Urban Decay

My last post was about a trip we took to a ghost mall in hopes of finding urban decay and wound up finding a partially operational mall. And though we didn't find the urban decay that others had posted about online, it still was an interesting place to explore. This post is about a trip we took in hopes of finding an interesting place and wound up finding urban decay.

This last weekend, Sandy and I celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary by spending the weekend in Guangzhou, just for some time away to enjoy being together. On Saturday, we decided to explore a little and went to an art factory called Redtory that TripAdvisor had listed as an interesting place to visit. Had I read the reviews a little more closely, we wouldn't have gone because some of the reviews discussed how the shops were mostly closed down in October of 2019. (This actually brings up an interesting issue many travel sites are having: with the pandemic greatly limiting travel over the past few years, most customer reviews are from 2019. And with the problems businesses have had during the pandemic, places may have changed significantly since then. This is particularly apparent in China since the review sites in English are limited and tourists have been shut out of China for the past two years.)

Regardless, we found ourselves at Redtory in the heart of Guangzhou near the Pear River walking through an abandoned parking lot anticipating some artistic finds. Instead, we found ourselves wandering down deserted streets littered with leaves and mangoes looking at abandoned brick buildings covered with shrubbery and vines. The area was pleasant enough -- it resembled a suburban neighborhood in it's layout with residential-style streets and small brick buildings -- but it was lifeless. We spent about an hour there and only saw two other people who were also exploring. Aside from that, there was no life in the community (other than hundreds of mosquitos). We enjoyed looking at old studios, abandoned machinery, overgrown trees and bushes all while trying to keep our footing on layers of leaves while avoiding (for the most part) rotting mangos.  

I have spoken with several people who remember the area when it was still operating and really liked it. The hope was that it would add a modern artistic sub-culture to a walking area near the Pearl River. I wish it had succeeded because it looked like it would have been very interesting. Regardless, here are some photos of the area for you to enjoy.