Guilin, China

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After several days in busy Hong Kong, meeting up with Mum and Dad and securing the seemingly elusive yet very necessary visas for China, we took a train across the border. Shenzhen was alive with business deals. The barbed wire was only on one side of the border. It reminded me of the stories some of our friends in Hong Kong told about swimming to refuge many years earlier. Shenzhen’s prices were very good in comparison with Hong Kong.

We trained to Guilin and loitered under a tree while eating some street breakfast and deciding where to stay. We agreed on a conveniently located nearby hotel with rooms for 70 RMB. As with every Chinese city; the area around the train station was alive with underground markets and you didn’t need to look too far for electrical supplies, post office and good food.

Guilin days were spent eating ice creams and strolling by one of the city’s two rivers, visiting nearby caves (very specky even after having visited many of Australia’s famous caves!), night theatre (the story of how Guilin came into being, with amazing costumes, martial art and ballet) and of course a boat trip on the famous Li river. The water was noticeably very low and they sure were packing the boats along it. The town of Yangshou was a lovely destination. Much slower-paced than Guilin and geared up for the relaxing, cashed-up tourists.

My favourite day trip was our excursion to the mountains to see how some of China’s minority groups live with the famous rice terraces. One group of women didn’t cut their hair which will make me think twice about thinking it’s time consuming to wash my own hair! All the women in the mountain villages were very active in the fields, restaurants and market stalls. I heard the men were only involved in the domestic duties. I’d like to go back to the area and open a school there. The school aged children currently walk about 5 hrs to their school and only return to their homes on the weekend.

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