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Had breakfast in the hotel and by 9.30am, buses arrived to transfer us to yet another opening ceremony in Zhaoqing. There wasn’t much briefing done prior so we didn’t really have a clue about what’s going on at the ceremony but all of a sudden, I was called upon as the VIP representative for my home country, Singapore, together with the rest of the group from 16 other countries. Wow! I never imagined I’d have the honor of representing Singapore, and my heart soared with pride when I saw our national flag hanging on the pole.

The VIP treatment was such an eye-opener for me. My name was one of those placed at the VIP table, with me just sitting right behind the minister. One by one, we were invited on stage to raise our own national flag as well as the symbol of world peace for this walking convention.

After the ceremony, we were all supposed to walk for about 5km as part of the convention, and though 5km sounds like a small feat, we actually took more than two hours to complete it. As you can see from the photo below, the crowd of locals accompanying us was just so unbelievably huge! Their excitement about the event was clear to see; having so many Caucasians in Zhaoqing was probably a rare sight for the locals, so they were all curiously looking at and listening to the Caucasians in our group. For me, it was just interesting being a part of it.

Lunch time! We were invited to big banquet attended by many VIPs of China, as a gesture of appreciation by the organizers towards us for visiting China. There were performances aplenty and we allowed ourselves to indulge in the food and celebratory atmosphere, before moving on to Ding Hu Shan (Ding Hu Mountain, 鼎湖山), a district in Zhaoqing, for the afternoon. The visit was pretty boring to me, a big contrast from the morning’s activities, as the “attractions” were really not that appealing.

What we were all looking forward to instead was the farewell plan we had for the night, as the walking convention has come to an end. Although we all came from different countries and cultures, the past few days spent together have brought us so much closer and we wanted to celebrate this unforgettable experience and friendship in some way.

We all decided to gather at the big hot spring inside the hotel and even though we had to pay an entry fee, I felt it was money well-spent. There were so many choices for us: we could choose to soak in the Chinese herb pool or an even hotter one at 45°C, enjoy a Jacuzzi massage or swim in a colder pool. There were even performances in the hot spring to entertain its guests! We were enjoying ourselves so much that we lost track of time and I ended up having a 3-hour hot spring bath while some others even stayed on till 2am in the morning! It was a truly memorable farewell party - so much craziness, so much fun :)

Tomorrow I will leave Guangzhou and embark on my solo journey once again. Following this unexpected but out-of-this-world experience the past few days, I now have to make changes to my original travel route and being too far away from Huangshan (Mount Huang, 黃山) to take on any other means of transport, I’m going to have to catch a plane to get there instead.

A confession: I think I’ve been enjoying myself too much these past days and haven’t been bringing to you enough good photos to enjoy but I promise I’ll work on it at my next stop and share beautiful shots of Huangshan for your viewing pleasure. Cheers!