Guilin/Yangshuo

As you have already read, we have been spoiled here with a week off of holidays already. We joined in with a group of 9 teachers from our school to travel to the beautiful cities of Guilin and Yangshuo. We left bright and early Thursday morning at 6:30am to catch our one hour flight from Shenzhen airport to Guilin airport. We decided to leave early because October 1st is one of the busiest travelling holidays of the year. Thankfully we beat the crowds, but we did have a long wait until our flight…but Starbucks was found and all was good.
The closer and closer the plan flew to Guilin the odder the landscape became. The best way I could describe it is looking at flat terrain with mountain side rocks sitting on it. It almost looked like God had stuck his fingers up through the earth to create these weird shaped mountains. You’ll have to look at picture to understand. Upon arriving we jumped a cab to our “International” hotel, which ended up being a really nice hotel (expect for the fact that they spoke very little English and had very little recognizable food at the restaurant). In the end we discovered that a short bus ride would take us where ever we need to go and we were able to find some good food. Some of us ran into the old Guilin University (which is now a tourist attraction) and explored its old buildings, learnt some history and even climbed a very steep rocklike mountain that gave a beautiful view of the city. Mom you would have had a heart attack on the way up, one again at the view at the top and probably would have died looking at the steps going down… it was quite steep. All in all our first night went well.
Early Friday morning we packed our bags again and took a taxi to our river cruise to Yangshuo. The port was filled with many tourist (Chinese as well as others) who were all gung-ho to take a relaxing cruise down the river. Most of the boats were about the same size. Each had an upper and lower deck and could probably hold about 60 people. The chairs were all leather couches and the boat had a small bar and kitchen on board. We had booked tickets to sit on the top deck, which was awesome! And spent four hours boating through rock-like mountains and beautiful rural scenery. Most mountains had historic meanings and were said to be shaped like certain animals. The best part was when we travelled through the mountains that are printed on the 20 yuan bill. Everyone really went nuts for their cameras then. We also took many pictures of water buffalo that could be found eating along the short lines, locals fishing on bamboo rafts and rock-mountains that were apparently shaped like animals and people (although most times we could find them). Interestingly there was a group of six adults who sat in the seats behind us who were from Calgary! They were all Chinese, but lived in Canada and were touring on their vacation. We compared travel plans and had a great ride with them. Our meal on the boat was provided with our tickets and thankfully was quite normal; however they did come around at one point to ask if we would like a shot of snake wine. This invite was given to us from a Chinese lady would was holding a large glad bottle of yellow tinted water which actually contained several snake skins and other random unidentifiable objects. Of course Greg and our friends Ross and Amy all decided to live a little and try one. As disgusting as the bottle look, the shot (apparently) wasn’t that bad. No thanks!
Several hours later we grabbed our luggage and got off the boat into the city of Yangshou. Here we were met with many tourist shops and hundreds of tourists. We blew past them to get a taxi to our hotel. We stayed at the Snow Lion Resort about 10 minutes outside of the very busy city. William, the owner of the hotel provided us with everything we needed; taxis to and from wherever we need to go, day adventures, and a lot of valuable travelling information. He was fluent in English and extremely helpful. Our hotel was small, but had everything we needed. We were able to book tours, rent bikes, eat Chinese or Western food and most importantly we were able to meet so many others travellers who were staying there. It had the relaxing atmosphere of a hotel with the luxury of a hotel. It was perfect! Our first evening was spent downtown Yangshuo, going through the many shops bartering for souvenirs and eating supper at a not so amazing restaurant.
Saturday morning at 9am Greg and I had the bright idea that we were going to tour the country side on bicycles and then climb a well known rock-mountain. With our backpack in hand and water bottles full we headed out to travel through some of China’s rural small towns. We meet many stray chickens, saw countless fields of crop, and shouted ‘Ni-hoa’ to almost every local we passed. The trails were at time quite bumpy, but the views were breathtaking. After three hours of biking, several stops in the shade and over 4 water bottles, 3 sprites and one beer we decided that we might have bitten off more than we could chew. Our butts were in full fledge pain from the stiff bicycle seats and the sun had taken its toll on our skin. We were still full of adventure and still wanting to soak in as much of China’s countryside as we possible could, but we didn’t know how much our bodies could handle it without a good meal and a long rest. We got lost a few times, played charades with some locals to figure out where we were on our small map and after what seemed like 5 years we found the well known rock-mountain we were hoping to climb. Here we were able to eat a good full meal and rest for half an hour as we waited for our friend Maria and Ross to meet up with us. Then we climbed up Moon Hill, which took us a total of 30 minutes, but seemed like pure torture after our bike ride. The apparently 800 steps on the way up were very steep, and sometimes crooked, but there were many breaking areas and the end view was well worth it. We were able to look out on a nearby village as well as see the neighbouring mountain that contained a half moon like shaped whole right through it. The climb down was much easier. Our bike ride back to the hotel was supposed to be direct and much much shorter, but we ended up getting lost again (the map we had extremely inadequate). We did eventually get home (it was almost 6pm), but it took over an hour and made me never want to ride a bike ever again. Our evening was spent at the hotel celebrating the moon festival. The hotel had decided to put on a buffet/party for anyone in the hotel who wanted to participate. For 60yuan (10 Canadian) we had all we can eat. The BBQ was set up on the terrace outside of the hotel, lights were strung in the trees and table and chairs were set out so we could really enjoy the countryside. After supper William (the owner) brought out fireworks to set off. As you can image we were both completely pooped and headed to bed early.
Our next morning we decided to keep our adventure going and joined a small group of staff members to go visit this butterfly park. After the biking adventure we thought it would be best to just taxi around Yangshuo for the day. The butterfly, to make a long story short, was rather disappointing. It did have a waterfall and we went through a few small caves, but it took very little time to walk through and we saw a total of 2 butterflies. With much of the day left we decided to taxi into town for more shopping and lunch at a wood fire pizza restaurant. Our afternoon was spent relaxing at the hotel. We had wanted to go to this spectacular light show that night, but the tickets were all sold out, so we ate at the hotel and enjoyed each others company.
While at the market in Yangshuo Greg fell in love with these old coins that were at some of the antique shops. After bargaining with many different vendors for a good price he ended up purchasing 10 of these small coins. The coins are about the same size as our Canadian nickel. They have a small square hole in the middle of them and very different symbols on each side. We were later able to ask William what they were. He said they were used back in an ancient dynasty when their emperor was from Mongolia. One side of the coin has the currency written in Chinese and the other side is written in Mongolian symbols. Even though those symbols were used for a period of time only 10% of the Chinese population would be able to read them. The square in the middle is there for two reasons; 1. So that people could keep their money on a string instead of carry around wallets. They would just attach it all together and second because the square was the represent earth. At that time they thought the earth was square and the sky was round and that on the corners of the earth there were large poles to keep up the sky. That is why the coin is round, to represent the sky. I thought it was pretty neat.
On our last day of our adventure we got up early to take a 4 hour van ride to these beautiful rice terraced fields. Past the odd shaped rock mountains, in a different part of the countryside, many small villages can be found way up in several sets of rolling mountains. Before we started our drive up the mountains our driver thankfully let us grab a snack and a washroom break. Here is where I found one of the most disgusting bathroom I have ever seen in my entire life (comparable to rural Mexico, but in a different way). There were stalls, but no doors and in the stall there was only a trough to be found. This trough ran from one stall to the next. All you could do was squat, hold your breath and hope your aim was good. There was no place to put your toilet paper, so there was a pile of T.P. (and other ‘supplies’) stacked in the corner of every stall. It was horrible! But I did it. After our lovely bathroom experience we began our very long drive up the winding, thin, high roads of the mountains. If you are scared of heights you could only close your eyes and pray you made through the mountains. When we finally did arrive to the rice terraced fields we were not disappointed. They were amazing. To see endless man made fields all made on the mountain to help the villagers grow crops. It looks like giants steps up and down each side. To see how many they made is shocking. They appear never ending. We were able to climb up to the top of one of these fields and get a real view of the scenery. The hike was over an hour and a half to the top and less than half and hour on the way down. It was a great workout and candy for the eyes. I will never forget it.
Our last night was spent in Guilin. We just had a quite supper at an Italian restaurant, and then Greg wasn’t feeling bed so we went to bed early to be ready for our flight home the next morning. Now we are back home with a few days off until we start classes again. I’ve been working on my year plans while Greg is playing his new guitar.