Guilin

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Guilin



After completing our long week of midterms, our group took a trip to the southwestern part of China to the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, a province very close to Vietnam! It was a great way to relax after a stressful week of tests and papers and it was especially nice to get away from the cold that has settled into Beijing. We went from pants, jackets and scarf weather to shorts and flip-flops!



Our first stop was Guilin, which is located in the northeastern part of the province and is known for its karst peaks that are randomly placed and are mostly under 650ft tall. The city is concentrated near the Li River giving it very flat land along the river but then it has sporadic, grassy hills every where else. During our stay there we visited two pagodas that are lit up at night with reflections that dance on the lake in which they are situated. We tried Thai food for the first time since coming to China and found it quite good! We also walked around the market town just next to our hotel and I tried the local mango sorbet, which was delicious. (They love mangos in the south!)



The next day we packed up our stuff and took a four-hour bus ride to Chengyangqiao Dong Village. The Dong people are a minority in China that has a population of about 3 million and are very concentrated in this province. They have a mixed Tibetan-Sino language and are known for their unique style of singing and use of bamboo for instruments. The Dong people live in a very wet steppe region of China, where stone isn’t suitable for building but timber is abundant. When we first got to the village we walked across a bridge that was built hundreds of years ago and is made completely out of wood….but is held together without a single nail. The Dong people use a technique of stacking and constructing houses and bridges that stay upright without nails or screws and only with pegs. It was really impressive! We were greeted by women dressed in ornate blue clothing and headdresses with many silver ornaments. The Dong people make their own clothing by staining it blue and beating it with wooden mallets until soft. Their garments are also varnished with eggwhite to keep away mosquitoes!



The village was quaint. There are tiny shops that sell hand made jewelry, tapestries and artwork. Old, hunched over women with silver hair walk around in their hand made garments and try to sell you their ornaments and crafts. It’s really hard to say no… There are also home run restaurants that take a while to make their food because they only have one or two people to run the kitchen but everything we had was really great! All of us stayed in home stays overnight. Families run little inns that are more like cottages and almost everything inside is completely made of wood. Though the toilet situation was not the best (squatty potty…) it was cute and comfortable. My friends and I walked around the village and observed the rice paddy fields and the irrigation system that floods the steppe lands so the village can make rice. The river that runs through the village powers the water wheels that then dump water into tiny canals into the fields. It’s such a simple process but whoever thought of it was a genius! Men and women were out with their pants rolled up and shoes off planting and collecting their grains. It was very rainy during our stay but the architecture and the landscape were still beautiful. That night the village prepared a banquet for us called the 100 family banquet because 100 families made dishes to serve us. There was WAY too much food for even 70 of us to eat. I tried a lot of the vegetable and rice dishes but when I got to the chicken feet and unlabeled meat I stayed clear! The village officially welcomed us in their traditional way by playing their bamboo pipe instrument, singing, and offering us rice wine. (This tradition seems to be very common all over China…I think they like to get us all thoroughly drunk so we enjoy their entertainment even more!) They then put on a show for us that included more music, more singing, and great dancing. The last dance included all of us students in a giant conga line interspersed among the villagers. It was fun to link arms and dance and sing!



The next morning roosters crowing too early in the morning rudely awakened us. (They’re all over the place, just hanging out in shops!) We unfortunately had to pack up our stuff and hit the road again. Although I loved the Dong Village our next stop was rumored to be even more fun. We headed for Longsheng where the Li River continues to flow, the mountains are even higher, and there are HOT SPRINGS. We were told to prepare bathing suits for the natural waters that waited for us up in the mountains. It was pretty cool outside but the water felt great. There are different pools at different temperatures- I only got up to about the 43-45 degree Celsius water. I got all of one toe into the 47 C pool! There was also a 50 C one but no one even made it close to the edge. Another option was to sit in a small pool filled with hundreds of little fish that come up and “kiss your skin.” Essentially you try and sit really still while these fish come up with their mouths in a shape of little O’s and start tickling the heck out of you. Apparently they make your skin really soft but I could only sit for so long before I started laughing and moving and then all my fish swam away!



The next day we were once again on the road, but we were all relaxed and well rested from our spa/resort like hotel! Our next stop was Yangshuo, another city in this province and we planned to stay there for the rest of our trip. Yangshuo is also along the Li River and has many more of the karst hills and rice paddy fields. The karsts are weathered limestone formations that came about by the falling of softer sediment around them. They stand tall all around the city and look like camels humps! (It’s hard to explain- I tried to take some good pictures!) Yangshuo used to be a remote and very peaceful area but is now a major tourist site. On the back of a 20-Yuan bill is a picture of the Li River and the karst hills in the background.



After we checked into the hotel around midday, our group took a river cruise along the Li. I thought that we would be on a large boat all together, slowly making our way up and down the river but instead we took small boats that seat four people and are basically made out of pipe and bamboo and have a small motor on the back with a Chinese guy who steers it through shallow waters. There are two benches nailed to the pipes and wimpy life jackets that are meant to protect you from the three feet of water beneath you. (China takes precautions in all of the wrong areas…lifejackets here, no seatbelts in cabs!) But the ride was fun and extremely beautiful. We were surrounded on both sides by the karst hills with their dramatic cliffs and bushy, green tops. We stopped halfway down the river on a small cluster of rocks to take pictures at the famous site in Yangshuo. On the cliffs behind us, it is said that there are 9 horses that can be seen in the rock formations. If you are a genius you can see all 9. I saw one… I tried to take a picture of it though so I could search for more! Then we took the boats back to where we started. When we got off we watched a Cormorant fishing show. These fishermen use big black birds that swim underwater to catch fish! The birds have collars on them to prevent them from eating the fish. When one makes a catch the fisherman pulls the bird from the water with a long rod and the bird drops it into a basket! (No birds were harmed while I was watching this show.)



For the next two days we could pick from a few options for day trips. On our first full day in Yangshuo, my friends and I chose to go hiking and kayaking. We hiked through the countryside, walking through the mountains and a rice paddy village. Men and women wore big round hats made of straw as they worked in the strong sun out in the fields. It is definitely hard work to make a living in this area but I think the breathtaking landscape that surrounds these people every day is definitely worth it. Everything is green and lush. We made it to the kayak dock in about two hours but by that time everyone was hot and ready to paddle in the clear water of the river. Everyone had their own pace but it was nice to sit on the water and look at the scenery around us. Yangshuo is home to many water buffalo, which can be pretty scary when you’re paddling through water that is only about 3 feet deep and a giant animal with horns can come and get you, but they were peacefully wading in the water and didn’t bother us! We were also able to paddle into caves that are carved out of the bottom of the cliffs that border the river on both sides. It seriously seemed like we were in Jurassic Park! I was ready for some dinosaurs to pop out! We kayaked for a few kilometers until we reached a floating restaurant down stream. Everyone made it without getting wet, until the last moment when Harris fell out of his kayak when he was trying to get out! I think we made the woman who ran the floating restaurant very happy when 40 hungry people came up and ordered tons of food! It took a while to receive our dishes but it was worth it! That night we headed back to our hotel and visited the “Western Street” that has been developed over time as more and more westerners frequented Yangshuo. We found some excellent burgers and even better dessert (apple crisp with ice cream!) [Sorry, after living here and eating Chinese food almost every day, we all savor western food when we can find it!]



For our second full day, my friends and I chose to go on the bike ride that ends up at the Water caves in Yangshuo that have mud baths and more hot springs. The day started well. We all got our bikes (no helmets available…) and hit the streets. We had to cross a giant intersection and within five minutes two people had already crashed. We made it to the trail off the main road finally but it was really rocky which made it difficult to keep our bikes under our control. Unfortunately, one of my friends was trying to avoid an oncoming motorcycle on the narrow trail (why there are motorcycles there I don’t know) and fell off his bike off a small bridge into a stream and broke his arm. It was a scary experience but everyone reacted quickly and really well. Although I wish he was never hurt, I did get to get a glimpse of every level of health care in China, from a small, ill equipped hospital in a remote province, to a military hospital that had better technology but still had poor conditions, to a western and very clean hospital here in Beijing. It made me realize that there are areas in the world where people do not have access to simple drugs, sanitary gloves and experienced doctors. It scares me to think that a peasant farmer who does not have insurance to cover his expenses to move to a better hospital could possibly suffer or die of an illness that could be easily treated if his hometown’s hospital had more sanitary conditions and better equipment. My friend is heading back to the United States because even the nicest hospital in the capital of China cannot provide him with the long-term care he needs to recover. Although this was an unfortunate accident it opened up my eyes to a lot of issues that certainly need to be addressed not only here but all over the world.



Anyways, to end on a lighter note- my friend is doing well and now has an incredible story to tell! We all had a fantastic time on our trip and wished we could have stayed for another week but now have to get back to class…Thankfully there is more than enough that we haven’t seen in Beijing that will occupy the rest of our last few weeks here in China. This semester is going by so fast and now I know that I need to go out and see everything before it’s too late! I’ll keep you updated on what I find!

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Comments

[Kaitlyn Hammel]

yay!
Hi Sam! I\'m so happy for you on this endeavor :) It seems like you\'re having a great time. I\'m sure you probably will not want to come home! Your blog was a lovely way for me to start my day! haha I ate breakfast and read it today :)

[samdizon]

thanks!
Thanks Kait! I really wish I could stay for another semester! Hope you're getting excited to go to Rome! Miss you :)