Nanning, China

My mother had to go to Nanning, China for her work, and because I was visiting at the time, she took me along with her. It was some sort of seminar and we went with a huge group of people, maybe about 50 people. This was the second time I visited China. When I was young I visited Kunming, China with my mother but I barely remember that. I was actually excited to China because I have always heard that the food there is different than the Chinese food I eat in the US. To get to Nanning, we had to fly to Guangzhou and then onto Nanning. Above is the Guangzhou airport. The flight wasn't very long from Thailand. It was 3 hours to get from Bangkok to Guangzhou and another hour or so from Guangzhou to Nanning.

When we got to Nanning, it was actually pretty warm. Not that much difference in temperature than in Thailand. The first thing we did was visit Nanning University. I wouldn't really call this China trip a vacation because I was essentially following my mom around while she was working. We were given a tour of the University and it was pretty big. Very different than an American University. After the tour of the University, we were taken to get some lunch. The food was presented in Chinese style, a big table with a smaller table in the middle of it that spins. The food was placed on the small table and you just spin it if you wanted something to eat. I thought the food was pretty good. My mother was worried because last time I went to China I couldn't eat anything, but I was a kid back then. Now I am grown up and more resilient when it comes to things to eat. While driving I was also very surprised to see a Walmart because I didn't realize there were even Walmarts in China. What I also realized was that a lot of people in China ride bikes. Even though there were a lot of bikes on the road, there were also a lot of cars as well. It just goes to show how many people there really are in China. We went to some park to go sightseeing and did a lot of walking. There was a pond in the park that had a lot of fish. There was a place selling fish food and of course knowing me I had to feed the fish.

One night we were taken to the tallest building in Nanning. On the top floor there was a show which was pretty cool. The performers were dressed in traditional clothing and they did their traditional dances. I shot a video of one. It was definitely a good cultural experience considering I was picked to go up there to dance with them (they seem to target people with brown hair haha). We were also taken to the very top and were given a nice view of the city at night.

It is always fun to go to a different country and witness their culture first hand. The food was also not as bad as I thought it was gonna be, definitely different than Chinese food in the US. Overall I would say that this short China trip was fun.