Thanksgiving in Guangzhou

Who would have thought we would be in Guangzhou in 2015 for Thanksgiving! Life seems to be full of interesting twists and turns.  We have been blessed with the opportunity to broaden our horizons and enjoy unusual experiences.  Thanksgiving in Guangzhou this year was one of those remarkable experiences. 

This semester we have had Thursday off with no classes all semester, so Thanksgiving was a day that fell into that schedule nicely.  On the Trip Advisor’s “Top Ten Things To Do In Guangzhou” number three is Cycle Canton.  Since bicycles are part of the culture and a way of life in Guangzhou, we decided to see what that was all about.  Our BYU supervisors, Jamie and Genial Ballentine, happened to be visiting in Guangzhou for this week so they decide to join us as well.  We became a group of seven plus two guides. 

We took #3 line metro one stop, #6 five stops downtown to the Garden Hotel area to meet our guides and bicycles to start the trek! Ben and Natalie were our guides, two young entrepreneurs, both of Chinese decent. Ben’s parents were both born in Guangzhou but moved to San Francisco where Ben was born and grew up.  He has returned to Guangzhou first to teach English and now to start a business.  Natalie is native Guangzhou.  Both speak very good English and both know the inside story of Guangzhou.  Craig and I have been in Guangzhou now for 16 months and we were amazed that this bike tour only visited one place we had already seen. They shared very insightful historical information, back alleys, green spaces, as we biked 17 kilometers in four hours through the city of Guangzhou.  We actually ended our tour in Zhujiang New town, the metropolitan area next to the Pearl River. Best Thanksgiving bike ride ever!

The expat community of the Guangzhou Consulate are always very generous, they live in posh accommodations with all the living comforts we are used to enjoying.  The Allen, Barron and Ashton families invited all of us to join them for a legitimate Thanksgiving dinner, turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy, cream corn, yams, cranberries, pumpkin pie and a chocolate cake thrown in for good measure.  I am not sure if the food was extra delicious of if we just hadn’t eaten American food for a while but Thanksgiving dinner was fabulous!