Reunion of Sisters after 58 years – Hong Kong / Guangzhou

Author: Walter and Ming from British, Mar.14, 2008

Sep.13 - Oct.03, 2007
21 days in total

Hongkong - Guangzhou - Huangshan - Hangzhou - Guilin - Hongkong

· Click for the details of the tour itinerary we took

Ms. Louisa Xu

Details of the tour itinerary we took

Hello Louisa,

I am Walter Green and my wife and I live in Shrewsbury in England. My wife, Ming, is a South African born Cantonese who emigrated to the U.K. 28 years ago.

Our expedition in August-October 2007 was more than just a holiday. It was family reunions - both dead and alive - as well as the forthcoming celebration of me attaining "Senior Citizen" status.

Our itinerary was: Shrewsbury, Manchester, London, Mauritius, Madagascar, Mauritius, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Huangshan, Guilin, Hong Kong, London, Manchester and back to Shrewsbury. (All flights, except internal Chinese flights, were arranged by Travel Nation).

The China part of our trip (21 days) - Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Huangshan, Guilin back to Hong Kong - was all arranged and co-ordinated by China Odyssey.

We had an idea of the places we would like to visit and wanted an agency who could organise a tailor-made holiday and not just sell us a 'packaged tour'. China Odyssey fitted that bill 110%.

China Odyssey made all the hotel bookings and organised tickets for rail, bus, ferry and internal flights. We were accompanied and transported to and from each departure/arrival point, checked into and out of hotels as well bicycle hire and sightseeing. We also had plenty of time to explore on our own!

Very competent and knowledgeable English-speaking guides with drivers and cars were provided for the two of us for the duration of our visit to Huangshan, Guilin and Yangshuo. The guides were quite flexible with arrangements and trips were adjusted to suit us wherever they could.

We didn't need guides in Hong Kong or Guangzhou.

Our contact was Louisa Xue. Nothing was too much trouble for her although we changed our minds several times about trains, planes, dates and times. We also received a lot of useful advice and always felt that she had our interests at heart. E-mails were going back and forth for several months and during our trip!

We felt she had accommodated our requests with such efficiency and friendliness that we really wanted to thank her personally while in Guilin.

Reunion of the Dead – Madagascar

My father was killed in 1942 in Madagascar by a Vichy French sniper whilst defending Courier Bay from Japanese invasion. He was only 24 and is buried at the war cemetery in Diego Suarez.

I visited his grave for the first time in 2005 accompanied by my mother and my wife. My mother was 4 months pregnant with me when my father was killed. She died, aged 87, 3 months after returning to the UK.

With permission from the War Graves Commission, we took my mother's ashes to be scattered on my father's grave. My sister and brother-in-law, who was on holiday in Mauritius, joined us for the event.

Reunion of Sisters after 58 years – Hong Kong / Guangzhou

Ming, the 'baby' of the family, visited China when she was around 3 years old and returned to South Africa in 1949. She has no recollection of that period although she attended kindergarten in the village. Her oldest sister lives in Hong Kong and the other in Guangzhou.

Communication with her sisters was lost when their father died. In the meantime, Ming had forgotten how to speak Cantonese and her sisters cannot speak English. It is a pity because her sisters lived in China during the Japanese invasion, the forming of the PRC, The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution and to hear of their experiences would have been amazing, more so because of their diverse lives - one joined the Red Army and the other was a lecturer of botany at Guangzhou university.

Both sisters came to the hotel to meet us. The first meeting was not as emotional as expected. There were a lot of chattering (in two different languages) accompanied by hand signs followed by puzzled looks and cordial silence! It soon became apparent that there was a language problem. Quick mobile calls to English-speaking relatives soon solved that. It did not appear as if they had been apart for 58 years except for the sisters telling everyone, friends and strangers alike, about it at every opportunity.

The sisters had a comprehensive itinerary arranged for us, both in Guangzhou and Hong Kong. Many days were spent visiting and meeting relatives, each accompanied by 6-7 course feasts. My 65th birthday was celebrated at the famous Roast Goose restaurant on Hong Kong island.

We were treated to the highlights of Hong Kong and Guangzhou with visits to museums, historical sites, interesting restaurants and beautiful parks. No comments about the endless shopping with sisters, cousins and nieces in tow! (The men, except me, seemed to find very good excuses not to join the shopping excursions!).

The high-rise complexes, where some of Ming's relatives live, are interesting. Each complex was akin to a small town (about 22,000 residents) with facilities like shops, restaurants, hairdressers, post offices, banks, bars, playgrounds, sports grounds, bus station, etc. within the clean and well kept complex. The lifts work, the security is good and schools are nearby. Maybe Britain can learn how to manage high-rise council estates from them!

In Hong Kong, Ming and her sister paid their respects to their mother and father at a temple for ancestors in Sha Tin (New Territories) and in Guangzhou we visited Ming's ancestral home in the Shunde district, Foshan. This was where she lived during her visit as a child. Although it is not lived in, their well-preserved, 200-year old house is still partially furnished and photos of her family adorn the walls. Unfortunately, it will all be demolished one day for development.

We travelled from Hong Kong to Guangzhou by fast train. Ming's sister and her husband, who had left Hong Kong a few days ahead of us, met us at the Landmark Hotel. This time Ming's bilingual cousin from Hong Kong was there to do the interpreting.

Again we had our 6-7 course meals, including a taste of silkworm grubs! Ming's nephew in Guangzhou was chauffeuring us around and took us to some very interesting restaurants with great food.

The weather in Guangzhou was quite pleasant - not too humid. We had expected to see a lot of industrial buildings spewing out tons of pollution but we hardly noticed the factories and the days were beautifully clear. Traffic jams can be quite horrendous though.

Could all the lovely, well-tended shrubs, trees and flowers under and along the motorways and central reservations, which seems to be the norm around the cities of China, be cleaning the air?

We often used public transport, both in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, and were quite impressed with the efficiency and cleanliness of the stations. Trains and buses are clean and on time – what a contrast to Britain's transport system!

Huangshan

We flew to Tunxi for our visit to Huangshan. At the airport, we hadn't realised that we had to go downstairs to meet our first full-time guide, Jessica.

After a few queries, we found her and proceeded to the Huashan Mansions in Tunxi. There are computers in the rooms with free internet access which is handy.

The hotel is almost across the road from the ‘Ancient Street' mentioned in the guide books so we decided to have a stroll there before dinner. The electric bikes were a bit disconcerting though – we just felt them whizzing by, silently!

The following morning, with our overnight rucksacks packed, we were picked up by Jessica and the driver and headed for Huangshan, 1 1/2-hour's drive away.

We took the cable lift to the top of Huangshan Mountain. The views were more fantastic than any paintings, photographs or films we'd seen. The weather was beautiful and warm, some sun, just enough mist and a few clouds – magical! Jessica guided us to many viewpoints on the way to the Beihai Hotel for lunch. This is where we stayed overnight.

The next morning we managed to get up at 5.30am to watch the sunrise, together with the Taiwanese, Japanese and Chinese tourists! It was quite spectacular.

The paths, which were mainly steps, are very good, and blended in well with the surroundings. The guardrails looked just like branches, but on closer examination, we saw they were reinforced concrete. (We also saw a water pipe disguised as a tree trunk). For those unable to walk or were tired, there was the option of a sedan chair, for a suitable fee!

On our return to the Huanshan Mansion Hotel, Jessica, who is local to Tunxi, took us to an inkstone factory followed by a stroll down the Ancient Street and drinks in a cosy coffee bar in town where we just relaxed and chatted. She also knew where to buy Moutai without costing us a fortune.

We wanted to spend more time in Tunxi and asked Jessica if it was possible to take a later bus to Hangzhou for our flight to Guilin. She arranged it all with a few phone calls. No trouble at all! We were driven to the bus station just outside town and Jessica made sure we were safely on the bus before bidding us farewell.

On the 1 1/2-half hour ride, we saw many tea plantations and interesting buildings and scenery. The car ride from Hangzhou bus station to the airport took 2 hours because of the traffic.

Guilin / Yangshuo

We were met at the airport by Teresa and Mr. Lee, the driver, and checked in at the Guilin Park Hotel. She was to be our guide for the next 5 days.

Our journey the following morning from Guilin to Yangshuo was on the very clear, clean, Li River which was rather shallow because of the unusually low rainfall they had experienced.

The views are quite fantastic. We've never seen such wonderfully shaped hills rising out of the otherwise flat land before and the sheer quantity of them were amazing. Lunch was freshly prepared on board. The journey took several hours but was well worth it and the weather, although slightly misty, was pleasantly warm.

At the New Century, in Yangshuo, we had a beautiful view – a small, limestone pinnacle with a pagoda pavilion on top. We seemed to be surrounded by buildings interspaced with more limestone pinnacles.

In the evening we went by an ‘electric mini cab' to an open-air theatre for an ethnic music and dance spectacular recommended by Teresa. The performance took place on a lake with boats and floating platforms. The hills on the other side doubled as a backdrop and were colourfully floodlit. Certainly a great deal of high tech audio, laser and lighting were used. The performers were top class. The cast included many local fishermen, complete with cormorants.

After breakfast the following morning, we went on a cycle ride to Moon Hill which took about 3 hours. It was a little scary at first as I had not been on a bike for 8 years and Ming for 50. There seemed to be so many pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles! We just followed Jessica and hoped for the best but she made sure we were safe and we were soon out of town.

Teresa had organised a visit to an old farm, which was very interesting and then we spotted a rather nice garden … Teresa negotiated entry for a small fee and we were shown around by a mother and her baby. We took several photos and sent it to them when we got home, if we got the address right!

Near Moon Hill we spotted some bamboo rafts and asked if it was possible to return to Yangshuo by raft. We cycled down to the river where Teresa negotiated the hire of two rafts, one for Ming and herself and one for me and the bicycles. It was a gentle drift down, with clear water, small weirs, dragonflies hitching a lift and more hills with wonderful names. We stopped at a ‘floating café' for freshly grilled fish and beers, passed internet/digital photo cafés on rafts and were serenaded by Teresa. What more could one ask?

It was the eve of National Day. We had dinner alongside the river, watching boats passing (some with many lights, some navigating by feel), watching homemade hot-air balloons being sent up, including one from the table next to us, and a small firework display. There were people doing ballroom dancing in the square and generally enjoying themselves.

Early on National Day, we were woken up by drivers playing "Happy Birthday" on their car horns. A truly international tune. Teresa met us after breakfast for the drive back to Guilin where we had a tour of some of the main Guilin landmarks, including the Reed Flute Caves - the best cave I have ever been in. They do have a great way with lights in China!

At last, we met Louisa that evening! Teresa had made reservations at a very nice restaurant with a floor show where we had a wonderful meal interspersed with ‘getting-to-know-you' conversation. We were presented with a beautiful paper-cut depicting the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, Chinese tablemats and 2 pairs of chopsticks. It's always good to put a face to the name!

Home

There was time for a little more exploration of Guilin before Teresa picked us up for the flight to Hong Kong and back to Britain.

Transport throughout our travels in Mauritius, Madagascar, Hong Kong and China all went smoothly – until we arrived at Heathrow! It was chaotic and our flight to Manchester had to be delayed because of the mess! Welcome back to Britain.

This was a truly memorable holiday and we shall certainly rely on China Odyssey to organise our next trip to China in 2010. However, we would like to try smaller Chinese hotels or even hostels next time – an incentive to learn Chinese?

Thank you China Odyssey!

Finished at last! Let us know if you are going to put it on your website or if there is any other information you would like from us.

Another favour please. If Teresa passes the garden in Yangshou where we stopped on our cycle ride, could she find out if the lady of the garden received the photographs we posted to her. It will be much appreciated. Teresa wrote the address in Chinese for us.

With thanks,

Walter and Ming