ALL CHINESE SPELLINGS WERE CHANGED
By Bob Van Leer

  (GUANGZHOU, CHINA, Oct. 19, 1991) - Today started with more sightseeing and an unusual lunch at Guilin before boarding a plane to Guangzhou, the Chinese city formerly called Canton.

  China has adopted a Roman spelling system called Pin Yin which they believe is superior to the naming done by the Europeans. But it is frustrating.

  In college Betty and I learned the names of many places in China and memorized the names of all 25 of China's provinces and autonomous regions.

  The new spelling is just enough similar to the old to make remembering either spelling difficult.

  Elephant Trunk hill is one of the landmarks in Guilin. It is a limestone knob in a lake a couple of hundred feet high and there is a hole in one end at water's edge that separates part of the rock and makes the elephant trunk.

  And it has a very small hole, or cave, through the main rock mass up higher that lets light through and is called the eye.

  You have to use a little imagination. Still, it looks more like an elephant than Elephant Rock on the Rogue.

Rat For Lunch

  Lunch today featured local specialties. By now on this trip we are used to unusual dishes but in Guilin had some even more unusual. The menu included rat, snake, turtles and a small bird.

  The rat was not the kind we think of. They called it a mountain rat and it was the size of a muskrat. We found it only average in taste.

  Some of our party were rather agitated when they found a little paw in the stew. The snakes were cobras and they brought out a cage of live ones to show us.

  The cobra meat was served deep fried and was bony but good. Turtle was not new to us but the small size turtle was. The turtles were about the size of the ones you see in the Rogue.

  The birds were called quail but I have raised quail and didn't think these were really quail, they were too small, more likely some kind of song bird. Toasts at this meal were mau tai instead of wine. Mau tai is a potent colorless liquor. After lunch it was time to say farewell to Guilin.

On To Guangzhou

  We boarded a Boeing 757 for the 40 minute flight to Guangzhou, 415 kilometers away. Guangzhou is the largest city in south China with a population of 3.5 million.

  Like so many Chinese cities it is old, over 2000 years. It is a major world port and just 75 miles from Hong Kong and the two cities are complimentary.

  Our tour leader, Joanne Buckley, of the National Newspaper Association staff, had now been shepherding us for two weeks and after we got to our hotel said she had had it, she had to have a night off and asked me to handle the evenings activities.

  Fortunately the only activity scheduled was still another banquet, this time more conventional Chinese food.

  Betty and I were seated at a table with one of our hosts. It was interesting to spend an hour and a half meal with three people who don't speak English.

  Simple communications can be done but abstract ideas are just not possible. Our hosts are the All-China Journalists Association headquartered in Beijing.

  Journalists in China are all government employees. We have three members of the association, including a member of the Secretariat, traveling with us full time.

  At each different city we pick up two or three members of the local branch of the association to show us around. Tomorrow we will start our exploration of Guangzhou which has the reputation of being "Sin City".