Welcome to China

Monday, September 5th

We went to bed with the curtains open so we could wake up face to face with that incredible wall of skyscrapers.  It seriously never gets old!

The one thing we didn't get to do yet in Hong Kong is experience the skyline views from the water, so we hopped on the Star Cross Harbor Ferry to ride over to Hong Kong island and back.

This city is different than what I expected and maybe that's my own ignorance or lack of knowledge.  It feels very similar to New York City in the sense that it is very international and westernized.  We've seen residents of all different nationalities, many American chains and a lot of English on signs and advertisements.   We've had no trouble being able to communicate because most of the people we've encountered speak English.  I think we are in for a big change later this afternoon when we arrive in Guilin, our first destination on the mainland of China.

After an hour flight northwest and a China stamp in our passport, we decided it would be a fun experience to take the bus for the 50 minute trip into town versus a taxi.  We were the only "westerners" and I'm confident the only English speaking people on board.  But we enjoyed the culture shock and the extra cash it left in our wallets.  I had used google translate to write the name of our hotel in Mandarin and that proved to be essential in hailing a cab from the bus station because communicating in English wasn't an option.

After we checked in, we headed out to explore Guilin, a small city by China standards, but still home to one million people.  We headed over to the Peak of Solitary Beauty in the walled city of Prince Jingjiang and then wondered through the back alleys browsing the shops, restaurants and food stalls featuring local delicacies.  We are quite the commodity here with our light skin and blonde hair.  Everyone was pointing at us and the brave ones approached us to ask if we would take a picture with them.  Now I know what it must feel like to be famous.  I wonder how many Instagram and Facebook posts we're going to be in throughout China.

We stumbled upon Chinese Fur Lake lined with trees lit in red and green surrounding the beautifully illuminated Sun and Moon Pagodas. We strolled the path along the lake taking picture after picture, each view more beautiful than the last. Then we watched the famous Lijiang Waterfall show, where they turn the back of the hotel with the same name into a giant waterfall every night for 20 minutes, but we're still trying to figure out why this was worth even 2 minutes of our time, lol.

Don't judge, but we were starving since we haven't really sat down to many full meals since we left home, so for dinner we headed to a recommended Italian restaurant overlooking the river with beautiful views of the city.  Not the Chinese experience we should have had, but we did order a bottle of Chinese red wine to have an authentic taste of this country... And it was delicious!