Our arrival in Guangzhou was not without its hitches, and it was in hopes of finally getting some rest that we set foot on Cantonese soil, but fate had other plans...        

A Taxi in Canton

  First observation stepping off the plane at Guangzhou airport: the temperature difference between northern and southern Chine is striking! With more than 2,000 kilometres separating Beijing from Canton, this partly explains the roughly 20°C difference... Sweaters and jackets give way to t-shirts, even in March! After passing through the various checks and collecting our luggage, we set about finding a taxi to take us to the city centre and the hotel our boss had previously booked given the circumstances and late hour. 

It's 1 a.m. but taxis are still plentiful at the airport exit, and of course we're quickly accosted by Chinese men offering exorbitant prices. But armed with our experience, we resist in the hope of finding an official taxi. A young Chinese man stands out by pestering us for a good 20 minutes, pulling out his calculator to write down 300 yuan... Knowing that the average fare from the airport to downtown Canton is 180 yuan, we enter this figure into the calculator to watch his reaction. As expected, he feigns shock and flatly refuses, pretending to walk away... only to return a few minutes later with a lower price. We stick to our guns and won't budge beyond 180 RMB, even if we have to look further afield. After several minutes of negotiation, he finally gives in and calls his friend to pick us up—we realise then that they work as a team and he'll get a commission for finding us a customer. So there are five of us in the taxi, and we set off for a journey of about 30 minutes. The minutes pass and palm trees whizz by, giving us a good first impression of the place, unlike Beijing. The fact that we're in an unlicensed taxi doesn't really reassure us, especially since two passengers get out of the car at one point in the middle of nowhere, with every opportunity to grab our suitcases without us being able to stop them. We end up alone with the driver, who eventually finds the 7 Days Inn at the corner of Binjiang Dong Lu road and Xiadu Lu road.

The 7 Days Inn hotel chain is quite well-known in Chine and present throughout the country, but we didn't expect to find such a spacious room. That said, after the Leo Hostel in Beijing, this one is comparable to a 4-star hotel! The night will be short, so might as well make the most of it.

Discovering the Apartment

  We're woken in the morning by a phone call in our room from our boss, who wants to make sure of our presence and verify that we're ready to head to the "My Top Home" real estate agency to pick up our keys. We hurry to get ready without having anything to eat and hand back the room keys, heading to the agency just a few minutes away. It's already hot, very hot in fact when you consider it's early March, and the street is particularly lively. 

We eventually find the real estate agency, and there... it's a drama! None of the staff speak English, and we understand after a few minutes that we need to pay upfront for 3 months' rent. We're broke because we gave almost everything for our Beijing-Guangzhou plane ticket, so it's impossible for us to pay cash. Nathalie, the agent handling our case, eventually understands and accompanies us to a cash machine, but we hit another problem... Besides the fact that we can't pay by credit card anywhere here, we apparently can only withdraw 2,500 yuan each per week, so she'll have to make do with 2 months' rent for now. After nearly half an hour's walk, we arrive at the foot of the building where we'll be staying for 4 months. The first impression is very good—the building looks recent and spotlessly clean, and the security guards are welcoming. Moreover, we're just steps away from the Pearl River (Zhu Jiang), a rather pleasant setting for evening strolls.

 We're joined in the apartment by the owner, an elderly lady clearly delighted to be subletting it to Westerners... The apartment is equipped with the bare essentials, and we'll of course need to buy dishes, pillows, sheets, quilts, etc... to finally feel at home. A funny detail (if I may put it that way...), the owner strongly advised us to change the apartment's lock since the previous tenants kept the key... all at our expense. Time to rush to the market to get a 7€ lock sorted... It seems that's how things work here...

A glimpse of the apartment

Since I'd taken care to bring a phone with us, Nathalie advised us, as did our internship supervisor, to buy a simple SIM card so we could be reached more easily. The purchase was completed in 5 minutes at a China Mobile shop for the modest sum of 55 yuan (€6) and valid for 3 months! Last point to settle: we don't have an Internet connection in the apartment, which is essential for our work and staying in touch with our loved ones... So we'll take out a subscription for 650 yuan (€70) for 6 months—a good deal, though the connection is comparable to 56K... We can finally enjoy some well-deserved rest while we wait to discover the surroundings and our internship venue... 

 To view our Guangzhou photos, feel free to visit the gallery.