postheadericon My Trip To China

I was invited to judge in Guangzhou in the Guangdong Province of China in December and enjoyed the experience immensely. The people were great, the dogs really good, and the country beautiful. The only time I realized that we were in a Communist country was crossing into the mainland from Hong Kong where guards thoroughly checked documents and when I tried to get on the World Wide Web in my hotel room and could not connect. I had the internet but was not able to surf the web. clip_image002

I flew into Hong Kong a few days early to see the sights and go shopping. Big mistake!!! Hong Kong is a very interesting and vibrant city with a past. Owned by the British for a long time, it reflects the British presence and way of life of yore. The British had all the rights and the Chinese were really on the lower rungs of society. Of course, that has very much changed. Present day Chinese has a mixture of cultures, languages, and nationalities. clip_image004

In the early 1800’s British merchants traded opium for Chinese silks, silver, tea, and spices. From the British colony of India, the Brits had an inexhaustible of opium from the Indian poppy fields and sent an overabundance of the drug into China causing the Chinese government to challenge the trade because of the spread of addiction and the draining of the Chinese coffers for the drug the first Opium War when Opium was banned by the Emperor and then his son leading to the Opium wars began ending with the ceding of Hong Kong Island to the British until 1997 when it returned to Chinese rule.hen the Opium wars began ending in China ceding the Island to the Brits until 1997 when Hong Kong once more became part of China called the Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. clip_image006

Hong Kong is a huge city and full of life. There are vendors hawking many black market items on every street in the business district. Hong Kong is full of all nationalities but the British and American influences are all over. Kentucky Fried Chicken is the most popular franchise in China KFC, McDonald’s, Shakey’s Pizza, and many other American contributions to society are very evident. I was looking I found a tailor shop and went a little crazy. Jackets and blouses and pant suits. Since I have been confining myself to shopping at Good Will for over a year, I did not feel sooooo bad, but trust me it will be Good Will for two more years.

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The dog show was held in Guangzhou , in Guangdong Province.  The dog club took extremely good care of us when we arrived on a Thursday.  Our tour guides Jo Ann and Jerry showed us all over, museums and fine restaurants.  Talk about weight gain! I judged with two Canadian judges; we had a grand time together with our wonderful tour guides.  The venue was the tented parking lot and plaza of a large mall.  The concrete was covered by indoor/outdoor kind of carpet which was soaked by the damp weather and rain dripping through a few tears in the tenting.  My feet were soaked at the end of the day.  All the exhibitors, ring stewards and show officials were wonderful to us.  It was a great day.   

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