Headed to Macao today! Macao is the Portuguese version of Hong Kong, though it was Portuguese for several hundred years more than Hong Kong was British. Taking the ferry to Macao was very easy, just taking the metro the ferry terminal and boarding the next ferry. You still have to pass immigration as both these Special Administrative Regions have seperate immigration policies. Macao is split into 2 key parts. The south is ritzy glitzy casinos but not much else....

I took things slightly more chill today and headed to the New Territories. These are the mainland areas further inland of Hong Kong, taking a long metro inland up, almost back at Shenzhen. I headed to the Wetland Park. An area of reclaimed land, managed for its ecosystem services. Textbook stuff from my lectures last term! The area surrounding very much lived up to the Hong Kongcrete jibe Hong Kong gets, and it was stuffed with annoying kids. But, overall it was...

Spent a lot of time on metros today! Long journey on the Shenzhen metro, followed by an easy air conditioned border crossing. I then made a rather long metro journey to central Kowloon, where my hostel is. Kowloon is the most densely populated urban area on Earth and it shows. Shenzhen and Shanghai have as many skyscrapers, but in Hong Kong the skyscrapers are much more crowded. Also, whilst I'm sure Hong Kong has its glitzy areas, I feel its grottier than the ...

Predictably my Bullet train went very quickly. Guilin station was a nightmare though, thousands of passengers packed like sardines in a hideously overcapacity station. The only slight annoyance on the Bullet Train was the 'little emperor' on the opposite aisle making his fair share of noise. We got up to 330km/h as we raced across 600km of Guangxi and Guangdong in just about 3 hours. Despite the tunnels, I got to see lots of beautiful Karst scenery as well as th...

I spent this morning making sure my visit to Guilin/Guangxi didn't go completely to waste. I was assisted by an earlier than desired wake-up call from the next door school and the loud group of Spaniards who clattered into my dorm at 2am. I hiked around the Diecai Hill Park. The karst scenery here is quite a spectacle, a very unique sight. I'm not really sure, and not terribly interested, in the geography behind it all but it was nice to see some of the scenery...