Above:The Baha'i House of Worship of Asia. Below:Life and times of your fellow World Citizen, Kolya

Arrived in Guangzhou yesterday.  Am staying with an old friend from Baotou and her husband.  They can speak some English but we also spend a lot of time speaking in Chinese which is very good practice for me!  Today my friend had to work, but her husband took me to see some of the sights listed in my Lonely Planet China Guidebook.  I forgot his name and when i asked him what i should call him, he joked i should call him handsome guy!  We went to see 2 Buddhist temples that required entrance tickets for RMB5 per person, and then one of them also had a 9 story pagoda which cost a further Rmb10, so only i went up it.  Got a good view of the surrounding area from the top.  When leaving the second temple a guy in monk's robes (unknown whether he was a real monk or not) tried to force a buddhist trinket on me and wanted me to write down my name and address and give him a donation too.  But my friend finally talked him out of it since i didn't want to participate, but it wasn't easy, the way he forced me to take that trinket!

He said he doesn't like Chinese Budhism because they seem to be concentrated on making money... and it did seem that may.  Then we went to the Old Mosque, said to have been founded by an uncle of Mohammad.  But we couldn't go in, because they only let Muslims in.  So we went to the Daoist Temple dedicated to the 5 immortals said to have landed in Guangzhou thousands of years ago, who gave the people rice, wished them freedom from famines and then went back to the "heavens".  I joked that maybe it was a UFO.  Then we ate lunch in a Uighur (the people of Xinjiang Province) restaurant, which was very good.  (I ordered stirfried eggplant and cashew chicken with vegatables).  Then we went to see the Sacred Heart church but it was closed between 12pm and 3:30pm (it was 2pm).  So we then walked to Shamian Island which used to be where all the foreigners lived.  The American Consulate is still there.  3 brides and grooms (in western gowns) where getting their fotos taken outside a small catholic church which was also closed.  We had a rest in one of the parks and then i suggested we go home, since my feet were killing me!

Oh yeah, and last night i cooked chicken curry which actually turned out pretty good!