Travel Notes: Yuexie Park, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China

Yuexie Park is one of the premier parks in Guangzhou. It had 3 lakes, paddle boats, an amusement park and a playground for family fun. It has a memorial to Sun Yat Sen in the form of a tower, the Guangzhou Museum, and it claims the Statue of the Five Rams, a symbol of the city.

That bit of green, just there, that would be the park.

On a Sunday off I stumbled on this gem. Yes, I can see it from my hotel room, but I didn't really know what I was looking at. I took a walk up the road and came upon this gate.

East Gate

So I went in.

The first thing to see is a lake and paddle boats, and an odd gazebo.

Gazebo

The lake

Paddle-boats (some look like old cars)

Heading counter-clockwise around the lake I came on the playground. It was Sunday so all the families were out doing their day-off thing. The weather was perfect.

The amusement park was just next. Lots of rides that would pass for OK in the states at a church picnic. Like I said, family fun time.

You get to help put the fire out!

A Kung Fu Monkey.

that's all I can say.

Badass.

After the amusement park was more lake and directions to "a relic of a square fortress". OK, I'll bite.

Let's find the fortress.

OK, I'll be careful.

The other end of the lake.

As I continued on, I saw this little house in the bushes. It struck me as something vaguely out of Skyrim. The door was locked and I had no picks, so I moved on ;-/

Odd place.

I saw this large structure across the park. Could this be the 'square fortress'? Maybe. But I decided to follow the signs instead.

Fortress?

Im in China. Everything is made of Bamboo. The scaffolding I saw in Hong Kong is bamboo. But where does it come from? Here in the park is a small Bamboo Forest. Pretty cool.

Bamboo

more bamboo

path to Big Bamboo

I wandered around the paths in the bamboo and came back to the path I was originally on. Then the signs pointed me up the hill. So up I went.

no one takes the stairs any more

I finally found the 'relic of a square fortress'. What I found was a ROUND cannon emplacement that was used in the 17th century. Still pretty cool.

placards showing where the cannons were
notice the circular design of the paving

Translation needed, but it says "This is an old place"

Having found the old relic, I decided to continue on to find out what that large red structure was. I can see it and a tower from my hotel. Further investigation is required.

Not the relic, what is it?

An what's the tower for?

I found it! The large red, five story structure is the Guangzhou Museum. I was told in Beijing that "Chinese museums are 'shit'. Don't go there".

Guangzhou Museum

So of course, I paid my 10元 and headed inside.

The grounds were pretty nice.

Some cannons start you off,

Cannons

bigger cannons

then some carved stone inscriptions follow that.

This is a warning to greedy politicians.
I asked a friend to translate,
but it's in "old Chinese" that he couldn't read.

In side the museum wasn't as bas as advertised. There was the usual "we have old stuff from around here" displays, and the "original" Statue of the Five Rams.

There is a story behind this in Wikipedia.

I was in Beijing an they had "rickshaws". Like everything else there, they are modernized and dirty.

Here's an old-timey one in the museum.

Rickshaw

The view from the 5th floor was fairly nice.

Did I mention there's a stadium in the park?
They play soccer here.

Now, what's that tower all about?

Interesting tower in the park
It's the Sun Yat Sen memorial.

Sun Yat Sen Memorial placard

The actual tower was closed, I'm probably glad for that. I would have tried to climb up.

Looking up into the tower.

Have you ever played Myst? It was an old game where you wandered around a deserted island looking for clues to the death of some friends. This little pavilion remixed me of that place.

In China, they have a way of building things then letting nature take its course. Here a tree has laid claim to the very walls and walkways of the park. This is actually a retaining wall. Up above is a road and the hill continues up. Is that a Gold Skultulla up there?

Hookshot anyone?

The next "attraction" at the park is the Statue of the Five Rams. It is said that Guangzhou was once a barren land, but five gods came in the form of rams and bequeathed the people with fertile land. Once that job was done they turned to stone. I don't think they believe these are the actual gods' remains, but it has become a symbol of Guangzhou.