The great expedition to Guangzhou

The group was faced with an arduous task of transversing multiple modes of transportation to get from Tokyo to Guangzhou. We lost one person who was going home instead of travelling with us to Guangzhou. Lucky him!! (or not...) We woke up at 5 am to take a taxi from the hotel to the city bus terminal. Narita is about an hour outside of Tokyo, similar to Dulles and DC. Unfortunately, a direct taxi is about $250 USD. Yikes!


Caught the 5:45 am airport bus and got to Narita. Suprisingly, the airport counters were only beginning to open and we had to wait in line. We were travelling on the Star Alliance Asian Airpass. Unfortunately, the direct flight to Guangzhou was not an option with this particular program. We were going to have two flight segments and pssing through Beijing. Ironically, all our picture shots look like we are in the same spot. I guess airlines and buses have the same seat configuration! We went through security and got on our first plane segment to Beijing.

At Beijing airport, you can feel the level of pride the Chinese governmen has by hosting the Olympics this year. Tschokes were everywhere and the airline stewardess even made an announcement about the success of the games. The entertainment options on TV included a snippit of the opening games ceremony. Also was given a toy replica of the plane we were flying - Boeing 737. Although a part of me wonders if the thing had lead....


Interestingly enough, a transit traveller through a Chinese airport still requires a Chinese "transit" visa. Luckily we had a multiple Chinese visa. This will make for an interesting stamp page later on.

We boarded our second leg of the plane itinerary and made it to Hong Kong International. The flights were uneventful and half of our transit day has passed. It was pretty easy to get through customs, most seem fairly relaxed in comparison to the Beijing airport. Exchanging money at the airport was also reasonable if you are carrying cash.

As the flights were an unknown factor in determing the actual arrival time into Hong Kong (never know what kind of flight delays are in store), we had several strategies to get to the train station to catch our train to Guangzhou. Option 1) take a cab - likely two given the group size and luggage, 2) take an express bus, or 3) take the subway in a circuitous route. As we exited customs, the MTR pounced on us and sold us an airport train pass into the city. It worked out for us as we needed to get to Hung Hom station and was ahead of schedule. Hong Kong airport and MTR website didn't mention that they had a direct route to Hung Hom station, you take the airport express train to Kowloon and take a complimentary shuttle to Hung Hom station.




With the day nearing an end and a possible end to our travelling, we ate at McDonald's at Hung Hom station and waited for our train. We could have caught an earlier scheduled train but it would require us to forgo dinner. Bad idea....

Compared to Japan, the Chinese rail trains are not as impressive. At times, I felt that they were purchased used. The seats were comfortable. If you ever travel by train, try to opt for the higher class level of seats. It is only a $40HKD difference from the base fare. Once we arrived into Hong Hum, had to pass through CHinese customs. I'm sure the guy who gave me my stamp was puzzled why I would arrve and leave and arrive again into China. If you have ever went throug customs, there is always a spot where the government allows you to dump your fruits/vegetables before "entering" the country. In this case, not so much. I wasn't actually worried about it until one of my groupmates was anxious for me to rid of the stuff. By trying to throw away my grapes before scanning caused a greater commotion than if I hadn't. My lesson learned!

We are now at the end of our journey as we tromped off to the hotel via taxi.