After a glorious 11 days on vacation and 17 days of no work, I came back to Pingxiang. It was a freezing cold, desolate, black-out of a homecoming. Apparently campus closed early in the week and they meant it literally. All the restaurants on the back alley are closed, campus buildings are locked, and no one is around. Our old gate keeper was thankfully around to let me in to our apartment building. There was no electricity anywhere on campus, but I was hopeful that wouldn't be the same in our apartments. Grandfather came back up with a candle as there was, unfortunately no power. I am not sure if I have Grandfather or the powers that be for the power coming on about 15 minutes later, but thanks are needed. The good news is that we are only spending one night back here.
Our first overnight train took us to Guangzhou (again, only seats and no beds). We spent the day there looking around before heading out again. The temperature was mild so that was a plus. We left our baggage at the train station and hiked around to a big public park (Yuexiu) known for its huge statue of 5 goats which are believed to be the travel companions of the 5 celestial beings who came to Guangzhou to provide the people with a sign that they would never suffer from famine. After that we headed to a temple with a stellar decorated pagoda, were denied at a mosque and couldn't find another 2 temples apart from all of the construction. Southwest of the city is a small island, Shamian Island, covered in trees and foreign consulate offices were we had the pleasure of Starbucks and a sighting of the American embassy.
The next overnight train (in a bed) took us to Hainan Island, the southern most province of China. The train actually divides in half and travels for an hour on a ferry to get onto the island. Tim's parents have a time share at a hotel there we got to take advantage of for a week. The weather was only nice for the first 2 days but thankfully we took full advantage of it. The place was right on the beach and had 2 natural hot spring pools - sweetness! Other than wandering around a little, none of us did much and that was great. The most exciting adventure was probably the 4 of us and our luggage piling onto a motorcycle with a side car for the trip from the train station to the hotel. The hotel across the street had 6 bowling lanes which provided most of our nightly entertainment.
After our week and with the weather getting worse, we took the overnight back into Guanzhou and went straight back to Shamian Island in hopes of some good Western style food and a happy hour. Neither happened, but the weather was decent and the island was pleasant. Here we parted ways and Tim headed back to Pingxiang while Andreana, Ben, and I headed to the southeast China coast and a place called Xiamen. The city itself didn't have much more than a lively night market street and park/temple we didn't venture to. Our hostel and the more interesting activities were a 5 minute ferry ride from Xiamen to Gulang Yu.
On the island we visited some beautiful parks, saw a giant statue, peeked into a temple, took an air car to an open air aviary, visited a piano and an organ museum, and tried to lose ourselves in the meandering crowded streets of colonial buildings. Andreana left after 1 night to catch her flight to Thailand but Ben and I stayed an extra night and day just to take in as much as we could. I would say it was hands down my favorite place in China so far.
Now, after the 23 hour train ride back to PX and the not-so-welcome home, I am glad that it will only be 1 night. Tomorrow night Ben and I are headed to Hangzhou, about 2 hours from Shanghi. It is supposed to be amazingly beautiful so hopefully it will great despite the cold weather!
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