"Standing Room Only": Guilin to Beijing in 28 Hours

Although we consider ourselves well educated and aware of international happenings, somehow we missed the fact that during Spring Festival (AKA Chinese New Year) over 3 billion people will take domestic Chinese trains. Sit with that fact for a moment...This means that nearly half the world is taking trains during the month of January... well... 3 billion people and two very naive travelers from Colorado. This statistic became very real for us as we attempted to buy train tickets from Guilin, China to Beijing. Here is a photo of just what that ticket purchasing crowd looked like...

After standing in line for about an hour, Kelly made it to the ticket counter and was informed that all tickets for Beijing had been sold out for over two weeks and that the only tickets available would be "standing room only". These tickets are exactly as described. Each domestic Chinese train has 4 classes: Soft Sleeper, Hard Sleeper, Seats and Standing. The car with seats has a capacity of 144: 100 seats and room for 44 people to stand.

Although we could not completely capture for you just how crowded this is, I think Kelly's face says a lot...

This photo of Kelly was taken in the small corner we were able to occupy during the trip. We received sage advice that we will gladly pass on to anyone who is silly enough to travel during this overly crowded Chinese holiday period: 1) arrive at the station at least 3 hours early;  2) try to get as close to the gates where they let you board as possible;  3) as soon as the woman sounds the horn alert that it is time to board the train -  RUN.  By "run", we seriously mean run. You are racing for a place in the train car against all of these people:

After winning the race and being the first to make it to our car, we found a small cubby where we could set down our packs.  We remained in this cubby for 28 hours.

Fortunately, during the three days prior to our trip, though we were told the horror stories about just how tough this trip would be, we were distracted by the magnificent and other-worldly countryside of Xing Pin, China (a small village just outside the metropolis of Guilin). During our first day in this region, we were befriended by a wonderful man who told us to call him "CP" (after he took sympathy on our pitiful pronunciation of Chinese surnames). CP invited us to join him for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. At breakfast,  for the first time in our lives, we tasted chicken's feet. Again naive, we assumed this would be one of the most adventurous things we would eat on our trip. By the end of that day, we had consumed two different types of boiled animal's blood (very good for the lungs, by the way). We also enjoyed other parts of  lamb and pig.

Chicken's Feet

Boiled lamb's blood

Boiled pig's blood

Pre-boiled pig's liver, intestine and flank.

We washed it all down with several rounds of traditional chinese tea.

Our gracious hosts: Mr. Liu, CP, Mr. Sun and the Colonel.

After our day of enjoying delicacies, we took a bamboo raft up the Li river where we spent a few days between Xing Pin and a small fishing village. 

 View from the roof of our Hostel, "This Old Place"(rough translation).

 The lovely motto of "This Old Place" Hostel.

 We left our mark...(Bottom right)

 A photo from our hike to the fishing village. 

Xing Pin has  -without a doubt, the most beautiful and picturesque scenery anywhere in the world. 

Chris could not resist.

After our long hike and 3 weeks of traveling through Asia, we craved a little taste of home...Although, we later learned we were enjoying our first taste of dog meat (sorry, Elbert). 

A few days on this remarkable countryside and it was time to take the long haul to Beijing...We have already detailed that adventure. Unfortunately, because of the crazy travel period, we were only able to spend a few days in Beijing, but we tried to fit in as much as possible, including:

A flag lowering ceremony at Tiananmen Square...

with no shortage of security surveillance;

 A visit to the People's Palace;...

And, of course, Peking Duck.

Although the duck was savory, our favorite part of the trip to Beijing was our overnight trek on The Great Wall.  Initially, we simply considered The Wall a "must see" and an awesome hiking adventure. However, by the time we left we had learned that The Great Wall is a symbolic parallel to the theme of our trip:  Stretching 5500 miles and dating back over 2000 years, the wall was built substantially by political prisoners.

 We chose the more secluded section of Huanghuacheng Great Wall because it is not controlled by the government, but is instead controlled by the people of the local village which makes it less crowded (we saw only three people during our entire stay).

 Sections of the wall are incredibly steep.

Our campsite.

Via foot, hitchhiking and bus, we made our way back to Beijing. Our plans with our local couchsurfer fell through after we got a bit lost on the subway, so we spent a chilly evening in a local train station. We treated ourselves to a McDonald's breakfast, our first in Asia.

Because we met so many amazing human rights workers in East Asia, we decided to compile a couple short films about the biggest human rights issues currently facing the region.  We will post those films in the next couple of days. While we are in Mongolia we will be meeting with a local artist who promotes human rights through his art.  We are very excited to learn more about his work and the issues currently being addressed in Central Asia.

First Film-"At Her Majesty's Pleasure" : Mr. Leung and the "Queen's 23"

In 1996 Mr. Leung Yiu Chung, a legislative councilor in Hong Kong, received a letter from 23 prisoners serving indefinite sentences for crimes committed in their youth. These sentences, known as "at Her Majesty's pleasure" are the equivalent of life without parole sentences - these youth had no opportunity for release except for a very rarely granted pardon from the Queen. After organizing the families of those serving and gathering the support of over 2000 people in Hong Kong, legislation was introduced and passed which allowed all of these young people an opportunity to earn their release. As of 2003, all 23 have been released. Herman Yau directed a movie about this struggle entitled, "From the Queen to the Chief Executive".This movie, based on a book by the same name (cover featured below), was the official selection of the Berlin Film Festival. Despite critical acclaim, this movie was banned in China because it was determined to "lack creative merit". The cover of the book was designed by the 23 prisoners and details their political struggle.

What struck us about this story are the similarities to the battle currently being fought in Louisiana. In 2006, a young man incarcerated for 40 years in a Louisiana prison wrote a piece of legislation to end life without parole sentencing for youth. He sent this legislation to his mother and his mother passed it along to one of her sorority sisters - who also happened to be a State Representative. Although 5 years later the legislation has yet to pass, during this time over 300 family members and friends of the youth incarcerated for life in Louisiana have organized and educated themselves about how to effectively advocate for their loved ones. They have built a coalition of dozens of organizations and are now a part of a national coalition of over a dozens states and hundreds of friends and family members of the incarcerated from across the country dedicated to ending this inhumane practice. 

Dragons, Dim Sum & Dr. John! Oh My!

My, my, my... it has been an interesting start to the new year....


We happened upon a world record setting "Dragon and Lion Dance" on Sunday! The Guinness Book of World Records was in town to document the largest "Dragon and Lion Dance" ever recorded. Dragons are believed to bring good luck to the people, so it made sense to have a Dragon Dance usher in the new year. Although Hong Kong celebrates the traditional Chinese New Year, they also celebrate the western new year. 

At this time of year in Hong Kong the weather is very mild. So last night we decided to camp on the beach at Repulse Bay. 

Earlier in the evening we had gotten a bit lost in Causeway Bay and we decided that Kelly would drop her pack and wander inside the "Hong Kong Regal Hotel" to ask for some directions from the concierge. They did not seem to be too keen on offering advice to travelers that were not staying in their five star establishment, so Kelly pretended  we had just checked out. Theconcierge then set us on the correct course and we were on our way.  We found a scenic place to set up camp on Repulse Bay.

 We awakened to a very interesting crowd.  We were greeted at 5 am by the revelry of a group of college-aged Hong Kongers. Apparently, they had not slept since bringing in the New Year in grand style (we will leave how they accomplished staying awake for days to your imaginations). After chatting with them a bit and turning down their numerous offers to imbibe in Grey Goose shots at dawn, we learned that one of our new friends was, in fact, the son of the owner of the Hong Kong Regal.

Small, small world.

They offered to buy us breakfast at the Regal, but after witnessing them carelessly litter the beach and get into a heated fight with a cab driver, we decided it was wiser to go our own way. However, we did follow one piece of their advice: Dim Sum at City Hall. Although, in retrospect... we should have realized that their translation of "cheap" did not exactly correspond with ours.

Needless to say, after a breakfast (yes, breakfast) of fried squid, BBQ pork buns, deep fried taro puffs and dumplings, we had spent the remainder of our food budget for Hong Kong! Fortunately, we have brought our own stove on this trek and we have an appetite for bulk rice and vegetables.

On our way out of City Hall, who did we see gracing a concert poster? Who Dat?   The beloved Dr. John! New Orleans lives in HK!

From City Hall, we took the metro transit rail (MTR) to the Amnesty International Hong Kong Section office in Kowloon. 

We met with a local campaigner to discuss  human rights issues and the handling of juveniles who enter the justice system for criminal offenses. After beginning our day with, perhaps, the most privileged (and, dare we say it? - oblivious) young Hong Kongers, we ended the day inspired by some incredibly passionate and dedicated young organizers in Hong Kong who were promoting human rights and mentoring drug addicted youth. It was certainly a day full of contrasts! We also enjoyed a lovely ferry ride back to Hong Kong Island....

Tomorrow we will be meeting with a Catholic Priest who moved from Rome, Italy to Hong Kong to promote Human Rights (specifically for youth and adults in the criminal justice system).  He is an organizer who works with Filipino migrant workers, as well as (hopefully) a Legislative Councilor who was instrumental in addressing extreme indeterminate sentencing of youth in post-colonial Hong Kong. We will also be joining AI Hong Kong for a visit to one of Hong Kong's midnight markets in the Sham Shui Po District where we will meet with young women working in the sex trade.

During our 13 hour train ride to Guilin, China on Thursday, we will be compiling the interviews we have conducted and information we have gathered to create a short film. Unfortunately, because of the Chinese Government's control over information sharing on the internet we may not have regular access to Google and Facebook and will need to get creative in uploading posts for the next two weeks.  Due to the the risks -  not only to our ability to remain in this country but also to those we hope to interview, we will not be seeking out human rights workers and will not engage in social or political organizing in mainland China. We are, however, looking very forward to following up with contacts in Inner Mongolia when we arrive there at the end of January!

We hope everyone is having a happy and healthy start to the New Year!

Happy New Year From The Future!

Wishing Yall a Happy and Healthy New Year from Hong Kong!

We arrived in Hong Kong!

Despite our moms trying to ground us at the last minute, Kelly's dad trying to miss the exit for the airport and our dog Elbert trying to guilt us into not leaving (dog people know what we're talking about), we caught our flight from Denver!

After a 16 hour flight over the north pole in complete darkness - as well as sitting in the middle seat which did not recline - eating 3 dinners because we never - technically, saw morning, we finally made it to Hong Kong! Adjusting to the 15 hour time change has been a bit demanding on our minds and bodies - as we write this it is Thursday morning in Hong Kong and Wednesday evening in Denver! Which also means we will be celebrating the New Year when our friends and family in the Rockies are just waking up! If we find out any secrets from the future, we will send them along...


For doing nothing except walking around, our first day in Hong Kong was quite interesting. Starting off our day with noodles and beef satay was new! 

From there, we made our way through the markets and learned about many new delicacies including sparrows nests, dried oysters and sea cucumbers. Although Hong Kong has two national languages  - Cantonese AND English, we had a very hard time trying to communicate about some of these treats - though Angry Birds seems to be a universal truth, as well as the New Orleans Saints - who for the last two days have graced the front page of two local papers! Despite my occasional nay-saying about machismo sports, so far on our trip seeing the Saints in local papers has made us feel not too far from home. AND Tim Tebow has made us relevant to a new friend who was not sure where Colorado was until we mentioned the Denver Broncos!

Although the food was fascinating, what has perhaps been most interesting is learning about Hong Kong's revolutionary history marked most notably by Dr. Sun Yat-sen. Although he was not alone in his pursuits, and he passed away well before his vision was fully actualized, his ideas about anti-imperialism and national self determination seem to be what ushered in an independent Hong Kong. When we arrived in Hong Kong we read in a local paper that mainland China had just canceled a very popular TV show based on life in Hong Kong because the show was deemed "too controversial" by the Chinese government. Hong Kong still stands out from mainland China because of its independent ideals and progressive politics.  A statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen now sits in the middle of one of Hong Kong's many urban parks overlooking a small portion of the vast skyline. 

Today (as y'all back home are falling asleep) we will be heading to Tsim Sha Tsui where Amnesty International Hong Kong is located to meet with some community organizers about life without parole for juveniles in the US. AI Hong Kong is currently campaigning to end the death penalty in Asia and support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in the workplace. 


Happy New Year!