Monday: Chen Family Ancestral Hall

This morning we met our guide and headed to the Chen Family Ancestral Hall. The hall was built in the 1880's just outside the wall of the city. It was a place for the Chen family to stay when they came to Guangzhou for business. It was also the place where they celebrated important holidays. It included a large room with a long altar for seeking their ancestors...both to offer homage to their ancestors and to ask for their blessings, Now that the hall (and I use that term loosely...there were lots of open courtyards) is an historical place, the rooms are filled with historical displays and/or shops. We bought a wall-hanging of a banyan tree (the symbol of Guangzhou and Davina's favorite tree) and I bought a piece of rice with my name on it :) If you ever got World magazine as a kid, maybe you can remember all of the interesting articles, but I remember specifically reading about artists who draw and write on rice and I was so fascinated! It was fun to be able to watch the artist write my name on the rice and then put it on a charm. In the display area, there were displays of carvings of all types: jade, ivory, bone, olive wood...There was also porcelain art and beautiful vases. It was all very interesting...to me. My guide needed to make some phone calls and Davina opted to sit with her instead of look around. Both of them had been to the hall many times and we not too interested in seeing it again. The rest of the day was low key. At night we went out for Chinese again. I am really going to miss the food, so I can only imagine what it will be like for Davina. However, having said that, we are both ready to go home. She is counting the days! And so am I!