Hacking it in Guangzhou

So, after four years in Taipei, and one in Hong Kong, I found myself in this smoky den of Cantonese culture, Guangzhou, working for a large international company as an English editor and trainer. It wasn’t a hard decision to leave Hong Kong: the school I was teaching at in HK was slowly imploding into the vacuum of evacuating teachers, and I was just plain tired of teaching. That and the desire for some kind of stable future.

I had never been here but had heard enough about it from students. The food, the people (always negative), and the crime – which was of epic proportions but not as bad as Shenzhen where they steel young women’s organs in bathrooms.

On the train from HK, the sky began to dim and the horizon slowly vanished into some lurking haze. I became a little agitated.

 Once I stepped out onto the parking area of the train station and saw the city, my first impulse was to flee; who cares about the bonuses? Such was the choking atmosphere and the overwhelming grayness. Of course I stuck it out.

It became the Dragon’s Lair for me, partly a pun on the dragon Smaug from The Hobbit, the only Tolkein book I got past page three.

It has it’s days, the city does, when the sky is blue, clouds white, and air breathable. Other days -well, let’s just say I fear for my lungs.