On 8th July, my last day in Hong Kong, I suddenly thought that I might be able to get a new antenna for my little shortwave radio. It had snapped off while in Cambodia, and to use the radio at all I had to clip the wire on. I’d found out that Sony has a major spare parts warehouse in Hong Kong, so decided to see if I could get a replacement. It was a long shot, and I had to cross over the Hong Kong Island again and get a bus, but it was worth the effort. I showed them the radio at the front desk, they nodded, went into the warehouse behind, and for $12 I was presented with a new antenna!

Back in Kowloon I got a souvenir T-shirt that celebrated the upcoming transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong from Britain to China in 1997, with the Union Jack being painted over.

My chosen route into China was via the Portuguese colony of Macau. After checking out of Lucky Guesthouse I headed for the JetCat terminal for my 60 km trip across the mouth of the Pearl River. There was also a jetfoil service, but this was quite a bit more expensive and only 15 minutes quicker.

As my catamaran departed, a jetfoil came and passed us – I felt it was perhaps more impressive to see than to ride in. It made a lot of noise…

I reached Macau and after passing immigration took a little bus to the centre of town. After finding a cheap hotel I went for a wander, and found Macau to be quite fascinating. The Portuguese language (similar to Spanish) was in evidence everywhere, being the official language of the colony. Street names were all Portuguese.

Dating from 1557, Macau is the oldest European colony in the Far East. It is much smaller than Hong Kong, and is due to be handed back to China (after over 400 years) in 1999, just 2 years after Hong Kong.

I wandered up to the old citadel on the hill in the centre of the island.

Later I went to investigate transport for the following day to Guangzhou (Canton) and ended up buying my ticket at the China Travel Service before heading back to the hotel.

On 9th July I got up a bit late and went again to the China Travel Service to ask what they knew about visiting Tibet. This is a place I would really love to get to if at all possible, but the Chinese government keeps changing the rules. I was told that special permits are apparently once more required for independent travellers. This is not good news.

I headed back quickly to the hotel, since I hardly had enough time to pack before heading to catch the bus to China. I didn’t spend all of my Macau money and was left with a few coins. They described Macau as a “Portuguese Republic”…

I boarded the bus, and before I had managed to settle into my seat I was already at the border – Macau is very small. Getting through immigration was a formality, my new Chinese visa was stamped. Suddenly I was in the most populous – and perhaps least understood – country in the world…

I thought that there might be an hour change (from what the guide book implied) but there wasn’t one from what I could see on the clocks. I changed some money and got back on the bus, and 3 hours later I was in the huge southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.

The complications started immediately. Nobody knew any English, no signs were in English, I couldn’t interpret the street names to know where I was on the map in my guide book. Not only was it impossible to pronounce any street name, but my brain was unable to even temporarily store the shape of what was written, to compare against a Chinese map. Some of the bank notes give no clue as to the value – no Latin numeral at all.

Eventually I figured out enough to get myself on the correct bus towards the Guangzhou Youth Hostel, down on a little island on the Pearl River. There, I got talking to another backpacker, Lynn from Belfast, who had been in China a day longer than me and so knew a little more about how to survive in a country where you suddenly find yourself effectively deaf, dumb and totally illiterate! Lynn took me to a little eating place along the road she had discovered the night before, that had a menu translated (sort of) into English.

On the morning of 10th July I headed out and found a bakery for some breakfast – there appeared to be some western food at least, since they had yoghurt (I’ve heard that in China, dairy produce is very rarely consumed). Then I went and got a bus to the CITS office. China International Travel Service is the government agency charged with organising travel for foreigners. But at a huge mark up. They told me totally conflicting information about travel costs to my next stop, Guilin. Both train and plane sounded unreasonably expensive.

I had already read about getting to Guilin via overnight boat to Wuzhou, and then bus. At midday I met up with Lynn and she introduced me to 2 other Brits who had already decided to get the boat to Wuzhou, so I followed their advice and went down to the dock on the river, and got my ticket for the following day.

Having decided how to get out of Guangzhou, I felt able to relax a bit and went to see a pretty orchid garden. Then I headed back to the hostel, where Lynn turned up and suggested we get a thoroughly non-Chinese smorgasbord-style dinner, by buying food from a nearby shop that sold imported foods. We found salami, German sausage, French Brie, and cheesecake, which all made a nice change.