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Published: November 29th 2013
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Huashan Cliff Murals
That's the river, and I guess that's one of the boats that would normally take passengers to view the murals, if not for the fallen cliff face from last month making the river impassable for now. Back on the road again, and it was a 4h+ bus ride northeast of Hanoi to the border town of Dong Dang for my crossing into China. Funny how haphazardly planned and poorly demarcated some of these border areas are - when I entered the Vietnamese immigration building, I realized I had entered from the Chinese side! Huh?! How was that possible since I'd just gotten off the minivan from Hanoi, and walked just a couple of minutes? Turns out the No Man's Land between the two countries is quite faint, and apparently quite porous too. With no intentions of either exiting Vietnam or entering China illegally, I retraced my steps and lawfully obtained my exit and entry stamps.
It was dark and late by the time I arrived on the Chinese side, taking my first steps in the Southwestern province of Guangxi. With no public buses running anymore to the nearest town of Ping Xiang, I bit the bullet and rode one of the overpriced private taxis waiting for stragglers like me. At least there was a bit of humor in the little conversation I had with the driver though. After he found out I was a solo traveller,
Impromptu Tour Guide
My intrepid woman rickshaw driver, leading me through corn fields to try to get me a view of the cliff murals, hoping to alleviate my disappointment at the temporarily suspended boat rides. he asked bemusedly, "So what do you do when you see some beautiful landscapes? Do you talk to yourself?"
Haha after one and a half years of solo travel, this of course was no longer an issue for me, though it did make me ask myself whether I indeed spoke to myself, at least in my mind...
Anyway it was just a quick overnighter in Ping Xiang before an early start for my first real intended destination in Guangxi - the Huashan cliff murals, a couple more hours away near a little village called Panlong. Apparently, that's where you could take an hour-long boat ride to ogle at mysterious thousand-year old murals painted on the faces of thousand-feet high cliffs.
Due to its relative remoteness, it took several connections before I finally got there - intercity bus to the next town of Ningming, local bus to the train station, and then a VERY bumpy half hour motor-rickshaw ride through some poorly-maintained country roads.
Unfortunately when I arrived I found the ticket office closed. Thanks to the communication between my woman rickshaw driver and one of the locals there, we found out that just last month all
Look Mom No Hands!
Well, not quite, but it's first for me seeing these plastics gloves in a fast food restaurant. Good idea though! boat rides were stopped because one of the cliff faces had collapsed and now made the river impassable! Just my luck!
Seeing what looked like a long, wasted journey for me, my woman rickshaw driver then offered to be my impromptu tour guide through the vegetation and rough thicket along the banks of the river, in hope that I might still be able to catch a glimpse of some of the cliff murals, albeit from a less vantage point. We progressed as far as we reasonably could until halted by some muddy terrain, from where there indeed appeared to be some sort of large rocky outcrop or boulder in the middle of the river, which could have indeed been the fallen cliff face. From there the woman also claimed some of the cliff murals were already in her view, though try as I might, I only got the reflection of the sun's rays in my eyes. I surmised that she was just trying to be nice. Perhaps you can see from the photos I took whether I had indeed missed something.
Stayed at Xin Shi Bing Guan.
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