Fei Lai & Fei Xia

Fei Lai 飞来 & Fei Xia 飞霞

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Fei Lai 飞来 & Fei Xia 飞霞

It just shows how much things have changed in China: according to our rather dated guidebook, the train from Guangzhou to Qingyuan 清远 should have taken around two hours to cover the 80 kilometers between the two cities. Not anymore! It now takes about twenty minutes to whizz you from one place to the other on one of China’s new high- speed trains. And they even feed you breakfast – of sorts – in that time!

Fei Xia
Fei Xia

It actually takes longer to do the 15- kilometer ride on the underground from Central Guangzhou to the new Guangzhou South station 广州南站, than it does to travel to Qingyuan.

Beijiang River
Beijiang River

Why does one go to Qingyuan?

The answer is mainly to visit the secluded temples of Fei Lai飞来and Fei Xia飞霞that are almost exclusively reached by boat along the Beijiang River.

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On the Road Again: Guangdong Province

Guangdong Province is our destination this year and a much shorter visit than normal. We plan to base ourselves for almost a week in Guangzhou taking time to enjoy the Dim Sum and making various excursions. High on our list are the Diaolou near Kaiping; the river side temples near Qingyuan and the Bagua Villages near Zhaoqing. If there is time we would like to pop into the little known Hakka area of southern Jiangxi province and visit the Tulou (Hakka earth buildings) near Longnan.

Finally, we’ll finish our trip visiting friends in Beijing after taking the bullet train from Guangzhou.