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Our time in Macau was finished and today we were going back to mainland China. It was a quick ride to the border then through both sets of customs and passport checks. All went quickly with one minor embarrassment - we were asked if we were eligible for the 'special' lane in China - that's for mothers with small children and the over 65s - Fran was most incensed.We took an express bus into Guangzhou - China's third largest city. It was the normal sprawl with lots of concrete and overpasses. We played our normal game with the bus - trying to figure out where the driver would drop us. We managed to get through to the driver that we wanted the train station - so he dropped us about half a mile away from it - but didn't tell us which direction. Eventually we arrived there, hot and sweaty as it was 30C + and 90% humidity. We had tried to book our ticket to Guilin in Hong Kong but had been told that this was not possible and there would be no problem getting on the train. Not so - the train we wanted was full and the next (and last one) only had hard sleeper - so we had a long wait for the train.We filled the time with an early dinner - went into a restaurant that had a 120 items on the menu but could only find 4 items we would eat - all the rest were marked as highly spiced or had parts of animals we wouldn't touch. And even then, one of the four was off. We had an OK night on the train though half the Chinese were singing late at night and the other half got up very noisily at the crack of dawn - not conducive to a good nights sleep. When we arrived in Guilin, to our horror it was raining and chilly. We had gone from sweltering to now freezing - especially as I was dressed in shorts, T-shirt and sandals.It was a short (but wet) walk to the hotel where we managed to check in early and change. We borrowed an umbrella and went off in search of breakfast. We had been recommended a place in the middle of town so we headed in that direction. The rain steadily increased as the walk got longer (not helped by poor map reading on my part) - by the time we got there we were soaked and Fran needed the hot chocolate. We decided to abandon the sightseeing until the weather improved which it duly did mid afternoon. We had a quick look round, decided there was not too much to see in town so booked a couple of trips out for the next two days.
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