Blogs from Guangxi, China, Asia

GUILIN Our flight from Xian was quick and as we drove from the airport we noticed a slightly slower pace of life, although a lot busier than we had anticipated and probably not only due to the fact that we were in the middle of their national holiday and its special year. We were looking forward to seeing this scenic area and hiking up into the rice terraces. Guilin is renowned as one of China’s most beautiful spots and I must say our first glimpse was impressive but we had only seen large cities so far on this journey. Our guide Helen said that this was her home town and she was really enthusiastic about everything we could do here. It was hot though in the mid 30s so you had to take things at a ... read more

Hello! Due to a pretty substantial blunder by me, today is our last day in China. Mixed emotions, sad to leave some people we love, but not totally sad about leaving China. It's beautiful and interesting and all, but it's just so hard because I'm useless at learning Mandarin and so it a bit limiting in what you can actually do by yourself. I had thought we had a full day left and we were going to travel home from Yangshuo tomorrow night and then have almost a full day in Shenzhen before we flew home, but our flights are actually tomorrow night. Luckily I realised that last night while we were making plans because originally our tickets out of here weren't going to get back to Shenzhen until a few minutes before our flight starts ... read more

Well, this is the most beautiful place I've ever seen. Today we travelled out to Yangshuo, which is about 450k from Shenzhen where we've been staying, or about 2 hours on an awesomely fast train - I think it got up to 320 early in the trip but slowed down to an average of 250 for most of it. We wanted to get the most out of the day so the train we were on was the one that left at 7:20 in the morning, which meant leaving at 6:00, which meant waking at 5:30. Some of our party were less enthusiastic about this than others. But we made it with a mere 10 minute delay. It's all a bit non-eventful. If you're trying to guide yourself around without any mandarin, I don't know how it ... read more

We arrived in Guilin after a 1.5 hour flight from Lijiang. After collecting our bags we met a very giggly Chinese lady who was our driver for the 2.5 hour trip to Ping'an. The trip was beautiful but very slow (and included a stop to refuel and get the car washed); our driver didn't do much for certain stereotypes which exist about her gender or race... On arrival at the gate to enter Ping'an we said farewell to our driver and avoided the women offering to carry our bags in baskets on their backs (Scott's bag has wheels and mine is a backpack so we're not sure why we needed someone to put our bags into a basket and then carry them...nor would we have felt comfortable watching a grandma lug our bags up the hill..). ... read more

Kierowca w koszulce z napisem “Shooting Guard” i klapkach ze skaju jest naszą jedyną nadzieją na dostanie się do wioski Dazhai. Podróż z Yangshuo trwa około 4 h i kończy ja serpentyna górskiej drogi. Szczerze mowiac nie wiem jak nasz autobus to przetrwa. Wszystko skrzypi i jęczy na każdej dziurze, wrzucenie kolejnego biegu jest dużym wyzwaniem dla kierowcy a kierownica, stale przekręcona o 30 stopni nie świadczy najlepiej o przeszłości pojazdu oraz geometrii jego kół. Może jakoś to będzie. Zatrzymujemy się w przydrożnej, bezpańskiej toalecie. Toaleta jest do “jedynek” bo są w niej tylko wykafelkowane dziury bez opcji spłukiwania. Ktoś się chyba wyłamał i zrzucił większy ładunek. Basia, mimo potrzeby rezygnuje. Inne panie zaciągają koszulki na nosy i, przyzwyczajone do podobnych niedogodności, odganiając chmary much wchodzą do środka. Cóż. Musi istnieć jakaś równowaga w swiecie. Jesteś ... read more