Sunny Southern China

Days 1-3 we spent in Hong Kong walking around and attempting to adjust to the time difference…difficult. Our hostel was in the Mirador Mansions and from what I can tell, it has had a bit of a face lift since I stayed there 6 years ago. We got a really good induction to the Chinese starting culture the second night we were there having dinner at a noodle restaurant. An old woman who had fallen asleep at her table got up to leave and walked by us and saw us using chopsticks (A Westerner using CHOPSTICKS!? How absurd!) and came up to our table and stood right beside LJ and just stared in amazement. I was surprised to see that in Hong Kong, especially as we haven’t had as good of a stare since then after more than 2 weeks in the mainland. That night we shopped around for a cheap tent so that we could go camping in Tai Long Wan (Big Wave Bay) and found one for 10 pounds. Learned that you get what you pay for. Had a lovely hike to the beach and when we went to set up the tent, the pole was broken! We went into problem-solving mode for the next couple of hours and using a lot of whittling with rocks and plasters/bandaids we fashioned something that got the tent through the night at least. We gave it away to some local fisherman the next day.

Day 4-5 we took the train into Shenzhen, our first time back in the Mainland for 6 years. Loads has changed there…mainly, it looks a lot nicer and less seedy than when I lived there. We had an interesting time trying to speak Chinese to the hotel receptionist and had lots of people attempt to help us although none of them could actually speak English! Next day we met up with my old contact teacher Lu Haibo and saw the school and building where I spent my year there. We had lunch with him at one of my favourite restaurants, a Sichuanese. He helped us book our overnight sleeper bus to Yangshuo and we left that night.

Days 6-7 We got into Yangshuo really early in the morning and thanks to the National Day Chinese Holiday, everyone else was already there and we spent a good chunk of the morning looking for a hostel. Eventually got that sorted and walked around the town which has also changed loads since we were there last. We did manage to find the restaurant where we met and it is still in business. The town has almost doubled in size and didn’t have that same relaxed backpacker vibe that we experienced last time but it might be different now that the holidays are over and the Chinese people have gone back home now! The second day we rented bicycles and cycled through the mad traffic (LJ had a great video of it…somehow he wasn’t run over in the filming process…I have no idea how he survived it though!) out of town to Moon Hill where we first set eyes upon each other. Had an amazing cycle ride through the small towns and karst peaks. We weren’t exactly sure how to get back to the city centre but luckily were adopted by a group of Chinese cyclists who adopted us and guided us across the river with our bikes and back to the city.

Days 8-9 Left the next day for the Devil’s Backbone Rice Terraces north of Yangshuo and Guilin where we stayed in a minority cafe/inn which was an amazing old traditional wooden house that resembled a barn. We hiked around the stunning scenery for the next 2 days. One of the days we were walking through one of the little villages and were asked by one of the minority ladies if we wanted “lunchie lunchie.” We were pretty hungry so we went for it and are we glad we did! She took us to one of their homes and they proceeded to cook up a feast of 7 different dishes of locally produced food. Definitely a highlight of the trip so far!

Days 10-11 From there we had an interesting journey to our next destination. We had to take 2 buses to a town called Sanjiang and were keeping our fingers crossed that we would be able to get a train to another town. We got to the town and started looking for the train station but couldn’t find it on any map. A really kind girl who spoke really good English helped us and told us the train station was very far away and we had to take a minibus taxi to get there. She flagged one down for us and we had to be pushed in by her and pulled in by the other taxi passengers to get in with our bags sitting on top of us. Then we proceeded to drive through the countryside to what we were really hoping was going to be the train station. The taxi dropped us off at the bottom of a hill in the middle of nowhere and all the passengers pointed in one direction then drove off. So we headed in that direction and at the top of the hill (through the world”s most disgusting street with the highest population of flies) we came to the station. For some reason, the ticket salesman didn’t want to talk to us so a helpful girl came up and tried to translate for us except she didn’t speak English so she was essentially just translating our Mandarin to a more understandable version of Mandarin for the salesman. Got a ticket and had a 6 hour wait so went back to dirty street and had a really lovely dinner at one of the streetside restaurants. Took an overnight train to the next town where we took a bus to a small minority village called Dehang. It was beautiful and I think we were the only tourists staying overnight in the village. We stayed in yet another really cool traditional wooden house built alongside the river next to the ancient Jielong Bridge. We hiked to what is supposedly China’s highest waterfall and climbed up to another waterfall along a breathtaking but terrifyingly steep and treacherous path. We were thankful to make it to the top and back to the bottom without any major slipups!

We are now staying in another incredible riverside town with ancient city walls, disintegrating gate towers, rickety houses on stilts overlooking the river (thanks Lonely Planet for the description!) called Fenghuang. The last 2 days we have spent exploring the back alleys and the old town. We will be here for another day then will head on to Kaifeng and then Beijing afterwards.