We managed to navigate from hostel in Nanning to the bus station, and from the bus station to Yangshuo. There was a slight mix up in the station when I tried to buy a snack, but was told that the counter was for business class customers only. It was only selling overpriced sandwiches and juice for goodness sake! We arrived in the late afternoon in the dark, driving rain and freezing cold. Seriously, I just was not prepared! We got to the hostel and were told that we had a free beer waiting for us in the roof top bar. Fantastic, we thought. Turns out it’s an open air bar. We took one sip, then scampered back down to our room and had to get under the duvet to warm up. We headed out to get some food and I was shivering even in the restaurant. I’m not sure how I’ll ever cope with cold weather again. I may need to become one of those people who travel from hot climate to hot climate every six months.
However, we found a DVD collection at the hostel, so warmed ourselves up with many beers, the duvet, and a fairly poor copy of a film to cheer ourselves up. Next morning Mark got up early to get some shots from the roof top bar, where you could see the whole town. By this time the rain had been swept away, and beautiful sunshine beamed down on us. We were really keen to get out to Xingping, as this is where the most beautiful scenery can be found, so we went to get some breakfast, then a bus to take us there. Even the drive was beautiful, a mixture of countryside, rivers and the large hills in the distance. When we arrived in the town we wandered through narrow streets to the river.
We opted to trek along the riverside. You can also take a boat trip up and down the river, but we could see that lots of boat loads of tourists were setting out, and it was quite congested. Of course, you do get to see further along the river, but we preferred to take our own time and enjoy the sights. There is one view in particular which is very famous in China, as it is the picture on one of their Yuan notes. It is an image that I have seen before, of a local man fishing with a cormorant on the river, with the hills rising out of the mists in the background. We were lucky to have a beautiful sunny day, and strolled along taking in all of the scenery, although the lack of mist, oh and random fishermen with cormorants, did prevent us from re-enacting the famous scene.
The landscape was very much like Ha Long Bay but on dry land, with steep hills rising up out of the horizon, covered in greenery. It presented the same visual trickery as well, all the hills looking like one mass until you approached them to see that they were individual. This landscape goes on for miles throughout the region, and the region is very famous for its beauty.
We walked along in the sunshine along the riverside and enjoyed the peace, aside from the busy tourist boats going by. It was such a beautiful day to enjoy the scenery, that we found it a shame we couldn’t stay longer, but we had booked a flight down to Guangzhou from Guilin, to then take a train to Hong Kong to visit my cousin Dino and her family. So we power walked back to the town, took a bus to Yangshuo, and grabbed a taxi to the airport. Yes, we did overspend on our budget here, but the alternative was cross country on a bus, which could have taken days for all we knew.
We could see the same hills that we had seen in Xingping all the way up to Guilin, it went on for miles and miles. My hope was that our flight would take off over the area to see it from another angle, but unfortunately it was dark by the time we departed. Still, we could easily see why it is such a famous region in China for its beauty. We were surprised by the number of Chinese tourists that we saw. It wasn’t so long ago that inhabitants were not allowed to travel outside of their provinces, and it’s great to see that they are now able to enjoy their own country.
We got our flight to Guangzhou then headed down to the train station, where we got thoroughly confused. We went to find a bus station that was clearly signed, but didn’t seem to exist. We were concerned that it was so late by this time, that border control may no longer be open into Hong Kong. Although it is technically part of China, Hong Kong is one of the areas that have been set up as Special Economic Zones, so it for all intents and purposes the same as travelling into a different country. Special Economic Zones are declared to allow consumerism in what is supposed to be a communist country.
In the end we bought train tickets to Kowloon, and hoped for the best. We took our time going up to the departure gate, wondering why we were the only ones wandering about. We were then rushed through in a flurry of Chinese, which of course we don’t understand, and we realised that we had to go through passport control before we boarded the train. This confused us even further, as we thought that we would still have to go through border control from Kowloon to Hong Kong. Dino soon set me straight and made me feel rather stupid, by telling me that Kowloon is part of Hong Kong. Dur. But at least that eased our minds about getting in – and when I checked my passport I realised that they had already stamped me out of China and into Hong Kong.
The train journey was very quick. It was a shame it was dark outside because we couldn’t make out much of the scenery, but we did notice that there weren’t many suburban areas as we approached Hong Kong, each area seeming to merge into a huge urban expanse. We arrived quite late, and bless Dino and Edwin they came to meet us off the MTR and took us back to their place. When we walked in and sat down, my little second cousin Reilly came out of her room looking all sleepy, and without paying much attention climbed into my lap and put her arms round my neck. It has since been mentioned that I look like Dino, which may well have explained it. It was the loveliest possible welcome. We sat up and chatted for a while, but we were all more than ready for bed, so put our heads down to get some rest to prepare us for exploring Hong Kong the following day.