China

Wow, now we are deep in central China. When we arrived at Jiujiang I discovered what it really was like to be different. Pretty much every person on the street stared at us and me. We got a taxi from the train station into town and found a cheap hotel from the Lonely planet book.

At the counter, no one could speak english so it came down to Liam's chinese skills and somehow we got our room. The rooms weren't flash but still really cheap, probably cheaper than most hostels in Shanghai or Beijing will be. We got our own TV and bathroom and three beds, which were still as hard as a rock.

Later that afternoon we headed to Lushan, a nearby mountain that had a bit of a park and a few old temples and the like. The bus was very cheap but the price paid for the insanity of the driver. We were driving up this windy hill in a minibus, overtaking other buses on blind corners into oncoming buses. It was still amazing how crazy the drivers here were.

But we finally made it safe to the top of the mountain. Until we found it was going to be 135 yuan just to enter the park ($22 AUD)! So we paid the fee and discovered that you still had to get to any of the attractions, the only way, by taxi! So we walked for a bit then got a taxi to something that sounded good, Dragons Head Rock.

When we got there, we couldn't find the rock but we did find some other buildings and some amazing views, the mountain was surrounded in cloud but was still great and covered in a range of different trees.

When we finally got to the end of the trail after many stops at various temples and lookouts we were rewarded with an beautiful view of the valley. We could actually watch the cloud moving over the mountain.

So the day ended with us trying to find a way to get back to Jiujiang. We go to the visitors centre to find the last bus left at 6pm, it was about 6.10pm. But inside the visitors centre we somehow ran into the tourism manager who helped us out by saying that some taxis should take us back to Jiujiang for about 12 yuan each. He gave us his card to show the driver in case they tried to rip us off.

We went in search of a taxi, found a few but some didn't want to go back to Jiujiang because they were Lushan taxis. But we finally found one who would do it, for 60 yuan (not a bad deal, considering the trip took about 1 hour).

So we couldn't use our card on anyone but we did get to see Lushan.

The next stop, Jingdezhen

After our action packed few days in Hong Kong we began our actual treck into China, this began with a 45 minute train ride from Hong Kong to Lo Wu, the last town on the Hong Kong new territories side. Once through passport control we got our first taste of China. Yet to our surprise, it was much the same as Hong Kong, quite humid and almost constantly hazy or foggy, it seems to be a constant curtain of have here.

In Shenzhen we met up with "Smiler" one of Liams friends (smiler is her english name, but she changed it to "bowie" and now it is "bobo").

She lived with her sister in Shenzhen in a sweet apartment. This, unfortunately was our introduction to car travel in China, which to put it frankly is insane. So far we have been in countless froms of transportation: Ferry, Funicular, Train, Bus, Mini Bus, Three Wheeled Green Mini, Taxi

Here are a few interesting things i have found out about the roads in china:

1. Lines seem to be merely for show
2. It is ok to pass a bus whilst driving into oncoming traffic
3. It is ok to pass another car, who is passing a bus into oncoming traffic (i.e. the car passing is in the first lane going the wrong way and we were in the second lane going the wrong way)
4. Police are merely for show and are often oncoming when passing a bus
5. on busy mountain roads (Mt. Lushan, below) it is ok pass a bus on a single lane round on a blind corner as fast as you can
6. Speed Signs seem to indicate the speed which is half the speed you can travel at

The same night we arrived in Shenzhen we left on the overnight train bound for Nanchang. We were in a sleeper carriage, three high. The lights went out at 10.20 so we had to stop playing cards and hit they hay.

We woke the next morning and helped out by a fellow traveller who spoke english, decided to not get off at Nanchang but to continue to Jiujiang. This involved moving to another sleeper carriage, mainly to move the bags and sit in another carriage. We could have moved to cattle class but the people there were really cramped and our gargantuan baggage would not suit the environment.

We finally arrived at 10 am in Jiujiang... more to come later

Oh a final note, the traditional dress of most chinese men is a casual slip on dress shoe and semi-pleated slacks. This uniform is worn but almost 80% of all men, the other 20% seem to prefer a laced dress shoe. This uniform is worn on every single occasion, even construction workers on the street.