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Zhijin
Doesn't this look like something from alien? - I'm going to England next week.
- You don't say? So am I!
- Well, I'll probably see you there.
Hey Kids! Can you find what's wrong with this conversation? It takes just two letters to correct it. See if you can figure it out. Come on, it's not that hard. Really. Keep trying. Not there yet? I'll give you another minute. Well? Still nothing. Ok, here's the solution. The correct conversation should go like this:
- Well, I'll improbably see you there.
You see kids, when two people go to England, and don't make any prior arrangements to meet, the chance that they will just bump into each other is somewhere in the ridiculously infinitesimal fractions of a percent. And that's just what seems to be happening to me throughout my trip.
Guizhou is about half the size of Great Britian with a little less people. I think it would be difficult to assume that you will just run into people. I went to the bus station yesterday morning to catch the bus from Anshun to Zhijin (pronounced Jijin). Just outside the bus, I noticed two people who looked fairly familiar, they were Naor and
Zhijin
Entering the cave Ayelet. Naor and Ayelet are a couple I had seen around Lijiang and Dali. We happened to be staying in the same guesthouses and had even hiked together one day. Here they were taking the same bus as I was, at the improbable hour of 7:20 am. Now I know there must be a mathematician among us who will stand up and say that due to certain hueristics and false assumptions, this chance meeting is actually not so improbable. To him I say: Shut up and sit down. You're ruining my post.
So my theory that I'm the only westerner to have visited Guizhou this year turned out to be false. In this case, I was quite happy to have the theory dispelled. It is ironic, though, that the only other westerners I've bumped into in Guizhou so far are Israeli. Anyway, after the happy reunion we set our sights on Zhijin.
Quick Zhijin primer. It's the biggest cave in China. To get there from Ansun, the closest big city, you have to take a three hour bus to Zhijin town, followed by a one hour bus to the park entrance. This is why, if you don't want
Zhijin
You can't swing a cat without hitting a stalactite to end up having to sleep in Zhijin town because you missed the bus back, you need to set off real early. And believe you me, you do not want to have to spend a minute more than you have to in Zhijin town. It looks like where Anshun pumps it's refuse to. And we've already established in a previous post what Anshun looks like.
So back to our story. We arrived at the park enrance. Due to its remoteness, we expected it to hardly have any visitors. Turns out the Chinese thought otherwise. They were holding a "Zhijin Idol" talent contest with TV crews and the works. No peace and quite for us. We proceeded to enter the cave and get away from the off-pitch singing. The cave is HUGE. Filled with stalactites. Like nothing I've ever seen. There's an underground concourse which takes you through a series of halls. Several of the halls were the size of at least two football fields. I kid you not. We walked underground for about two hours. I conservatively figure we must have walked about 4km without seeing a ray of daylight. And only part of the caves are open to
Zhijin
More cavescapes the public. The total length is about 12km with some caverns rising to 150m above floor level. Awe inspiring.
I'm going to continue travelling with Naor and Ayelet, probably until Yangshuo. Since they arrived in Anshun a bit after I did, I needed to kill about half a day in order to sync myself with their pace. I decided to go to Huangguoshu falls in the morning while they went to Longgong (where I had already been).
Huangguoshu falls are the largest in China (Guizhou has a lot of biggest, largest, poorest, etc., remember?). Got on the one hour bus over there bright and early. I could have slept in. It takes just under two hours to complete the thing. I found myself at the entrance of the park at 11am having already seen the falls. On a whim, needing to kill the rest of the day, I decided to head for Guiyang, the province's capital, which was two and a half hours away by bus.
Just before we touch on Guiyang, quick (really quick) description of the falls. Although they may be the biggest in China, these falls do not cause you to forget to perform
Zhijin
To get a sense of scale, look at the people on the left the acts of inhalation and exhalation as, for instance, Iguacu (in Argnetina / Brazil) did for me. But still, trust the Chinese, those little rascals, to think of a marketing pitch. And they did. They bore tunnels right behind the waterfalls, with verandas opening to a view of the back of the falls. So maybe the view is not the most unique ever seen, but that little trip behind the rush of water was really fun (and wet...).
For some reason, it seems that I was a minor celebrity there. People asked to have their picture taken with me. I have yet to report of requests for autographs. On the other hand, I have five days worth of stubble on my face and I haven't had a haircut since I reached China. So I think an equally probable hypothesis for this eagerness to have a photo taken with me is that some of the Chinese thought that they had found that elusive missing evolutionary link between the orangutan and themselves and were really eager to document it.
Anyhow, I'm trying to wrap this post up, so lets conclude with Guiyang. Reaching it had a redeeming effect for Guizhou
Zhijin
Looks like a praying budha as far as I'm concerned. It just proves that even in the poorest province, a city doesn't have to be ugly (like Anshun). In fact, it was as nice as Kunming if not nicer. It being a Sunday, people were out on the streets, strolling, flying kites in the park, doing some ballroom dancing in public as well as other activities in general which made the place seem extremely agreeable. The only annoying thing was that for some reason, I noticed being called "Laowai" several times. First time I noticed this. For those of you who don't know what this is, it's a not-so-flattering name for a foreigner. They will never use it to you face. I walked the streets for five hours. It was too nice. Something was bothering me. It was in about the third hour of walking when I realized what it was. No bicycles. This is a first for me in a Chinese city. Not even bicycle lanes. I couldn't think of an explanation for this. There's no obvoius explanation. The place is not hilly enough to preclude them. Theories and suggestions are welcome.
Anyhow, in the evening, hopped the the bus back to Anshun
Zhijin
Underwater scenery (thanks to lighting) to go to bed (just as soon as I finish this post). On the way back the feature film was something about American marines doing some special ops in an arab country. To an Israeli, it was blatantly obvious that the movie was filmed either in Jaffa or Acre. It wasn't just the scenery. The arab terrorists just looked too Jewish (Yemenite descent for the most part). To seal the deal, along came Mohammed Bakri in his young version (it must have been filmed late eighties, early nineties) as one of the terrorists. Gee what gave them that casting idea?
Anyway, after 90 minutes of Mohammed speaking in Chinese (quite amusing) I got off the bus and this is where the past catches up to the present, so until next time, Zai Jian!
P.S. The movie was "Death Before Dishonor" (credit to IMDB for the find).
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Jessica
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bicycles in Guiyang
I'm a "laowai" living in Guiyang. I am a bit puzzled about the absence of bicycles as well. All the natives here say it is because it is too hilly. Really though, the hilly spots are sparse and mostly on the outskirts of the city. Anyway, that is the explanation of Guiyang natives.