Southern China

Cartoonish mountains surrounding Yang Shuo.

Shanghai of the past....

...and across the river, Shanghai of the future!

Building of the world's second tallest building, as seen from the world's fourth tallest building.

T-Bone takes a much needed noodle break during the ticket buying marathon.


I will take an inside-out rabbit with a side of giant fish head!

Ha Ha! Me love Bubble Tea! Ha Ha!!

Trev and I left Nanning the following morning and got our first taste of the Chinese rails as we headed a ways up north to the city of Guilin. We had a hard-seater (lowest class) for the 6 hour ride which meant we were inundated with the poorer locals peering over our shoulders gawking at our fabulous toys (mainly Nintendos & English books). Upon arriving in Guilin we set about pre-booking our next train ride up to Shanghai. The process was a lengthy one of comparing the strange Chinese characters from the guidebook to the imposing train schedule plastered across the wall. The bright side of the procedure being that I can now recognize the characters for Shanghai instantly and has become my first readable Mandarin word.

After leaving the confines of the train station, we grabbed a local bus to the town of Yang Shuo, a much smaller town set in the bizarre Dr. Seuss landscape that makes up southern China. Although normally quite touristy, Yang Shuo, as with every other part of China we've seen, was devoid of westerners being that we are here in the lowest of the low season. The two activities of the place are either browsing the strip of little cafes & shops or venturing out into the wilderness to get lost amongst the endless rice paddies. We secured some cheap knock-off mountain bikes for our first day in town, and after denying the guides their chance to guide us, took off down the nearest path in search of rural China.

Rural China was found approximately 15 minutes later as we were instantly lost amid the tiny villages and oxen paths that break up the rice paddy clumps. After a few hours of riding, we found a quiet spot by one of the rivers and settled down for a good two hours in the frigid temperatures to watch the locals go about their day. Every ten to fifteen minutes would see another few peasants meandering down to the river bank, laden with their baskets of rice, argue with the river boat captain about the cost of the boat and then either board the rickety vessel or leave in a huff back up the hill. Regardless of the outcome, each of them, after recovering from the shock of finding two strange white guys at their crossing point, would bombard us with their arsenal of English (usually "Hello Hi Hello") and then attempt to convince us through hand gestures and Chinglish to cross the river with them in order to lower the price of the boat. The captain of the ship (fully dressed in his 50 year old Chinese navy uniform) would then laugh, light another two cigarettes and discreetly ramble off something in Mandarin to us about each of the peasants. The process repeated itself until we could no longer stand the cold and is most likely still repeating itself even now.

After two more days of relaxing in Yang Shuo we travelled back to Guilin and boarded our previously bought, 29 hour train up to Shanghai. For this we chose a hard-sleeper (3rd class) and I was pleasantly surprised at the quality that this had over previous sleeper trains around the world, mainly India. The bedding was superb, the train attendants professional and it even had the added bonus of gently waking up its sleeping passengers with a blend of classical instrumentals slowly increased in volume over the loud speaker. Aside from capturing the rest of the carriage's attention with the utterly bizarre sock tug-of-war that I was forced into by one of the travelling sock salesmen (to prove the strength of his socks apparently...), the ride went by without much excitement and was fueled by a steady diet of noodle soups.

We arrived into Shanghai on the afternoon of the 19th and after semi-successfully navigating the city's metro system, finally found a place for an ugly $15 a night. Budget accommodations simply do not exist in this booming metropolis. Yesterday we spent the day exploring the city and instead of finding the much anticipated smuggling warehouses and opium dens of the olden days, we were greeted with what is becoming one of the most magnificent skylines of the world. Today was also taken up by a great deal of walking around, and included a trip up to the observatory deck of the world's 4th tallest building in downtown Shanghai as well as one of the most bizarre experiences of my life in the underground crossing of the Huangpu river. Think of all the strangest Asian cultural events you've ever seen and combine them into one terrifying 3 minute pod ride underneath water.

Tonight we board our luxurious Z class train for a short 14 hour trip north to Beijing!