Hong Kong #22: Shenzhen + Guangzhou + Jiangmen.

Finally I've got some time to sit down and blog about my last weekend 3 days 3 cities backpacking trip through Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Jiangmen.

For those of you who don't know about these three cities, they're just hours away from Hong Kong by road. The route from Hong Kong to Shenzhen is about one hour in MTR; from Shenzhen to Guangzhou is roughly two hours in bus; and from Guangzhou to Jiangmen is a little bit over two hours. Well, this is the path I followed...

Shenzhen

Plans started early in the week and on Thursday I took off from Kowloon Tong to Shenzhen at around 2230 and barely made it on time through customs in the Shenzhen border. Even officers helped me filling out the visitor's form :)

I stayed one night crashing at a friend's place in Shenzhen and very early during the next morning I had dim sum and visited some areas nearby where I was staying including the street market and some city's monuments. By the way, I got the best massage ever in my life in Shenzhen. That lady was strong and to the point. No more details :)

Guangzhou

Later after that adventurous day in Shenzhen I decided to head out to Guangzhou for more traveling and visiting my relatives. Things went great. I fell asleep throughout the entire bus trip. And once in Guangzhou, I crashed at one of my relative's place leaving my backpack early so I could go out and explore the neighborhood and city. Guangzhou and China in general are nice places for building businesses; however, I'd rarely consider them as somewhere I'd live my life. This is because after living in San Francisco for over five years, I kinda see rough how dirty the roads and streets are because people completely don't care about it. All in all, I had fun visiting for one day and having dinner with friends, as well as exploring Guangzhou.

Jiangmen

After crashing at my relative's place for one night in Guangzhou, I headed out early in the morning to Jiangmen, where I crashed at another relative's place again... The bus trip was a little over two hours and guess what... I completely fell asleep, again :)

Jiangmen is way different than Guangzhou and Shenzhen in the sense that it has spacious roads and how the city has been going through a big development in recent years, this is according to my auntie and uncle's point of views. Anyways, in this city I felt with more personal space because there is less people, therefore it's less crowded, so it is something good.

During this entire day I went to so many places I would've never thought I would end up going. I borrowed and rode a bike and went around without worrying about anything else than riding the bike.

One of the places I visited during my stay was an old village where my grandpa grew up. This place is protected by the government so that it remains as a historic place for the city and tourist even though there are people still making a life inside town.

Every time I get to travel, visit and see different part of the world out there, I come up with new perspectives about life and its simplicity. I realize how some people have so little, but are still happy with what they have... and smile more often and are more kind than other people that might have the entire world for themselves.