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Published: August 21st 2010
From Hong Kong I crossed back into China via Shenzen, it was my first Asian walk over the border- style crossing and I was quiet excited. Actually, it wasn't as exciting as it sounds. For some reason the idea of walking across a border conjures up the image of tribal people and jungle. Obviously this was a silly idea and in reality the border was just like an airport, although outside there was a nice grimy looking moat and lots of barbed wire. Interestingly, the fortifications were mainly on the HK side, perhaps indicating which way the officials were worried about escapees.
It was a time for exciting firsts. From Shenzen to Guilin I had my first sleeper bus experience. It was utterly random. Three rows of 'bunk beds' each persons pillow being made up of a raised section covering the person behind you's feet. People also lined the aisles, the beds were too short and as they sloped I was constantly slipping down to the bottom. We were efficiently layered and it was a thoroughly uncomfortable experience! On the plus side I was very impressed with myself for not getting travel sick! I vowed never to repeat the expereince.
Minority Villages
Dragons backbone rice terracesGuilin was mainly wet. Unfortunately, this was to be a bit of a theme for the next couple of weeks. To be fair, I had hit south China in the rainy season, so it was to be expected. I spent a few days lurking in the hostel then, trying to make the best of it, I climbed Guilins 'solitary beauty peak' in the pouring rain. IT wasnt the best plan and the views were pretty non existant but Im glad I tried! Giving up on Guilin I headed off to the dragon backbone rice terraces with a Dutch couple from my hostel. Here the bad weather was at least atmospheric. We stayed in a cheap but basic wooden hotel in Darzai, a friendly minority village in the midst of the terraces. The next day, we did a nice 5 hour hike across to another village, Pingan. Unlike on the tourist adds, we didn't see rice terraces for miles in all directions. It was still nice though; Instead of clear green views, valleys faded into the mist and solitary workers appeared out of nowhere, driving water buffalo and planting rice. Most of the time, what was noticable was the absolute
Mountain top farming
Dragons backbone rice terraces silence, however the bad weather was taking its toll and with paddies were over flowing, the frantic villages were out en mass patching the earth walls.
From the rice terraces I headed to Yangshuo, a fabled beauty spot of south China. It was raining too hard to ascertain the truth of this fable. My possessions were starting to go mouldy, I was getting thoroughly fed up of sleeping in a damp bed and the rest of the province was being plagued by floods. I decided to flee for the time being and return in better weather.
My plan of escape was to head to Yunnan province. An ethnic minority haven famed for its beautiful landscapes and temperate climate. The province is in the south west of China, with Sichuan and Tibet to the north and Burma, Laos and Vietnam to the South. It used to be where banished officials were sent, now its one of those places everyone in china wants to go. How things change!
After a stopover in Kunming 'the spring city', I headed to the traditional backpacker haunt of Dali. It was a nice town. It felt like the sort of place that was
drifting out of memory- once on every tourist trail, it has now been abandoned for being 'too touristy'. The result is good. An easy to navigate, pretty town with everything a traveller needs yet without swathes of westerners or the feeling that you are just a walking cash card. There's a nice lake in the distance, and a pretty mountain to climb, but other than that Dali is just a nice place to wander some back streets and alternate meals of local noodles with treats of banana porridge, cake and coffee.
In Dali I met a nice Australian cum Londoner called Trish. After a few days of waxing lyrical over the delights of porridge we decided to leave the comforts of Dali and attempt a foray, slightly off the beaten track. It proved to be a very good idea. Shaxi, was a wonderful little village that was once a key stopping point on the caravan routes winding between the surrounding countries. To get there we were unceremoniously dumped on the highway by our taxi driver to try and flag down a local bus. We succeeeded. After a long bumpy bus, lunch in a small town and a shorter bumpy
bus ride, we were deposited in probably my favourite place in China.
There was something about Shaxi. Not just the scenery, although it was severly pretty. A picturesque crumbling village set in a wide valley of rice paddies. But it was more than that. The hostel was in the main town square and was a wooden framed building set around a little courtyard with a peach tree and some friendly dogs. Each building was equally picturesque and one night the whole village gathered to watch a period drama being filmed in the main cobbled square.
Next door to our hostel, an elderly couple were expert coffee makers and practiced their english on us over a frothy latte, They were so kind and welcoming. The old woman accidentally over charged us 5 yuan (50p) on our first visit, and came looking for us in our hostel to apologize. I felt that for the first time I was encountering real people rather than a money making front.
Everyone was nice. The beauty was that foreigners were still new to the villagers so the people were charming and friendly. The old ladies all looked the part. They wore working pajamas
and mao style hats. They returned from the rice paddies in the evening in groups, smiling and laughing. When they saw we had cameras, they wanted to be photographed and their massive grins widened when we showed them the images. The day after we arrived, there was a market. It was a big affair and a drawing point of the region. There was an animal market, a meat market, a general stuff market and a fruit and vegetable market. The locals gathered on mass and traders came from all around to sell their wares. Young women in colourful ethnic dress smiled up at us over bowls of silken tofu, old men gave us wide toothless grins and old ladies pushed juicy plums into our hands as we walked past. It was photo heaven, as you will gather from my orgy of people pictures!
Instead of our intended over night visit we ended up staying four days. I could have stayed longer but the aim was to fit in a quick hike of tiger leaping gorge before heading back to Yangshuo. I am glad I did. Although tiger leaping gorge is currently officially closed due to building works, it was
Halfway house
Tiger Leaping Gorge still perfectly hikable.
Oh my god, it was knackering. If I was under any delusion that all the walking around I'd been doing had made me fit, these delusions were efficiently shattered and I was revealed as having weedy lungs. But it was beautiful. We took two days to do the walk, taking the high road and following red arrow spray-painted onto the rocks. At some points the scenery was just quite pretty, at others it was downright spectacular with steep drops and water rushing, brown and furious, in the gulley below. Across the gorge, white tipped mountains loomed, forming a wall between us and the rest of the world.
One thing I've been considering a lot recently is the comforting nature of mountains. Being surrounded by mountains is relaxing. It just is. They are beautiful, that must be part of it. But I think there's more to it. Perhaps its a habitual need for security? Mountains form a fort, they make us feel safe- a natural barrier which enemies have to cross to reach us? Is that too contrived? I think perhaps it is more to do with their utter awesomeness! The logic is as follows; Having
Me in da gorge.;
Tiger Leaping Gorge responsibilities and being important can be stressful. Ultimately you can only see the world through your own eyes and its easy to feel like you are the centre of the world. As a result of this, I think its easy to let your thoughts and worries feel big and important too. A concept that's obviously stressful. Perhaps the awesome nature of mountainous surroundings put us back in our place. By reminding us that actually we are pretty tiny we are given some perspective and are able to see that maybe in the grand scheme of things, our personal cares aren't so massive.
Whatever the reason, I'm totally sold. Mountains are turning out to be a big part of China for me and there's a great variety to choose from. I think my favourite are the ones around Yangshuo, which I did get to see properly, without rain, when I went back there. That, however, is another story, which I will save for another day.
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mummy
non-member comment
did you know Daddy planted rice?
love your pictures of the dragons' back rice terraces (much steeper than the paddies Daddy planted), mountains, markets and all the lovely food and people too! looking forward to more news! xx mummy