Blogs from Zhaoxing, Guizhou, China, Asia

Hi All, Fairly easy to get to ZhaoXing from KaiLi. First a bus to CongYang, about 3 hours, then a bus to CongYang's high speed train station and then finally a bus on to ZhaoXing. There is an entrance fee of 80 rmb which has to be paid before the bus continues on to the village. The village itself has really been spruced up for the tourist trade with masses of restaurants, hotels and shops selling the usual tourist niknaks. Behind the main street and down the little alleyways beats the heart of a working Dong farming village. There are a remarkable amount of drum towers and little wind and rain bridges scattered around the village and the houses down by the river are very pretty. In the evening we went to watch a performance of ... read more

Once arriving at Zhaoxing I put my backpack in my room and had a look around this large Dong minority village which contains 5 drum towers as well as numerous wooden bridges. It has a wonderful setting at the base of a valley surrounded by many farming terraces. It has quite a few hotels located in the traditional three storey wooden buildings but surprisingly few tourists. Whilst I was in town I only saw a handful of foreign tourists and only small groups of Chinese tourists. There were also quite a few tourist restaurants as well as a lot of local eateries all selling good food. The tourist side of things was kept very low key and the locals just went about their business as if we weren't there. The other thing I liked about the ... read more

That morning as the train jolted me from my slumber, I woke to spectacular chartreuse light which filled the carriage. Everyone was already up sipping green tea from glass jars, highlighted in the dazzle and staring out the windows. Our train came to rest on a viaduct and from beneath it yellowing green autumnal rice, illuminated in the rising sun, stretched to the horizon. There was no fanfare on our arrival that morning in Kaili, and not a solitary taxi driver awaits us as we exit the train station. We hop on bus #2 and trundle into town. Judging by the intrigue of the local passengers not many little blonde baby boys make it out here. Like most small cities in contemporary China, Kaili is a fairly dull, nondescript place, devoid of tourist sites and growing ... read more

Waking up at a decent hour we packed up and headed to the bus station on the train. We bought three tickets to Zhaoxing and hopped onto the 1.30 bus. After a few hours on the bus we were dropped off in another strange city and quickly set about getting lost. Success!! The bus station we were dropped off at was not the one we thought it was and so our careful wandering was all in vain. This would be the moment when the light rain that had been hounding us decided to become a torrential downpour. Stopping at a ceramic shop we attempted to ask for directions. This too did not help us! We waited for a while under the shop for the rain to stop but it just got heavier and heavier. Then the ... read more

An early start saw us pootling out of Sanjiang in a bus packed with the usual mix of smokers and chunderers. It was clear when we passed from the province of Guangxi into the richer province of Guizhou, as the road suddenly became tarmaced. Shortly after entering Guizhou, there was an interesting incident that made both of us wish we could speak Mandarin. A group of men got on the bus, 2 of whom started a loud and protracted argument that eventually several other passengers joined in. Suddenly a pack of cards was produced, and there was a mad scramble by all and sundry to hand over 100 yuan notes - presumably stakes in some sort of gamble (and not an insignificant amount of money, possibly a week's income, for locals in traditional employment). We couldn't ... read more