou. Once we reached the outskirts of the
city, we stopped for lunch at KFC. The food tasted the same as in the US but
the menu choices were a little different. For example, they had spicy fried
squid and red bean pie. In Guangzhou, there are a lot fewer people who speak
English so the language barrier has been difficult. Before loading the bus
after lunch we had a few minutes to walk around and explore. We came across a
wet market that sold everything from fruits, veggies, spices, toads, turtles,
beetles, fish, pig’s feet, whole chickens, and premature chicken eggs. After
the market, we all loaded the bus to head to the middle of Guangzhou that would
take about an hour.
On the way,
we saw all different aspects of Chinese agriculture including banana farms,
fish ponds, corn growing in places where corn shouldn't be growing, and small
patches of what looked like community gardens, and a sunflower farm. We then
reached our main tourist stop of the day, The Guangzhou Port Nansha Grain and
General Cargo Terminal. We spent a couple hours here touring around the
facility looking at the unloading of freighter ships, the giant warehouses for
DDGS, and the constant hustle and bustle of incoming and outgoing trucks filled
with product. We also saw their automated scale ticket system and 24/7
monitoring of the unloading bays. This showed the type of technology used to
run this large of an operation. After touring the terminal, we went the
headquarters to receive a briefing form the general operations manager. The briefing
was very interesting as we talked about Chinese regulations on American crops,
the cost of running the operation, and all of the materials that are moved
through the port. His answers to our questions seemed scripted and were very
closely related to the government’s beliefs.
To all of
our family and friends, we are having a blast and learning so much. We are
thankful to all of the opportunities that you have provided for us. We are
humbled by our standards of living compared to the standards of Chinese living.
Sincerely,
Dan and Lacey
P.S. Talk to you later, Annie!
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