South China Trip

Note - The post is long overdue.  It has been in draft forever but I really wanted to finish it to capture the trip.

After a few days in Cebu I headed to South China for a visit to our manufacturer.  Although not nearly as long of a trip from the US to Cebu the travel day was over 12 hours.  The travel day included a driver to the Cebu airport, a flight to Hong Kong, a subway ride to get us close to the train station, a taxi ride to get us the rest of the way to the train station, a train to Guangzhou & then a hotel shuttle to the Crown Plaza.  Most of the time I was dragging my 50 pound suitcase behind me.  Oh and there was lots & lots of people around.

This post will be mostly pictures because a picture says a 1,000 words and well, I have have been lazy lately.

At the Hong Kong airport buy one of these for the Airport Express Train

Take the Airport Express train to Kowloon

Take a Taxi to this Station

Buy a train ticket to Guanzhou - Cash only!

One of our vendor lunches.  The food was really good.  Although you never quite know what you will be eating.  I find it better not to ask!

Spicy Shrimp

Beef & noodle soup

Bean curd & sesame cakes

Egg & Tofu something or other

Over the weekend we hiked to Baiyun Mountain outside of Guangzhou.

Summit - 1253 feet

I'm a Dog!

Lots of Buddha Statues

This is actually a pretty clear day in South China - View of Guangzhou

Bell ringers - have no idea what the significance was but there was a long line to ring the bell

This was my favorite - foot massage! 

This hurt so good!

We need one of these at the Arboretum

Sunday I went for a 6 mile run / walk around the hotel.  The hotel was in an area called Science Park hence all the scientist statues.

Lite-On is our Manufacturer

There are lots of parks around & surprisingly there was no one in this park when I was there 

Our last afternoon in Guangzhou we got a quick tour of the river area before heading to Shenzhen.

Chinese New Year lights were still up

Steve & I would FaceTime when I was in China.  The connection wasn't great & the screen would freeze always with a silly look on our face.  We thought it was hilarious and yes, we are easily amused!

After a week in Guangzhou we headed to Shenzhen for a couple of days where our main Asia offices are located.  Shenzhen is a very new city outside of Hong Kong.  Several people warned us of pickpockets & how they use knives to cut out the contents of your bag or pocket.  We didn't spend  any time exploring this city.  We had a day & a half of meetings then headed to Hong Kong.  We had a day to explore Hong Kong which I was so glad to have this time.  The city is amazing.  Thanks to an underground network & a great subway system the city is super easy to navigate.

Victoria Harbour Ferry

Ferry ride from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island

Reminds me of the Sydney Opera House

I couldn't agree more! 

Big Buddha

Cable Car to Big Buddha

Subway - It goes on forever!

I found these in the market & was SO exited.  I haven't seen these since my trip to Australia in '98.  I may have ate the entire bag in  one evening.   So yummy!

Disposable Panties sold in the market - Gotta love that!

We made a point to hit every Starbucks we came across.  I am not a regular at home but overseas it was always a consistent cup of coffee.  I have never noticed at home whether or not they sell local mugs but it became a game to find the Starbucks & take a photo.  The only one I didn't get a photo of was in the Cebu Starbucks.

Ngong Ping - Big Buddha

I have been to a few of our other manufacturing sites for work in years past & they were much more stressful than this trip. Those previous trips we worked weekends, had evening conference calls, etc.  So having both weekends off to explore was really nice although I did feel a little guilty at times.  Overall it was a really good trip.