Letting the Days pass
Trip Start
Jul 11, 2004
1
8
19
Trip End
Oct 10, 2004
Yangshuo,
China
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
If you come to a fork in the road, take it
- Yogi Berra
The SAR Visa Issue
The boarder crossing from Macau to the mainland was uneventful, as uneventful as a boarder separating China from China can be. Seemingly Chinas SAR's (Special Administrative Regions), which include Hong Kong & Macau, are not quite 'real' China yet, and while they ultimately take their orders from the Big Boys in Beijing, they do still have a say in their own matters. Hence the reason for the immigration style boarder check I was subjected to when boarding the train to Hong Kong in Shanghai train station and the Macau/mainland China checkpoints. As I say, it was uneventful and it's merely procedural, assuming you have your papers in order. If you ever plan a visit the area be aware that crossing over into either Hong Kong or Macau from China proper invalidates whatever visa you may be entering on (assuming, of course, you don't have some sort of 'open' or multiple entry style business visa). For this reason I got a double entry tourist visa before leaving home, one entry for my arrival in Beijing and one for my re-entry to China from Macau. In hindsight this is something I need not have done as ANY hostel or guesthouse in Hong Kong offers a same-day Chinese visa service, but I guess I was being convenient to myself by having all that organised beforehand. Good boy.
Didn't Like the Look of it
Once the boarder formalities were out of the way I hopped on the next bus for the 3 hour trip to Guangzhou, about 120km from Macau. Commonly known in the west as Canton, Guangzhou is 4th largest city in China, the capital of Guangdong Province (it's all about provinces in China) and a large port on the Pearl River. While that's all well and good, I had heard suspect things about the city and I wasn't to keen to hang around. I had heard it was expensive, by Chinese standards, and there wasn't a lot to see or do. Even my guidebook had a hard time talking it up, classing it as nothing more than a transit city, a title it was bound to be tagged with given its location. So disembarking the bus from Macau outside the city train station I took my chances and tried to see if there was any availability on the next overnight train northwest to Guilin, in Guangxi province. I was in luck. With the help of the CITS (The Chinese State Travel Agency) I was soon in possession of a Hard Sleeper class ticket for the overnight trip to Guilin.
************************************** Update - September 2005 ************************************
I made it back to Guangzhou, as part of another trip, in September 2005. Check out the entry here to see why Guangzhou isn't that bad a place after all.
************************************** Update - September 2005 ************************************
Hard Sleeper Ain't no Soft Sleeper
Okay, so I finally got to experience Chinese hard sleeper. My thoughts. Well, it's obviously a come-down, having only ever travelled Soft Sleeper class, but in saying that it's more than adequate. The biggest difference is, well, it's the lack of privacy, the less secure surroundings for your luggage and the drop in comfort level. Whereas Soft Sleeper has 4 berths in a closed compartment, Hard Sleeper is in open compartments with 6 berths (3 on 3), the bottom of which is used during the day as communal seating for the compartment 'residents'. But at half the price of Soft Sleeper it's the class of choice for budget conscious travellers and it's the class of travel I'll be hoping to secure from here on out, if only because I can't afford to keep travelling Soft Sleeper. Let's just pray I can avoid the lower class of Hard Seat.
Passing Through Guilin
I knew arriving in Guilin, Guangxi Province, that there wasn't anything of interest for me here. While it's one of China's most picturesque cities, its tourist infrastructure is totally geared towards the more affluent tourist and the city has yet, it seems, to develop an appreciation for the backpacker dollar. The reason for this is location; the city sits on the banks of the Li River, a 100km stretch of which is famous for its scenery. Its here you find the classic Chinese image of tall karst (weathered limestone) peaks rising from the still, green waters, and, if you're lucky, you'll also be treated to the sight of a Cormorant fisher plying his trade. It's the tourists coming from all over the world to see this that Guilin caters for, making it a not very welcoming place for backpackers. But that's not a problem. 80km downriver from Guilin is a small village called Yangshuo, the same Yangshuo the Guilin tour operators send their affluent tourists to, via boat, on day trips. And if Guilin doesn't want the backpacker dollar then they will be more than happy to take it in Yangshuo. So having arrived in Guilin train station it wasn't too hard to find the next departing minbus to Yangshuo (they'll find you, rest assured), and within 2 hours of stepping of the train I was sitting in a Yangshuo café having breakfast. Or was it lunch?
Yangshou
Finally, after almost 3 weeks in China, I had found somewhere quiet and laidback, and I took advantage of it. Yes, Yangshuo is a major backpacker draw and as a result it's very touristy. It's as close to Thailand or Vietnam as you'll get in China, complete with legions of backpacker cafes with their westernised menus of toast, banana pancakes and beer. But, and here's the but, it's was still, for me at least, a lovely place to hang out for a few days, especially in the evenings when I'd pass the time sitting in a local restaurant sipping beer and chatting to fellow travellers. There is not much to do here, unless you like rock climbing, and that, for me, was its selling point. I passed my time by taking walks in the surrounding countryside, checking out the village market and taking a secret trip on the Li River (see the pictures for more on that). I also did a few strenuous things, like scaling a few karst peaks, playing drinking games with some Chinese on holidays from Guangzhou and hiring bikes to explore the countryside and its villages. If you can think of anything else to do in Yangshuo then please let me know.
And that was Yangshuo. One day turned into 2, turned into 3 and eventually I passed 5 days and nights there. That gave me ample time to decide where I would be going next, and with that decision made I got the bus back to Guilin from where I began my attempt to get up into the hills and spend some more time taking it easy, this time in a minority village.
