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Published: August 6th 2007
The province of Guangxi was my latest stop in my multi year world trip.
(Check out my home page here for the over 90 entries of the places I've visited in the last 3 years). The Karst formations around Guilin and Yangshuo are stunningly beautiful. Its maybe "the most beautiful landscape under heaven". But along with with that comes the hustle. The area is a very popular tourist destination with both Chinese and foreign tourists. This means that I was sharing the experience with loads of tour groups and touts.
I left the story in Guangzhou at the end of my last blog
(The Immortals). On Tuesday the 8th I caught a comfortable bus to the city of Wuzhou. An easy 5 hour ride from Guangzhou (not 7-8 hours as stated in Lonely Planet). The bus travelled through some spectacular scenery and the road carved its way through the side of countless mountains.
Dragon Mother
Wuzhou is a trading town of 300,000 or so, with some pleasant parks, markets and colonial buildings. This is yet another place in Southern China that the British gained a foothold in after the Opium Wars. (See my previous blog
'Dirty Foreign Mud' for more on the Opium Wars).
Whilst in
Wuzhou I
spent the best part of an afternoon talking with a Chinese English teacher. I mentioned how out of date my guide book is although it was published in 2005. The guidebook shows a riverfront park. It has gone, replaced by yet another shopping parade to service China's growing consumer culture.
I wasn't impressed with the new waterfront. For some reason they have built a line of single storey shops on the waterfront. But the shops face inland. The waterfront itself is blocked off from view. A long windowless wall made up of the back of the shops faces the river. The only way to see the river is to climb a set of steps next to the shops and walk along the roof.
My new found friend was also not impressed by the new tree-less waterfront. He told me that he
refused to shop there because the trees had been felled.
I also visited some of the sights around the city which included the
Temple of the Dragon Mother. This temple was built in the Northern Song Dynasty to honour the dragon mother of a mythical woman chieftain.
The most beautiful landscape under heaven
My next stop was the town of
Yangshuo. The Lonely Planet describes it as a backpacker haven. I think its gone far beyond that, its taken the next logical step in tourism development. Its over-run with tour groups. Chinese tourism is huge. The tour groups in Yangshuo are local Chinese tourists as well as Westerners. Walking along West Street in the centre of town - you've left China and entered some strange Western tourist wonderland. Everyone speaks English. Everyone sells English, American and Continental breakfasts. This strange multi-national freak show is in itself a tourist attraction for local Chinese tourists.
Whilst in the town I hired a bike and visited some of the scenic spots. (See my photos!) The scenery is stunning. So, despite the tourist hustle it is worth visiting Yangshuo.
Its also possible to learn Tai Chi, calligraphy and Chinese in Yangshuo. I took the opportunity to try to learn some Chinese. I did 5 two hour lessons with a Chinese teacher at 8 till 10 in the morning. My teacher was very patient with me, as I find it very difficult
to learn a new language. It must be my age!
On the 17th of May I had my final Chinese language lesson, catching the bus to Guilin afterwards. I decided to stay the night in Guilin. It was raining hard, so I didn't actually do a lot. The next day it was also raining. So, I stopped another day.
The road to heaven
My next destination was the Longji Rice Terraces
(Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces). I delayed the trip because I didn't want to walk around the trails when it was raining. They would be very slippery. I took the bus to Longsheng which is the nearest town to the rice terraces. From Longsheng it was an hours bus ride to the village of Pin-an in the middle of the terraces. The area is home to a mixture of Dong, Zhuang, Yao and Miao cultures.
The village of Pin-an is a Zhuang village of wooden houses built on a ridge of the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces.
The
Longji Terraces were first built by the
Zhuang and Yao peoples in the 13th century Yuan Dynasty. Pin-an is a
backpacker hang-out, unlike Yangshuo. The accommodation options in Pin-an are more basic than Yangshuo or Guilin. I noticed tour operators in Guilin offering day tours to the Longji terraces.
When I arrived in Pin-an the rain had stopped - so I was able to explore the trails around the area. I then returned to Guilin before catching a bus to Nanning.
Changes...
Nanning is the provincial capital. I stayed in the city for a night before catching a sleeper train to Kunming in Yunnan. Nanning is a long way from the Pearl River Special Development Zones but the parts of the city I saw were brand new. Wherever I looked I saw new buildings or building sites. The area near the river has been completely re-developed and gentrified. One hundred metres from my hotel was a brand new shopping mall which was anchored by a branch of the American supermarket chain, Mal-Mart.
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