We headed to the West Kowloon high speed train station in Hong Kong to start our journey to Shantou. For outbound we'd make a stop in Shenzhen, but there are now direct high speed trains into the mainland which is very convenient.
A cool photo opp in the train station between mainland and Hong Kong, lots of people stopping to get pictures straddling the border.
Then to our train platform and lined up.
Comfy recliner seats, like domestic first class were pre-assigned and easy to nap in.
We arrived in the Shenzhen station and got off to kill time before the next train to Shantou.
The massive Shenzhen station.
And McDonalds which was excellent as always (seriously, I'm not elitist, the chicken nuggets are the best).
Soon enough it was time to get on the next train to Shantou.
This train was definitely older, still comfortable and for some reason there was a picture of the Mona Lisa up front in the car. Also the speed where we cruised a bit over 200km/h.
Mainland countryside, lots of rice paddies.
We arrived and were picked up by some of the family of the groom to take us into downtown Shantou.
But on the way we stopped at a great place for hot pot dinner.
Guys without shirts literally beating the meat with clubs, most definitely not under standard health codes anymore...
But luckily some boiling and the food was really good and hit the spot after a day of traveling.
Then we got to the Shantou International Hotel which was recommended by the groom for all of us to stay. It was a standard nice Chinese hotel, which is to say really solid in the world scheme of things.
The room, well suite, was massive with a living room and work area.
A bathroom up front.
And then the bedroom itself was massive with a really comfortable bed.
And massive main bathroom with tub.
We all threw our stuff down and met downstairs for a drink.
And we wandered the neighborhood to take a look. So funny that in an area with pretty run down buildings, plenty of Ferrari's and other nice cars.
Also love how there's definitely a difference in need for refrigeration lol
We finished up wandering around by buying water bottles and headed back to the hotel to go to bed.
The next morning we headed up to the top of the hotel for breakfast. A full international spread, but what made it funny was it took us a while to realize that the entire restaurant rotated and in about an hour made a full revolution.
After breakfast we met up with a few other friends who arrived in the club lounge.
Great views over Shantou and interesting to see how the place developed.
And plenty of Tsing Tao's consumed.
Tesla's even here.
We headed out to wander the town.
And back to the lobby lounge for more drinks before dinner.
Later after we had a chance to shower up, we met for dinner and were treated to a luxury local dinner.
We are all fairly adventurous eaters, but this definitely pushed the limits of what we'd do.
Some sort of avocado dip, don't know if they did this for us Californians or if that's legitimately a local cuisine.
After dinner, it was definitely an experience, but a bit too much for most of us. So we wandered around to check out the night life.
We eventually called it a night and got some much needed sleep. The next morning we had the same routine.
And this time stopped to get dumplings.
These were excellent and freshly made!
We needed a break from Tsing Tao's and we stumbled across a 7-11 knock off that had Belgian beers for a great price so we loaded up for the rest of the group.
That evening we went across the street from our hotel to an awesome hot pot place.
Aprons ready!
And what a feast!
With live entertainment as well.
A fire dancer! The food was amazing and definitely the best of the trip so far. Also I still want that level of hot pot.
The next day was the wedding and whoa, a Chinese wedding is a true spectacle and amazing. Obviously an underwater theme.
With great banquet food. These swans were an amazing meat dumpling with almost a puff pastry type outside.
All sorts of good stuff.
Unfortunately we were brought a dodgy soup, but were told we needed to eat it for good luck for the new couple. We poked our way through it to not be rude. It honestly is a true shame because it's just chicken broth with what could be any cartilage or flavorless mushroom. I hope this tradition ends, there are so many other substitutes for the same flavor and texture.
The wedding was great and then we had to head to the train to head back to Hong Kong.
One more beer before the ride to Hong Kong. We couldn't stop laughing at the Henekestar knock-off Heineken. Also have had 7-shots of cognac at the wedding probably made it that much better lol.
Words to live by lol
And then our train ride with plenty more knock off beer back to Hong Kong.
Shantou was a fun experience especially with friends. With that being said, unless you have a reason to go, it's most definitely not a tourist destination and MsFlamingo would not have done well given how authentic it is compared to a Shanghai or Shenzhen. But it was great to support our friend and wish him and his new bride all the best!
Trip links:
- Seoul
- Shantou
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