Continuing my day exploring Guangzhou I took the Metro to Chen Jia Ci station for the temple of the same name. The heat was still baking.For some reason there was a massive line snaking in the baking heat for several hundred metres. There must have been some significance to this temple as the others had no line ups but I wasnt going to stand in line so just skipped this and went back in the metro to the next temple on my list.Hualin Si is the first temple I tried...

Today was my second full day in China and last day before I depart home tomorrow. My plan had been to take a high speed train to Shenzhen on the Hong Kong border to explore some theme parks. However, I had been delayed getting into Guangzhou by the visa process at the airport, the metro from the airport was slow taking an hour, the scale on my map was wrong and things were much further then they appeared.I decided to skip Shenzhen as I can go there anytime from H...

The main reason I was interested in visiting Guangzhou was for its Islamic Heritage. China is not known as a source of Islam but it has a rich heritage with about 30 million Muslims.The predominant Muslim area in the northwest is Xinjiang (East Turkestan) home to the Central Asian Uyghar people whom I visited in 2011 (see blog: Xinjiang - Silk Road Muslim China http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/lo ndone7/16/tpod.html). There are also the Hui ethnic Chinese Mus...

Leaving the airport I was going to take the metro downtown to my hotel. Being in crowded China there were long lines at the ticket vending machines and I didnt know what the cost of a ticket was.Then I saw a sign for day passes, 20Y ($4) for one day or 50Y for three days ($10) so I opted for the one day for now. It was valid for 24 hours from when you tap your card so I can still use till tomorrow noon.The first stop at the airport there were still seats leftover...