China trip

Now that I have a little time in between exams, I can catch up on my blog. What has happened in the last few weeks? One word - China!!!
That's right!! I finally had a chance to head into the PRC proper. Last week me and Jason (my neighbour) decied on the spur of the moment to head in land. I have finally obtained a multiple-entry visa which means the whole country is mine for the taking!

Since neither of us wanted to head anywhere that was too cold or too far from HK, we headed for Guilin in Shangxi province. Shangxi is west of Guangdong province which is the province bordering Hong Kong. Depending as always on the Lonely Planet (hey, I knew nothing about where we were heading!!) we went straight to the town of Yangshuo which was apparently "more beautiful" but "less touristy". Well it was half right. It sure was beautiful - cheak out the pics...

However instead of being the laid back backpacker hangout I was led to believe, the place was crawling with handreds of Chinese tourists. However the place is still aimed at westerners so the streets were full of bars and tons of restaurants of every cuisine you could think of, Japanese, French, Italian, Scottish (?), Indian. Therefore eating was not *that* cheap (although cheaper then Hong Kong) but I didn't really mind. Since I am in the middle of exams I was looking for a place to chill, not to get down and dirty. So it was a wonderful little getaway. we went river cruising, climbed a few hills, nothing too hard.

The final day we cheaked out Guilin which normally gets all the good press. We had the whole day as the train didn't leave til 20.00. However here is a little warning...there is NOTHING repeat NOTHING to do in Guilin. Why it is so famous is beyond me, it was just another dirty southern Chinese city.

Oh yeah, the train. The train from Guangzhou to Guilin was about fourteen hours but since it was overnight it was quite managable as long as you pay for a bed. I can't think of nothing worse then sitting in some seat for the whole journey... Still it is much cheaper then flying and very 'cultural', it okay when the little children sneak a look at the "laowai" but when the adults do as well...well I'm sure they've seen a westerner before!!

Well it was a good trip, can't wait til the next one in January!

Matt