From Guizhou Province to Hongkong
I left Guiyang following the motorway. Unless there are alternative roads, taking the motorway with a bicycle is legal in China. I didn’t know wether there was another road nor how to find it, so I just continued and was rewarded with a nice 140km ride on perfectly smooth tarmac, little traffic and moderate climbs. Passing the ‘Dragon’s Backbone’, the rice terraces of Longshen, the first part of my ride that day took me along the banks of a stunning river in the direction of Guilin. Guilin, biggest city of Guangxi province, is well known for it’s surrounding environment, unreal-looking limestone rock formations, grottos and the Li River. Oringially, my plan was to cruise down to Yangshuo on the Li River, while taking my bike to avoid backtracking.
After checking into the Youth hostel, I went to check opportunities with the travel agent downstairs. The girl in the travel agents office was a real cutie and quite supportive, but didn’t fuel my aspirations in terms of taking the bike with me. Believing that there would be some kind of jetty along the river flowing through Guilin, I soon found out that the jetty was quite a bit out of town and tourists are taken there by transfer bus. She told me that the busses would not be designed to accept large pieces of luggage like a bicycle so I left to think it over and decided that it would be time to have some dinner. I went outside and had a seat in front of one of the restaurants which were located in the back alley. Shortly after I had ordered, a young Chinese woman with a tall German looking guy came along. They where obviously looking for a place to eat, so I made eye contact and offered them a seat at my table. It turned out that he was German indeed, and she herself a medical doctor from Guilin, now living in Germany. We ordered some food and started the usual traveller chit-chat. The good thing: they more or less told me straight away that they were also planning to do the cruise, were about to hire a boat and were looking for people to join in to cut down on expenses. The deal sounded ok moneywise, so I decided to skip my original plan and joined in.
But, was I at first relieved for her commitment to get us a good deal, it soon started to become a bit annoying. Haggling with the travel agent on the phone all the time and being constantly suspicious about him and the deal was quite tedious. The cruise itself was worthwhile, but turned out to be shorter then usual. It was wintertime, so the river didn’t carry enough water, which made it impossible to float down all the way to Yangshuo. It also caused a bottleneck at one of the river bends and led to a traffic jam of cruise boats!
After a transfer bus had taken us in town, we had a stroll around, but Yangshuo these days is nothing but another tourist trap, packed with Americans, western junk food everywhere, stalls selling cheap overpriced crap, prostitution, petty crime and every second place had Lonely Planet recommendation adverts attached. I don’t have a clue why people spend big money travel to places like this on purpose. Honestly. Without question, the scenery is nice, but for my taste I enjoy the less spoiled, but more authentic places. In the evening we took a local bus back to Guilin, the next day I left, rode my bike to Yangshuo again. Not because I had changed my mind, but it simple was en route to Hong Kong. Getting to HKG was still an effort, and I had to make it to the megalopolis of Guangzhou first.
After a few days I met the Pearl river which I followed, and once again, I had managed to safely make my way into a mega city without maps and getting lost. Guangzhou, better known to westerners by its other name, Canton, and the Pearl River Delta is an acknowledged economical hotspot. From Macau in the south, all along the bay to Shenzhen and the Special Administration Region of Hong Kong is one big industrial area with a population of 15 million people. To know what that means, one should walk the shopping streets of Guangzhou at any time of the day. After relaxing and hanging out there for a couple of days with some English expats at the local youth hostel, I left for the final leg to Hong Kong. The somewhat surreal ride led me through approx. 150kms of industrial suburbs. I arrived in Macau at noon the next day, but decided to skip it and advance to Hong Kong straight away.
Reaching Kowloon after nightfall, I found Nathan Road and the notorious Chunking Mansions, but decided to deserve some luxury. So I checked in to a place of the slightly more upmarket Mirador Mansions. The owner was a bit greedy though – everybody in Hong Kong is – but in the end we found an agreement and both of us were happy.
Hong Kong is all about making money. Which means the centre is quite busy, packed with people, heavy traffic, and literally one huge shopping mall. Usually, I would find places like these very annoying. But Hong Kong is an exception. Hong Kong’s different. It’s like an organism: alive, pulsating and it never sleeps. And then there are the notorious Chunking Mansions on Nathan Road: a micro cosmos of shops, restaurants, hotels and exchange booths mostly run by Indians and Pakistanis. Many people would consider this place to be a bit dodgy. Personally, I just love it. One of the downsides of Hong Kong is its restrictedness. Everywhere one can spot signs letting one know what is not allowed to do along with the maximum penalty in case of violation. Still, I found the mood a great deal less oppressive than in my home country.
Unfortunately I have to suspend my trip soon and go back home for a while. Hopefully it won’t be for too long…
