Guilin - The Landscape of Limestone Hills
Trip Start
Sep 08, 2009
1
9
67
Trip End
May 31, 2010
Where I stayed
Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang, China
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
After the hustle and bustle of Beijing and Xi'an our next stop was the quieter Guangxi Zhuang province in southern China. Despite our love for long train journeys this time we opted for the quicker option and braved China Southern airways direct to Guilin. (We spent some time picking a flight with a larger jet in the hope it would be safer... maybe a little paranoid but it worked)
Guilin is a small town in Chinese terms, just 600,000 people, it is surrounded by an amazing landscape of limestone karsts / hills. The picturesque countryside, combined with the increase in temperature, make the place a lot more relaxing than Beijing or Xi’an.
After checking into the lovely Riverside Hostel (yes, another hostel, but still not in a dormitory), we headed out into the town to explore. The town’s centre point is two lakes with illuminated pagodas in the centre – one of which is supposed to enlighten you if you pay a certain amount to climb it, very pretty but on a backpackers budget we decided to save the Yuan so didn’t climb it. We were far more fascinated with the food on the streets – outside every other restaurant there are cages of animals just waiting to be turned into some local delicacy and served up with rice or noodles. There were chickens, ducks, turtles... even a strange kind of guinea pig we think is a cane rat! Plus heaps of seafood on offer... and to make the experience more authentic in many of the restaurants you actually sit next to the animals you are about to eat! We are both fans of fresh food, but even for us this was a step too far and we couldn’t bring ourselves to eat face to face with the poor little animals (not that we were in a rush to eat turtle or cane rat!)
We did find some great restaurants in the city however and enjoyed the best beef in black bean sauce ever on two occasions in a place with no live animals on show (we don’t want to know if they’re out the back)
One of the towns main sights is the Seven Star Park, which is a 120 hectare park with limestone hills and caves. We managed to lose ourselves there for a few hours one afternoon. After a long discussion about which hill to climb we followed our trusty tourist map and ended up in a completely different place to intended, something which seems to be happening more and more, we’re blaming the maps not our navigational skills. We trudged our way up the hill anyway, in sweltering heat, to see the magnificent view over the city – only to find that even here there is incredible city smog! The karsts still looked very impressive however, especially in the mist. Simon was however more excited about the snake he has spotted on the way up the hill and spent most of his time looking in the undergrowth for more snakes. On the way back down our efforts from the climb were fully rewarded as saw a group of semi wild monkeys swinging around in the trees. They were all incredibly cute and really close to the path, so much so we had to restrain ourselves from grabbing one and taking it away as a pet! In the park we also found a small animal reserve and saw our first giant panda and a group of red pandas as well.
The highlight of our stay in Guilin was the day trip on the Li River down to Yangshao. We joined a tour group for a 5 hour cruise and lunch on the river, passing more of the limestone scenery, rice fields, water buffalo etc. We were very excited about the trip, demonstrated in the fact we got up at about 7am for it, something neither of us have done for several weeks now! When our coach arrived at the jetty to board our ship, we found out that there were several hundred other people were also looking forward to this self same experience and an armada of ships were ready to depart!
The water level of the Li River was very low when we were there so the fleet of ships had to weave along the river in a narrow line at first to keep to the deep parts – it was very amusing to see this set in the peaceful surroundings. After the first hour the boats spread out, and fortunately we were on a tourist boat which was not at all crowded, so we could enjoy the trip in peace. Well relative peace broken mostly by random Chinese people appearing outside the windows trying to hawk garish vases and ugly jade coloured statues. These guys repeatedly appeared by paddling their bamboo rafts close to the boat and then hooking them on. This meant that they could stand outside the boat for a while and offer exactly the same thing as the last bloke who was now further up river offering his to the next boat. Needless to say we haggled well and got one for each set of parents to put pride of place on their mantle pieces (only joking).
In Yangshao, we visited one of the local villages and then took to the water again, this time in a bamboo raft! This was amazing, especially as the bamboo raft moved gently on the water with no engine to spoil the peace. We even survived when Simon was allowed to drive for a while. We were taken to some local farmers who let you feed their buffalo. The day was rounded off by a display of cormorant fishing, which even if you do know what the trick is, still looks impressive. We made our way home on the bamboo raft (well not all the way, although we would have like to try) and got ready for our next move... the Longji Rice Terraces.
