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Published: February 11th 2008
Well after a few days exploring what Hong Kong had to offer we decided it was time to get our travelling shoes on and head across the border to China!
We caught the train to Lo Wu where we had our passports/ visas checked and crossed the river into Shenzen (China).
Thinking it would be easy to then catch a bus to Xiamen. But No! After wandering aimlessly around the bus terminal for a while we realised we were'nt getting anywhere and asked for directions. Some random lady took us into a dodgy back office and tried to sell us a ticket. Only problem being she didnt speak a word of englsih so couldnt explain when or where the bus would be and confirm where it was going! we obviously left and tried looking elsewhere.
We finally gave in and took the easy option of getting the train to Gangzhou which was signposted everywhere. Although getting the ticket for that still wasnt easy. The lady at the 'foreigners' ticket booth didnt speak much more english than any other chinese person so we bought the tickets and hoped for the best!
We arrived in Gangzhoudong and booked into
a hotel. Rooms looked nice in the pictures and it was cheap, and had heating! When we got to our room it looked like the pictures but as soon as you got to the bed it felt like it was made of rock!!! but atleast the heating worked! surprisingly we only stayed one night!
The next day we left early to try and get the next train to Shanghai, leaving Xiamen behind. we managed to do this but in order to catch the train we had to wait at the station for 8hours!!!
We started speaking to a really nice Chinese man who then told us we only had seated tickets, not the bed tickets we pressumed we had got (for an 18hour journey!) needless to say we were not amused!
still after the lovely 18hour journey (again on rock solid seats) we have made it here safely and are booked into a nice hostel with heating! (its about 5degrees and there's snow!) and there is also a bar! EXCELLENT! which we are now off to test! xx
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Dad
non-member comment
You realy are travelers now
Nice to see that you are finally in China. Now you know that when you travel things very rarely go as planned, but the fun is overcoming those situations as they arise. Enjoy your stay in China and keep in touch. Dad H xx