12.09.09
Departure day from my new best city in China and onto Guilin, a Chinese tourist haven. I leave the same way I entered, by train to Guangzhou East station, passing through airport style imigration and customs once more. When I arrive at Guangzhou I queue up to get my tickets and watch as an English guy and his friend buy their tickets onwards to Beijing, the ticket seller speaking a bit of English, but the transaction was far from smooth. When I eventually end up at the front of my queue I realise just how easy it is for me to communicate what I want and I even end up having a basic conversation with the lady behind the screen. I'm suprised that I can now effectively survive as a tourist in China and my Mandarin allows me to complete the essential day to day tasks. I thought I would have to go hard seat, but I manage to snag a sleeper berth on the 23 hour journey.
At Guangzhou station I await my train to Guilin and see what must be a team of beggars individually and systematically work their way around the hall. One an old woman, hunched over and shuffling around with hardly any teeth, a man with no hands who at one point had an arguement with his accomplice who was a young girl who had no arms at all, the last person, a man who dragged himself along the floor as his legs were not working. It may be a booming city in the south of China and one of the country's big economic powerhouses, but it still has all the poverty and bad care for people who have any kind of disability. Once on the train, I settle down on my bottom bunk and enjoy the gentle rock of the train to send me into a deep deep sleep.
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