Most exchange students want to get out of Hong Kong for at least a few days during our break but so does EVERYONE else in China. Prices are crazy high and lot’s of trips are already booked. Three of us decided to try our luck and attempt to take a train to meet up with our friends who had flown to Guilin, China. Guilin is a ctiy in China that is known to have GORGEOUS landsacpes: rock formation/mountains and rice terraces. Our plan was to take the MTR to Shenzhen (the city that’s the crossing point from HK to mainland China) and from there get a train/bus to Guilin. We were worried that we wouldn’t be able to because it’s so busy during Chinese New Years, but our plan was to end up somewhere if we couldn’t get to Guilin. There was no trouble getting across the boarder and found the train station quickly, booking 3 overnight tickets. When lining up we separated into different lines becase we had no clue which one we were supposed to be in, and ended up buying from what turned out to be the elderly section…WOOPS (perhaps we should be more concerned that they didn’t seem to think we were out of place). We, for some unknown reason which I can only attribute to travel induced giddiness and lack of breakfast, to save $10cad and get a seat rather than a hard sleeper…for a 14 HOUR train ride. Shenzhen is supposed to be a shopping capital and finally after HOURS of walking around the city in the rain and stopping at a mall with clothes that were more expensive (and tackier!) than those in Canada we found the 5 floored ‘commercial center’ RIGHT BESDIE the train station! There were fakes of almost any brand: northface, hunter, toms and all cheaper than Hong Kong (but not as cheap as other areas in China). From the little time I was in Shenzhen I wouldn’t recommend spending too much time there if you like any of the traditional touristy things. To be honest it looked a lot like a North American city….except no english (there were starbucks everywhere and they had a peach tea latte!). After a meal at McDonalds where they had hello kitty Will & Kate(!!!!) we were on our way. The seats weren’t awful but def. not ideal for such a long journey. We slept for most of it with minor interruptions for a sales pitch for an Asian version of ShamWow and a bathroom with squatting toilettes on a moving train (one of which had a lovely piece of human excrement in it which made the chinese lady in front of me gag). As we pulled into Guilin we could see all the mountains everywhere, it was awesome, and made me realize we’d actually gotten to where we needed to go! Our plan was to get our return ticket right away. I was a little bit worried because it was Chinese New Years, but not overly so as it had been so easy getting there. When we tried to actually buy them the lady signaled to us that every train was sold out until Wednesday night, a week from now, and Z and I had a class on Wednesday/Thursday we couldn’t miss and Tamar had one on Monday she had to go to. Needless to say we were a little panicked, Tamar got a ticket from Guilin to Guangzhou for that night hoping she could get another train from there to Shenzhen but Z and I didn’t want to return that early. Our only other option was to try the bus station but we didn’t really believe they would have any spots open if the train was completely booked. After a stressful walk in a completely foreign city trying to find the bus station using only a translator I had from back in the days when I still thought I would learn French we were actually able to get return tickets for Tuesday morning. Tamar bought one for that same night though as she was really worried about being able to get back! You cannot imaging the relief we felt, especially as our other option would have been a flight back for hundreds of dollars canadian. Finally we needed to find the hostel our friends were staying at, which we only had the english name for and had to make it to them in time before they left for the day (all this time we had no phone or internet). After asking everyone we could, those willing to help and those not so willing and some gesturing with Chinese police officers we found the right directions. As we walked down a sketchy alley hoping to find the hostel we saw our friend Benny out looking for us. It was like a scene from a movie as we all ran towards her and embraced, I swear I even heard some background music and perhaps even glanced a rainbow out of the corner of my eye.
It doesn’t actually seem that bad looking back but it was really scary and exciting in the moment. Hong Kong has spoilt me, people may not be fluent in english but you can usually get your message across or find someone who understands you pretty easily.I’ve never been somewhere before where getting the answer to the simplest question in english is almost impossible and it was really disconcerting! It’s not easy but you eventually get a little bit used to it- or you get used to miming and never leaving the hotel without a translator. It really makes me fell SO lucky english is the language people around the world are learning!