Logging in from Pingxiang, Guanxi Autonomous Region in China. For a little town on the border of the Chinese-Vietnamese border the connection has been pretty decent. I got through 387 emails accumulated since Saturday within 2 hours.

Its weird... a crowd of locals are gathered behind me and looking at me speed typing in English. The cafe's dog is snuggling up on my feet for warmth and the place is pleasantly smoker-friendly.

I've been away from a connection for 4 days.......it feels GOOD to be free of the Net's invisible shackles for a few days. It it took some resolve for me to step in here and surf. At 2 rmb (15 cents) an hour, a 5 cent cup of hot coffee and my pack of smokes next to me, I cant ask for anything more.

Saturday was one full day of travelling. I got to Hong Kong after a 6 hr flight from Singapore via Bangkok. The Chep Lap kok airport is epitomized by one word... 'efficiency'. I cleared customs within 15 minutes of getting off the plane and was on the bus over to Dongguan at the 20 minute mark. The bus ticketing counters were fighting tooth and nail for business and the only time I remember being swarmed by 15 beauties (this time trying to sell me a $25 bus ticket) was in Club Volvo in Hong Kong in the 80s !

14 Dec 2003

Just got back into town yesterday evening and surprsingly wasnt that tired after a 2 week trip.....I rested up plenty the last 2 days before getting home since the appointments were light.....enjoyed loads of much needed sleep.

China outside of Shanghai/Beijing and its Special Economic Zones was fascinating. Its totally different from popular China that most tourists and businessmen know it. Its a vast land where theye still sell stuff for 1 jiao (0.1 RMB) The week I spent in Guanxi (3 days in Nanning, the provincial capital, 3 days in Pingxiang, a little town and a day in Puzhai, a trading outpost on the Chinese-Viet border) opened my eyes to the situation of many ordinary Chinese.

Some price indications:

- Monthly wage of 200 rmb as a chambermaid
- a hearty breakfast for 3 rmb
- a shoeshine for 1 rmb
- a 2 mile cab ride for 4 rmb
- a clean large hotel room from 90 to 140 rmb a night
- 30 rmb for a 100 mile train ride south from Nanning to Pingxiang

I noticed a genuine warmth among the folks here as well. I cant read chinese and speak only the simplest phrases but instead of getting ripped off, I was met instead with kindness and genuine help. A few of the locals actually thought I was from a different province of China speaking a different dialect which they could not understand!

Pingxiang is a small border area town which was extremely charming in its local flavor. Most of the folks are either cross border traders or farmers. They were selling wild Linzhi (I guess you could call them Chinese truffles) at 30 rmb per jin (600g)..... I remember my brother in law paying about 30 times that amount for farm raised Linzhi pills.

Pingxiang and its little 'sister' village, Puzhai, sits among beautiful hill country lush with forests. Its air was clean and living was simple.

I remember before leaving Singapore that Vietnam had announced visa free access to its country for Singaporeans. I couldnt have picked a more remote place to test this out. At the Puzhi border controls, the Chinese immagration officials had not received news of this and initially refused to let me pass out of China into Vietnam....they didnt want to risk the Vietnamese laughing in their faces by kicking me back towards China if this wasnt true.

"But I know this to be true! Look I wont be wasting my time coming all the way here from Shenzen if this has not been announced!" I pleaded.

They gave in after half an hour of arguing and checking my camera gear

I cleared Chinese immigration and walked the 500m of No-Man's-Land towards the Vietnamese border checkpoint.

The Viet at the gate examined my passport for a good 5 minutes before waving me on to the immigration office. In the immigration office, I was sent to at least 3-4 different windows. Apparently they had not heard of this new development for Singaporeans not needing a visa to enter Vietnam.

A few frantic calls were made to Hanoi and they confirmed that the policy had only taken effect THAT day itself and that I was the only Singaporean that they had come across in the last 3 months.

Spent a couple of hours in Lo Shan in Vietnam before crossing back into China again. Back in China, I gave the Chinese officer who had helped me the thumbs up sign and we smile at one another.

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When my plane touched down in Shenzen from Nanning a week later, I was in a little cultural shock having seeomgly returned to the present from the past as skyscrappers and cold faces greeted me once again.

I crossed over to Hong Kong immediately and the further away I was from the Guanxi region, the humanity's hands put its cold palms on my shoulders and dragged me back to 'civilization' once again.

I stepped off the train into Kowloon at 6pm on Friday 5 Dec feeling like a hillbilly for a few minutes and literally being shoved along by thousands of office workers rushing home or for appointments with friends.

After checking in......I looked for the nearest McDonald's and sank into a real meat dish for the first time in 8 days. A Big Mac shoved into my face, I look at my receipt..... 25 HK dollars for a meal.....burger, fries and a Coke.... I think back of where I came from hours earlier and that same 25 HK dollars could probably feed someone for 2 or 3 days.

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