Last minute to Guangzhou, China

Have you ever heard of the city Guangzhou? No one I asked this question in Germany gave me an affirming answer and I as well had never heared of the 25 million residents city before planning my trip.

The immense city in the province Guangdong is the third largest city in China and the busiest trading centre in China for centuries.

My trip was not planned a long time beforehand.

After getting the invitation of the Miss Tourism of the globe organisation I just had around 7 days to prepare.

Of course I confirmed to come over to China and accept the invitation directly. I know I had 3 more weeks of semester holidays and enough time until university would start.

The biggest difficulty was to get the express visa. I heared from several friends that have already visited the country that it was a lot to fill out to get the documents. Besides personal information you also had to fill out where exactly you are going to stay in China. Travellers also need an invitation when applying for the visa.

As I needed to get the visa as soon as possible, I was applying for the express visa. Getting this is just possible in some particular cities in Germany. The closest one to my hometown has been the one in Frankfurt. After booking an appointment, I took the bus for about 2 hours, had a short conversation with the staff and was told to come back a few days later to pick up my visa. Everything worked well and two days later I was able to book my trip which would take place half a week later.

Just as promised I got picked up at the airport. A nice Chineses girl send by the organisation met me at the arrival hall and helped me with my sim card and with getting the Chinese currency (Yen?). We had an interesting conversation during which she told me a lot about their tradition, the country and herself. The funny thing was that she had the same name as me. According to her it is common in China to give yourself an European name in case you will get in contact with Westerners and they wouldn't understand you otherwise.

After waiting one more hour at the airport, the two other girls from Albania and Kosovo arrived. Finally, we had been complete and our three - hour - trip into (Vorort) the countryside next to Guangzhou was ready to start. For me it was an very interesting tour to see the things we passed a long the way ( the different architecture of houses, the different botanic as well as the people).

Our hotels had been immense buildings with an amazing sea view. We had around half an hour to get ready after the 16? hour trip. By phone we got called downstairs to begin our practice with all the others that already came to China around a week ago. They (hinter sich)some days of catwalk and rehearsal training for the final show already, which was why we were ordered to just stand in the background and follow the girls in front of us.

When they finally called us to get some dinner I was happy? On the plane I just got some cake - like bread, fruits and Belag?? for breakfast and I had to skip lunch.

Even though all the girls that arrived earlier than we did hated the food and beschweren I was extremely happy with it that day. We had a big range of different food which included vegetables, meat, a lot of different fruits (always watermelon, a mix between an apple and a pear), eggs normal white rice and my favourite the bratener rice. When I started conversationing with the girls, they told me that breakfast, lunch and dinner would be the same every day with a little difference in the breakfast. And they were right. For the next 6 days we stayed in this restaurant the food wouldn't diverse? a lot. That how it is when you travel. They have different manners and habbits of eating. You just have to adopt to different cultures. This day I met a lot of girls that had been complaining about the food. I am pretty sure they did not come out a lot of their hometown. That's how it is when you travel to another country. Things are different there and you need to try to get used to it and step out of your comfort zone.

#trip #getaway #America