Huizhou is about a 3 1/2 hour bus ride from Hong Kong airport. The drive is very tropical once away from the airport, it’s actually pretty once out of the city. It’s pretty easy to get a bus to common destinations from the Hong Kong airport. All you have to do is go to the transfer counter once you get through customs. It takes about 2 hours to travel from the Hong Kong airport and get through immigration.
Hong Kong is part of China, but it’s a special administrative district. This means there’s a border crossing. The border crossing is in Shenzhen. This actually ends up being 2 different buses; one from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, then another from Shenzhen to Huizhou. At the border, you leave Hong Kong and go through Hong Kong immigration, then drive 500 feet to the China border where you go through immigration again. Don’t forget to bring your bags, China customs must x-ray everything. Once you finish this process, you get back on the bus that took you across the border. It’s waiting on the other side of the customs hall.
The rest of the trip takes about 1 1/2 hours and the bus drops you off right at your hotel. I stayed at the Kande International Hotel. It’s pretty nice, good enough gym, pool, and restaurants. The area around the hotel is also pretty. The hotel is between a dirty looking river and the West Lake. The pictures that follow are all of the West Lake area.
This picture is a wall that runs along the river. This is where I started my walk. The hotel is on the other side of the wall.
This is a big shopping plaza across from the lake, down the street from the hotel. The trees in the background have little white flowers that are really fragrant when it rains. The smell is maybe a little too intense.
The lake has a bunch of islands that are connected by walk ways.
These are pictures of a 1000 year old pagoda on one of the islands.
This is a view from the pagoda (yes, you can climb up inside). It’s really tight inside the pagoda, and the stairs are really steep. The higher you climb, the lower the ceiling and narrower the standing area.
After climbing the inside of the pagoda, I was looking for a place to park myself. I noticed a small roof in the trees and found this little sitting area. there was no one there. This is a view form the inside.
