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I knew that, as soon as I had put it into writing, the sunny days would end and the rainy days would begin. The first warning shots fell from the Hong Kong sky as we found our way to the tram. As we boarded one of the narrow rickety contraptions it became clear as to how the city had becvome flooded a few days earlier.
Within 10 minutes the tram was cutting a wake through the submerged streets. Reluctantly we steped off and began a walking tour of the older parts of Hong Kong, taking in where the British first landed, a temple hazy with incense smoke and dozens of other colonial buildings. It was a fascinating contrast to the modern city which towered 40 storeys and higher over it's elegant past.
That evening we re-entered China under a heavy storm. To get to our next stop, Yangshuo, we were taking a sleeper coach. This was actually much more comfortable than it sounds with room for about 20 passengers and equipped with beds of around 5 feet 8 inches in length (exactly my height, in fact) and 2 feet across. It did, however, lack curtains and so as I lay down anticipating a good night's sleep, I watched the blindingly heavy rain pour across the road beneath the rapid flashes of a violent weather system.
Sleep was actually harder than I thought it would be; the roads we travelled over being bumpy in the extreme. We were expecting to arrive in Yangshuo at about 5 in the morning, when it reached 7am I began to wonder what was happening. I found out soon after that one of the bridges we were hoping to use had been washed away. Not far out from the town we passed another which was under full flood. Murky brown waters reached almost to the second floor of unfortunate buildings located within a few hundred metres of a torrid river.
Expecting to find Yangshuo under water we disembarked the coach at 10am and began to seek out our hotel. Every other Chinese city and town we had been through has been a hive of activity alive with the shouts of traders and the horns of vehicles. This place, however, was different. Piles of soggy stock had been dragged into the street in the hope it would dry under the now clear blue skies. Slick mud, deposited by last night's temporary rivers, lay all over the streets. Here and there pumps gushed out the dirty water from submerged premises. The mop trade was enjoying an exponential surge.
After a bit of wandering we found our hotel (should have guessed that somewhere with 'Retreat' in the title wouldn't be in the centre of town). This place was a bit pricier than most but, in return for GBP15 a night we had a huge, clean room with floor-to-ceiling windows and a balcony overlooking fingers of narrow stone hills poking through dense rainforest. In the foreground the Li river busied itself to the sea.
For the rest of the day we explored the town which, in a matter of hours, had picked itself up and started business. Overwhelmingly set up for western tourism, we found that every other restaurant sold banana pancakes (a staple of the traveller's diet) and amlost everyone spoke English. Shamefully, this was a bit of a relief from the less-travelled parts of China we have been through.
On our second day we hired bikes and pedalled them through the surrounding countryside, replete with those same pointy hills reminiscent of crocodiles teeth. So many times I have wanted to say 'just look at the pictures' as putting a description into words is almost impossible - hopefully I'll have some pictures up soon (ish). The rain returned today, albeit lightly, and so we were soaked as we scaled a few hundred steps up to Moon Hill which was identical to every other hill in the area except it had a huge hole going through it, framing the sultry scenery below.
Today the rain has been much heavier and it looks like the streets nay flood again. Fortunately, because of our hotel's excellent situation, there is no need to go out and explore the countryside as we are right in the middle of it, gazing out over a scene which many would trudge for hours to see.
There is now a break in the rain. Hopefully this means the roads will be OK for us to get to Nanning tomorrow; our last stop before Vietnam. Once out of China I really must stop pointing at every animal, from dogs to ox, that passes by and shouting 'dinner'; Anna no longer finds it amusing.
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hey nice blog abousouthern China. I live up in henan prov the city of Zhengzhou, teach here an dlove it. Been here in this city 5 years. Hong Kong lovely really.
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Posted by norm4u2
on 2008-06-16 07:19:08
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hey nice blog abousouthern China. I live up in henan prov the city of Zhengzhou, teach here an dlove it. Been here in this city 5 years. Hong Kong lovely really.
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Posted by norm4u2
on 2008-06-16 07:19:13
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