China: Yangshuo

The view upstream from Yangshuo wharf.

Travel Date 22-25th April 2012.
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We had no plans for tours or excursions in Yangshuo. We wanted to simply relax, with no plans and no need to do anything but wind down after seeing and travelling so much in a short month.

The souvenir markets are down by the wharf.

 

I had arranged the boat trip, including drivers to meet us in the Guilin hotel and on arrival in Yangshuo, through the Secret Garden Guest House. From their web page it sounded perfect as a place to do nothing at all. We were picked up in town and taken out into the countryside. We thought the location was idyllic. 

 

The room was large and the bed soft, but we discovered a problem in paradise. My wife is allergic to mosquitoes and they are unavoidable in a place surrounded by rice paddy fields. Maybe we chose the wrong time of year. The people were lovely and the food was excellent, but sadly we had to leave after one night. I took these pictures on the drive back to town.

 

 

Yangshuo is very much a tourist town, with a lot of Chinese tourists but also a high number of international tourists. Consequently there are two centres. One is past the bus terminal with shops for the locals and accommodation at cheaper back-packer tariffs. We didn't stay here, but it seemed popular: 

 

The bus station is on the right.

 

There is also 'downtown' for more shops, a multitude of restaurants of many cuisines - including the golden arches and KFC - and the slightly more up-market hostels and hotels.

The town was nearly booked out but we found a room, a little over our budget, for two nights at the Bamboo Resort. The room was luxurious, but strangely arranged by Western standards with the spa bath in the centre of the room, the toilet in an open corner with no privacy and the clear-glass shower in another. Bathroom privacy is obviously not a major requirement in Chinese hotels.

 

The electric cars are for hotel guests. A ticket must be bought from a booth near their terminal.

The view from the Golden Arches.

This was delicious from one of the restaurants. The meat was crispy and the orange sauce out of this world. I've never seen it before or since; I am searching the web for recipes.

More Engrish, for meaning rather than spelling.

Cash movement time. I was surprised they allowed the photo without a problem.

I'm glad my fellow passengers on the bus to Guilin were suitably warned. I didn't want to find a cobra in the luggage rack.

 

We returned to Guilin on the bus and departed the next morning for home via Kuala Lumpur. And so we said goodbye to China. I had a marvellous time in an ancient land full of contradictions and paradox. Maybe some day I will be able to return to wander more slowly in some of the places we missed.

Cheers, Alan.

China: Floating Down the Li River

Travel Date 22nd April 2012.
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The Li River flows from its headwaters in the Mao'er Mountains in Xing'an County. In the section between Guilin and Yangshuo it cuts its way through the karst hills and mountains, resulting in a simply stunning short cruise down the river. The Li River is famous in China for the scene on the 20 Yuan note. 

We arranged the trip via the web. A driver turned up at the hotel dead on time. It took about 45 minutes to reach the wharf, south of Guilin. 

I spent most of the trip taking photographs so I'll let them tell most of the story.

There are two main forms of cruising down the river. The larger boats, like ours, leave the wharf about 9am and arrive in the early afternoon. Further downriver we met the fleets of smaller boats, effectively rafts of imitation bamboo (using PVC pipes) for much smaller groups. 

We noticed suppliers of groceries delivering to the stern of the large boats as we travelled along.

One advantage of the larger boats was an on-board lunch, although in our case the timing was more like morning tea. Each boat had a kitchen on the stern. We were served an excellent meal very early at 10:30 am. We guessed the staff wanted to finish clearing up well before arrival. About 1:30 pm after I arrived I felt like a hobbit and had a second lunch.

 

The small raft-boats stopped along the way for picnic lunches.

Arrival in Yangshuo.

The cormorant fishermen no longer ply their ancient trade; I'm not sure why not, possibly it was hard on the birds. They probably make more yuan posing for the tourists these days.

After a relaxing and enjoyable cruise we alighted at Yangshuo and went looking for the car to our accommodation.

Cheers, Alan

China: Guilin

Travel Date 21st and 25th April 2012.
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We visited Guilin twice as a transit point to other places. The first time was to enable us to take the boat ride down the Li River; the pictures for that spectacular journey will be in the next post. Guilin is the nearest major city for the boat trip. 

I copied the map from another place to show the relative locations. 

When planning the trip I tried to find a reasonable method by train from Xi'an, but too many changes were needed and the journey would have been too long. I booked a flight on China Eastern via ctrip. The two-hour flight was uneventful - the best kind. I was a bit nervous at check-in because the carry-on rules only allowed 4.5Kg (10lbs) but I need not have worried. As usual some of the Chinese ladies appeared to be moving house and tried to store all their worldly possessions in the overhead bins.

The second time was after the boat trip and three nights in Yangshuo. We returned on the cheap bus (~20 yuan each) before flying out on Air Asia to Kuala Lumpur.

On both occasions we stayed at the Guilin Park Hotel. It is a few km out of the centre on a pleasant lagoon. We found on the first night that its main revenue came from weddings and functions. Luckily our room was far enough from the festivities to avoid noise both nights. This is the daytime view from the hotel room window:

 

And at night: 

 

This surreptitiously snapped (my excuse for the blurriness) shot of a wedding party shows one of the odd traditions. The man on the right has a platter of cigarettes. I am not sure if they were a gift for the happy couple or for free distribution to the guests. China is yet to discover 'smoke-free' zones.

 

The happy couple look decidedly un-...

I took a walk along the path beside the lagoon below the hotel. It seems the covered colonnades were designed by a person who had spent time in Italy.

 

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. Guilin is a clean, pleasant, small (by Chinese standards, it is only 4,7 million) city with a very modern centre and older traditional districts as you move further into the suburbs. The air is much clearer than the cities further north.

I started with a beer and a coffee for my lady. Both were excellent. There is an almost European-style café culture downtown.

 

 When bamboo is plentiful, what else would you use to make a long ladder?

This is the main bridge over the Li River. There were several boats on the river, careful to avoid the masochists swimming upstream.

 

These blokes were swimming against a fairly strong current.

I was on the river-bank for about 20 minutes. They appeared to progress about 20 metres upstream in that time, apart from one man who appeared to pause for a rest and was swept back to the start point.They were all obviously much fitter than I.

 

Central park.

  

Street vendors.

More Engrish.

The city authorities, or possibly China Mobile, provided these shelters for motorcyclists and cyclists waiting in the hot sun or the rain at traffic lights.

After Yangshuo we took the bus back to Guilin. It was reasonably clean and comfortable. It was a pleasant trip past the karst hills, rice paddies and small villages and towns.

I discovered this excellent Guilin version of the hamburger on my final night. The meat is a form of shredded pulled pork, with spring onions and other choices of vegetable added as you wish. Delicious and very cheap.

If you like eating chilis you will love eating in China.

The chili-chopper was taking a break. The large outer bowl is usually filled to overflowing while the chili-chopper rhythmically beats time on the centre chopping board with two cleavers. The chilis start whole and end up close to powder. The area is surrounded by an invisible mist of chili dust in the air, enough to cause coughing as we passed by.

Queuing for departure at Guilin airport, our last moment in China and the first time we saw anything close to an orderly queue.

 

Cheers, Alan