Goodbye Shanghai, hello Guilin!

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We arrived in Guilin today after a twenty two hour train ride. The train was very exciting. We got off to an interesting start as we came very close to missing the train. Not only did we underestimate the total time it would take to get to the station but we got held up at every possible junction on the Shanghai metro. We arrived at the station about twelve minutes before our train was scheduled to depart. The railway station is enormous and very difficult to navigate for a foreigner. We looked like the scene from Home Alone while we sprinted through the train station with our packs on but, thankfully we made it with just a few minutes to spare.

The landscape leaving Shanghai was pretty remarkable. For about two hours or so outside the city there was seemingly no real break in city. There would be a mile or two of perfectly plotted farmland followed by five or so miles of enormous apartment buildings. No ads or businesses or any real sign of culture. All of the areas outside the city seem to be pretty systematically planned. It reminded me of the type of scenes you might see in Japanese animes.

Our accommodations on the train were of 'hard-sleepers'. The car was partitioned off into a number of 'rooms' with three walls and six bunks in each room. It started off as just the two of us on the bottom bunks but we were later joined by a younger lady and an older man above us. They tried asking us a few questions and I was able to tell them I didn't understand and I asked them if they speak English, which they seemed to get a laugh from. They were friendly though and we had a good time. Of course the toilets on the train are squatty potties and there was no septic system. You could even see the tracks moving below you in one of the bathrooms.

We arrived in Guilin today around 2:30pm. Even though we traveled very far we didn't have to worry about switching any time zones. All of China runs on Beijing time, even the Western most areas. Guilin has a population of under 800,000 so it's quite a bit smaller than Shanghai. Our hostel is across the street from the train station and we were able to get a private room with our own bathroom (squatty potty of course) for $10 a night. We walked into town which was about a twenty minute walk. Guilin is definitely a tourist destination for Chinese people and there are a lot of mall type stores selling brand name items and souvenirs. Our Chinese is getting better and we are successfully ordering food and haggling. Using body language like a game of charades can be pretty entertaining.

We were able to get away from the commotion though and walked through some very nice gardens alongside Shan Lake. It's a very small lake right next to the Li River which we plan on taking a raft down while we're here. The Sun and Moon Pagodas are on the lake and we got some nice shots there. We're very relieved to be in a smaller city and looking forward to being in the middle of nowhere.

Our hostel has free bikes for use so tomorrow we're going for an all day ride. We're going to ride 25 kilometers/15 miles to the village of Jiangtouzhou. Jiangtouzhou is a 1000 year old village whose population of 800 all have the surname Zhou (thankyou, Lonely Planet). This area is mountainous and the ride should be gorgeous. The local girl working at the hostel is very jealous of our trip so that's a great sign!

I'm quite frustrated that we are still unable to post photos here. The internet is really lagging. Nora was able to upload a few photos to her flickr account from her phone. You can find them here http://www.flickr.com/norahess We have lots more to upload later.

We're retiring early tonight to get our rest for the long day tomorrow. Hope you're all well and more to come soon, cheers!

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