Not my first time in this southern city. I first went in January 2017 with Mark, a coworker who was leaving Guangxi. It was my introduction to the city and I loved it. I went back in November to pick Yen up and again during the winter vacation almost to the day I went for the first time as I took her to get a flight back to Manila. I'll rack up at least two more before I leave Nanning for good.
Last week, I took a trip with Matt to Guangzhou to get our ID notarized at the Canadian consulate, and enjoy a bit of the big city. We honestly ended up spending half our trip at Paddy's Irish pub.
We got in late very late on the Wednesday, but our appointment with the Consulate wasn't until 2pm. So that was great. We got there relatively early, around 1:30 and were brought right in. Whole thing took 45 minutes, with authentication taking 20 minutes of that. Very impressed. The Canadian consulate is also in a great location. We headed to Shamian, which I have seen a couple times, but Matt hadn't. Otherwise it was low key.
I'll be headed back for a fifth time next weekend to get Yen again. I am not sure if we will pass through on our way out in July (we might go straight to Shenzhen).
Guangzhou has very quickly become to me what Busan was in Korea. A very cool and international port city to visit on weekends. Given that next September we will be in Zhuhai, which is a 45 minute light rail ride to Guangzhou, we may end up there quite a bit.
