Blogs from Anshun, Guizhou, China, Asia

Hi All, Busy, busy, busy. HuangGuoShu falls are one of China's top tourist attractions and it felt like it at times today. I sometimes find the amount of people rather overwhelming but by the end of the day I was pushing, shoving and cutting the queue with the best of them. We managed to visit the three main sights in one day. It was a lot of walking and my legs and feet were aching rather at the end of the day. We first visited the TianXing Qiao scenic area to see the wonderful underground cave. The stone waterfalls were a wonder to behold. It was also lovely to go underground and escape the heat. From there we moved on to DaPuBu the largest of the parks waterfalls. I've never seen a large waterfall and it ... read more

Asia's largest waterfall. The big Huangguoshu waterfall measures 81m wide and 78m high. It is located 45km from Anshun and is easy to reach from Anshun. Here is how it goes: city bus 3 from the train station to the eastern long distance bus station (its terminus), 15 minutes, 1Yuan. bus from there for the Huangguoshu Waterfall site (its terminus), about 1h, 22Yuan. admission ticket for the national park, 90Yuan (if I remember well). transportation ticket, 50Yuan. car transportation to the Tian Xing cluster (Natural Wonders, Tian Xing Cavern and Yunlianzhitan Waterfall), included. walk between these spots and visits. the trail ends with an optional ropeway, 10Yuan (I took it). transportation by golf-cart back to the entrance of this first cluster, included. car transportation to the Huangguoshu cluster (Bonsai park and Hu... read more

While spending four weeks in Yangshuo (), Coco and me heard a good deal of stories about Gétû, the location of Petzl's Roctrip this year. Local westerners told us that the place is amazing, though, hard to get to. That was enough of a challenge for Coco and me and so we made our way through backroads of Guizhou province and into Gétû. Since the information I'd like to share about directions and the place itself might be interesting to a broader audience, this entry is in English. Coco, whom I met in Yangshou, spoke decent Mandarin, which helped a lot to find the place and talk to the people there. Finding the place was not as hard as I expected or was told, though it does not appear in any travel guide. We had a ... read more

As is customary for me, my plans made a sudden change. Instead of heading north and staying in Sichuan Province.. I head south for Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou province. Guizhou province is the poorest province in China, and inline with that one might say one of the most untouched provinces in china. I arrive at the Guiyang Train Station after 19 hours in a VERY hard seat and am greeted by my friend (and local guide) Xiao Huang and her friend whose english name is (of course) Jojo. Despite coming from Chengdu, a city deep in the middle of China, I am a little bit reawakened on the bus ride to my friend's university. DIRTY. thats my first impression. Dirty, muddy, smoggy, old. Guiyang oozes with these adjectives. I lie about my first impression of ... read more

All lights were out in the compound, yet I was already up doing last minute checks through my 70 liter bag for sufficient changes of underwear. I scrutinized at the checklist, saying 'check' to myself repetitively. At 7: 45 I was supposed to meet a friend of mine downstairs to leave for the airport together. Thank god I didn’t bring my bag downstairs, because I waited 15 minutes in fresh morning cold for her. It was 8 o’clock when I finally bade goodbye to dad and scrambled into the car. My mood certainly did not improve knowing it was not my fault that we were going to be late. I hated being late, because I was so well known for my punctuality. When we arrived at the Guangzhou Baiyun airport (needlessly to say- late), it was ... read more