We woke at the ripe hour of 5:00am and were at the airport by 5:30. By 10:00 we were in Hong Kong, and by noon we were at the visa office on the Hong Kong-Shenzhen border. I had travelled this route before, so I knew getting a visa should not be a problem. However, to our dismay, the visa office closed for “lunch” from noon until 2:30pm every day.

Luckily, the staff member returned around 1:00pm and processed my visa. We crossed the border by 2:30pm and went in search of funds. A Bank of China ATM, hidden in an apartment building a few blocks away, provided what we needed. Two thousand RMB later, we were at the train station buying tickets to Guangzhou, and by 4:30pm we were on the train. We arrived in Guangzhou by 6:00pm. We had intended to purchase a train ticket to Tibet that night; however, there was a five-day wait. Quite unfortunate. We reached our hotel by 7:00pm and checked in, then immediately left to eat at our favourite rice-ball shop, checked our email, and headed back to the hotel. Day one, over and out.