, Columnist
Guangzhou’s 30-Year Journey
Two visits three decades apart show how much China has changed.
That wasn’t there 30 years ago.
Photograph: Bloomberg
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I hadn’t been to Guangzhou in more than 30 years, and I wanted to see what I would remember. The answer: basically nothing. Few places have been transformed so thoroughly in such a short period of time.
Back in July 1988, there were very many bicycles and motorbikes and very few cars. My tourist group rode in a large bus, which could not easily thread its way through the crowd of cyclists. I frequently saw, and could sometimes smell, pig carcasses flapping from the backs of the bikes.