Megan's Guiyang Tips

Not very many people have Guiyang as a travel destination, but who
knows? Maybe someone is coming here and they'll stumble across this.
At any rate, I've been collecting the weird Guiyang tidbits to share.

1. If you don't like spicy food the first thing you should learn to
say in Chinese is "bu la jiao" (which sounds more like "boo la jow (as
in ow!)"). These chilies are a different kind of spicy, and they tend
to use lots here.
2. The buses here are 1 kuai, so get your single bills ready. And be
prepared to stand on a jerky, crowded, squeaky bus.
3. When you ask a local when rush hour is, they say something like
"between 7 am and 10 am, and between 4 pm and 11 pm." Which seems
insane right? My experience is getting a taxi between 5-6 pm never
seems to work out. The taxi drivers won't pick you up if they're
changing shifts either.
4. Be careful what meats you eat- you might accidentally eat dog one day.
5. Locals here drink beer out of shot glasses. Another important
Chinese word- "gambei" (or gawm bay) means "Bottoms up!" or "down it."
If people seem to be shouting angrily at each other they're probably
playing a drinking game. They love drinking games here- especially
number/dice games.
6. In the city it's incredibly noisy with nonstop horn honking, metal
clanking, music, fireworks...you name it. And yes this often includes
late into the night and/or early morning hours.
7. That grey gooey substance in those "special Guiyang noodles" your
Chinese friends are always buying you is coagulated blood.
8. If you get on a mini bus and you are standing, you will probably
have to duck whenever you pass an intersection with police.
9. Those glass pyramids aren't the Louvre but the underground
Wal-mart. Sidenote: Strangely enough I'm now used to Wal-Mart with
piles of frozen chicken feet on sale (or were those duck feet?) and
samples of tea on the way in.
10. Baijiu, the local specialty liquor (famous brand: Maotai, from
Guizhou province), tastes about as close to rubbing alcohol as you can
get. According to Wikipedia, during Nixon's state visit Henry
Kissinger said "if we drink enough Maotai we can solve anything." That
explains a lot actually....
11. Hang around Guiyang long enough and you might say something like
my friend Chris said, "I now not only eat brain but I know how I like
my brain cooked."
12. Look for Xinjiang restaurants and you must try handmade noodles,
and some "naan" bread. Don't forget that Xingjiang people are Muslim
and so you can't buy alcoholic beverages at their restaurants, and no
pork.
13. Try one of the bean hot pots. It's almost like Mexican food in
some weird way,
mixing your beans and rice and soup.

That's all for now. Someday maybe I'll put together more of a travel
guide. It's sadly lacking. After about a week in Guiyang I felt I
could write a better guide than the Lonely Planet one.