The city of Guangzhou is one of the busiest manufacturing centers in China. Shoes, garments, handbags, belts and all sorts of apparel and general goods are exported from here to the rest of the world.

In the streets, buses and in the Metro, you can see and meet people from Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Brazil, Korea and many other countries, who come to Guangzhou to shop around for the best possible deals. Some people come looking for goods already in stock; some others come looking to have their own designs manufactured in the local factories.

Correspondingly, the local nightlife is rather lively. You walk around in some areas of the city at around midnight or even later and many restaurants are usually filled with patrons.

People are nice in Guangzhou. It’s rather common to see them smiling at you. Women are quite approachable as well, and many young ones speak fairly good English.

Going to the restaurants by myself could often be considered like a study in primitive human communications. Sometimes, for trivial matters like asking for the menu or asking for some sliced lemon or different kinds of beer, my inability to express myself in Chinese makes communication between me and the locals a very amusing thing.

Given that the locals have an amiable predisposition and that I’m not too often short of smiles, everything usually works out well, and in the end everyone involved gets a certain sense of accomplishment.

In short, Guangzhou is fine.

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