Weekend in Southern China

At 4:30PM last Thursday, eight others and I (an interesting mix of four Americans -- two from Southern California, two from NYC -- one Englishman, two Germans, one Colombian studying in Germany, and one French girl) met at the University station and began our way to Shenzhen to catch our 13-hour sleeper train ride into Guilin. The ride was less painful than I expected -- we spent much of our time chatting in the dining cart, and then the rest sleeping. It wasn't the most comfortable night of sleep, but for a round-trip costing $70 US, it was definitely worth it.

We arrived a little before 7AM to rainy Guilin. The weather really put a damper on our arrival -- we spent a fair amount of time walking around in the rain looking for our hostel, and were soaked by the time we found it. So after cleaning up and throwing our stuff into our rooms, we set out to feed ourselves. We ate at a nearby restaurant and ordered four dishes of mǐfěn (米粉), a specialty of Guilin's. Then we set out to buy rubber boots, not exactly on our itinerary, but we were tired of walking around in wet shoes. After much dilly-dallying and wasting time running back and forth to the hostel, we finally set out and ventured to the Reed-Flute cave. It was pretty cool, but I was a bit turned off by how tacky of a tourist attraction it was. I didn't like being surrounded by hordes of tourists all taking the same pictures of the fluorescent lights that decorated the cave. Nonetheless, it was fairly fun playing with my camera inside to get some pretty cool shots with the lights. We also paid an extra 10 RMB to see the "thousand-year old turtle" inside the cave, which is just an absurd claim. Amusing, nevertheless.

Later that night, we headed out to a boat tour on Fir Lake in downtown Guilin. Another touristy attraction, but we managed to take over the deck and have a pretty sweet view of the city. The rain stopped by then, and the air was nice and crisp -- it was definitely an enjoyable time together. And given our short time in Guilin, it was a fitting way to sum things up for the night. We walked through a street market on our way back to our hostel, had a late-night snack at McDonald's, then called it a night.

At 8AM on Saturday, we were driven to the pier, where we set out on two private boats on a three-hour ride along the Li River to Yangshuo. Silly pampered me had imagined a big ship carrying all of us, but we were actually just crammed into ghetto little boats with a motor, and sat tight, strapped in life-jackets. I sat up front in the open air, and was so close to the edge that I could feel the water splash against me when I leaned too far out. I spent my time awake soaking in the beauty of my immediate surroundings -- here we were on this little boat, cruising along a narrow river for three hours and passing majestic mountains, waterfalls, and little villages by the water. But I spent a fair amount of time knocked out, because I'd taken Dramamine before the ride, and it kicked in halfway through.


The weather was clear when we arrived, and the scene was pretty bustling. There were tents set up by the dock trying to fish in tourists. We easily found our way to our hostel, which was very conveniently located near West Street, Yangshuo's most bustling street market, packed with restaurants and street food vendors. We had lunch at a nearby restaurant, which wasn't a particularly notable part of the trip except for the fact that we ate dog meat. The dish wasn't great, and the meat was a little too chewy for my liking. At least now I can say I've tried it.

What came next was easily the best part of the entire trip. We rented bikes for 10 RMB a piece, tandems for 15 RMB a piece, and rode all across and out of Yangshuo, to the Moon Hill (which was essentially a giant rock of a hill with a hole in it). We biked through different villages and witnessed incredible views. The whole experience was surreal. I actually can't ride a bike, so I rode in the back of a tandem with Justin. It was amazing -- I was able to take pictures during the entire ride since I didn't have to keep my eyes on the road. I really just pointed my camera in all different directions and clicked away without paying attention to the frame. It was more fun that way, and I ended up with some pretty neat shots.

We spent the night eating and wandering around West Street. We concluded the night at a bar, but we were all exhausted by that point and called it a night pretty early.

At 8AM on Sunday, our last day in China, we were driven to Longsheng, an expanse of mountains covered in rice terraces four hours outside of Yangshuo. We first stopped at a village inhabited by long-haired women, who display their marital status by the way they wear their hair -- covered if unmarried, worn in front if married with a child, worn in back if married with multiple children. It was a little less of a cultural experience than I'd hoped, because the ones we interacted with only wanted to sell us things. Everything costed money, and we decided against paying anything and just walked around aimlessly. Nonetheless, it was pretty cool.


Then we drove uphill a bit further and finally began our hike up to the very top. The view was marvelous -- the sun was out and we had a great view of the all the mountains blanketed by rice terraces. We climbed up and made a few stops along the way to soak in the view and take pictures. I ate dragonfruit for the very first time and it was delicious. Anyway, we hiked back down and left around 4PM. We had to head back to Guilin to catch our train back to Hong Kong.


We got to Guilin around 6PM in order to make time to see cormorant fishing, something we'd wanted to see on our first day in Guilin but weren't able to because of the rain. It is a form of fishing in which rope is tied around the necks of cormorants, a type of bird, and then thrown in the water to catch fish. They obediently catch fish in their beaks but can't swallow them -- then the fisherman yanks their necks and squeezes the fish out of their mouths, then throws them back in the water. It sounds pretty cruel, but it's a custom there, and it was pretty amusing to watch.

We didn't have time for dinner, and rushed to catch our sleeper train back to Shenzhen. 14 hours later, we found our way back across the border into Hong Kong, back in the familiar welcome arms of the omnipresent MTR voice and 7-Elevens galore. I headed back to my room, unpacked, and went off to my first class...

There is my entirely reflection-less but detailed recap of my weekend :-)