Out of Hong Kong and into China...
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2005
1
23
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Trip End
Sep 20, 2006
Yangshuo,
China
Thursday, November 17, 2005
We are with a great group of Aussies (we are the only non-Aussies!) and have a really good guide called Jerry who speaks excellent English and has a great sense of humour. The weather is pretty chilly now and will be getting colder as we head further north. Food so far has been fantastic!
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China has blown our socks off
1 - Jono on his bike
. This is not what we expected the great People's Democratic Republic to be like... China seems to be changing at an incredible pace. It looks like there's been so much building, of residential apartment blocks, commercial and manufacturing premises etc, over the last few years becuase everthing looks so NEW! And it's not the dreary 'communist' style of architecture either, this is all stylish and modern. In Guangzhou we went to a Starbucks! We will see over the next couple of weeks whether this is the Hong Kong 'ripple effect' on the south of China.The overnight train was very comfortable, not dissimilar to travelling 3AC on the Indian train - we were in 'hard sleeper' class which was better than it sounds! The whole train travel experience couldn't have been more different to the India; it was efficient, CLEAN, orderly...! The station at Guilin was really impressive too, huge and new.
Yangshuo is a lovely small city in the region that is distinguished by lots of huge limestone outcrops. This landscape has had a real influence on Chinese art over the centuries. We went on a day-long bike ride (which was a little painful for those of us who don't bike regularly!) through the fields that fill up the flat areas between the limestone hills. We've also been on a couple of boat trips on the rivers that snake through the landscape, it's all been very beautiful
2 - the landscape
.The town itself is completely dedicated to tourism, and has been apparently since Bill Clinton paid a visit and put it on the map! It's not only western tourists, there are many Chinese tour groups here too. It's Chinese but very western influenced, you can get pretty much any kind of food here, and we were surprised to see a restaurant called 'Minnie Mao's' with a logo of Chairman Mao's face made to look a little like Micky Mouse... we're pretty sure that wouldn't have been here a few years ago!
We are loving China, fortunate to have joined a really great group of people for the trip and with a great guide. Maybe India forced our minds to open so much, we are finding this a much easier place to be!
