Foshan

When I decided to visit Foshan, I choose it because it is a short bus ride from Guangzhou and the Zu Miao Temple sounded interesting. The Zu Miao Temple is where Wong Fei Hung taught and after whom many kung fu movies were based on.

At first the temple was a little disappointing. On my way to the temple, I was besieged by beggars (this is topic I will have to address some day) and one very persistent con-artist dressed as a monk. Once inside the temple compound I found my timing was off. Many of the building were either being repaired or in needed repaired and the lion donce had just finished. Luckily the next day they were performing as I was walking pass a big hotel; so I got to see some of the dance. It is very acrobatic; with lots of jumping, lifting and balancing by the two performers in the costume.

If you are into martial arts and martial arts movies, this is the place to go, though. There was a lot of information on martial arts and martial art movies. Wong Fei Hung wasn't the only famous name connected with the temple Bruce Lee's teacher was from there.

If kung fu is not your thing, another part of the temple is given over to great teachers such as Confucius. It was in this section that I met a Chinese college student who was waiting for her boyfriend to get off work and was a little bored. So she was happy to practice her English and try to explain some of the exhibits to me. Her spoken English was not great and of course my Chinese is terrible but it was fun trying to figure out what the other was trying to say.

As luck would have it just a we had run out of exhibits it was time for her to meet her boyfriend at a garden in Foshan and the Nanfeng Kiln where I wanted to go was in the same direction. So we got on a bus that would take us to our destinations, unfortuneatly we got on the wrong bus and had to switch buses. But luck was still hanging around because as she was telling the driver where to let me off, another passenger, Christina, said she was going in that direction. So I found a new guide.

As it turned out by the time we got to the place for us to change buses it was close 5pm and there wouldn't be enough time for me to see much of Nanfeng kiln. So Christina invited me to see her office. She works for a company, Kinsyoma, that makes and sells ceramic and glass tiles for indoor use. In fact Foshan seems to be the ceramic tile center of China. Kinsyoma is expanding its operations, so the building was still under construction, and the showrooms were not finished yet. But next to the sales office was a large room where they had the tile samples laying on the floor.

I was surprised at the variety of types of tiles. Along with single pattern and mosaic patterns Kinsyoma also had tile pictures that could be applied to walls.

The other product that interest me was Kinsyoma's glass tiles. If I every get around to tiling my kitchen, I will have to see if they can produce tile for me. To top things off Christina gave me a CD of Kinsyoma's catalog to show anyone I know who might need tiles. So now I am a tile sales person.