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Author: Anja

Hiking in Hongkong or China for Beginners

Hiking in Hongkong or China for Beginners

  We think it’s best to put Hongkong at the end of your China trip, since it’s likely you’ll get a cultural shock when doing it the other way round. Hongkong is China, but it’s still completely different. Must be the British influence, that’s still lingering around. It’s much easier. Starting with the language, English is present everywhere, on street signs, busses, trams, on menus in restaurants, in shops… And most people speak it, too, and quite well. So no…

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Off the beaten track: East meets West in Kaiping, Guangdong

Off the beaten track: East meets West in Kaiping, Guangdong

  On our way to Hongkong we stopped in Guangzhou, from where we did a little side trip to the tiny village of Kaiping (roundabout 600,000 inhabitants, therefore a village, clearly). Obviously, not a lot of tourists do that, at least not Western tourists. We hardly saw any. The main attraction around that area are the imposing towers, the so-called Diaolou. They were built by emigrant Chinese, who returned wealthy from overseas. They found their hometowns threatened by raiding bandits and regular floods….

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Picture-perfect Guangxi Part II: Hiking around the Longji Rice Terraces

Picture-perfect Guangxi Part II: Hiking around the Longji Rice Terraces

  When we returned to our hostel one evening the receptionist asked us if we wanted to join a tour to Dazhai the next day. We said yes without thinking long about it. We hadn’t really planned to see the rice terraces, since we’ve been told it had already been harvested and therefore lost some of it’s beauty. But when the opportunity arose we thought, why not, give it a go. I am so happy we did it, because it…

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