Homeward bound

Not quite our ancestral home, but pretty close. Jiangmen is where most of our relatives live, and not far from the village where our grandpa Chan Sing left in 1910 as an eighteen year old boy searching for a better life in a foreign land called Canada.
I took a bus from Dongguan and it took 4 hours due to some traffic jams.

Arrived at the 5 star Yucca hotel, which is very grand and modern. But like most 5 star places in China, there are two basic fundamental issues which bug the hell out of me:

#1 - poor management. With all the money spent on the properties, you would think that they would hire the best and smartest management team, no. First class hotel but staff and crew are pretty raw, with most unable to speak a second language. In fact, many do not even speak Cantonese although this is Guangdong.

#2 - no smoking? Who cares....Like all public places in China, you may see "no smoking" signs but smokers don't give a damn, and I would say at least 80% of men smoke here. They smoke where and when they want, and in numbers. The grand hotel lobby with beautiful and fragrant floral arrangements is covered with a thick cloud of smoke and so are the elevators. Non smoking rooms have ash trays and the sickly smell of burnt nicotine........absolutely disgusting. Staff and management are too timid to ask the violators to butt out. On two separate occaissions, I had to confront these ignorant idiots lighting up in a non smoking section where we have breakfasts.

Our relative Wing Chan arranged a dinner with other relatives who all came except "ah loy" who is in Beijing visiting. Ah Gu looks, talks, and acts just like grandma, a real deja vu......

Now that I know the way around, I will bring the family to Jiangmen and to the village next time...........Jiangmen is a very nice city with many modern buildings, condos, and a new world class golf resort. Money is no object on some of these world class projects and they are very grand indeed, but the mentality and attitude of the people overall is still third world, and that won't change anytime soon.