East or West, Guilin Scenery is the Best

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We arrived in Guilin at night. It was surprising to see how many people were out shopping and eating at 10:30 PM. Guilin has a very different feel than Xian. It feels more like a suburb, although there are over a million people living here.

The following morning we experienced the main attraction for us in Guilin--a cruise along the Li River. Our ride began around 9 AM and ended in Yangshuo around 2 PM. Guilin is known for its beautiful scenery. (A famous Chinese poet supposedly said, "East or West, Guilin scenery is the best." The mountains (or hills, according to the locals) are made of limestone and are spiky and plentiful! Apparently, they used to be under the ocean at one time.

The river cruise was peaceful and of course, beautiful. The most intriguing thing for me was to see how the local people live. We saw several bamboo boats with people standing and paddling along the river. People were doing laundry in the river (supposedly the second cleanest in all of China). There were lots of water buffalo grazing in the fields and cooling off in the water, while feasting on seaweed. At one point, we even saw a woman carrying two live chickens, holding them by their feet.

Mainly, we just stood on the top deck of the boat and watched the scenery. We took tons of pictures too. In addition to the wondrous mountains, we saw some waterfalls and caves. There were bamboo trees everywhere--very pretty!

We ate lunch on the boat-rice, vegetables, tofu, fried chicken!, and fried fish (with all the bones left in). It was not the best meal. However, as we ate, waiters came around and offered shots of snake wine for 20 RMB ($3.50). The bottle had a real snake in it! Neither of us was adventurous enough to try it, but another member of our group did. He said it tasted like tequila.

After lunch, the scenery became more flat and covered in rice paddies. I was sad that we didn see any rice terraces on our journey. We got off the boat in Yangshuo and were greeted by vendors, shouting "Hello," or "one dollar" for their souvenirs. Of course, we had time to shop and buy small gifts for our family. I did buy a rice farmer's hat, which I love!

Then, it was time to get back on the bus for our hour and a half drive back to Guilin. On the way, we stopped in two places. The first was a rice farm. The bus driver literally just pulled off the road so we could get out and look around. We saw some farmers in the fields with their tethered water buffalo grazing beside them. After a few minutes, we got back on the bus and continued. It was kinda weird.

Next, we stopped at a college campus. The attraction here was Solitary Beauty Peak, a large "hill" you could climb.....unfortunately, we did not have time and my legs still hurt from the Great Wall! The college also had an art gallery with exquisite paintings for sale. Sadly, they were too big to take home. After walking around the campus for a bit, we got back on the bus.

We freshened up back at the hotel and went to dinner. It was great! We had some things that have not been on the menu elsewhere--lemon chicken, sweet and sour fish, curried potatoes and a deep fried fritter with something sweet inside. After dinner, we saw another show.

Guilin has a larger than average minority population (97% of China is of Han nationality). This show highlighted the cultures of the minority groups. The most interesting parts of the show were: the acrobatics and the mask changers. The acrobats were amazingly flexible and strong, it was insane! The mask changers were actors who wore masks and changed them rapidly. This does not seem that exciting, however it would be less than ONE second between changes. Everyone was watching, but you could not see how they changed the masks or where they even got them/put them. It was very cool.

The last highlight of the night was going to see cormorant fishing. Fishermen train the cormorant birds to fish in a very specific way. They tie a cord around the birds neck so they cannot swallow any big fish they catch. The cormorants dive into the water, swim around and catch fish in their mouths. When the bird catches a fish, he swims to the bamboo boat, and stands there with the fish in its mouth, patiently waiting for the fisherman to release the fish. Then the cormorant jumps off the boat and goes fishing again. It was remarkable to see!

We arrived back at our hotel around 10:15 PM, and got ready to fly to Shanghai the next morning.

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