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Guilin - Yao Minority Village
3 boys blow bubbles from a windowWe are posting this blog from Chengdu, the day after the big earthquake and wanted to let everyone know we are all safe. We had written most of this blog prior to the quake, and our travels sure seem insignificant compared to the events of yesterday. We'll give more details about the quake in our Chengdu blog when we get a chance. At this point we're still trying to process everything that happened. We feel really lucky since we were so close to the center. Thanks to everyone's messages of wishing us safely home.
The blog below took place between April 29th and May 5th, 2008.
Guangzhou
After getting our visas in Hong Kong we just caught the last bus heading to mainland China. We passed through the border crossing pretty easily although our passports were scrutinized much more than during any other border crossing. Travis' passport picture shows him clean shaven without glasses and the customs official really had to think about it before letting us through. He even called his friend over to ask what he thought!
Once in mainland China we caught a bus to Guangzhou. We got off the bus and were swarmed
Guilin - Yao Minority Village
When they finish winding their hair and carry it on top of their heads, it looks like a hat! with hotel workers trying to get us to stay with them. One guy even unzipped a laptop computer and asked Travis if he wanted to buy it. He looked over both of his shoulders before offering it, making it pretty obvious that it was stolen! Later we saw a video from the police warning of laptop theft.
Our Guanzhou experience was a tough introduction to the country. It rained off and on and the thick hazy smog was starting to get to us. We wanted to quickly get a train or bus to Guilin, but were not aware of the labour day holiday, meaning everyone in the country would be travelling at the time. We spent a few hours walking with our rucksacks from a train station filled shoulder to shoulder with people, to 3 long distance bus companies. None had seats available that day. It was not a great day! Since we already would be losing a day we decided to fly to Guilin early the next morning to make the most of our time.
Guilin
Arriving in
Guilin was a much better introduction to China for us than Guangzhou had been. The people
we dealt with were friendly and helpful and the air was a little clearer. We walked from a bus stop for about 20 min. to a great hostel, we were so happy they had a room left! The staff were so friendly and the room was fantastic. We booked some tours for the next two days and also tried to book the rest of our flights and hostels needed for China.
The first day trip we did was to the Long Ji rice terraces. The terraces reach an elevation of 1916 m and cover 7.16 sq km. It was really incredible to see. They were much larger than the rice terraces we saw in Bali and much steeper as well. The local villagers have been using these terraces for rice (and tea at lower elevations) for hundreds of years. We walked to the top, stopping at some of the local villages on the way. We had a delicious lunch and searched for some bargains at the local markets. We were very lucky with the weather as it poured with rain twice but both times we were under shelter - eating lunch and watching a show! Also a part of
the tour was visiting a local
Yao village. The Yao women are famous for their long hair which can be up to 1.5m long and is only cut twice in their life! Once when they are 18 and again when they get married. They put it in different styles which tells their status (married or single). Apparently they only wash their hair with rice water and they claim this keeps away the gray hairs!
Before we went to the village our guide told us that the Yao women like men with glasses because to them it means intelligence. Well, as soon as we got off the bus an older Yao women grabbed Travis' hand and helped him across a rickety bridge to the village. She didn't want to leave his side!
The second trip we booked was a cruise down the
Li River. We were so lucky to have a beautiful day with even a bit of blue sky!!! It was the first time we had seen the sun and blue sky since March 21st in Malaysia. The scenery was excellent the river is surrounded on both sides by giant limestone pinnacles rising out of ground in every direction!
A Chinese poet once wrote about this area:
The river winds like a blue silk ribbon,
While the hills erect like green jade hairpins
-Han Yu, great poet from the Tang Dynasty
Amazingly, Michelle said the same thing when she saw the scenery! The cruise lasted about 4 hours and included a good Chinese lunch. We were seated with a Slovenian family and our tour-mates from the rice terraces were also on board - 2 french guys, a guy from Brazil and a family from Germany. We also met some nice girls from Korea and Japan.
Yangshuo
We arrived in
Yangshuo a riverside town about an hour and a half (drive) from Guilin. The town is also surrounded by the limestones peaks and nice countryside. As soon as we arrived we could tell we were going to like the town. It was small enough to walk everywhere and was filled with shops, markets and cafes. We found our hostel (the sister hostel of the one we stayed at in Guilin) and it was just as nice with equally friendly staff. Our room was amazing - double bed, tv, ensuite bathroom and a view
Yangshuo
Coco! This was honestly about 4 minutes after she introduced herself to us! She's the best! of the hills and only cost 60 yuan (about $9)!
We were only staying for one night so we spent the first afternoon exploring the town and went for a drink in a tiny cafe/bar. We found great seats that overlooked the pedestrian streets and we had the best waitress ever!!! She was the most rambunctious, peppery, peculiar, eccentric person we had met in a long time. We were the only two customers in the bar and when she saw us she started skipping and singing towards us as if we were old friends reuniting after a long absence. She introduced herself saying "I am Coco. I like you people, you can stay for long!". She was hilarious. We got a few pictures with her and stayed longer than we expected just talking to her.
After, we had a nice dinner at Kelly's Cafe. We talked with Kelly for a while while we ate, she was so nice and the food was delicious so we advised her to expand her business and open a cafe in her hometown of Chengdu - a place we will be visiting next week. We hope the restaurant will be ready by then
so we can enjoy another meal a la Kelly!
That evening we had booked tickets to see a show called Impressions Liu San jie. This fantastic show was directed by
Zhang Yimou, a famous Chinese movie maker who will also be directing the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics (other films directed include Hero, House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower). The show had 600 performers including local fishermen and several minority groups and is performed right on the Li River. Twelve illuminated karst peaks make up the background - it was stunning and definitely wowed the crowd! We really enjoyed the show, which is described as a folk musical. It was so unique and on such a grand scale that we were awed by each part of the show. It's funny because we are never sure whether to pay the money for things that the tour guides say are "must-see" but could just be a tacky tourist trap production. This was definitely not and we would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting Yangshuo.
Our original plan was to take a 22 hour train from Guilin to Beijing, but again due to the Labour
Yangshuo
Michelle draws a character that she calls "windy" and this character reminder her of it! Day holiday all trains were fully booked. We were left with the option to fly to Beijing and as luck would have it, found a flight with a stopover in Xian - another town we wanted to visit but couldn't find the time to do so. Basically we were getting the Xian stopover for the same price as the direct flight to Beijing. Bonus!
Xian
Xian is famous for having the Terracotta warriors tourist attraction. Several travellers we had met had advised us to "get in, see the warriors, and get out" which we guess made us have low expectations about Xian. However we found we really liked the city and wished we had another day or two there. Our hostel was incredible. Maybe the coolest one we've stayed at, and we really would have liked to have the time to walk the city walls and also maybe check out the Big Goose Pagoda. We've noticed how our expectations can often affect our experience. We've realized we like it best when we have no expectations!
The
Terracotta warriors were interesting. As the story goes, a farmer digging a well uncovered underground tombs filled with thousands of
Xian
We stayed at such a great hostel these impressive warriors. Each warrior has a unique face and the detail of their clothing is also unique. It is pretty incredible. Apparently Shi Huang Di - the first emperor of China - thought he would continue ruling in the afterlife, and wanted to be well guarded so he had these warriors made during his lifetime.
We were due in Beijing the same night as our visit to the Terracotta warriors so in order to squeeze it in we had a bit of a whirlwind day travel wise. Bus, taxi, bus, Terracotta Warriors, bus, taxi, taxi, bus (that got into an accident while we were on it!), plane to Beijing, taxi, and we finally arrived at our destination! Crazy travel day. The accident was funny. We're not really sure who was at fault as the bus we were on was cut off by a large dumptruck, but also the bus we were on refused to slow down! Their was a loud crash and the sound of breaking glass, and our bus was being semi-supported by the truck until it drove off. The two drivers shouted at each other and then the truck driver simply got back in his truck
and drove off! No exchange of insurance?!? Don't we have to wait for the police to arrive?!? Our bus driver noticed the large side view mirror was hanging loosely so ripped it off, brought it into the bus and continued driving us to the airport. The whole exchange took less than five minutes and we were on our way again. Crazy.
Next we'll write about our time in Chengdu, and our time in Beijing - where we spent a few days with two teachers that Travis taught with in Japan, and where we also met up with Michelle's dad Mike and brother Johnny.
Thanks for reading,
Love Michelle and Travis
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Steven Wamg
non-member comment
Take care of yourselves
Happy a further trip in China.