"Guilin San Sui Ja Tian Xia"...

...is an old Chinese saying, what it means is "Guilin's mountain and water is the best under the sky", but that's just half the story. The other half goes like this:"... but Yangshuo's are even better", which we totally agree.

We arrived in Guilin at almost midnight and were really glad we had airport pick-up arranged back in Shenzhen - at a cut-throat price. Just when we were wondering how LP can be so off this time (we paid less than half the price of what's listed!), we realized the real purpose of the driver is to get us to hire him as a personal driver during our stay in Guilin, and of course to take us to his "recommended" hotel. He told us point-blank that it's a losing-money business coming to pick us up and asked us to "take care" of him, persistently and annoyingly by giving plausible reasons to steer our decision his way. Not only did we not need a driver, but also trying to get business like this just ticks me off! It was quite mentally tiring having to deal with this kind of "working culture" - and this is just the beginning of a constant battle in China!

Before i go any further, i will give out a bit of Mandarin intro class to those non-Mandarin speaking readers. Some of these Chinese pinyin will show up frequently in the upcoming posts:

"hu": lake
"lu": road
"shan": mountain

all right. now that you all master in tourist Mandarin, I will proceed with the update! :) We spent the next day visiting the sights in Guilin, including the Rong Hu and Shan Hu (remember what "hu" is? test test) that spans the heart of Guilin and the must-see Seven Star Park. We took our time strolling in the park, one thing worth mentioning is the Seven Star Cave, a capacious chamber filled with bizarre looking stalactites, coloured by floodlights and dubbed some very imaginative titles like "dragon eating a bear", "bear catching a tiger", etc (picture on the left, do you see the dragon?). It was a no-brainer getting around by public bus, so we got a little cocky, later we learned the hard way that it's not the case everywhere China, I'll tell you later! :)




Fear not having enough time to make a day trip by public transportation, we joined a Chinese group to visit the famed Dragon's Backbone rice terraces and the nearby Yao and Zhuang minority villages and watched their dance show (picture to the left). The tour guide is nice enough to "sprinkle" his commentary with some English for Pascal and the other non-Mandarin speaker. You know how in some Hollywood movies when a Chinese speaks for minutes and the translator simply boils it down to one sentence? it's a bit like that. :) The rice terrace is beautiful, even when it's not at the best season. The steep slope has been sculpted by generations of local farmers since the Yuan dynasty. They say the best time to visit is spring, right before the harvest, when the field is filled with water and rice fully grown up and golden, when the sun hits, the beauty is beyond any description. I can only hope for next time! We wandered away from the crowd and explored up and down the terraces and had a great afternoon there. I must not forget to mention the delicious lunch we had at a local restaurant - baked bamboo chicken, smoked meat with bamboo shoot, and some really crispy stir fry vegetables. it snaps in your mouth!

Dragon Backbone Rice Terrace (Longji Titian)


the next day we took the touristy but must-do (almost) Li River cruise south to Yanshuo, where we will spend a few days. The scenery is simply beautiful and poetic. It's the inspiration for many chinese landscape paintings and one particular view is even printed on the new 20 yuan note! Of course when the captain announced it, everyone rushed to the deck and snapped away. The scenic spots along the river are dubbed imaginative names (surprise!), like the nine horses painting on the Mural hill. Legend has it that if you can see all nine of them, you'll be the winner of the next Imperial Examination. I read that Bill Clinton saw two. Well, I saw three (by faaaaar stretching my imagination). :)





We had a fantastic time in Yanshuo. It's the place for backpackers. The town is small and everything is pretty much on or around West Street (picture to the left), west as in western, as you can imagine this street is lined with cafes serving up western food. This is the place to turn to for a piece of chocolate cake with hot fudge or a decent cup of cappuccino, which we did. :) But that doesn't mean we forgot to enjoy many wonderful local dishes, especially beer fish. I even went as far as taking a class to learn how to make it. Now I'll shoulder the important task of introducing it to the western world! j/k :) We spent another day biking through the rice paddies around Yanshuo, then took a bamboo raft down the Yulong river, which is at least as beautiful as the Li River, but much more peaceful and quiet without the herds of tourists and running engines. we spent another day walking along the Li River between villages of Xinping and Yandi, and observing local markets. really interesting to watch the action-packed morning activities. During the walk we experienced yet again chinese persistence - villagers virtually followed us and asked us to take their bamboo rafts and to dine at their houses. this is one of those times i wish i didn't understand Mandarin.

paddling through rice paddies near Yanshuo


taking bamboo raft down the Yulong river

I'll finish this entry with another Chinese saying. It goes, "A scene in one's ears is more beautiful than it is in one's eyes.' In other words, we often find that the scenery doesn't live up to it hype. But in the case of the Li River and its surrounding, the opposite is true. :) We said goodbye to Yanshuo and hopped on a bus back to Guilin, the beginning of a very long land journey to Yunnan.