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Once the hubbub had died down a bit (the noise was totally deafening) we gave the bags we were leaving to the 8th floor clerk and went down to the lobby to pay our bill. All was more than fine as we were charged only 230 yuan for our room instead of the expected 250. The bellboy helped us get a taxi to the bus station and by 11:30 we were there.

It is a very big, very modern building easy to navigate and we quickly bought two tickets to Xi Qiao Shan on the 12:00 bus. Given the building we were a bit surprised to find that the bus looked more like a city bus than an inter-city coach. But then Xi Qiao Shan is almost a suburb of Guangzhou. Luckily there was some room behind the back seats for our bags and so we claimed it and two of the seats on the back row.

It was clear from all the packages that people were carrying, that our fellow passengers were all going visiting and carrying gifts with them. The journey took about an hour and we were a bit surprised on arrival that taxi drivers were not anxious to take us up the hill. As we left the bus station trundling our bag, it started to rain lightly. We stopped under the awning of a hotel and decided that we might as well have lunch there. We did and had a very pleasant lunch of soup and tomato and egg. The Berlitz is our mainstay now when ordering food.

After lunch Gerry went exploring and found that there was a minibus up the mountain, so we got ourselves on the 3 pm bus and were at our hotel in only ten minutes, having stopped to buy tickets for the park en route.

At the hotel we were checking in at the same time as some HK people who recommended the 188 yuan room. Jan looked at both that and the more expensive room and saw no reason to pay more than 188. The more expensive room was a bit bigger but had no extra facilities that we would use. The main feature was a mah jong table. So we checked into Room 315, left our bags and set out for a walk (see Gerry’s pictures).

By the time we finished our walk and had dinner, it was clearly getting colder and raining more heavily. We hunkered down for the night.

Xi Qiao Shan Friday, January 26 to Sunday, January 28

Friday: Started the day late because of the rain, but by noon it had stopped and we set off to look at the big statue of Guanyin near our hotel. Obviously very new, it is a big draw. We entered at the level of the statue’s base (from the back) and walked down the steps to see the grand entrance then back up the steps to view the statue itself. After the rain the sky cleared a bit but the wind came up and it got bitterly cold in any unsheltered spot like the statue area.

From there we walked to Tian Hu (Heavenly Lake) looking for the hotel on our map. It was there, but all closed up for the winter. We grabbed a light lunch of instant noodles and walked down from the lake to Bai Yun lake visiting all of the temples along the way (see Gerry’s pictures). It was a very nice walk, but a bit tiring for Jan. Still she made it back up the hill and walked all the way back to the hotel, including walking back up the steps to the Guanyin.
After dinner it was back to the room to watch TV. Jan fell asleep before 9:30.

Saturday: Watched the 7:30 news then got up and went down to breakfast. Even so we didn’t leave the room until 11 a.m. Toured the other half of the park today (see Gerry’s pictures) and got back to the room by 4 pm and had dinner at 5 having snacked for lunch. Weather is colder than ever.

Sunday: Decided to skip breakfast in the hotel in favor of something downtown. Checked out and then trundled our bags over to the bus stop to wait for the bus into town. Before the bus arrived a couple in a minivan offered us a ride for Y5 each, which we accepted. They dropped us off near the hotel where we had eaten lunch on arrival. There we had a minimal dim sum breakfast and then Gerry went off to explore for 15 minutes while Jan guarded the bags and tried to keep warm drinking hot tea.

It is hard to imagine how cold it feels in these places in winter. Everything is built in order to keep cool, so there is littel insulations, lots of cold marble and the like. In addition to that, the locals don’t believe in closing either doors or windows in cold weather and so most buildings are constantly drafty and cold.

As soon as Gerry came back we walked out into the street and hailed a minibus going to Guangzhou. We paid Y20 each, got comfortable seats and settled in for the ride. At the end, however, we were surprised to be thrown off the bus at an unknown location that we later learned was the city limit. After the usual bickering (why can’t we stop?), we managed to find a bus into the city center that terminated at the cultural park just opposite our hotel, so in fact we ended up in very good shape and had checked back into the hotel by about noon.