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RHIAN'S SOCCER JOURNALS:

CHINA: WE'RE HERE - I THINK 12th January 2008

The Canadian National Senior Women's Team had a warm up game against the Whitecaps Under 16 Men's team on Tuesday evening, 8th January 2008, but the location was changed at the last minute due to snowy conditions at the venue. In heavy wet conditions the team tried out its tactics and approach for the Four Nations Tournament in China.

The team left on Friday 11th January, and the flight is a very long one. I know I say this frequently, but we do seem to be traveling to China rather often, and the flights to this part of the world are long and wearying. Yesterday’s travel day was worse than most, because there was apparently a strong head wind blowing across the Pacific. This meant that we had to make a route change. On our new Great Circle route, our pilot flew us over Nome, Alaska, then on across Russia and then finally down the coast of China. We flew right over Beijing, before landing in Shanghai 13 hours after take-off.

Then, we had a three hour lay over in Shanghai, before boarding another flight for Guangzhou, which is about two hours flying time away. Then, upon arrival at the airport, we waited for our bags and boarded a bus for the hotel. We are staying at the 5 star Grand Royal Hotel, and we well remember the long traffic tie-ups from our last visit. We took about 60 minutes to ride from the airport to the hotel. The whole journey from start to finish took about 20 hours, and three days because we crossed the international Date line and then arrived early in the morning.

Obviously no one was looking their best at breakfast this morning, 13th January, and this is especially true of me. The high point of my morning was when I asked the waitress about saying "thank you." I asked if the phrase was the same in Cantonese, which is spoken here in Guangzhou, as it is in Mandarin. She said no and that the phrase was the same she she (which I have spelled wrongly, but phonetically). I then proceeded to thank her in English by mistake!

Elaine Sun of the famous Go Big Red website is here with us in China. We were all excited to see her. Not only is she probably the greatest Canadian Women’s soccer fan I have ever come across, but she is also a wonderful person. She is always fun to be around. Elaine is here working because the team brought her along to help with any language barriers and to help with videotaping games. Everyone, including our coaching staff, has heard about her technological prowess, and so we should be well off for game tapes, photographs and web reports.

We are having a quiet morning today before heading off for training at 1:00 pm. Even though I want nothing more than the chance to curl back up into bed, I am going to force myself to stay awake. This should mean that I can then sleep through the night. However, exhaustion, can only get you through so many hours.

When I arrived last night and was struggling with sleep, I took the opportunity to write down some initial impressions of Guangzhou. I had already found out from Les, the team manager, some of the history of the place. Guangzhou is famous because in ancient times, history records that five immortals wearing colorful clothes and riding colorful immortal sheep arrived in Guangzhou with rice stalks in their mouths. They handed out the rice stalks to the people, and since then there has never been famine here. Guangzhou has become renowned as the Goat City or Sui Cheng, and hence Wu Yang (five sheep) has become the symbol of Guangzhou. Historical documents show that the walls of the city date back to 214 B.C..

Ironically, my first impressions of the city were that it seems very modern. A canal runs along the side of the Airport road, and this gives the area a very beautiful European look. However it was pitch black outside the bus, so I am unable to judge the color and consistency of the water. The reality may well cause me to amend my first impressions!

On the Airport road we hit three toll booths in the first three miles. I guess that I now know why the road seems so well maintained and why there are so few cars on the road … Obviously, only a select few can afford to travel this particular route.

Similarly, I was initially impressed that all the cars on the road seemed very new and well maintained, and they were all abiding by the rules of the road. Again, this first impression may well also be due to the toll booths.

When we finally left the street lights of the Airport road, we were once again totally immersed in darkness. However, I could notice a strange phosphorescent glow in the South East. Could this be Hong Kong? Could it be just some small Chinese village. I am betraying my fatigue and lack of geographical knowledge.

As we neared the city, we quickly learned that the bus's brakes were in excellent working order - as they needed to be. With some alarm, I noticed that many of the signs started saying "For Shenzhen." This is not cool. I remember our trip to this place in 2004, and it was the worst experience that I have ever had. Fortunately, the road diverged, and we chose the one less traveled: Thank goodness. It is headed away from Shenzhen and towards Guangzhou.

By this time, fatigue had almost overtaken me. But, as soon as I put my head down to get some sleep, our bus driver once again tested the efficacy of the brakes and started checking the blaring of the bus's air horn. While I am looking out of the window at a stop, a van pulls over and two guys get out. Neither of them is young. One of them runs around the van to the other side and starts beating the other man with a metal pole!!!! The light changes, and all of this is happening as traffic honks their horns and swirls around them. No one stops or even slows down.

Welcome to China.