First time in China - a trip from Hong Kong via Canton and Guilin to Yangshou

As my friends know, I often book a flight only and then look on the ground what comes next. Similar this time--grabbed a ticket with Cathay to Hong Kong, stood there a few days just to get crushed in the street canyons by the masses of people before I headed for Guilin eventually. Flights from Hong Kong to Guilin are available, but pricey. The alternative is to fly from Shenzhen or Canton, going there by bus or train from Hong Kong (CITS in Mody Rd, Kowloon, is quite helpful here). In this way, “adventure” is granted for free...

Since I applied for the visa to visit the Canton fair, I consequently booked a flight from Guangzhou as Canton is called officially. Great idea! One is entering China only after leaving the bus and crossing the border by foot. So I suddenly found myself between hordes of Chinese, of whom, naturally, nobody speaks English, the signs became illegible to me, and the new bus to continue the journey was invisible (better to say, hidden between virtually hundreds other buses). From one second to the next, I was blind, deaf and dumb...

Although Chinese are busy and tidy, the bus schedule turned out to be a rough estimate at best. Hence, I left the bus at the first bus stop in Canton and took a taxi to the airport to play for time; luckily I had the airport name on a note in Chinese writing. But that was just good enough to experience that the flight was delayed. First for one hour, then two, ultimately the flight was delayed four hours--quite challenging to get hold of this info considering my "b-d-d handicap"...

However, as I wanted to stay in Yangshou, a more laid-back village than Guilin, my main concern was: How to get from Guilin to Yangshou? The lateness would mean arrival in Guilin at evening and if I still could manage to find a coach to Yangshou, I would arrive there after sunset. Would be a real pleasure to search for an accommodation in the dark...

The Tourist Information at the airport in Guilin could at least tell me that a bus to downtown is waiting outside and that minibuses to Yangshou depart at the train station in Guilin. Well, the train station should not be that difficult to notice, so I enjoyed the ride and watched the sun appearing and disappearing behind the Karst mountains, looked at the people in the fields packing their tools and heading home, and slowly I felt to be “on vacation”. Then the bus stopped somewhere in Guilin, some passengers left the bus, but no sight of a train station. I leaned back again just to get “disturbed” by an excitingly window-knocking and vigorously paper-waving guy, trying to tell me to leave the bus. <<Do you want to go to Yangshou? The bus is leaving from the opposite side, let me show you the way.>> Oops, do they have a sensor for "long-noses" or did he get alarmed by the girl from the airport information? Quite confused, but also relieved to hopefully catch a bus still early enough, I followed the helpful soul. A tourist guide as it turned out, however a pleasant chap. Conveniently he also knew all the hotels and rates in Yangshou and had a book with photos of the rooms. The “Happy Guest House” was my choice after catechizing the guide. Although a bit unsure how I should find the hotel, I entered the bus. Let's see if the lodge fulfills its name.

The bus ride was enjoyable, indeed. The bus driver's wife stood at the open door, continuously calling out the destination in order to grab more customers. The passengers settled in, paid their passage (not without negotiating the fare), smoked a cigarette, chatted, re-arranged their purchases, and welcomed the one or other new passenger. Meanwhile the bus rocked comfortably on the road and through the small farmer villages, fields moved in front of the majestic rugged karst mountains--and slowly came the night. Stopping middle on the road in an apparently bigger village, the driver indicated me to leave the bus. Well, hopefully he also knows where I wanted to go!?

<<Good Evening, Mister Tom, welcome to Happy Guest House>>, acclaimed a young girl as I stumbled out off the bus struggling with my luggage. As a matter of fact, they contribute even the disabled traveler…