Guangzhou, Guangdong, PR China

We had a really long day yesterday. We arrived in Guangzhou at about 7am (China time). We were met at the airport by our great guides, Kathy & Jocelyn. The ride was about 45 minutes from the airport to the White Swan. The hotel is beautiful and we have a great view of the Pearl River from our room. Kathy told us that we should try to stay up as long as we could. So we got settled in our room and then did the only thing on our itinerary today which was make copies and exchange money. That took all of about 1 hour. So we showered and took off with the Lazars to explore Shamian island. Our first stop was Starbucks. Just like home.

This little island is really pretty. Most of the architecture is British inspired rather than traditional Chinese. All of the trees are green and full of leaves. It is warm and humid. We even had a little bit of sun and blue sky which is rather rare because of all of the pollution. There are not many people out and the traffic is not at all what I expected. Because of Chinese New Year, which is still going on, there are fewer people out and about.
The streets are lined with these bronze(?) statues. They are all so cool. I am hoping to get pics of most if not all of them.
We had lunch/dinner at Lucy's on the river. We ate outside. It reminded me a lot of being in Key West last CNY. Our food was good. We were all pretty loopy after a couple of beers and total exhaustion. I started getting nauseous and dizzy and no one could keep their thoughts strait. We decided we would call it a day and headed back to the hotel. We managed to stay awake until about 6pm.
Now it's almost 4:30am and we're wide awake. I think we did pretty good for the first day.
Our beds are really hard but I slept OK. Mike, on the other hand, is still complaining. But he hasn't gotten out of the bed yet. Must not be too bad, huh?
We're hoping for 6 am to roll on around. The infamous breakfast buffet opens then.
That's all for now.