[dchan]

My paternal grandparents live in Guangzhou along with my Aunt. I think my dad might be there right now on vacation.

I recently was there in January. It's pretty nice then because it's not too cold and not too warm. When I arrived at the Baiyun airport, it was completely unrecognizable. I was there maybe 3 1/2 years before in 2004, and its airport reminded me on one in Florianopolis in Brazil: small and kind of grimy. The kind of airport that serves a small city and is never updated. So when I saw the gleaming new airport, it was not so much shocking than it was a "duh, how obvious" situation. This is after all a city with 7+ million people in it.

The last time I was on the subway was when I visited in 1999. It kind of reminded me of Beijing's subway nowadays, except it only had one line. It was clean and simple but hardly gleaming. And it seemed completely useless given the one line and how empty it was. When I took the subway last January, the newer stations just blow me away.

Despite the gleaming new buildings, airport, and subway, the city is still much the same from before. It's still has many of the same grimy alleys, markets, and street vendors from before. There is something truly genuine in these places that cannot be re-created. The city is an interesting mix of new and old that I find truly interesting.