This year saw a few exciting changes to Hong Kong. The world’s longest bridge opened connecting Hong Kong and Macau, and Hong Kong hooked up to the China high-speed rail network. It is now possible to get to lots of destinations straight from Kowloon station at the heart of Hong Kong.
So, I needed to check it out and see how it goes. I looked at destinations in Guangdong that would be easy enough for a weekend getaway, and came across Chaozhou, which I’ve never heard of. Perfect.
A rather smooth process, need to get there about an hour in advance to go through border control, and three hours later I was at the high speed rail station near Chaozhou. Another taxi drive to the old town of about 30-40 minutes. Overall, 5 hours. The train ride being, still, very Chinese. With local Chinese being very loud and pushy. Not exactly the speedy quiet getaway start I was hoping for, but Chaozhou turned out to be much nicer than I expected. They have some of the best preserved city walls in the region, and you can tell the city was once very wealthy. It is still doing quite well, being one of the special economic regions and growing very fast.
To share a bit of that weekend getaway, I give you my photowalk summary, visions of Chaozhou Guangdong…
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