Early in the year Carol and I were invited to a wedding, nothing unusual you say. Well this invitation was a little different as it meant travelling some distance it also meant we needed to obtain Visas for China.

As the wedding was to be Early October Carol had to decline that left me to travel to the wedding on my own, feeling that it is a long way to travel just for a wedding I planned to be in China for 16 days, catching up with some of my friends along the way.

Discussions happened between Jenny (in Shenzhen), the three girls in Tangxiazhen (Sophia, Kyra and Yazmin),  Suzy (the bride) and myself and a plan was developed. I would fly into Hong Kong and travel by bus and MTR to the border at Lo Wu (in Hong Kong) or LuoHu (in Shenzhen) cross into China, where Jenny would meet me and take me to my hotel. I was to stay in Shenzhen for three nights then move on to Tangxiazhen to stay with Yazmin, and Lee with their young daughter, here I would also catch up with Sophia and Kyra (remember them from Hong Kong?).

During this time it was negotiated that we would spend some time in a small rural village where Yazmin’s grandmother lives, the rest of the itinerary was left to my hosts noting that my train to Xiamen has been booked and because of the Chinese National holiday could not be changed, it was timed, I found out later, so that Suzy’s parents who live in HuaDu to be on the same train so that she could meet all of us at the one time. That was the day before the wedding.

We were to travel to station on the island of Xiamen but due to a nasty Typhoon spoilt that plan, there was damage to the rail so that we could not go into Xiamen but had to go to Xiamen North further away from where Suzy and James lived and near to where they had booked us into a hotel, (very close to James’ parents (James is the groom) but not the hotel where the wedding was to take place).

After the wedding I was to spend the rest of the week with Suzy before travelling back to North Shenzhen meeting with Sophia and travelling on to Guangzhou to meet with two more pen-pals (Rosa and CY) for the first time, both of these friends were known to Sophia although she too had not met one of them face to face. Three nights in Guangzhou then back to Hong Kong for my flight home.

That was The Plan read on for how it went.

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Richardsclan

Welcome to Herman and Carolann’s Travels to Asia

China 2016