Hey,
The last few days have been a whirlwind adventure. We left Hong Kong via commuter rail to Guangzhou, which I would describe as a business hub. We stayed with some of Walker's dad's friends out there--two gregarious and fun Australians who had a dinner party the night we were there. Learned a lot about the expat life in China and how the community interacts with the local culture. Pretty interesting, though I dreamed in Australian and British accents that night (all of their friends were European).
The next night we took a night train to Guilin, where we caught a little minibus to Yangshuo, a fairly small mountain town famous for its scenery. We ate breakfast in this garage-like noodle shop with the hotel manager, then hopped on bicycles and tore into the countryside. The mountains here are extremely different from any I've ever seen, they are narrow and go pretty much straight up, and just pop out of a flat landscape here and there. We biked along a river until the pavement ran out, and then continued through little villages and farmland on dirt paths. A woman on a bicycle offered to take us to her hometown, which was a 20 minute bike ride away, and we got there just in time to take cover during a huge thunderstorm. Lunch was good--more noodles (starting to see a pattern?)--while watching the rain and watching old men play cards. There are a lot of water buffalo out here, and I even saw a little calf (he was adorable). After lunch, we found our way back to the main highway and biked back to Yangshuo. Actually, we biked past Yangshuo and out to a site called Moon Hill. It was a long hike up to the top, but we were rewarded with a stunning view of the land and a really cool arch in the rock.
After that exhausting day, we went out on a boat that night to watch the fishermen fish with cormorant (the birds that can swim under the water). And slept soundly that night!
We tried to catch the sunrise the next morning, but there was no sunrise as the sky assumed a gloomy fog. We walked down to the Li River and watched the fishermen in their boats and the little old ladies on the dock doing aerobics to Beijing Opera. It was pretty cool (me being the public health fiend and all). I also got pretty excited an hour later when we were riding through a tiny little town and we happened across a guy with a mouth full of toothpaste suds.
A lot of beautiful scenery and fun exploration characterized Yangshuo and the surrounding area. Eager to see more of China in our limited time though, we caught a bus mid-afternooon back to Guilin and spent the afternoon there. In the center of the city there is one of these Karst mountains called Elephant Hill, and we climbed up it to get a great view of the city and the river.
Today I woke up on a train as we pulled into the station in Shaoguan. Shaoguan is a few hours north of Guangzhou, where we're planning on spending the night, and the home of Zen Buddhism. Figured we could check out the temple and see some more of the region's beautiful scenery before heading back to Hong Kong.
Home on Friday! Hard to believe how the time has flown. Looking forward to having a CELL PHONE again, wearing JEANS and SWEATPANTS (didn't bring any), not carrying my own toilet paper around(!), drinking ice water, being literate, listening to the Dixie Chicks, eating some cereal and NY PIZZA, and talking to you all! But, China has been a blast and I'll be back at some point soon!
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