Southern China Day Trip

On Thursday we went on a Southern China day tour. We did not know too much about this tour, it was a two line entry in a travel brochure and the follow-up information from the tour company had been weak. We had nothing to worry about however as the tour was very well run. We were picked up from our hotel at 6:45am by our head tour guide Alex, a very funny guy from Hong Kong with 17 years experience with taking people around China. Alex knew everyone where we went and he made getting in and out of China a breeze (he is the only person I have seen make a Chinese Customs Officer laugh). He kept us informed of everything important along the way but made it very clear we were getting a sanitized and very safe China experience. An English guy on the tour was a little disappointed at this but I was very happy. I had been to Beijing twice before and had some scary experiences in the local environment. For a couple of New Zealanders going to China is almost like taking a trip to Mars, absolutely everything is different and if you get in trouble there isnt anyone to help you and a heap of people ready to take you to the cleaners.

A very hungry and lazy Panda bear

We took a fast ferry into China were our second guide Aimee met us. Aimee was a young girl who could talk forever about anything. She did not have anything good to say about the Communist regime and knew more facts and figures than you could throw a stick at. First stop on the trip was a nearby Zoo to see a Panda. The zoo was fairly new but was not up to contemporary western standards in terms of the quality or size of enclosures. From there we were taken to a clay soldier exhibition that was a front for a tourist shop. There was five of us tourists and twenty sales staff. We were like lambs to the slaughter and needless to say a lot of foreign currency was exchanged for some overpriced but very nice local goods :-)

Our tour group: (from left to right) Aimee, Emma and the three English tourists

After draining us of money we were driven 150km inland to Canton City (which has a Chinese name I can say but cant spell). We had a very nice lunch and during this time the tour guides disappeared to get their own (it was probably company policy not to eat with the customers). Emma and I had a chance to get onto the local streets without supervision and do some real shopping. I picked up a couple of pair of nice shoes for $300rmb (NZ$50). The same shoes would have cost NZ$150 each so from my perspective the tour had payed for itself. Once we had reassembled after lunch we did some more touring of local landmarks and a porcelain shop which had some really beautiful pieces.

The monument to China's first President who died in 1912

At 6:30 we boarded a train back to Hong Kong from the largest train station I have ever seen. By 9:00pm we were back in our hotel and very tired. It was a very good day trip to China, we got to see a lot of things, the guides were excellent and the new shoes I picked up were well needed. If anyone is in Hong Kong for more than a couple of days I would recommend the Southern China day tour run by PC Tours. It is approximately NZ$200 each and well worth it.