China: Guangzhou

After another night in Bangkok we boarded yet another flight to Guangzhou, China. Guangzhou is a hub for international trade and business. It's main purpose is to serve as port for mainland China. There isn't much to do in Guangzhou but flying there then taking trains in China was our cheapest option. We arrived pretty late at night without any idea where we would spend the night. We were stopped by a guy offering hotel rooms and the cost was decent so we decided to take it. He put us in a van and we soon arrived at a hotel. (By now my sense of direction was so thrown off, I wasn't really sure where we were exactly) I was really looking forward to a bed to sleep in. One thing about Guangzhou that we noticed quickly was the temperature change. We went from 95 in Bangkok to much much colder in Guangzhou. This came as quite a shock to me but I didn't mind too much. Our hotel was the nicest place we stayed in during our whole vacation. (Besides the Bobzien's) The next morning we woke up early for a van ride back to the airport where we caught a bus into the main part of the city. It was now Sunday morning and we were looking for a place to go to church. I knew of a small foreigner's only branch in Guangzhou but I wasn't sure where it was. I had an address but nobody knew where that road was. Our bus dropped us off somewhere amidst tall buildings. I was completely at a loss of where we were. Trying to keep my cool, we went to a convenience store to ask for directions but that wasn't much help either. The next best thing was to get in a taxi and tell the driver where we were heading. Luckily, after stopping a couple taxis, we found one that seemed to know the area. We got it and started moving. I was completely turned around and it seemed like we were driving in circles. I knew we were looking for a bridge and the place we were headed was right next to it. I showed our driver the map that I had but he decided to cross the bridge when we didn't need to. After feeling a bit frustrated he finally dropped us off in the general vicinity of where we wanted to be. Not really knowing what to look for (the church wasn't an actual church but a rented floor of a high-rise) we just started walking. For whatever reason we found ourselves inside a building and we realized that we were in the right place. When the elevator doors opened up and I looked down the hall to see a bunch of white people in Sunday dress I couldn't help but be amazed that we had actually found it. We threw down our huge packs in the back and everyone was super curious about who we were. They were as surprised as we were that we had actually found it. After talking to a few people I asked a guy if he knew a place where we could stay and he offered his own place. It was perfect, great people and a free place to stay. China was really treating us well. That night the YSA of that branch had planned a dinner and invited Dayton and I to come along. They guy that was hosting it works for the U.S. State Department so we went to his house inside the old embassy. We had a great time hanging out with our new friends. David (the guy that offered us a place to stay) even took us to the train station to get our train tickets for our next destination. We were so stoked to have met such great people and have a free place to stay. It's incredible that having the same faith as someone else automatically creates friendship and trust. We woke up really early Monday morning and boarded a train bound for Changsha.