Blogs from Guangdong, China, Asia

I had hoped to have an early start, but since I didn't arrive into Guangzhou late the evening before and didn't get into bed until after midnight, I was a little slow off the mark. Once sorted, I repacked my case ready for my late night departure and ordered some breakfast. I headed downstairs as the place I was staying at had a cafe on the ground floor and I ordered an iced americano as I was no longer used to the Guangdong heat since moving a bit further north. I got a nice surprise that as a guest my coffee had a slight discount. I drank my coffee and waited for my breakfast to arrive. I nearly missed the delivery bloke as he raced off up the stairs. I'm glad I saved him having to ... read more

After a couple of cups of coffee, I was off to Li Garden. It was a bout a fifty minute walk from where I was staying, but using public transport would have taken almost as long as I would have to walk about half the route and then wait around for the bus as it isn't too frequent. I enjoyed the walk although it was raining lightly. I headed along the road out of the village in a different direction passing more traditional style houses. I loved how old they looked and with the modern touches of people's laundry hanging out to show that they were lived in. The village road was pretty quiet and so was the main road I walked along. I'm glad there wasn't too much traffic as there were no real footpaths ... read more

Once up and sorted I made my way along the road to the Thousand Buddha Tower Temple. I headed through the gates and along the road to the temple. It was really quiet and there were only a few other people about outside the temple. There were some pools of water and a nice seating area, so I stopped there for a while to read and watch a grandmother and her grandson looking at the fish and turtles in the water. I made my way inside the temple complex. I never tired of taking pictures of the different statues that guard the entrances of temples. I headed up the first set of stairs and had a wander around up there. There were a few temple buildings and painted corridors to walk along. Also there were some ... read more

I made it down to breakfast slightly earlier. There was a bit more choice and while it was nice to see new things on offer, I was a little disappointed some of the offerings I had enjoyed the day before weren't there. I loaded up my first plate with a rather large amount of stir fried greens, a boiled egg, sausage, youtiao (fried dough stick), and some fried veggie dumplings. The sausage was a cheapie processed one so pretty meh. The dumplings, boiled egg and youtiao were good, but the best bit was the stir fried greens. So tasty. As much as I like eating traditional Chinese breakfast food, I enjoy eating what is in my opinion non traditional foods too. I am definitely not one of those people believe certain foods have to be eaten ... read more

Up and off to Honghaiwan (红海湾), which means Red Bay in English. Quite the pretty name. I had originally wanted to stay in this area, but couldn't find out if the hotel I wanted to stay at accepted foreigners and so decided to make my life easier and stay near the train station as I was only in Shanwei for two nights and didn't want to have to schlepp too far with all my stuff. I miss travelling light. Hopefully, I can correct that for my next trip. I first took the bus to the train station, which was quick as I didn't have to wait long and the journey is really quick too. Here I had to change buses to the 116, which I found no problem. The river was on the bus taking a ... read more