To China via Friendship Pass (YouYiGuan) 穿过友谊关

It is year end and my travel desire hits me again. At very last minute plan, I decide to visit some places near border of China and Vietnam. No detailed plan is done, just booked my air ticket to Hanoi, get my China visa done, stuff few items into my backpack and here I am in LCCT early morning of Christmas Eve in year 2008.

The 3 hour flight took me to Hanoi, and as landed in Hanoi airport, I managed to catch the public bus to the bus station where I was supposed to head on to Lang Son in Northern Vietnam. However, I fell asleep on the public bus, and ended up in the city centre of Hanoi. Therefore, I had no choice but to back track paying another round of bus fare, on board the same bus after it made the U-turn.

It took me around 3 to 4 hours from Hanoi to Lang Son using van. It was great that I met Mr Wu, a decent Chinese from Ping Xiang working as translator in Ho Chin Minh. He is helpful that he shared with me about the border crossing to China, and he even paid for my immigration fee when we reached the border.

It was an exciting moment when I reached the border crossing point, the Friendship Pass (You Yi Guan). There are many Chinese who are either visitors or business travelers at the immigration. I didnt really see any backpacking traveler at the check point that day, and therefore, when the Chinese is trying to cut my queue at the immigration check point, the immigration officer instructed them to follow the queue. This at least gave me a better image for my first step into the land of Chine. Not many questions were thrown to me at the immigration and there I went into China.

Friendship Pass or YouYiGuan 友谊关 is one of the nine famous border checkpoints in China. It was named YouYiGuan only in year 1965 by Ministry of Internal Affairs. A tunnel and highway is being built to promote the relationship between China and Vietnam.

It is always good to see the diplomatic arrangement between two countries. There are so many unsafe country borders in the world which always end up with saddening incident such as bombing etc. PEACE!

After some photography moment at the border, I took a cab to nearest town Pingxiang and bus to Longzhou for overnight.

To be continued...