Here is the much belated blog update. I still don't have internet in my home (thanks Jiaotong University), so I am at a cafe updating (yes Nima, the sculpting in time cafe).
For now I am going to update the Hong Kong leg of the journey.
Liu and left Guanzhou on an express train that took us to Shenzen in about one hour. It goes like 150 miles per hour. We arrived and immedately purchased the train tickets to go from Guangzhou to Guilin in 4 days. The trains tend to sell out and I didn't think that Nima would apperciate his first traveling experience in china in a hard seat for 12 hours.
Liu and I walked around the city a bit and checked into the hostel. We were worried that we would have problems getting into Hong Kong. Even though Hong Kong is part of China, it is like entering a foreign country. You have to go through customs, immigration, etc. to get into 
Hong Kong. In fact Liu had to get a special permit to enter Hong Kong. I was worried that since I had a residence permit in China they were going to give me hassle too. So I created and printed a fake plane ticket that said that I was going to be leaving Hong Kong 2 days later. Better safe than sorry. I ended up not even needing it. It did take almost 3 hours to cross the border. Total pain in the rear.
Once we arrived in Hong Kong (the first time Liu has ever been off mainland China) there was a very noticable difference. Everything was clean, roads weren't chaos, and the people were polite. We had asked a police officer in Shenzen the day before for directions and he pretended to ignore us until we got in his face and demanded directions (a perk of being a foreigner). In Hong Kong we asked a Police officer for directions and he walked up half way there and gave us the bus timetable. We went to some random little city because we were trying to avoid paying the expensive bus fare from the border. We happened upon a dragon festival competition. There were people from all over the world competing (including america). We still had a couple of hours to kill so we went for sushi before meeting Nima. Once we arrived at the airport, I was expecting Nima to be tired and wanting to rest, but he was amped. So we took the long bus ride to the hotel and then went walking around the town. We had an expensive diinner, that cost us 50 dollars that would cost maybe 10 dollars on the mainland. After dinner we went to an irish pub and had a few beers and watched some fake football (soccer) with some British blokes.
The next morning we woke up and headed from Kowloon island (where we were staying) over to Hong Kong island. Nima was all about the faries, so we took one over the harbor. We got dropped off in the middle of the city. We wandered around for a while, lingering in front of building that had their AC cranked up. It was really muggy there. Might of had something to do with the ocean, I am not sure. Anyway, we found a pizza joint and had some lunch. We wandered deeper into the city looking for the tram that runs up the mountain to Victoria peak. The tram runs at almost a 45 degree pitch for a section of the journey. Very steep. Luckily we got seats for the ride up. At the top there were awesome views of the city. We took lots of pictures (see below) from up top. After that we wandered around the city looking for a random little flea market that was in an alley in the heart of the city. We eventually found it. Nima found some sick Ray Bons in there. They lasted like 4 days before he lost them. I went with the Top Gun glasses. After that we took the subway back to the hotel for another shower, change of clothes, and R&R. We went out that night to watch the Light display. It was okay. The lights are mounted to the buildings across the harbor in Hong Kong and they are in time with some music. After that we had some middle eastern Gyros. Liu wanted to go shopping and Nima and I decided to go out drinking. The stories for this evening will be told on a person by person basis as they are not all family friendly.
The next day we packed up and headed to the train station to take the train all the way from Hong Kong to Guangzhou.
I will update with the next part of the adventure soon (hopefully sooner than later).
Our room in Hong Kong. The Hotel Benito. It has a nice Latin flair. See that small bed over there. Liu and I had to share it. Basically a single. Thankfully Chinese are little people.
Hong Kong at Night from Kowloon
Jackie Chan on the Walk of Stars. He is big time in hong kong.
Bruce Lee statue. I guess they didn't get the memo on the attempted assiginations on his life by the Chinese
Behind-the-Times Square
Subway in Hong Kong. Breeding ground for the next superflu? to be continued....
Can you read my mind? Liu take the damn picture I am sweating my *** off out here.
My question for Nima is this, "Does your grandfather know that you stole his shirt?"
As Courtney puts it, "that is sooo Asian of Liu"
Hong Kong in the daytime
Waiting for Nima at the airport in Hong Kong
Nima making time with my woman. It took us about 20 shots to get one where there aren't blurry ghosts in the picture. My camera isn't the best at night.
Liu looks like she is up to no good. again.
Do you like the two men with Murses (man purse). That is so European of us.
A big building
Nima keep insisting that he wanted to ride a fairy. So we took the ferry instead.
Is this Phalic or is it just my perverted mind?
Again in the chaos of the Subway. It was nice because there was a subway stop about 200 feet from our hotel.
The view over the city from Victoria peak.
I look monsterous next to Liu.
Another shot from Victoria peak.
A view from the chitty.
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