Ferry – Cross the… Zhujiang!

A pretty intense workweek is now behind me. Now for some catch-up with my texts and photos (for blogposts such as this one) – and some sleep!

How wonderful it is to go for a ride on a nice ship across the seas and oceans. And even just cruising along the river in the beautiful city of Guangzhou is pretty wonderful too. Especially in the evening, after a hard day’s work, when the bridges over the Zhujiang River (which literally translates as “Pearl River”) and other tall buildings (including Canton Tower, which we went up the day before) get lit up and covered with all kinds of projected animations…

Yes, China sure knows how to surprise you with all manner of inventions and innovations, and when it comes to river light shows – it’s long been unrivaled. And not just in Guangzhou, either: I’ve been on nocturnal sightseeing rides in both Hong Kong and Tianjin – and both were just sumptuously splendid! I wonder where else could I go for experiences like these? But I digress. For now – let me tell you about evening river-rides in Guangzhou.

Oh my grandiose! But somehow, even at the end of September, it was just sooo hot and humid that only the breeze on the upper deck saved us from getting drenched head to toe in sweat. Still – what views!

We climbed onto a riverboat – a very comfortable, three-deck one at that – and off we popped for what turned out to be an absolutely awesome three-hour river cruise!

At first the lighting on the riverfront buildings was rather modest, but the farther we went, the brighter and brighter it got…

Some of the bridges displayed huge animations:

Others were simpler, just beaming searchlights up into the sky:

Even the river boats did their bit too – including ours!

Our boat chugged its way to the turnaround point, swung around, and headed back the other way – but instead of stopping at the pier, it kept on going, to the delight of all the passengers busy contemplating away:

Not that everyone was contemplating. Some were enjoying the delicacies (mostly southern Chinese seafood again – mmm, delicious!) and the drinks (mostly international), while others checked out the dancefloor, which was occupied by…

As I was told, Guangdong Province (the capital of which is Guangzhou) produces 97% (ninety-seven-percent!) of the world’s entire output of humanoid robots. // To which I’ve long had this to say: “There are developing countries, there are countries that consider themselves developed, and then, beyond that, there’s China!”

And that’s how it went down – cruising along the lovely Pearl River in the city of Guangzhou…

Oh, and by the way: we were here with the participants of our annual conference for partners from Russia and the CIS, who were after-partying in our usual style )

In closing, a few more (great) pics from professional photographer Nikolay Kashirin:

Dancing robots:

There’s always one pushy photographer photobombing )

Meanwhile, around and about ->

Delight! Sheer delight. I think everyone agreed! ->

Again that dude in the green shirt!…

The best hi-res photos from our Zhujiang River cruise are here.