Kaiping and Chikan - July 10-11, 2013

Kaiping (population approx. 700,000) is a city in southern Guangdong Province, China. It's a pretty standard Chinese city. But surrounding it lies some beautiful villages with some unique architecture. During the early Twentieth Century, many from the Kaiping area went overseas to work as coolies. When they returned, now very wealthy, they brought back with them architectural influences from the west. Well over a thousand watchtowers, locally called "diaolou", boast very interesting designs. 

Day 1 - July 10, 2013 - Kaiping and Chikan

A huge square in front of the Yici Bus Station. We arrived here on a bus direct from Hong Kong. We wandered the city for a couple hours. We looked for a sim card for an Iphone (NOTE: USA Iphone's are locked into a plan. International sim cards are no-go, we found...) Then we ate lunch and grabbed delicious mango smoothies. Finally, we took a couple motorcycle taxis back to the bus station to catch a local bus to Chikan.

About a half an hour out of Kaiping is the smaller village of Chikan, where we spent the night on our trip. It's a smaller, more village-like alternative to the larger Kaiping, and was a great place to see life in semi-rural China. 

We spent the night in a small hostel, "Tribe of Diaomin." I highly recommend this place! It's cheap, clean, and the workers are very friendly! Right across the river from the main tourist center of the town. More info in the Lonely Planet China Guidebook.

The beds were simple, hard, and on the floor!

We maybe saw one western-style toilet while in China. Here is our hostel bathroom, complete with a shower!

Along with smaller rooms, the hostel has some very nice dorm rooms. This place is very affordable!

The sidewalk along the waterway in Chikan needed some work here. 

Katie along the waterway in Chikan.

This could be in Europe, it seems. But no, it's Chikan, China.

The scene in downtown Chikan, Guangdong Province, China!

R: An old Diaolou in Chikan, and L:An old lady walks slowly through a back alley in Chikan

At the local park, there are outdoor exercise machines, basketball courts, and many ping-pong tables!

Apartments in Chikan. The condition of these, at least from the outside, seem less-than-pristine.

This lady was working in her garden behind the apartments above. 

Our food that evening in Chikan. Noodles, Green Bean, tea (which comes with every meal it seems), and "Apple Vinegar Drink"(Apple Sparkling Soda). 

Excuse the quality of this picture, but my phone was all I had. This was one of the most memorable experiences of our trip. I got to chatting with a guy in the hostel lobby. I believe he was an owner. We became friends, and he helped us secure a ride to Zili Village the next day. Then, he invited us next door to this coffee/drink shop! So we joined him and a bunch of friends for some unique lemony drinks and discussion on all sorts of things, from religion to language! It was really special to connect with these people, talk, share, and enjoy time together.

Side note: As a Christian, I long for the day when the gospel will spread more freely in China. The harvest is plentiful! It was great to get to know these people and even talk some about religion. They said there was a Christian church in Kaiping. And they had good things to say about the Christians they knew. But I hope that more and more inroads are made to China with the gospel. So many need to hear the good news!

Day 2 - July 11, 2013 - Chikan and Villages

This very plain local breakfast cost us just 6RMB, or 1 USD! 

We ate along the street. It seemed to be the local breakfast hangout!

Drying various foods such and rice and peanuts along the road is a very common sight.

This is an example of a "Mian-di", similar to the transport we had from the Hostel to Zili Village. 

Zili Village Cluster houses many diaolou, as pictured here. This and three other sites in the area are listed as UNESCO world heritage sites!

Inside a diaolou, this one is set up as it may have been years ago. 

Most or all of the Diaolou at the Zili Village Cluster are not inhabited. It's a tourist site. But all around, many diaolou are still lived in by descendants of those who built them years ago!

From Zili, we decided to go check out some other small villages, one called Canada Village. There was one problem - there were no taxis, and I didn't feel like borrowing a phone to call our mien-di driver to come back and get us. So, I walked out looking for someone to take us. We ended up on the back of a motorcycle! And not just us, but the driver also picked up a local lady who wanted to shop at a neighboring village! 4 people on a little motorcycle. That was quite the ride through the backroads of China.  

This small village is across the road from "Canada Village", where we instructed our motorcycle driver to take us! We ended up here, as it was a more convenient stop. 

"The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few..." - Jesus

The trip to Kaiping, Chikan, and the surrounding villages was a memorable one. It was off the beaten path. We spoke basically no English for the two days we were there. It's a tourist destination, but we saw only one white person the whole time. All this made for an epic adventure, to be sure! I hope to travel more in China soon. Stay tuned!