I created this blog during the summer of 2013 when I worked for five weeks in Guangzhou, China. I was hired as a production assistant on a documentary film, Guangzhou Dream Factory. This film tells the story of Africans living and working in the city of Guangzhou. It was an amazing experience and I wanted to document it, and in this blog you’ll find my photos and impressions.

In the summer of 2014, I was hired to create a website for the film. Here is the link: www.gzdreamfactory.com

Yesterday we went to Yuexiu Park, one of Guangzhou’s many parks. After leaving the hotel we drove about 10 minutes through a dense urban neighborhood and then entered a vast, peaceful, green space. Inside the park there was a big beautiful lake filled with pedal boats. Next to the lake were several small pools filled with carp and goldfish. Little kids rented small buckets and nets and tried to catch fish. Once they caught a fish, the park staff put the fish in plastic bags for the kids to take home.

We were there to film two Nigerian women and their children. They planned to spend the afternoon at the park, but it started raining and we had to leave. Before we left I helped with some audio recording. I was recording the sound of rain, which is a lot harder than you would think.

A few hours ago we took a ride down to a commercial district of Guangzhou. This is a part of the city that is filled with incredible buildings and billboards. I was able to take a bunch of pictures of the skyscrapers decorated with flashing LEDs. I also tried to do some long exposures, but there was too much ambient light to get the results I wanted. Hopefully I will go back for more skyscraper hunting tomorrow, and will upload more night pictures.

Yesterday, I went to a pet market and went around taking pictures while the crew was filming. We arrived at a big warehouse at the end of street. There was a huge sign out front, which might have read, “Pet Market”. As soon as we walked inside, we were greeted by a hundreds of fish tanks, water filters, boxes of fish food and water tank toys. About 20 meters further in, we entered the fish section. There were fish everywhere. Blue fish, red fish, pink fish, small fish, large fish, all sorts of fish. Most of them were in colorful tanks with LEDs and decorative backgrounds. The place was kind of empty, just me and the fish.

A few days ago we visited a local park called Baiyun Mountain. We were going there to film one of the characters in the documentary, who loves visiting the place. We drove about a half an hour from the hotel and arrived at the front entrance of the park. We  thought we would be able to drive up to the top of the mountain, but were informed that cars were not allowed on the road. So we drove a little further to the cable cars that would bring us to the top. After paying 20 yuan each, we got our tickets and rode the cable car up the mountain. It was much higher than I expected. We were in the cable car for at least 10 minutes.

At the top of the mountain there is a big park with a McDonald’s (of course). The view was extraordinary, and even though the city was very smoggy, I could still see for a couple of miles.

Yesterday I visited a Chinese food market. The reason we went to this market is that some of the market sellers cater to Africans and sell food products imported from Africa. There were meats, fish, vegetables and insects. Scorpions, live scorpions! There was also live poultry. This market reminded me of French markets I used to go to when I was younger, especially the fish section.

So the other day I went to a Nigerian-owned clothing factory. I was thinking this would be a sweat shop. When I think of sweat shops, I think of grungy, dirty factories where people are working endless hours making a few cents a day.

We walked up five flights of stairs to the top floor of a small building into a large open room. Half of this room was filled with tables for cutting cloth and in the other half were rows of sewing machines. While we were there, about 15 people were working, each seated at a sewing machine. The work pace was steady, but not rushed. The owner was nice and gave us drinks. The workers would sew a few items, stretch and talk with each other. The most interesting part of this factory is that is it owned by a Nigerian man and his Chinese wife.

Here are some pictures of the factory.

While driving over to a friend’s office to film, we came across this huge sound stage. After walking up to investigate, we found out that this was a launch event for Hennessy Cognac in China. This whole show was VIP only and its purpose was  to advertise Hennessy’s new line in China. Some unknown rapper called “Cargo” and  a seemingly professional motorbike racer were flown out from the U.S. for a one night show.

Sorry about the lack of posts lately, I’ve been busy.

2 days ago we went into an expensive side of Guangzhou where tall buildings ruled the skies.

Lunch: Boiled cucumbers, assorted mushrooms, bowl of noodles and fish balls (rolled up fish)

Dinner: We were invited to a very fancy dinner at a very fancy restaurant. Unfortunately I couldn’t really take any pictures

We started our dinner with a few appetizers: Tiny fried fish with fried shrimp, glazed walnut. Then the food started being carted out: Shrimp with egg white, Shredded beef with sauce wrapped in lettuce, Turbo Fish, Rice Noodles, Scallops with ginger sauce, Lotus root pancakes with Fish balls, Duck & Pig platter and some sort of  icecream/marshmallow dessert.

Here is the only picture I took (I took some of the same plate, but they were blurry)

Shrimp with egg whites.