Monday 5 November – We really enjoyed our quick trip to Macau.  We stayed at Studio City a new hotel, which we all agreed was the best hotel we have ever stopped at in terms of the staff, service, rooms and facilities.

The casino part of Macau is like a replica of Las Vegas in terms of the casinos and facilities.  But while the casinos are as impressive as Vegas Macau just does not have the buzz or the number of people that Vegas has. Wandering round last night it felt a ‘little flat’, like turning up to a party only to find not many people there.

However in terms of money the casinos are taking and profits they are earning, the Macau casinos beat Vegas.  That’s mainly down to the fact that the Chinese are very serious and big gamblers so the amount per person the casinos make in Macau is much higher than in Vegas.

Today we went on a tour of the cultural and historical attractions in Macau with a fantastic local guide called Aubrey. Scott, Sue and I are all very tired, so we were not really looking forward to another walking tour.  But Aubrey took us round in an air conditioned vehicle and was keen to ensure we did not have to walk too far or climb too many steps.  Which made it a lot easier.  He also had great way of telling you about things which made it interesting but did not overload you with facts. Due to its long Portuguese colonisation, Macau has some great history and cultural attractions and Aubrey took us round the main ones which we all greatly enjoyed.

However the one thing Aubrey could not control was the weather. It was very hot and sunny, mid 80s, for most of the day, so out came the umbrellas to keep the sun from burning us.

Macau is a great little island, laid back, nice mixture between the casino area and the rest of the island with its long Portuguese history.  It is also situated right next to the Chinese mainland at a couple of the places we visited you look out and if you look one way you are looking at Macau and if you look the other way you are looking at China.

Sunday 4 November Macau – This morning we took our life into our hands and went on a bike tour round central Hong Kong. Normally such tours cycle round the back lanes but this one was on main roads. Lucky for us that it was a Sunday so the traffic was much lighter.

This afternoon we travelled by Jet Ferry to Macau. Macau is an autonomous region of China. The ferry took an hour to get her luckily the water was nice and calm.

A Portuguese territory until 1999, Macau reflects a mix of cultural influences. Giant casinos and malls on the Cotai Strip, have earned it the nickname, “Las Vegas of Asia.” But it also has a lot of historic buildings dating from its time as a Portuguese colony.

Saturday 3 November – Our first day in Hong Kong and we went on a walking tour with our tour guide Apple, visiting the central part of Hong Kong Island and then crossed Victoria Harbour to visit Kowloon.

So what is Hong Kong like: Lots and lots of people its very crowded: the metro is modern but even more crowded: there are lots of shops selling everything you can imagine: lots of restaurants;  posh shops mix with run down areas and street markets; the place is filled with very tall sky scrapers.

Everywhere you look there are great contrasts between wealth and people struggling to put food on the table and exist.  Very expensive modern apartment blocks and office building looking over street markets and run down shopping areas.  Modern shops selling expensive goods and then in the next street seedy looking shops, massage parlours and hotels which rent you a room for an hour.

The average working week is 80 hours, the minimum wage is £3.30 per hour, this in a city which is one of the most expensive places to live in the world. No wonder you see people falling to sleep on the Metro.

But the thing that will stick with me most about today’s tour was the site of hundreds and hundreds of female Filipino and Indonesian women sitting on blankets in groups on a covered bridge and in the entrance to a large metro, eating, chatting, sleeping, dancing.

These women work as maids, nannies, cooks for families in Hong Kong. If they work for a good family they get two days off, Saturday and Sunday others only get Sunday off.  But they can’t stay in the house / apartment where they work so they gather together to socialise on their days off.

Some of them only get Sunday off so the number of them doubles on Sunday, there are so many of them that they block off a whole street for them to sit and spend the day.

Its a very sad reflection of the world we live in that these women have to leave their home countries to work in a foreign land, for very little money and that on their day off they spend 8 to 10 hours sitting on concrete floors  because they don’t have the money to do anything else.

Friday 2 November – Arrived in Hong Kong on the Bullet Train from Guilin.  Staying at an Airbnb apartment in the heart of downtown Hong Kong Island in a large apartment block on the 19th floor. Unfortunately no nice view, we ovelook another apartment building!! On arrival it was overcast but humid.

Went out around 7.00pm for something to eat and the place was bustling and very crowded with people.  All the shops were open, bars and restaurants were doing a great trade, it reminds you of the West End of London but there is lot more tall skyscrapers, more people, more bright lights and it has an even a greater buzz to it.

Hong Kong can be divided into four parts: Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon peninsula, the New Territories and the numerous ­outlying islands.

Hong Kong Island

The Central District on Hong Kong Island is the place you always see on TV news reports. Teaming with people, packed with skyscrapers and enormous futuristic buildings, ­opulent hotels and glitzy shopping centres. However on the less developed southern side of the island are some surprisingly restful beaches.

Kowloon

Across Victoria Harbour is Kowloon, with its millions of people packed into just a few square kilometres. It is the most densely populated place in the world. This is the site of many hotels, bars and shops.

The New Territories and outlying Islands

Beyond the mountains which ring Kowloon to the north lie the anachronistically named New Territories a mix of empty hillsides and high-rise developments.

A further step into the outfield is granted by the 230-plus outlying islands which are all part of Hong Kong.  These islands are largely rural, their small towns and fishing villages linked to the city by ferry.

Thursday 1 November – The visit to the Longsheng Rice Terraces was absolutely magical.

We started off by climbing up to the Nine Dragons and Five Tigers Scenic viewing point.  Easy said but in reality a hard steep climb up concrete and rock steps to the viewing point which is high up on top of a hill, overlooking Ping’an Village and the rice terraces.  However the views at the top were worth the effort.

We then walked from the viewing point to Longji Zhuang Village, a two hour hike, which took us through the rice terraces. Longji Zhuang Village is fairly isolated and has only recently been opened up to tourists.  So it gets relatively few visitors, from what we saw we were the only westerners visiting the village and we only saw a handful of Chinese tourists. The village is on a ridge with the rice terraces circling down to the Jin River far below.

We stopped overnight in the village in a Daiojialou, a large traditional wooden house which has been turned into a hotel called The Dragon Hill Scenic Hotel.  Our tour guide Emma had told us it was very basic , but to our surprise it was very nice and the rooms and the facilities were much better than we had expected. The views from the wooden widows and balcony over the rice terraces was amazing.

We had our evening meal in Grandma Hou’s Daiojialou wooden house.  This was large but very basic.  One solitary electric light in each room, wooden floors, nothing on the walls but posters, very basic cooking and sleeping facilities.  But spotlessly clean.

For our meal we had local rice and chicken cooked in bamboo.  They split the bamboo into two, they place the food inside, then tie the two halves together, before cooking it in an open fire.  We also had beef and vegetables cooked in a wok, Tofu cooked in a tomato sauce and egg and greens mixed together.  The food was very nice.

After our meal we had a long chat with Grandma Hou about her life, how hard farming the land is, the Cultural Revolution and her hopes for children – that they get a good education which allows them to get a job other than farming.  She was a big Chairman Mao fan and spoke about how hard and poor the villagers were before the communists under Chairman Mao took over in 1949 and how the villagers lives had improved since then.

Today (Thursday 1 November) – We got up at 6.30am to watch the sunrise over the rice terraces, which was very special. Scott went onto the flat roof of the hotel to fly his drone and take some video footage.

After breakfast, scrambled egg – the lady at the hotel had never done scrambled egg before so Emma had to explain to her how to make it – we travelled to Daxu Old Town which is situated by the Li River.  This is a well preserved ancient village which suffered very badly in the Cultural Revolution.  The houses date from the Ming (1368 to 1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644 to 1911).

While in the village we went to see Mr Zhou, in his basic but fascinating wooden house.  He lives a very simple life but he was a lovely old man.  He had been sent to work in the rice fields for 7 years during the cultural revolution, but he still had a large poster of Chairman Mao on his sitting room wall and still had his Red Book which he had been given by the Red Guards and which he had to learn by heart during the Cultural Revolution.

We decided to miss going to the top of Yao Mountain as we did not fancy going up in the open and very scary looking chair lift!!

We finished the day by visiting Elephant Trunk Hill which is the symbol of the City of Guilin.  Its a hill that looks like an elephant drinking from the river.

Tomorrow (Friday 2 November) we travel by Bullet Train to Hong Kong.

Wednesday 31 October – Today we are off to walk along the Longsheng Rice Terraces from Ping’an Village to Longji Zhuang Village.

Construction of the terraces started 650 years ago.  It began in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and continued until the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). To build the terraces the Zhuang and Yao people faced major obstacles.  First they had to clear the forest from the deep sided mountains and then rely on slash and burn agriculture to cultivate the first fields.

The terraced field are built along the slope winding from the riverside up to the mountain top, between 2,000 to 2,600 ft above sea level. A coiling terrace line that starts from the mountain foot up to the mountain top divides the mountain layers of water in Spring, layers of green rice shoots in Summer, layers of rice in fall and layers of frost in winter.

The terraced fields received their name because the rice terraces resemble a dragons scales, whilst the summit of the mountain range looks like the backbone of the dragon.

To get a better idea of what the terraces are like watch this video:

Overnight – We are stopping overnight in Longji Zhuang Village which is relatively isolated from the outside world. The village dates back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).  The village is on a ridge with the rice terraces circling down to the Jin River below.

The village boasts 300 households and a population of 1,300 North Zhuang pople.  They are all from three families the Lia Family: the Hou family: and the Pan family.

The families belong to the Baiyi or “White Clothes” branch of the Zhuang Ethnic minority and are characterised by their beautifully embroidered white shirts.

Villagers grow rice and potatoes to feed the whole family: paddy corn, taro and bean are their favourite food.  They cook using bamboo cut in half, they put the food in the middle, seal it up, put it into the fire, then open it up to get the food when it is fully cooked.

For our dinner we are having a traditional meal cooked by one of the villagers in their house.

We are stopping in a Diaojiaolou, which is a three storey traditional wooden house supported by wooden columns.  The houses are built on stilts to protect the villagers from snakes and insects. I hate snakes!!

The weather – The weather in Yangshou and Guilin has been very hot with temperatures in the day getting up to the mid 80s.  However it gets quite cool in the evening / overnight. Still no rain!!

I was given a traditional ‘farmers hat’ by the owner of the Old Manor House so I have been wearing that. Sometimes the hats are called a sedge hat, rice hat, paddy hat, bamboo hat or coolie hat . In Chinese, it is called dǒulì (斗笠), literally meaning a “one-dǒu bamboo hat”, (笠帽, 竹笠). It is fantastic for keeping the sun from your head, face and neck.

Monday 29 October – Sue and I had always thought that New Zealand was the most beautiful country in the World with magnificent scenery and gorgeous deserted beaches. But Yangshou / Guilin is even more stunning with scenery that totally takes your breadth away.

Cycling and scenic drifting Yulong River – On Monday morning we cycled along the Yulong (Draggon River) before going scenic drifting on a bamboo raft, which was pushed along by one of the local villages in Gondolier type fashion.  It was so peaceful and the scenery was just unbelievable, with the beautifully shaped Karst hills (limestone hills) rising up on each side of the river.

Cuiping Hill – We then made the long climb to the top of Cuiping Hill which took 20 minutes, climbing up steep steps built by the local villagers. Our efforts were rewarded with amazing views of the Karst Hills, villages and the river a long way below.

Impression 3rd Sister Lu Musical and Light Show – This was by far the greatest show Sue and I have ever see, Over 500 villagers perform on rafts and floating platforms in the Li River with a backdrop of a dozen beautifully lit Karst hills.  It was like a scene out of the Avatar.  The setting, the music and lights combined with the water and magnificent scenery made it a totally magical evening and one that will forever stick in our minds.  You can get a feel for it by watching the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G94rHwWrZOY

Tuesday 30 October – We first watched one of the local villagers demonstrate how they used to fish using Cormorant birds, before going drifting down the Li River on a motorised bamboo raft.

Guilin – In late afternoon we arrived in Gulin a town of around 780,000 people. The city is known for being surrounded by a dramatic landscape of Karst hills and rivers.

At teh centre of Guilin are two lakes, Shanhu (Cedar) and Ronghu (Banyan), remaining from a medieval-era moat that once surrounded the city. Boats travel through these and other lakes via connected rivers.

In the evening the city centre really comes alive as they light up twin pagodas, called the Sun and Moon, which are located in the centre of one of the lakes, Elephant Trunk Hill and the the bridges and streets.  We went for a walk around 9pm, all the shops were open, there were lots of families out shopping, drinking and eating and the place had a really nice vibrant but family orientated feel to it.

Tuesday 30 October – One of the difficulties you face in China is ‘The Great Fire Wall of China’. The Great Firewall blocks foreign websites, apps, social media, emails, instant messages and other online resources deemed inappropriate or offensive by the Chinese authorities. So you can’t get on google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Yahoo, AOL etc.

To get round this you download a VPN (Virtual Private Network) and use this to connect you to the internet.  But the Chinese authorities know this so they try to block the VPNs and yesterday they managed to block the VPN we were using.  But today our VPN is back in business having re-routed their traffic in a different way. So apologies for no update yesterday.

Sunday 28 October – The ride on the Maglev train from downtown Shanghai to the airport was amazing. It takes 7 minutes to get to the airport on the Maglev to go by car takes 45 minutes!!  The windows are designed in such a way that when you look out of them you don’t realise how fast your are travelling.  If you did it would make some people feel sick.

Our Tour Guide Miranda accompanied us to the airport so check in was nice an easy.  Our luggage was overweight so we had to pay a 230 RNB fee about £23.  We were then called back because Scott’s case had a large fly spray aerosol can in it which they confiscated.

The flight left 20 minutes late but we arrived in Guilin 5 minutes early. The flight was very much like a flight to Spain, with the attendants going round with drinks, a small meal and as we came into land some small polo mints!!

We were picked up at the airport by a driver and driven to Yangshuo which took just under an hour.  What a contrast with Beijing and Shanghai.   Instead of bumper to bumper cars, traffic jams, skyscrapers and row after row of tall apartment blocks, here in Guilin and Yangshuo you see green fields, amazing sculptured Karst hills, nice small hamlets of houses and there is very little traffic on the roads.

We are staying at the Old manor House hotel situated in Xia Tang village which is about 10 minutes by car from Yangshuo. Thirteen extended families live in the village all with the surname Wang.

The Manor House was built in 1400 in the Ming Dynasty. After the communist took over China in 1949 the house was given to the villagers.  In the 1990s they moved out into new houses which had been built in the village and the Manor House fell into disrepair.

In 2014 a visitor from Germany negotiated to rent the Manor House from the villagers and he renovated it to its past glory using traditional materials and building methods.  All the rooms are decorated in traditional Chinese style with hand made wooden furnishings and decorated with an array of antiques and pieces of local artwork. Its now a boutique hotel in a Ming dynasty building. Absolutely gorgeous.

Sunday  28 October – Today we leave Shanghai and fly 800 miles south to Guilin.

We have a driver who is picking up our luggage and taking it to the airport.  We are travelling to the airport on the Maglev Train.  This does not run on rails it hovers above them – magnetic levitation.  It travels at 267 mph which beats our 125 inter city trains.

Britain actually ran the world’s first Maglev train to carry passengers the Birmingham airport Air Link shuttle that ran from 1984-95. It was popular and cheap to run, but unreliable and expensive to maintain as the one-off components were hard to find.

We are flying to Guilin with China Southern Airlines.  The flight takes three hours.  Chinese commercial flight have one of the worst records for leaving late or not arriving on time. Part of the the problem is that the military control the skies and they have priority over commercial traffic.