Temperature – 17 degreesC
We basically eat and go shopping with Stephen’s Aunt for two days!!
Another lunch
Another lunch
Our clothes have shrunk?....
A market trader measures out some almonds for us
03. Asia without crossing any water
From Moscow to Guangzhou (Southern China)
After a wonderful stay in Hong Kong, we head back to China to check out Stephen’s aunt’s holiday home near Guangzhou. The journey involved two minibuses and three coaches mixed in with a couple or border checks… But actually it was really easy! Especially with Auntie Irene there to do the talking.
Minibus number 1
Coach number 1
Coach number 2
It's a proper holiday apartment - we must first turn on the water supply
Temperature: 14 to 23 degress C
Hong Kong!!! We are so happy to arrive in this “civilised” place. The signs which say “No spitting” are promising. It’s burning hot when we arrive, but gets rapidly colder after Chloe’s 27th birthday. Ominous!
We decide to stay a long time (12 days) and settle in to the family home in Choi Uk Tsuen.
Stephen gets up early for a spot of tofu with his aunt
Being sacreligious at Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple
Stephen manages to get in a big film
Daydreaming about architecture
Being silhouettes at sunset in Sai Kung
Stanley Bay
One of the many market streets
Fishy
This one's for Natalie
Had to put at least one sparkly picture in! The view from the Peak on Chloe's birthday
Big Buddha on Lantau Island
Climbing the stairs to the Big Buddha
But he is hiding in a cloud
The Wisdom Path
Karaoke at Neway, with Karen and Batman!!! I especially enjoyed that tested favourite, "Chihuahua"
Possibly our easiest journey to date, crossing the border from China into the “Special Administrative Region” of Hong Kong.
We leave our Chinese hostel by underground metro to Guangzhou East train station, board a train with seats(!) and walk across the border at Shenzhen into Hong Kong. We go for one stop on the metro in Hong Kong, jump off and find a bus to Yuen Long, New Territories, Hong Kong, where we meet Stephen’s Aunt.
- A view of Shenzhen from the train
The suprisingly comfortable train into Hong Kong - no-one is spitting at all
Hopefully the last time for carrying our big bags, as we can leave some heavier clothes behind!
We arrive at Choi Village!
What Stephen's Aunt thinks of us travelling by train to get to Hong Kong
We are well over the halfway mark in terms of distance "as the crow flies"
and now that little bit closer to Sydney...
Temperature: 21 degreesC
We disembark the train into the lovely warm weather of Guangzhou, with its population of just under 13 million people and still only the third largest city in China!
Here there is more Cantonese speaking and as importantly, Cantonese cuisine!!
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- call the locksmith please we are locked in our room
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- everything is sold by the side of the road they even break the chickens neck for you on request
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- guangzhou is named after a myth about five friendly goats which are depicted here
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- soy milk and little pots of tofu to eat by the streetside
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- the description to the top right obviously isnt describing tfl
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- the oldest museum in china
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- very kind instructions as to how to treat the grass
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- view of the guangzhou city centre from yuexiu park
We have finally decided to stop braving the cold weather and jump on a train heading South for the Winter!
It is another sleeper train that takes us to the very Southern part of China where we start to leave Mandarin behind for more Cantonese.
We get beds in what is known as "hard sleeper" class. The class above that is "soft sleeper". Below it are the classes of soft seats, hard seats, or no seats.
The constant spitting and shouting of our 60 carriage mates makes any kind of sleeping a rarity.
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- all kinds of everything are sold on the train
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- as we head south the farming gets more lush and we can see geese
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- early morning sun
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- hard sleeper class so called because it is hard to sleep
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- our xian rice snaps crackles and pops but is ruined by what we later find out to be lime flavoured milk
Temperature: 6 degreesC
We head East to Luòyáng, another of the four great ancient capitals of China. We arrive to find that our hostel is in fact someone’s flat in a dodgypart of town 10km away from the city centre where we find out how many Chinese people really live! It is run by a father and son, who usually spend all day internet gaming. Because we stayed over for two nights they had to share a bed.
It is worth noting however that the first night was a historic one, when Chloé was given a Chinese name by the father, "uncle" and "nephew" after dinner! As below…
金花
We go to visit the incredible UNESCO World Heritage listed Longmen Grottoes, which are one of the finest examples of Chinese Buddhist art. Tens of thousands of statues of Buddha and his disciples, were carved into caves excavated from the limestone cliffs.
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- a view of the dragons door
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- big buddha and little buddha boy
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- chloe thinks this jug is full of water and not chinese spirit
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- father son uncle aunt and nephew greet us at this most peculiar hostel
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- impossibly cute dog
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- man doing tai chi with intent in the park behind chloe
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- the longmen grottoes
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- we have no idea where we are staying
We go from one great bus journey to a terrible one, which is delayed for 2 hours and requires us to change buses in the middle of the road before delivering us to the wrong bus station, whilst costing a fortune… in Chinese terms anyway!
It is a while before we see any non Chinese people.
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- another waiting room
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- no we havent seen non chinese people for days
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- they havent seen non chinese people in reality ever before
Temperature: 11 degreesC
We continue South West to Xi’an. A more friendly city than Beijing and one of the four ancient capitals of China with a population of more than 8 million people.
We go to see the Terracotta Army like all good tourists do. Despite the fascinating story surrounding them, i.e. a probably mad emperor who ordered the warriors and horses to be mde in clay to accompany him after death, we found that the exhibition of them was probably done better at the British Museum a few years ago. Bear in mind that neither of us even saw the exhibition at the British Museum.
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- a close up of a warrior and his horse
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- a man lights a fire in a street with a kettle for a pressure cooker and willing to cook anything you bring
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- a relief to arrive at yet another beautiful hostel
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- some signs are just not necessary
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- spot kangaroo
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- stephen helps a lady collect her freshly cooked puffed rice
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- the terracotta army
londontoaustralia 