The celebration of the Lunar New Year usually transports me mentally to a number of Chinese-rooted cities I have visited the past 10 years or so: Guangzhou and Shenzen in China, and Taipei in Taiwan and Macau.
Most memorable to me was Hong Kong, which I visited six times, including that one summer when I stayed for almost a month for a vacation-cum-social research project.
I must also mention Surabaya, the biggest city in Indonesia next to the capital Jakarta which has among the large ethnic Chinese populations in that country.
At Petra Christian, the university that hosted our Asia-Pacific academic conference in 2017, I observed, there were as many students who looked like Chinese as native Indonesians.
In Myanmar, too, although not so significantly noticeable, there is also the presence of Chinese influence as in several restaurants where we dined in Yangon, the county’s old capital
My social scientist-friend explained that one Myanmar region-state borders the Chinese province of Yunnan.
While I had previously written about interesting places and experiences in my journal of Chinese culture-related trips, there is one in particular that I have missed doing: writing about a major natural landmark in southern China.
In 2013, I attended a conference in Hong Kong which had its second phase sessions held in the neighboring Chinese province of Guangzhou, a 100-km. bus ride away. Our host was the Sun Yat Sen University, a public educational institution, which, by the way, marks its 100th anniversary this year. SYSU had a population of about 60,000 students and an academic staff of more than 17,000.
SYSU is a highly-ranked institution – among the 10 best universities in that country and Top 130 globally. It has three campuses.
Just a stone’s throw from the spacious and green main campus is the fabled Pearl River, previously known as Canton River, where thousands congregate from early morning until evening for a walk, relaxation, exercises, meditation or just enjoyment of the river scene, with its corridor of more than 20 kms. serving as an interesting foreground to the skyscrapers of the metropolitan center.
Visitors are treated to river cruises through at least five wharves.
By nightfall, the buildings display a spectacle of magnificent colours.
Known as the “River that flies through Guangzhou”, the extensive water system in southern China, runs for about 2,400 kms. and is the third longest after Yangtze and Yellow Rivers. It traverses through at least four provinces down to Hong Kong, Macau and Northern Vietnam before draining to the China Sea.
A colleague shared that the river’s delta is an important base for the production of electronics, plastic, textiles, garments and other goods.
Accounts show that the modern name of the river is derived from pearl-colored shells found at the riverbed as it flows through Guangzhou.
In Guangzhou, I learned that at least 10 bridges span the river with high-rise buildings, hotels, huge and other commercial establishments standing on both banks.
Truly, travel gives us an opportunity to soak ourselves in scenic and historical places, establish a number of life-long connections as well as understand, immerse ourselves in and embrace the culture of places we visit. And learn invaluable lessons – like open-mindedness, sensitivity, tolerance and multiculturalism that books and classrooms do not offer.
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Kiong Hee Huat Tsai, everyone, especially my ethnic Chinese friends.
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Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. (Romans 12:16) | NWI
