Travels in a Distant Land

Hi there! I thought it was about time I sent you an update on my life
here in China.

As it turned out I only spent two weeks working in Beijing (as opposed
to six), as the school I transferred to closed for a three-week
renovation. On the last day in the Beijing school I only had lessons
in the afternoon, so I decided to skive off my office hours in the
morning and go to see some sights and make the most of my time there.
I went to the Temple of Heaven which is where the Emperors used to go
and make sacrifices, the temple itself is a lot smaller than I had
imagined, but spectacular nonetheless. After my stay in Beijing China
had a national week-long holiday for the beginning of May, so I went
with some of my Guangzhou colleagues to Guilin and Yansuo in the
neighbouring province of Guangxi. We took an overnight bus from
Guangzhou as part of a tour group with a company that Iris, (one of my
colleagues) used to work for. The group insisted on playing some
strange games which I and the other three westerners couldn't
understand as they were in Chinese, but they kept shouting excited
through the bus' PA system until about 1AM in the morning!

As soon as we arrived in Yansuo we were greeted by tall limestone
cliffs covered with vegetation, and paddy fields on either side of us
full of peasant farmers working in the hot sun. We took a boat down
the river to enjoy the beautiful scenery (accompanied with the
obligatory beer, naturally). After that we went to crammed into some
very unsafe looking buses and went to watch a traditional show feature
some of the Guangxi's native people. We had to wear some strange hats
made of grass and have our faces streaked with a white paint-like
substances, and say some local words before we were allowed to enter.
The show was very entertaining, with a lot of dancing, sword ship and
playing with fire, (one man even put a burning torch underneath his
loincloth!) They let some of us take part in the festivities then
toured the rest of the camp where some of the braver ones of us had
our pictures taken with a real bear! In the evening we visited
Western street (so called as it is always filled with Western tourists
haggling in the shops and outside stalls which line the road.

The following day we hired some bikes to ride along the side of the
river but some of the Chinese girls didn't know how to ride them, so
some of the others hired tandems so the girl could ride on the back.
However, there were not enough tandem bikes so one of the leaders of
our group asked me if it was OK if me and Yu, (the girl I was with),
knew how to ride a scooter. I said it was no problem even though I
wasn't too sure how to ride it, but I wanted to show off to the other
teachers who had already gone on ahead. So we sped along the road
overtaking the others and laughing at them, with Yu taking photos
while I tried to control the bike. Eventually we got to a place in
the river where we were going to hire some bamboo rafts, so all of the
bikes were strapped to the rafts which held two people (plus the man
to steer them). Some entrepreneurial people at the bank of the river
were selling makeshift water pistols, which lead to a impromptu water
fight before we had even boarded our rafts. We had an hour floating
down the river with the magnificent cliffs looming up around us. This
area is very famous when you see read any tourist guide to China, and
there were many postcard-perfect photographs to be taken. As others
floated ahead or behind, all that me and Yu could hear was the splash
of the bamboo oar and the sounds of the birds in the treetops
overhead, all in all a very serene experience. Serene until another
raft came near that is. As soon as some other people were in range,
the water fights would continue, with the people on each raft
desperately pumping water into their weapons to soak the enemies,
(also soaking our driver in the process).

In the evening we boarded our bus once more and drove high into the
mountains, twisted around many hairpin bends with the dirt track
crumbling away beside us. I have no idea what would happen if another
bus happened to be coming in the opposite direction. As we climbed
higher and hire, the bends became even more precarious, and many of
the Chinese started to reach for the sick bags. Eventually we
reached our destination, a purpose-built wooden village for tourists
to stay. The village had a couple of hotels, a bar/disco, some
restaurants and souvenir shops, all built out of wood. For dinner we
ate rice cooked inside pieces of bamboo, and I even tried a fried pigs
tail! Then we played some drinking games with the Chinese, drinking
long into the night, even after the bar had closed. When we ran out
of beer I went to a restaurant that had already closed, but they were
so impressed with my rubbish Chinese they decided to sell some to me
anyway.

The next morning we woke up at 5AM to view the sunrise. It was quite
surreal watching the sunrise from the hilltop with about half of the
Chinese tourists from the village, smoking, spitting etc. Then we
headed into Guilin for lunch, which is similar to Yansuo albeit
significantly more built up. After lunch we had the option of
exploring the city or taking another boat trip down the river. The
scenery before had been so stunning that most of us opted to take to
the water again. We passed by many locals carrying out their daily
tasks on the banks of the river before we reached 'Elephant Mountain'
which is so-called as there is a cliff that has been eroded by the
river which resembles the trunk of an elephant. Finally we had
another look at 'Western Street' before taking the night bus back to
Guangzhou, where an annoying man kept stroking my legs and face while
his wife sat opposite asking me if I was afraid of her husband!??!?!.

I then took a trip to Maccau with my Swedish colleague, Bjorn. It is
an ex-Portuguese colony (like Hong Kong to the British), and the only
place where you can legally gamble in China. We visited some old
ruins and a casino before heading off to Hong Kong. After some
shopping Bjorn went back to Guangzhou and I took the boat to Lama
Island about half an hour from mainland Hong Kong. One of the
American teachers, Jenny, who works at the other school has a house
there where I have stayed before, so I stayed there with another
teacher, Nikki, and spent two days making Long Island Iced Tea and
lazing by the beach. Lamma Island is a big contrast to Hong Kong as
there are no high rise buildings, crowds of people or even cars. The
population consists mainly of British, Australian and American expats,
many of whom fall into one of two catogries; yuppies or hippies. The
island has a very relaxed feel to it, with a walk through the hills to
the wind turbine which supplies the island's power, to the small sandy
beaches and blue waters scattered with fishing vessels, (the island's
main source of income). There are many shops selling clothes,
candles, incense, beach ware and other souvenirs as well as many sea
food restaurnts, and Turkish, Thai and Indian restaurants.

The island is so beautiful and peaceful compared to both Hong Kong or
Guangzhou, so I decided to go back there this Monday with my
girlfriend, Queenie. We spent the day there together by the beach,
before heading back to Hong Kong and taking a tram to the peak where
we could see a brilliant view of the Hong Kong skyline lit up in the
night sky. Then we had a romantic view in a restaurant overlooking
the harbour with the skyline in the background, before returning back
to the city where we stayed the night at another student's house who
has family in Hong Kong. The next day Queenie and the other student,
Wing, went on a shopping spree with me in tow as chief baggage
handler. Later that night Queenie and I returned to Guangzhou happy
but very tired.

So well done if you actually managed to read right through to the end
of this email. Drop me a line when you next have time (I'm a poet),
it would be great to hear from you!

That's all folks!
Phil :-)