12th December: Xiamen, China to Guangzhou, China

We headed across Xiamen in the pre-dawn darkness, bound for an early train down the Fujian and Guangdong coastline. Zipping along south, we traversed much of the route we’d taken heading in the opposite direction some 3 or 4 weeks ago. The clouds thinned and eventually burnt off, as we passed rice fields with water buffaloes and caught occasional glimpses of the sea off to our left.

The journey to Shenzhen North took around 3 hours and we arrived just in time for coffee o’clock. We also completed our initiation into Chinese train culture by eating some instant noodles using the boiling water taps found in every railway station and in every train carriage. Our secret ingredient was a dozen steamed dumplings we had taken away from the cafe last night. Not a bad lunch at all! Soon, we were on the train to Hong Kong for our second visa exit. This time we planned to do it in one day, hoping that this wouldn’t cause any issues for re-entry. For the fifth time in my life, I crossed the border into Hong Kong. All of the immigration and customs checks for both the mainland and Hong Kong are taken care of in West Kowloon station, something which was apparently a bone of contention when introduced due it potentially violating the ‘one country, two systems’ agreement. As a UK citizen, I believe that China (and everywhere else the UK occupied and pillaged) shouldn’t be bound by the former colonists.

We squeezed our bags into one storage locker, remembering instantly how painfully expensive everything is in HK. We had about 5 or 6 hours to do a bit of shopping to replace a few items. Today was the perfect day for it too, given it was ‘double 12’ which is analogous to Black Friday. It was really warm in the sunshine, despite the air temperature only being around 20C. It was very incongruous when paired with relentless Christmas songs and an unhealthy amount of Tom Jones!

Shopping done, we found a hidden viewing terrace to look over the harbour. The tops of the skyscrapers poked up between Christmas trees. Of course, we made the most of the different food options and had potato samosas as a snack whilst watching the ferries ply their trade across Victoria Harbour and helicopters shuttling in and out from Wan Chai. I was hoping for some golden hour snaps but a cloud band came through and it suddenly felt a good few degrees cooler. Instead, we went for more south Asian food!

Immediately after entering the area containing the Indian restaurants on the first floor of Chungking Mansions, we were descended upon by 5 men all offering menus and shouting over each about their restaurants. They wouldn’t let us have a second to think but we worked out which one we had wanted to go to. We chose wisely! The masala dosas were the biggest we’ve ever had at about 70cm long. They were delicious too, with plenty of filling along with decent chutneys and sambar. I think we’re safe for a little while now as Kaja’s blood-dosa levels have been heartily replenished.

And that was it, our quick-fire day trip was nearly over as we walked back down a darkening Nathan Road back towards West Kowloon Station. This street used to be the epicentre of Hong Kong’s famous neon, but no more. 120,000 neon signs across the city have become just a few hundred in two decades. Some argue that the ubiquity of LEDs means that HK has lost character and is now similar to other cities. Regardless, we enjoyed our whistle stop visit immensely and the city felt relaxing and a lot more welcoming than our typhoon-ravaged stay last month. That might also be aided by not having to pay a fortune to sleep in a coffin!

At HKWK Station we did the paperwork and immigration checks and had no problems in entering the country for the third time. We had to do lots of planning in order to be granted multiple entry (as opposed to double entry) visas before leaving but are glad it’s all worked out and that the effort was worth it. This will be our final entry into China, at least on this trip.

The train up the Pearl River delta to Guangzhou took only an hour. We’d booked a small apartment close to the station, but mapping apps made it look like a horrible convoluted 2km walk over a massive road junction, so we reluctantly decided to get a taxi. We queued, only to be told when we got to the front that a different queue of taxis was where we needed to be. This repeated another 3 times until we were told to go back to the first queue! At this point, I showed the address to the security guard who made one of the drivers take us. It turned out that the place was so close that nobody wanted to drive us there. I mean that’s kind of the luck of the draw as a taxi driver waiting in a rank but also, we get it. It didn’t take long, and the walk looked like it would’ve been fine after all. We paid the driver double and thanked him. We were dropped in the middle of a 6-lane highway, with cars and lorries parked in most of them! Most of the trucks had shipping containers or huge amounts of timber, perhaps waiting to go to a port, HK, or one of the free trade zones? Thankfully after a very long day and the taxi issues, the person checking us in to the apartment was friendly and helpful. Having more than reached our limits for today, we collapsed into bed!