Hiking and Camping on Great Wall - Trip I will never forget

Hiking on Great Wall had been my big dream for a long time, and once we figured that there's nothing scheduled for us on the weekend, I started checking for options for 2-day hike. Luckily my classmate had a good tip from her friend: a 2-day trip including camping on the wall. First I was hesitating a bit, since hiking only couple of hours the both days sounded a bit too short for me (you probably already know that I’m that all in or nothing kind of person 😅). I decided to join, since the price was quite cheap and some other classmates were going there anyways.

A bus picked us up from about 3 km away from our hotel and we drove about 1,5 – 2 hours to a tiny village called Chenjiapucun. There we got the tents, sleepingbags and some more water and started walking around 15:00. The trip was supposed to start earlier, but since it was about 35 degrees, the pick-ups were delayed with about 2 hours. Probably good, since it was still really hot.

The first 15 min we walked along a road, but since we saw the Great Wall very high on top of the hills, it was quite obvious that it wouldn’t be that flat the whole way. We were about 45 in the group, including two 10-year-old boys, who were not too prepared for the hike. I felt so bad for them carrying the tents, etc. on their hands that I offered to take first one “mattress” and then one tent, since I was able to hang those to my backpack (did regret this couple of times later on, but it would’ve been close to impossible for them to climb with the stuff).

Left: Destination from starting point. Middle: Carrying all my stuff with style :D Right: Here starts the climb.

We weren’t informed that it was going to be a serious climbing and hiking crazy steep paths, but as we arrived to the Wall (which resembled more of a stone pile there) and saw the path and hill, we started to figure what was ahead of us. Still probably none of us really knew what challenges were waiting for us over the next couple of hours. We started together as a group, but quite soon some kind of “speed groups” started to form. I was with the first group with about 8 people and a local villager leading the group. The good thing there is that there is only one path along the ruins of the Great Wall, so it’s close to impossible to get lost. We had one guide leading and one with the last ones.

Climbing the Wall, which is mostly a pile of rocks, and some amazing views on the way.

Every now and then we stopped to wait for others, catch our breaths and enjoy the views, but after a while we just passed the leader, since she was constantly stopping in very random spots. Like when she reached the flat spot and the rest of us were still on a very steep hill with our legs already shaking and just wanted to keep moving instead of collapsing there :D The last hour was definitely the hardest one, since climbing with all four limbs was necessary in many parts. And I can tell, that doing something close to bouldering with shaking legs and all the baggage was definitely not easy. But after a bit more than 2,5 hours, 4,5 km and 515 meters of altitude our group finally reached the top. Realizing that we made it AND seeing the breathtaking views just made me feel super happy. And the views totally made it worth every single second of the climb. Warm beer had never tasted that good!

Made it! The starting point is around in the middle, towards the electric lines.

We waited there for everyone to arrive, and last ones made it in about 4 hours total. After eating some snack, resting and taking a lot of photos, we headed a bit further to our camping area. Most stayed in the tower, but our group of 8 (studymates) set our camp a bit further up. The evening consisted of chilling, eating some cup noodles and helping a kid with an unfortunate incident that led to heavy bleeding. Luckily the situation calmed down soon and people had some first aid supplies with them.

Left: our tentplace. Right: our guide cooking water for our delicious noodle cups.

Probably the coolest part of the whole trip was just lying there on the wall with friends for hours and watching stars. We just took our sleeping bags there once it was getting a bit chilly. And it felt so amazing to breath and actually get some oxygen in after coughing my lungs out because of the bad air quality in Beijing. We even witnessed some shooting stars and got to know some fun facts about satellites from our walking Wikipedia :D Finally around 1 am we got to our tents to get some sleep.

We got up at 4 am to see the sunrise and walked about 10 min for a better view. As it was very foggy, the sunrise wasn’t as cool as the sunset, but it was still worth waking up. As the sun got up it was quickly getting really hot, so no way we were going back to tents to boil. It was a nice morning, just chilling and enjoying the views, but we could’ve started walking a lot earlier to avoid the hottest moments. Finally at 9 am we started walking along the wall for some more stairs (going down the stairs was a real struggle with tired legs). After about 20 min it changed to a path and it was quite easy just going downhill and trying to avoid slipping on the path. Our group reached the bus in less than an hour.

Sunrise (4am)

Once we got the group together, the bus drove us back to the village for lunch and further back to Beijing. I can tell that shower and scrubbing off all the dirt and sweat felt really good. This was definitely one of the top things I have ever experienced and will be a really hard one to beat. I think the extreme hike up made it even more unique and rewarding, but wouldn’t recommend it to anyone not in shape (and willing) to do the crazy climb. We also learned that camping on the wall is not legal, but lot of people still do it. This experience was definitely worth breaking the law. Thanks for the great group and CET for organizing! And special thanks to Andy for carrying hos drone all the way so we can enjoy the amazing photos and videos.

TUM survivors, tired but super happy

Both pictures taken from the same spot: left is the renovated part and right how it mostly looks like.

Hiking at Longji rice terraces

Day 5

I learned by mistake, that Longji rice terrace area consists of multiple different villages and the main villages Ping’an and Dazhai are really far from each other (and have completely different bus connections too). Why learned by mistake? By booking a bus to Longji rice terraces, without paying attention that it’s going to Dazhai, and booking a hostel in Ping’an. Luckily I noticed it in the morning before leaving, so was able to cancel the booking with no cost. So after a very bumpy ride and even I was starting to get a bit car sick (I never do). The last about 45 min was very narrow and curvy road with mountain wall on the other side and big drop to the river on the other. On top of that, the heavy rains had caused several landfalls, either piling sand on the road or collapsing part of the road to the river, making it even narrower. And of course there was lot of busses and trucks driving both ways. So after multiple “close calls” we finally reached Dazhai.

I got super lucky with the weather: it had been raining for weeks before and was going to rain again from Saturday on, but the 2 days I was there were just sunshine. I was the first one to arrive to my 4-bed (2 bunk bed) dorm and got to choose my favorite one. The owner asked if I want to do the hike with one of my Chinese roommates who just arrived, which is always a bit uncomfortable situation, since I know that my idea of hiking is completely different form the Chinese one (wearing nice clothes, like dresses, and shoes (often even high heels) and only walking some nice concrete/stone roads. But in the other hand I don't want to be rude and say no. Luckily she decided not to go with me as I wanted to leave quite soon and for her it was too hot. (Later I met the same girl on top of the hill wearing exactly the fancy clother and complaining how hard the 30 min climb was 😆)

Here I go! The peak nr 3 is the one on the top right and nr 1 was about the same hight on the left.

From Dazhai you can easily hike to 3 different peaks and they are actually numbered as 1, 2 and 3. I decided to do 1 and 3, while the guesthouse owner named 3 as the best spot for sunset and 2 for sunrise. He also said that the existing path to make a round trip from 1 to 3 was “only walked by about 10 people every year” and can be muddy. Taken the Chinese concept of hiking, I still decided to do that, cause walking back the same route would be boring.

The hike from Dazhai to 1^st peak started with 100 m of flat ground, followed by 2-3 km of basically only stairs. Sometimes steeper, sometimes a bit easier, and once even down (for about 50 m). In this kind of landscape you learn to hate downhills, while it always means climbing the same altitude again :D

This is what hiking in China mostly looks like: stairs, stairs and more stairs 😅

My hiking buddy from a local house <3

After about 20 min of climbing I got the first glimpse of the views: rice terraces everywhere. It was also great to see the villagers working, and how everything is completely manually done. Huge respect especially for the tiny women doing physically really hard work from dusk to dawn! I passed some villages on my way and even got a dog to accompany me for almost an hour. He just came from a yard and showed me the way. After about 1,5 hours I reached the first viewpoint and continued another 10 – 15 min to reach the actual peak with a viewpoint called Music froom Paradise. The views in the whole area were so amazing, that I couldn’t help repeating the “wow” in my head. Easily one of the most amazing places I have ever visited. And no other tourists.

The hike from 1^st to 3^rd peak definitely wasn’t in good shape and I did consider turning around. Mostly because the plants by the path had grown so much that it was sometimes hard to walk. But some parts were also quite okay, so decided to continua (cause I simply can’t give up). The path was in a thick forest, with no special views, but crossing some beautiful mountain rivers was cool, and the bamboo forests on the second half where cool. Sometimes the path crossed the rice plantations and close to the peak I had to take a little extra round thanks to construction work close to tourist cable car. It was funny to arrive to 3^rd peak viewpoint sweaty, muddy and sheens filled with not-so-pretty scratches, while most of the others there came up by cable car with their fancy clothes. After the sunset I still had to walk down for about 25 min, so in total I hiked about 6 hours and 8 – 9 kilometres.

Glimpse of the views from 3rd peak. All the work is manually done. Huge respect to those men and women working from dusk til dawn!

After shower and dinner I was dead tired, but as everyone in my room was lying on their beds, I asked if I can turn off the lights. The 3 Chinese girls where super surprised that I wanted to sleep already (at 22:30). After a while, I finally got the darkness and fell asleep immediately.

Day 2: Hiking from Dazhai to Ping’an and hitchhiking back

I had red from blogs that the sunrise is the most amazing thing to see in Longji, so decided to weak up early to see it from 2^nd peak. Me and my Austrian friend left guesthouse at 4:30 am and started climbing the 1,5 km with flash lights in pitch black. I was glad she was with me cause it would’ve been a bit scary alone. We reached the top in 30 minutes and were the only ones there to witness the sunrise. I had thought it would be very crowded, but the first ones arrived when the sun was already far above the horizon. The most magical moment was when the sun just peaked from behind the mountains and all the rice plantations looked like a sea of mirrors reflecting the colors of the sky. No photo can do justice to the real beauty of the whole scenery.

Around 5am

50 shades of sunrise

We ate some breakfast by the viewpoint: noodle soup and local tea, so very local style. After the breakfast we headed to our own directions and for me it was the second main location of rice terrace area: Ping’an, which was about 8 km from the viewpoint. I was positively surprised that only part of the hike consisted of stairs and most was like a normal path (still quite hilly landscape). Since websites mentioned, that this is like the most popular hike in the area, I was a bit afraid to end up in the middle of loud Chinese tourists. In the end I didn’t see ANY other hikers throughout the whole hike. It might be possible, that starting at 7:30 am has something to do with it, but it’s so hot on the early afternoon, that not too many people would do it later.

The pictures will show more about the amazing views and how the path looked like:

On right: the main street of Ping'an, this is how developed the villages here are

On the way amazing locals helped me with sign language to take another route, since the original path had collapsed with landfalls due to heavy rains. Even some parts of the roads were half blocked with sand from landfalls. I arrived to “Nine dragons and five tigers” viewpoint at 10:30, so it took me only 3 hours (plus 30 min from village to the viewpoint). It was good to be finished before the hottest moment, but still it got really warm and humid right away when the sun got up (way before 7 am).

Views from Nine dragons and five tigers 

I chilled there for a while and then walked another 20 min down the stairs to Ping’an village. It was said to be more touristic than Dazhai, but was still a tiny village with not too many services. Therefore I decided to head back to Dazhai. There are no direct busses between Ping’an and Dazhai, and the only option would be to take bus from Ping’an to The Bridge (17 km) and then a bus from there to Dazhai. I was walking towards the parking lot when 2 Chinese signaled me to come with them and said they can take me down. They understood a bit wrong and only took me to the spot where the bus leaves, and the next one was going to be in 1,5 h. I asked the guards (with Google translator) how to get down, but they only answered in Chinese. They often don’t know how to type without the signs, so translator apps don’t really help to understand them. Some have a voice recognition translator, which is quite handy.

Anyways, instead of waiting there, I asked the next car to take me down to the bridge. Driver signaled me to jump in and the family dropped me off at the bridge, where I figured the best spot to wait for a bus (there are no schedules or official stops). After couple of tourist busses passing me, the public bus finally arrived and picked me up to sit there with some fence building equipment :D It took me less than an hour to get from Ping’an to Dazhai, which was really good. From my point of view, most of Chinese people  are definitely not rude like people think (and what I was told), but often super nice and helpful, especially in more rural areas. And no matter the country, people always tend to be "colder" in bigger cities. 

After a shower, amazing lunch at guesthouse and little nap, it was time to head to the bus to Guilin. I spent the night just walking around a bit, picking up my train tickets and going to bed early. Or tried to, but my Chinese dormmate started running around the room and up and down the stairs hysterically. Finally we figured that it was cause there was a guy in our dorm (it was a mixed dorm) 😂 At least we got a really good laugh after we realized everything's okay.

Guilin. Left: Sun and moon temples, Right: my favorite restaurants: street food and tasting all kinds of local treats.

The next morning it was time to say goodbye to Southern China and ride 10 hours across the country with high speed train, and end up to Beijing to start the actual study trip. It was an amazing holiday week, could have used a lot more time in the south!

Accommodation in Dazhai: Lost in Beauty Guesthouse

First of all, the owner of the place is amazing and I could go back anytime just to have such warm welcome and friendly service. The dorm room itself was a bit tiny, but bed was quite wide and comfortable. Toilet/bathroom is nothing fancy, but it was clean and worked (that was more than enough when I returned from a hike covered with sweat and mud). Super plus for the location: unlike to most of the places, you don’t have to climb any steps, which made my life a lot easier with quite heavy luggage. And the price was 28 CNY/night, so definitely more than worth the money.

The food at the guesthouse was super delicious, so ate there both days. The local eggplant was so good that ordered it on both days. Additionally we tried local bamboo chicken soup, which appeared to be one of those typical Chinese dishes, where you have like almost all the parts of chicken. Leg was a bit too much for me (couldn’t eat it) and bones made it a bit difficult to eat, but I still think it’s important to try the local specialties. You never know which one becomes your favorite!

Accomodation in Guilin: Guilin Central Wada Hostel

Nice hostel with spacious rooms. Only minus was that my room was on 4^th floor with no stairs, but it was doable. I ordered breakfast already in the evening, and the omelet and coffee did not let me down. Just stayed there overnight.

Entering mainland China: Yangshuo

Day 3 continues: Arriving to Yangshuo

The high speed train ride to Guilin was a great experience and unlike what I had read from some blogs, extremely easy with no hassle. The 2nd class is great, I would suggest to use more money only if you want have the business class as an experience.

As I stepped out from the train station, it really hit me hard that now we really are in China: only sign writing everywhere and no one spoke English. I knew I had to take some bus to bus station and then another bus to Yangshuo, but that’s it. I soon found 2 bus stops and the bus lines luckily had also English route description (written in super tiny font). 

Trainride views

The bus (number 22) came after few minutes and I tried to offer my 100 CNY, cause had just changed money in Germany and had no smaller bills yet. The driver didn’t speak any English (of course), but didn’t take my money. Luckily a young man behind me translated that it’s 2 CNY and no change available. As I asked where to change money, he offered to pay my ticket. It’s only like 30 cents in euros, but still I was so happy and grateful for his help. I was told before, that Chinese people tend to be ignorant and selfish, but my first meeting with Chinese person proved it completely wrong. Thank you to that amazing guy, he really made my day. He even made sure that I was sure that I knew where to get off since his stop was before mine.

Bus stops, luckily also some English with super small print. 

The bus stop names were announced also in English, but the sound from loudspeakers was so unclear that I had really hard time understanding the names. Managed to get off at right stop and didn’t see any busses anywhere. Great. Then some lady asked me “Yangshuo?”, and as I nodded she told me with body language me to follow her. Of course my first thought was that she’s trying to scam me (guess I’ve travelled too much in those countries where everyone tries to get money from you, especially in India and South-East Asia), but followed her anyways. My suspicions didn’t get any easier once we walked through a very shady “aisle” with only some random vendors there. We arrived to a small kiosk in the end of the aisle, where couple of ladies where sitting. After a moment of very loud Chinese discussion (they always seem to speak super loud), I was shown a pink paper with the sum I knew was right: 35 CNY.

I paid it but was still a bit suspicious. Instead of giving me a ticket, they pointed to go to a really old rickshaw that definitely saw its best day years ago. I jumped in with driver murmuring about my luggage. Me and the 2 Chinese fellow travelers tried not to fall out while the lady drove like maniac on a bumpy road, honking non-stop and passing everyone from left and right. I was mostly laughing, cause those are usually the most memorable funny stories to tell afterwards. It felt like the ride took forever (really about 25 min) and I actually thought that she’s going to drive us all the way to Yangshuo :D Luckily not, and we finally arrived to a street filled with busses. The lady pointed a bus for me, shouted something to the driver and drove away (still had no ticket). I got in and ticket lady just passed by me, so apparently everything was fine. 

The bus ride was good (again I was the only non-Chinese), but arrived to Yangshuo bus station which was quite far from the city. I was so tired that just took the closest rickshaw to get to my hostel. He dropped me off in the end of a walking road and pointed me the way. I realized quite soon, that it wasn’t the right place and located my position with a tourist map (didn’t have any internet connection. With lots of swearwords and frustration later I found my way with the help of a local lady (again, thank you for these awesome people). Lessons learned: in China there are million different bus and train stations in the city. Make sure you know to which one you’re going to.

I stayed in a very spacious 6-bed dorm, with only one Chinese guy staying in the same room. We “discussed” something via Google translator and all of a sudden he just lighted a cigarette in the room (basically in front of a no smoking sign). That was one of those moments, when you just think “WTF is happening here” and want to start laughing cause it feels so absurd. I signed with body language that no smoking and showed the signed, and he put his cigarette away looking very surprised, like it was the first time smoking was not allowed inside. At that point I just had to turn away cause I couldn’t help laughing at the whole situation.

Since it was getting pretty late, I headed out with an umbrella and towards the river side, since it was told to be one of the best parts in Yangshuo. Walked around a bit and pinned some good looking cafes/restaurants so I would find them again. River was pretty, but as it started raining really heavily, I decided to go for a dinner. While walking back, I spotted one Chinese girl looking for restaurants in the same street, and asked if she wanted to share a dinner. We went to this very local restaurant called David King (probably something completely else in Chinese) with only couple of tables and no menu. Luckily my friend could order some local specialties for us. She actually used to live in the area and was visiting to see how it was nowadays. We ended up having long conversations (and lots of tea) with her and the restaurant owner (translated by my friend). Amazing food and super fun night!

Local specialities at David King: Beer fish, some curry meat with potatoes, and crabs herb-chili-oil

Super cute decoration in small David King restaurant

Day 4: Scooter, tea and amazing views

I slept a bit later since I had hard time falling asleep (thanks jetlag). Got out around 10am and rented a scooter from hostel. As I still didn’t have my SIM card and therefore no connection, I had a real old school paper map with me (not super good one). The road was pretty simple, but there has often sand or water on the road, since it had been raining a lot. After driving uphill for a while the views started to be amazing with all the karst mountains (e.g. Avatar movie was filmed in an area not too far away from here). 

The map I relied on (no wonder why I got lost)

My ride and awesome pink helmet (Hey, I'm Else, 30 yrs old :D)

I was looking for a viewpoint and thought I had driven a lot further than I actually was, so followed a sign that looked like the right way. Ended up to a parking lot with a sign “Seven Star Tea Plantation”. Decided to have a look, which ended up being a great idea. I paid 60 CNY to get in and was given a traditional hat and a basket (had no idea why). Then a local girl walked up the hill with me and explained me some things about the tea plantation. We went to a viewpoint, but it was occupied by wedding photo shoot. The views were once again amazing, just can’t get enough of the beauty of this area. As the girl explained me how to pic tea and put the leaves to my basket, I soon understood why I was given the basket: to pick up my own tea to be prepared in the restaurant. She left me there saying, that I should have about half a basket to have good tea. Great, this will take forever.

There were only about 5 people in the area, and started talking with the only non-Chinese person there. She was an Austrian student living in Shanghai, so luckily I also managed to practice some German. After finishing the picking, we learned how to prepare Chinese tea, and what are the differences between black, green and white tea: it’s the same plant but dried in different ways. Learning something new every day! Got to make my own tea to take with me, will tell you later how it was.

Picking my tea with pretty decent views

Making my tea: picking, drying and cooking.

Cooking tea the Chinese way: 1. Heat water, 2. Put dried tea leaves to a small cup, 3. Pour water (about 1 desiliter) to a cup and cover with lid, 4. Pour the liquid to a bowl, 5. Pour the tea to minicups (couple of tablespoons), 6. Drink, 7. Repeat (multiple times)

Lunch with amazing views at tea plant

We were heading to the same direction, so decided to go together. She also had a better map, so wouldn’t maybe get lost again. We drove like an hour with couple of stops to see the views (and take photos) before arriving to the most popular view point in the area, Xianggong mountain. The scenery can be also found in 20 CNY bill. We climbed up really steep stairs and got up sweaty and out of breath, just to witness all the Chinese women there with high heels and fancy clothes. Seriously I have started to believe that Chinese women do not sweat like at all and some kind of superpowers to climb up all the stairs without looking tired. Not fair! But the view was (once again) worth every step and sweat drop.

20 yuan bill 

To see the sunset, we headed to another viewpoint about 45-60 min away. Got almost there before locals stopped us and told that the road was cut (my friend spoke good Chinese). My thought was of course, that they’re trying to scam us to pay for the ride (sorry, can’t help it), but as we drove a bit further, we arrived to a river bank that had flooded over the road. After discussing the options, we decided to pay them the 20 CNY each to drive us to the other side with their better motorcycle. My friend got a good one, but I had to jump to the back of a normal scooter, about ideal with my own one. So my friend got through the river easily, while my ride just stopped in the middle of the river. Great. Luckily after couple of tries the driver managed to start it again and drove me to the entrance. Surprise surprise, had to climb steep stairs, but didn’t have to regret it this time either. The sunset wasn’t maybe the most amazing because of the clouds, but the view was great. Ended up having a picnic up there with a Chinese couple (we had the leftovers from lunch with us, in China this seems to be very common). Drive back was a lot longer than I expected, more than 20 km, but most of it was along a highway, which made it a lot faster. Made it safe almost back to hostel, but ended up slipping and falling in the very last turn, about 10 meters away from hostel. Luckily I had like almost no speed so just got a bruised knee and muddy pants. Could’ve been lot worse!

The flooded river (road should continue there in the middle)

Clowdy sunset from Cuiping viewpoint.

Day 5: Bus to Dazhai

Woke up early to catch my 8 am bus to Dazhai (village in Longji rice terrace area). This time the bus left pretty close, so walked there about 10-15 min. Left early enough to stop at a rice noodle restaurant recommended by my hostel staff. It was good and cheap (10 CNY), but had once again no clue what was actually in it. Sometimes it’s better not to know :D The bus driver was waiting for me at the parking lot entrance, so made it super easy for me. Bus even left 10 min early, since I was the only passenger from Yangshuo. On the way I realized that I forgot to stop at ATM, so asked the driver if we could stop at one (thanks Google translator). We stopped in Guilin and the driver pointed me the way for ATM. He said that we leave at 9:13 (it was 9:06), so I had to run all the way to ATM and back, just to realize that he meant 9:30. Well, got money, which is the most important. Despite the fact that Chinese people like to listen music with no headphones and tend to speak super loudly, the ride was really nice and smooth.

Breakfast (once again, no idea what was in it, but it was good :D)

Will tell more about Dazhai then in my next post, hiking in the middle of rice terraces was definitely one of the most memorable experiences in my life.

Accommodation: Yangshuo Travelling with hostel

Really nice and spacious hostel with AC (a must with the crazy heat and humidity in Yangshuo). Staff was super friendly and organized everything I was asking for. Didn't try the breakfast, but heard it's really good (western style). The location is in the "tourist area" but you can escape the crowds by walking about 3 minutes. Bring earplugs, cause traffic on the main street is a bit noisy if your window is on that side.

Food: 

Restaurant: David King

Coffee: Zermo Coffee 

In the same area there are super cute cafes and restaurants. Only 5-10 min walk from from tourist hell.

Morning coffee at Zermo coffee

First stop: City life in Hong Kong

Background

We will have a 4-week study trip to Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzen starting from mid June to mid July. I took one week off to see Hong Kong and hike in Southern China before the actual program starts. 

First stop: Hong Kong

I had to pack way too much, cause need clothes for business, hiking and for free time.
I'm gonna hate carrying all this!

Day 1: Arriving to Hong Kong

I had a 2,5h layover in Helsinki, long enough to have a coffee with my little brother at the airport and shops some Finnish snacks for travelling and hiking. My flight left from Helsinki at 16:40 and landed in Hong Kong 7:30 in the morning. Since my body didn’t really understand that it would be wise to sleep around 18 German time (wonder why :D), I arrived to Hong Kong dead tired after just napping a bit.

Little brother in Helsinki <3

Hong Kong Airport was a very pleasant surprise: it’s huge, but super convenient and fast. It took me only about 40 min to walk through the terminal, get through immigration, get by bag and find my way to the bus terminal, even toilet break included. Public transportation in Hong Kong is really good, and from the airport you can easily take an underground train or bus to the city. Bus was a slower option, but more attractive for me since I wanted to see more instead of travelling underground, and the also bus took me directly to the hostel while train would have required a change. With all the luggage I always try to minimize walking, especially in these places where you sweat like crazy the second you leave the air-conditioned spaces.

While I was super tired, I also knew that the weather forecast said it should be nice during the day and then just raining from the late afternoon, so just decided to suck it up and go out. Like I always do in new cities, I just started walking to some direction and ended up seeing the avenue of stars (like Hollywood boulevard with stars) and some pretty parks. Took the Star Ferry to Hong Kong island and there hopped on a double decker tram to do some DYI sightseeing. It took like one hour and with about 30 cents gave me a good idea of the business city and then the more residential areas. Btw, it’s crazy how high and narrow all the buildings are, no wonder why HK has like the biggest density. Also saw the place where the demonstrations took place the day before (and 2 days after). Hopped on a metro to drive back to Central (HK island city center).

Hong Kong island

Double decker tram. Public transportation in Hong Kong is really good, cheap and safe

Hong Kong gave a whole new meaning to 'concrete jungle'. The city has basically only these crazy high skyscrapers, SoHo was the only a bit flatter area.

Walked a bit in SoHo to see street art and then headed to Victoria Peak cable car just to find out that it’s not working at the moment. The QR-code for more info didn’t really help me cause I had no internet but found out that there are busses going up. Found the bus and this time even had the exact amount for the ticket (you get no change in buses/trams). The bus ride was quite scary one with really narrow road with huge drop on the other side and wall on the other, and crazy wannabe F1 driver. But we made it. The view was amazing once the rain started and the thick fog disappeared. Also met some guys up there who used to live in HK and they took me to this hidden restaurant that had no signs or anything to know that it exists. After more dim sums it was time to go to bed after staying awake for almost 40h.

Skyline view from Victoria Peak

Mad skills: managed to capture a lightning twice!

About the weather forecast: learned the first day that if it says it’s going to rain the whole day, it’s probably raining like 10-30 min some times during the day, so no need to skip all the outdoor activities. Just take your umbrella with you, and if it rains enjoy some amazing food or a cup of tea. The rain will most likely be over before you get a sugar overdose. Hong Kong has some amazing hiking places, but had to skip those because of the rainy weather. Maybe next time then!

Day 2: Shopping

Normally I try to force myself to get up quite early to overcome jet lag faster, but today I just needed to sleep so bad that I shut the alarm at 9 and slwpt til 11. Great decision. I was planning to walk around in the Mong Kok area and then head to HK island ro see mire of the street art. Somehow shops and cafes in Mong Kok caught me and ended up spending most of the day there. Bought e.g. a new carry-on bag since my old one's wheel was broken. I got really excited when I realized that most of the clothes were designed for short people. Midget heaven!! I found a bit weird that it's not allowed to try the clothes on, but some stores offered a possibility to return the clothes if they didn't fit. 

On my way to Mong Kok along the crazy long main road in Kowloon. Also my hostel was located by this road.

Since the train tickets need to be picked up from the train station, I decided to do that already the day before so I wouldn't have to worry about it the next day. The train station was huge but like the airport, very well organized. It reminded me a lot of airports. There was no line so picking up the ticket with reservation code and passport took me only about 2 min. 

Like mentioned, the weather in Hong Kong changed super fast from sunny to cloudy to foggy to super heavy rain. It started drizzling when I was about 30 m from the train station and had to run the last 10 cause it rained so heavily. Still wanted to see the music and light show (every day at 20, free) so dropped my shopping bags to hostel and headed to riverside (don't know if the water between Kowloon and HK island count as river or sea) with my umbrella. It rained like crazy but the show was nice. Afterwards I wanted to get Hong Kong specialty, roasted goose, but couldn't find the place with my offline map and ended up going to a local place for dim sum soup (which is always a good option).

My feeling in Hong Kong. Can't believe how much I can sweat :D Pic from Comic Street in Kowloon Park.

Day 3: Travelling

Headed for breakfast with some new friends from the hostel and then directly to the train station. I thought I had more than enough time when arriving about 45min before the train departure, but got really in a rush. First I had to go to ticket and passport check, then security check to rush to the immigration line (had to pass the tax free shop in between). After waiting for a while and clearing the passport and visa control, had just enough time to walk to the line when the boarding started (yes, there were 4 gates and a boarding time for long haul trains). High-speed train was super comfortable (even 2nd class) and every car even had own "flight attendant" (looked exactly like one) who served food and drinks (for extra pay). 

The 3,5h train ride from Hong Kong to Guilin was super comfortable except the literally constant announcements e.g. to mind the gap. The warning announcements and signs here are then another story and allow you to have a good laugh almost wherever you go.

Food

Tasted local treat pineapple bun (just like a Finnish bun with no cardamom) from the first bakery I found (and there are many in HK!). Other than that, I tried local tret: egg tart and pineapple bun plain and with butter and with pork (pork was the sweetest one, funny). Egg pancake was mentioned as a must, so did try it but for me the "pancake" tasted like paper and mostly enjoyed the ice cream. Let me know if you know a great place so I could give it another chance when going back to HK in July!

Left: Top: pineapple bun (with pork inside), Bottom: egg tart
Right: Top: pineapple bun with butter, Bottom: egg pancake

For lunch I went to the famous dim sum restaurant Tim Ho Wan. It was totally worth the little search, while I had some trouble with navigation. Btw, there are 4 of those restaurants in HK, totally recommend.

Dim Sum at Tim Ho Wan

Might not look so good, but it was delicious. Like most of the times, had no idea what's really in it :D

Passion by Gerard Dubois was a cute French style boulangerie with great coffee and delicious pastry, quiche, sandwiches, etc., huge recommendation for this!

For my next visit: roasted goose (a must try in HK)

Accommodation: Rainbow Lodge HK

Really good location right next to underground stop and only 600 m walk to main train station. By the noisy main street, so make sure to take earplugs with you. Cozy place, but quite tiny dorm (like every apartment in HK, so if you want more space be ready to pay a lot more than 130 HKD (~15 €)/night. For my 2-night stay it was great, just wanted an easy location, bed and shower.

Ready for my next adventures!