Arrival to Guangzhou

28 April

Day 154

Part II: Hong Kong - Guangzhou

On arrival to Guangzhou, we passed customs and passport control in the station and we are in China!!!

On the railway station, there were many stands with people offering taxi, money exchange, sim card and other service. Everything was written in English with big letters, clearly meaning that it is a scam for tourists. We did not had any much choice, and finally bought a Chinese SIM card from one of the shops (since 7/11 were not selling any SIM cards). He wanted 150 Yuan and we bought it for 80 with some credit on it.

Luciano has called his host, who did not reply and we called Gisele, the girl we hosted in Barcelona once and now she was going to host us in Guangzhou. Besides me, Juli and Sera, a couple from Portugal was arriving same day to Gisele’s house, so it was going to be a “Big brother” apartment for sure.

Luciano has decided to go directly to his host house and we took the taxi and went to Gisele’s place. The taxi we took outside the station, but still it was not the normal one who is supposed to put meter and charge you the local price. We negotiated the price and finally agreed to 50 Yuan, instead of 120 Yuan they wanted to charge us. The real price was 25 Yuan though :D

We called Gisele and she explained to the taxi driver how to get to her place. Finally we were at her place!!!

In about 30 minutes or so, Luciano called telling us that he did not find his host place and he went back to the railway station, where nobody was understanding him and nobody was willing to help him, he was pretty desperate. We asked Gisele if he can stay with us too, and she said yes, even her apartment was a small one, she said we manage something.

Me and Gisele went to the station to pick Luciano up, and then together with Juli and Sera we went to eat something in one of the restaurants close to Gisele’s place.

Later Portuguese couple, Pedro and Ana, has arrived; we had couple of beers at home and went to sleep.