Karst Mountains, Rice Terraces and journeys to remember


Advertisement
China's flag
Asia » China » Hunan » Guilin
January 31st 2010
Published: January 31st 2010
Edit Blog Post

Total Distance: 0 miles / 0 kmMouse: 0,0

Shanghai to Guilin


So we took the train in the late afternoon, the day after the night out, to Guilin in the south of China. Arriving in sunshine and with slightly warmer weather. The 28 hour journey meant that we were limited to just having dinner with some French guys at the hostel but we planned to go to Yangshuo the day after, an hour and a half bus ride south of Guilin.

That day has probably been my favourite day so far on my trip. We arrived about 10am into Yangshuo and after a disappointing climb up a peak where we could only climb halfway we decided to rent some mountain bikes and do a bike tour after lunch. The town itself is a bit touristy, especially down the strip with the cafes, bars, restaurants, handicrafts and knock-off brands. But nonetheless the surrounding area which could be seen from the town was enough to make a visit to this town worthwhile. I later learned that this place is also buzzing at night, with a vibrant party scene and if I had known about that I would’ve preferred to stick around for more than a day trip. Anyway Andy and I hired our bikes and discussed with the lady at the bike hire about a route around the town that would only take 4 hours. So we went on our way through the town, with our map, and started along some country roads and instantly the scenery started bursting out from behind the concrete buildings. Smooth tree covered mountains, paddy fields, traditional rural villages of no more than a dozen houses, farms with the animals and the dirt road ahead of us. It was brilliant! For hours we went passed some beautiful scenery and the weather was on our side. After a cloudy morning the sun began shining through in the afternoon and made our photos look like postcards. The villagers were very friendly and some occasional wrong turns were rectified with smiling faces. On our way back we did get very lost and made it back in time at dusk adding another hour or so onto our journey. We were shattered and finding it painful to sit down with our bruised arses but fully satisfied with our days work. Some homely grub at an English greasy spoon and back to Guilin for a well earned sleep.

Up early again to get to the Dragon Rice Terraces to the north of Guilin. This time though the journey was going to be more difficult. But we started with a positive attitude and got on our first bus of the day to the small town of Longsheng where we would need to change bus and get to the village Daxai, up in the mountains. What’s special about the rice terraces are that they are 1000m high and the amount of terraces offer a unique view. However we needed to get there first! After a couple of hours on the bus we were starting to get concerned that we had missed where we were supposed to get off or we were heading somewhere completely different. I asked the lady sitting next to me, gesturing that we wanted to go to Daxai and was this bus going to Longsheng? I don’ think anyone on the bus spoke English so the best bet was this lady who was at least in her 20s, hoping she would have better English than anyone else. It wasn’t the case but gestures and pointing go a long way and she called the bus conductor over, had a chat and then nothing. I was handed back the map I was gesturing with and then nothing. I was confused as hell and just thought it best to wait and see what happens. The bus was going up and around the hills and mountains so we knew we weren’t far but were unsure if we would actually make it to the terraces. We had been on the bus now for almost 3 hours. After nothing the bus stopped randomly on an incline and the bus conductor gestured over to us to get off the bus (actually she screamed something in Mandarin but we will say it was gesturing). Getting off with just road and forests around we saw another tiny village bus across the road and the conductor was telling us to get on it. We were now at the mercy of the Chinese bus conductors getting us to where we needed to get to as we hadn’t a clue. Now on a village bus with infinitely more staring from the locals of the strange foreigners miles away from home, we got to a small village market. We were then passed onto another smaller bus that arrived 2 minutes later, which was already half full with 10 people. Now like a can of sardines we set off with at least 30 people in this thing. I was keeping an old lady upright as the bus was making its incline up the mountain (I did offer my seat but the conductor shouted at me and told me to sit back down and as we were now at the mercy of these people I thought it best not to cross her) and 45 minutes later we arrived at Daxai. A miracle! The old lady smiled at me as we all got off the bus and her friend gestured to us to follow her up to her village where she would show us the different viewpoints and presumably show us some hospitality. We accepted and followed her for over an hour trekking through the mountains and up some steep climbs. The views were impressive and the clouds hanging overt the valley added to its impact. Thousands of terraces from the bottom of the mountain all the way to the very top. We passed a few hilltop villages but eventually arrived to the old lady’s village where she ran a guesthouse. We bought some food and drink and then set off all the way back. The 4 to 5 hour journey there had limited the time we could spend at the terraces as the last bus back to Guilin was at 4pm. The clouds closed in on our way back so we could only see up to 20 metres in front of us but even that was special. We got to where the bus had dropped us off just in time to get the bus back to Guilin. Apart from a hold up on the mountains road due to a road accident we got back at a decent time of 8pm.

The day after we had a look around Guilin itself and went to one of the parks, where supposedly there were monkeys. We didn’t see any but the weather was great and I had a little nap on the grass in the sunshine before the shadows crept up and took away the warmth of the sun and forced us back to the hostel. Our train was at 9pm and we had plenty of time to relax at the hostel and get a dinner in. While we were waiting around we met 2 English guys and an Irishman; Simon, Rob and Colm. We got chatting and exchanged email addresses and said that we would meet up later along our trips in Hanoi, Vietnam. Time to go and take our train to Shenzen to cross the border into Hong Kong but leaving with one of the best experiences on my trip so far.


Additional photos below
Photos: 27, Displayed: 27


Advertisement



Tot: 0.135s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 14; qc: 66; dbt: 0.0684s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb