In July four years ago, I went with my friends to Wuyi Mountain, we recognized a couple in a local tour group; the husband, Mr. George Ng, was a 56-year-old Chinese-Canadian man (aged 60 this year) and father to four children and his wife Mary Sit is a Chinese. In memory, George was deeply loved by all tour members throughout the Wuyishan trip because he loved telling stories about his past tours’ experiences to everyone. On the third day of Wuyi Mountain, he shared their happy and unforgettable travel experience in Guizhou, China. When they were invited to attend a local banquet "the Long Table Banquet", they deeply felt the enthusiasm of the Miao people in the delicious Guizhou cuisine and experienced the hospitality of ethnic minorities. Long Table Banquet is a famous feast (banquet) in Guizhou as per China Travel Website.
The couple strongly recommended all of us to go there at least once and to choose Guizhou to be the place of our next trip because there are many scenic spots worth seeing there. He also listed many magnificent scenic spots of Guizhou that are worthy of being included in the “Top Ten or Top Twenty Must-Visit in Life”. The attractions there include “Gui’an Cherry Blossom Garden”, Qingyan Ancient Town”, “Huanggoushu Waterfall”, Libo Xiaoqi Kong” and the “Xijiang Miao Village” just mentioned …and so on.
George's travel experience opened my plan up to visit Guizhou seeing how spectacular and attractive it is. In February of this year, I started planning to travel to Guizhou China in March. March is the month of my birthday, I said to myself if I could visit in March, it would be a good memory...
I got the travel information from travel websites; the best way to get from Hong Kong to Guizhou is by plane; the flight time is 2 hours and 25 minutes, and the ticket fare is about $750 to $2000 HK dollars, depending on the pricing and the flights supplied by different airlines. All know that the most cost-effective way is to take the bullet train from West Kowloon Station (WK Station), which is cheaper than flying but it will take twice as long according to the ticketing website of CR12306. It takes approximately 6 hours and 18 minutes to Guiyang Bei if by G series train. (G-trains are the fastest and also the most popular in China, with a max speed of 380km/h)
It was not funny and met with a minor obstacle when I was on the website CR12306 to book the ticket, there was only a train or trains dismally small per day for passengers to get on from WK station, which seemed to have a shortage of trains at WK. Unlike the WK station, there were more and plenty of train schedules departing from Shenzhenbei and Guangzhounan. The shortage may be attributed to a few conservations in allocating schedules for trains to WK at the early stage of full resumption of normal travel between the Mainland and Hong Kong. Of course, it caused absolute inconvenience for some passengers who would like to depart from WK.
Adopting the advice made by my friend it was proposed to arrive in Foshan on the day before traveling to Guizhou and spend a night there until early the next morning to board the bullet train at Guangzhou Nan Station by taking Foshan Metro. This can solve the problem of a shortage of train schedules at West Kowloon Station and even is more flexible to choose which boarding time I like as there are more schedules opted online for boarding from Guangzhou Nan. In addition, the D-series train takes passengers on the whole journey needing approximately 5 hours and 14 minutes from Guangzhou Nan to Guiyang Bei, at its max speed of 250 kilometers per hour, can save by 1 hour and the fare is relatively lower than departing from WK station taking the G-series train.
By booking on CR12306, I bought a round-trip ticket; the going ticket was from Guangzhou Nan to Guiyang Bei at 09:00hr on March 17, 2023, and the return ticket was from Douyun Dong to Guangzhou Nan at 16:19hr on March 21, 2023; fares spent in 291 yuan and 247 yuan (RMB) respectively.
Highlights of Guizhou
As stated, the D train took 5 hours and 14 minutes to get from Guangzhou Nan Station, the ride was smooth and comfortable throughout the journey, felt extremely good! In the eighth cabin, there is a fast food restaurant for train passengers to buy quick snacks, beverages, and lunch boxes. About 45 yuan (RMB) for a lunch box fitted with a can of cold drink; for adults, the size of the lunch box is just right, food is not too spicy. I used to have my lunch while standing next to the aisle in front of the fast food counter, this act helps to stretch my legs and avoid the discomfort of flexing feet during the long journey. Surprisingly, I saw many train passengers who might have the same ideas as me standing there, seemingly unwilling to return to their seats.
After getting off the train, I rented an SUV for my 5-day trip in Guizhou and was accompanied by a local guide named Xiao Lau (Mr. Lau Bin, a native resident of Guizhou province). Xiao Lau has led tourists to visit Guizhou’s attractions for years. Why was Xiao Lau waiting for me in the station lobby? In fact, I didn’t recognize him at first, while I was searching for travel information on my smartphone, he walked up to me and introduced himself. I didn’t mind a tour guide accompanying me to visit Guizhou as he had been in my plan before I got off, I at least could benefit from surprises from the journey because I believed in him and his experience.
Xiao Lau was born in Guizhou, his former job was as a teacher in a native primary school, and then for a certain reason, he changed his career life from a rural teacher to a tour guide. He said his livelihood from 2020 to 2022 was almost in an idle stage, with no tourists, only a few jobs, and less income throughout the three years because of the outbreak of worldwide COVID,… it sounded really not good, the worst came to the worst in the 3 years to the Guizhou’s economic situation which mainly lives off its tourism. It is hoped that Guizhou’s tourism can recover soon!
On the way, Xiao Lau briefed me on the history, the population and the famous attractions of Guizhou Province, Guizhou is rich in natural, cultural, and environmental resources replete with forests and rivers, having different minority groups living together in this place, including Miao, Bouyei, Dong, Tuila and Yi people. Lau said Guizhou is one of the inland provinces in China; its geographical location is nearly the land located above the bottom border of the China Map; this formed a good superiority to better protect them from foreign attacks in the ancient years, so historical buildings and ancient villages can be well kept until today.
It was a very pleasant thing to travel by car, especially when driving on unfamiliar roads alongside the rare villages from Guiyang to Guizhou, navigation led the routes to the place we wanted to go. The navigation app revealed that the road to Xijiang Miao Village needs driving for 3 hours, about 260 kilometers away from Guiyang Bei (The Capital of Guizhou Province).
Xiao Lau suggested that we should put off the visit to the Miao Village because of the time and distance, All attractions in Guizhou are closed after 17:30hr on the general days, so going first to the Cherry Garden would be better for the schedule.
Highlights of Gui’an Sakura Garden
Because it was right in the flowering season, I did see the cherry blossoms when we arrived in Gui’an. The park was full of brilliant cherry blossoms everywhere, with tens of flower-watching tourists queuing up to take pictures on the observation deck where they could catch the super beautiful view. Under the sea of cherry flowers. I saw that some girls in ancient costumes acted as pretty princesses for their cameramen, and some tourists posted a series of close-up selfies or instant videos on Douyin (TikTok), WeChat, or WhatsApp.
Xiao Lau said Gui’an Sakura Garden covers an area of more than 10,000 mu, and nearly 700,000 famous cherry blossoms are planted in the park divided into early cherry blossoms and late cherry blossoms. The flowering period combination time will last about one month since mid-March every year.
No comments:
Post a Comment