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This is the first blog for our 25 day holiday in China from 28 April to 23 May 2015. Our travel program was too busy and wifi service was too slow for me to load the blog, hence publishing this first blog on our return.
Guiyang The Miao and Dong Province in Southern China 28 April – 30 April 2015 We were dropped off at the Brisbane Airport by Adam at about 7.30am and were excited to be going to main-land China for the first time. We have only been to Taiwan and Hong Kong, and both were in the 1970s. We flew with China Southern Airlines and flew via Guangzhou to Guiyang which took about 10 ½ hours and our guide Jacky was waiting for us at the airport.
After booking into the Trade Point Hotel we orientated ourselves with a brief walk around the area. Next morning we caught a tax to Hauxi Park which was an attractive water park and pavilions. On the way we immediately noticed the massive amount of building construction going on everywhere. This was going to be the trend everywhere.
Our early impression of southern China was the
building of instant cities after literally removing whole mountains, planting instant landscapes, including transplanting of mature trees, providing sophisticated new road infrastructure. Over 90%!o(MISSING)f this region is mountainous so there were massive bridges and tunnels everywhere. All freeways in China have tolls. Our second guide who took us to the Sister Meal Festival was constantly stopping and checking with locals on which direction to drive as the road network is constantly changing due to the building of new highways. We came across a couple of roads that were as dead end – work in progress!!!
As much of our travels in this area included the rural regions, we saw 3
rd world standard villages, through to very advanced, new multi-storied accommodation and commercial buildings.
The sights we saw on our trip south-west of Giuyang (the Anshun City Region) with Jacky were Huanguoshu Waterfall and the Doupotang Waterfall and the surrounding Park. After catching a taxi to the very new and massive (yes everything new in China is massive) bus station we drove for over an hour to the Guanling Park.
The waterfall park was beautiful and we walked right through the area, noticing the many new paths
and pavilions throughout the area. It took over 3 hours to see both the waterfalls, including walking through the caves behind the waterfall. There was also an extensive bonsai garden which was pretty impressive.
We then visited the Dragon Palace which is a massive network of limestone caves. We caught a boat along the underground river admiring the stalactites, many of which were lit up with colourful lights.
What we also quickly learned was that people in this region of China love chilli, which suited us fine. Before catching to bus back to Guiyang, Jacky bought a chilli beef dish as well as chilli potatoes which we shared.
During this day we caught a variety of public transport which is pretty normal however I must tell you one story. We got on one public bus and the female conductor was talking incredibly loudly on her mobile phone (which all Chinese do) and we found out from our guide that she was yelling at her son. The bus driver was her husband. The bus drove into a little village and suddenly stopped. Bus driver and conductor got out and walked into several buildings. They were away for awhile
and eventually came back to the bus. The wife was still yelling. Apparently the son didn’t want to come back with the parents and wanted to stay with the grandparent. The driver and wife got back in the bus, did a U-turn and drove out of the village ... so we did an extra 40 minutes in the bus just to go and pick up a son!!!!, who didn’t come back with his parents. Anything can happen when traveling.
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