Editors note: While we were in northern China, we had heard that southern China was quite different and easier to travel in, than the north. So, when we were passing through Hong Kong, on our way back to Canada, we opted for a 10 day trip to Yangshuo.

We flew into Hong Kong from Singapore. Landing between high rises at the Kai Tak Airport always felt like an adventure. We passed through the neon lights of Kowloon and caught the scenic Star Ferry over to HK Island, for less than a dime. As in previous visits, we stayed at the Youth Hostel perched on Mt Davis. It remained awkward to get to (a steep hike or a taxi from Kennedy Town). We were loaded with luggage and in no mood to hike it up, so we found an unsuspecting taxi to take us up the precarious, winding road. The Hong Kong visitors at the hostel were as noisy as every but seemed a bit friendlier than on previous sojourns. We figured that many were thinking of moving abroad with the transfer of control to China looming. For instance, Question: Do you know anyone who has left Hong Kong for overseas? Answer: I went to a friend's Bon Voyage party last week.

We submitted applications for our Chinese visas and we stopped in for coffee with Louise H at their beautiful apartment looking towards the New Territories and China and dropped off some of our luggage for safe keeping. We had a dim sum lunch with a former work colleague (Allen Lo who had married a woman from Shanghai).

It was a comfortable 3 hour boat journey to Macau from Hong Kong. The slow ferry cost HKD23 ($3) plus departure tax of HK15 ($2) for a bunk bed; the seats were more expensive. We had originally thought of ending our China journey in Macau, but that would had bumped up against the Macau Grand Prix week-end, so we went before entering the PRC. At the time, Macau was a Portugese colony, but very much a back water with a languid sort of charm. There was a modest sized casino in the centre of town that attracted Hong Kong people, especially on week-ends. We visited the elaborately decorated floating casino and found it smoky, brightly light inside, but the baccarat players could care less about decor. Outside, the street was lined with pawn shops.

Macao is warm to visitors. People are patient with foreigners. The clack of Mahjong tiles is heard along every landing in Macao. We drank Portuguese white wine with British David at a seafood restaurant. We watched the cook's dangling cigarette. The ash got longer and longer. Then suddenly, the ash disappeared. Was it the secret ingredient in our mussels with black bean sauce? David described the hotel he had found and the following day, we moved in next door to him.

Our hotel exuded character. The people who ran it were friendly, the clean sheets were a bonus and hot water was provided for tea and a buzzer would bring the receptionist to the door. The 25 MOP ($3.50)/night room was typically Chinese; walls gave way to a wooden grid above, the walls and floors were tiled, the smallish room was furnished with black and white stools and chairs. There was a sink in the room but the toilet and bathrooms were down the hall. In some places, you lay in bed listening to the ocean, but there, we could hear the clacking of Mahjong tiles downstairs. Character.

Sitting up on the balcony, overlooking a fairly busy lane, a queue of 5 or 6 people waited below for roast duck and BBQ pork, a continuous flow of people shuffled by and an occasional car slipped by. Further down the lane were cages of snakes, pangolins, owls and whatever the Chinese eat. I sipped my Guinness....

We took a half hour Macau bus to the Chinese border. After a routine, cursory walk through immigration and customs, we immediately jumped into an awaiting mini bus (the last two seats) that whisked us to Guangzhou in three hours, largely through farmland. We then jumped on an uncrowded articulated bus #5 that brought us through relatively modern streets to Shamian Island (a riverfront district of Guangzhou). We were astonished by all the new cars, flyovers, acid wash jeans, well stocked shops and it wasn't particularly overcrowded. Wow! We had been warned about the possible difficulties of checking into the "youth hostel", but it went without a hitch. There were five beds and six people in #305, so the receptionist switched us over to #304. The hostel was bright, clean and cheery. People on the street greeted us with "hello", people were even smiling and laughing. It was not the China that we remembered. It was quite pleasant.

With a pocketful of FEC's and no people's money, we walked and walked in a fruitless search for the black market. I borrowed some Renimbi from another traveller, grabbed yet another uncrowded bus and painlessly purchased boat tickets to Wuzhou (10.50 Yuan), returned home and had a lovely meal in nearby restaurant. It was so pleasant compared to Northern China. By the evening, I eventually found the black market. Travellers coming from the north said the rate was 1.55 (RNB to FEC) but it had recently fallen. A group of Russians on the street offered me 1.60, but it turned out to be a con. Renmin Bridge (that crosses the Zhujiang or Pearl River) was the place to change money. My guy walked with a limp and we changed a hundred at a time at 1.50. At one point, he tried to shortchange me but I was wise to it.

We didn't see much of Guangzhou on our first time through, except the waterfront. We boarded the 330 passenger boat and it left punctually at 12:30pm. It was not excessively noisy. When I heard "chi fan" ("eat rice") announcement, I readied the few Chinese food words I knew and got set to push and shove my way to a small wicket where I would presumably pre-pay for who knows what kind of food. But the Cantonese are known for their great love of food; Southern China was not Northern China. There is a variety of food sold in a very human fashion. Waiters emerged from below, bearing armloads of rice and various dishes. We quickly grabbed what we could, fearing that it would run out, but the food kept coming and coming. They carried dishes of duck, pork, chicken, fish, soup, rice and roasted peanuts. A few people spat their bones on the floor, to remind us of where we were.

Cruising up the Xi River (main channel of the Pearl River) from Guangzhou to Wuzhou:was a very comfortable journey. The entire ferry was beds, separated by six inch high partitions, but it was comfortable laying on a mattress, complete with duvet and pillow, watching the river go by. We had two top bunks #201 and #203. The Pearl was about as busy as the "401" Highway (north Toronto), with a steady stream of barges, small ships and tiny fishing boats. The rural scenery was interspersed with small villages and brick factories. The river narrowed by nightfall and the boat sizes. After dinner, sweet buns and bowls of hot sweet milk were served.

We disembarked from the boat shortly after 6:00am with pre-purchased bus tickets in hand. The bus pulled out of Wuzhou and climbed through pine forests and bamboo thickets along a twisting and turning road. The woman a couple of seats ahead of us got severe motion sickness. By 12:00, we stopped at a crowded, drab restaurant. It was muddy from the rain. The toilets weren't much more than a floor of urine. The food looked unappetizing and the menu was entirely in Chinese, so we took a walk along muddy streets surrounded by grey walls. We bought some oranges. Once the restaurant cleared out, I pointed at some fried meat and rice, and paid 2.70 Yuan. The waitress was sympathetic ans said "thank-you" in English. A westerner beside us boiled with rage as had ordered the same meal and paid 10 Yuan, receiving no change. His waitress offered him 5 Yuan but no more. The scenery changed dramatically after lunch as huge limestone pinnacles covered in green vegetation shot up from the flat lands and mist loomed over the peaks. Nine hours from Wuzhou, we arrived in Yangshuo. It was a little grey but pleasant. In Yangshuo, people smiled and said hello. A hotel manager greeted the bus and brought us to the Zu Yang Hotel, another characterless Chinese hotel (4 Yuan in a four bed dorm).

We stayed in Yangshuo for 5 nights. It was a pleasant stay along the Li River and we made a couple of boat trips, had some rain and a few good meals. The town was quite picturesque with a cobblestone main street lined with old-style buildings surrounded by the karst pinnacles. We tried a couple of trendy travellers restaurants but we settled on dinners at the "Happy Restaurant". Observing the cormorant fishing was one of the highlights our visit. We paid 3 Yuan (including 50 Fen paid to an agent) each for a 45 minute boat ride in the evening. The fisherman and his four birds set out on a bamboo raft and we stayed close by, along the shoreline. The fisherman had a kerosene lantern and he tossed his birds into the water. The cormorants swam alongside the raft, with the occasional prod from the fisherman with his pole. The birds nabbed smallish fish and swallowed the smaller of them, but when they returned to the raft, the fisherman dumped the contents of their bills into a large bucket. A string around their necks prevented them from swallowing larger fish.

It was overcast and misty through our stay. We rented bicycles and pushed them up a gangplank and took our wooden seats for a tourist ride along the Li River. Our boat didn't get very far before engine problems forced us to re-dock. After a 45 minute delay, we got under way with the engine still sputtering. The scenery was often masked by mist. Five hours later we disembarked further along the river and we rode our bikes back to Yangshuo. On another day, we made a day trip to the bustling city of Guilin. It took some effort to coax an uncooperative CITS woman to sell us return bus tickets back to Yangshuo.

Our short incursion into Southern China was an out-and-back. We caught the bus back to Wuzhou. The man sitting next to Sheila took his shoes off with a resultant smell stronger than an over ripe durian. We stopped for lunch at a People's restaurant. The toilet area was wretched. Boat tickets were available in Wuzhou. We enjoyed the Wuzhou market area and a the friendly people at an outdoor restaurant. We had an uneventful boat ride back to Guangzhou and stayed at the same Youth hostel. We found wandering the Guangzhou streets and department stores quite interesting and the people were friendly. We formed a small group for a visit to a snake restaurant. Tim (Japanese), Carl (Quebec) and Andre (France) joined us for Dragon-Tiger-Phoenix soup for starters (snake-cat-chicken). It was actually delicious. That was followed by sliced cobra meat, mixed vegetables, frog, and beef with oyster sauce. Some of us had upset stomachs the following morning.

My few spoken words of Chinese had earned us local prices on the train to Shenzen. The train ride was uneventful and we crossed over the border into Hong Kong which felt like another world. We picked up some supplies and brought them to the HK Mount Davis hostel. I made up curried fried noodles with BBQ pork. On our first early December night in Hong Kong the temperature was 8C and I wore long underwear to bed under a couple of blankets and still felt cold. We were heading to Canada in a couple of weeks and were having mixed feelings about returning. We did some clothes shopping for our return to Canada. Sweaters on Granville Road were a bargain. We sent 30 kilos of clothing to Canada in the post.

On our last four nights in Hong Kong, we stayed with Louise & Chris, enjoying the comforts of their home. Sheila was kept busy, playing with Imogen, their two year old daughter. From Hong Kong, our last stop-over before returning to Canada, was seven days in chilly Seoul.