Changsha -> Guangzhou -> Nanning -> Hanoi

For perhaps the first time in the history of Changsha et al., the title of this post provides more useful information than the text itself. Those three journeys were made in the last five days by overnight train, overnight train, and very-long-bus ride, respectively. The first leg was devoted to obtaining a Vietnamese visa and picking up travel companions, and the last two to reaching my current location: Hanoi, Vietnam. I've only had a few hours to make observations, but I can already say that I appreciate a country where I can walk down the street with a few million units of currency in my pocket, even if I have to dish out 20,000 of them for a mere bowl of pho.

Nanning, by the way, is the somnolent capital of the Guangxi Autonomous Region (repeat Administrative Region, sorry) that probably deserved no more than the three hours I spent in it. Guangzhou (also a repeat), on the other hand, is a thriving metropolis that fuses Cantonese culture with Chinese modernity. I'd say more about it (especially since this was my second trip there in as many months), but there'll be plenty of opportunity for that in the future, since (now seems as good a time as any to mention that) some changes in my sponsoring orgnization have dictated that I shall move to Guangzhou next year to teach at Sun Yat-sen University. I guess it's a good thing that last June I didn't go with my original blog title, "Absolutely Nothing Other Than Changsha."