The Worst Bus Ever

Shenzhen, there are many unflattering nicknames bequeathed to this city, however for most its just the entry to Hong Kong. As we devoured travel guides and spoke with fellow travelers we realized that Shenzhen is only a means to get to Hong Kong, not really a place you would want to stay. It is also much cheaper to get to Hong Kong via Shenzhen. A ticket to Hong Kong will cost hundreds of yuan more whereas a ticket to Shenzhen is cheap and then you can just walk across the border.

By this part in our trip we were accustomed to overnight trains, having been on so many we created our own rating system. We figured that Yangshuo was such a tourist destination that the buses must be high quality and we assumed that the bus would be similar to the one from Xishuangbana to Kunming. Never assume. How does the saying go? “Never assume or you make an ass of you and me?” Well I will never assume anything about future Chinese transportation again.

Although the trip was an overnight trip, our bus was not an overnight bus. We had actual seats, regular sit up seats. For a 10 hour ride????????? Mind you our feet were all still wet from having stood in a river earlier today. The ride was horrible, we were so tired and wet, plus there was no bathroom on the bus, and we only made on stop. What we hadn’t realized was that this was the last day off from Spring Festival and everyone was traveling back home, our bus got to Shenzhen about 5 hours late. I’m pretty sure at times we went over an hour without moving more that a quarter of a mile.

Xingping – The back of the 20 Yuan

I’ve always had a keen interest in money, I remember being a small child and my grandfather taking me to a coin and stamp store to get supplies for keeping his coin collection. The collection started with my great grandfather in the early 1900s and has many old coins. As a child I wasn’t usually allowed to touch them or even really look at them but just knowing about them sparked my interest in coin collecting. 

Today I consider myself an amateur numismatist with an extensive collection of coins in circulation as well as many old coins I’ve found miraculously in circulation. While working at a gas station during high school my interest in coin collection flourished, as I constantly used the cash drawer I was able to set aside coins and paper money I wanted to buy before my shift was over. My co-workers even began setting money aside that I could check when I came into work. It was very common for me to spend $5 - $10 per shift on money I wanted to add to my collection. My best finds from working at the gas station include a 10 cent Deutsch Mark from 1910, numerous rare pennies from the 1930s, and a rare silver cetificate.

Unfortunately before coming to China I had to sell a small portion of my collection, everything I sold was a duplicate but still parting with it wasn’t easy. As I travel and encounter new types of money I’m constantly looking at it, trying to gain an understanding of who the people on the money are, and an appreciation for the landscapes often found on the back of money. Having moved to China I was able to do this on a level I had never done before, generally I only spend a week or so in different countries so my understand of the money's symbols stays very superficial. In China I have been able to learn a lot about the places showcased on their money. So when our travel plans took us to Guanxi I knew I had to get to Xingping, the back of the twenty has an image of the Li River in Xingping on it.

It takes about an hour and a half to get to the town from Yangshuo and it was the last thing we were to do before heading to Hong Kong. I was so excited when two of my friends decided to join in. We reached the town and wandered in the direction of the river where we finally found the slew of rafts waiting for tourists. It ended up being much cheaper than expected getting to the place where the picture was taken, only 60 yuan, or about $10.

A picture taken from the raft showing what the rafts looked like.

Most people climbed the small island to get a grand view, however once we reached the sacred spot, we realized that it wasn’t quite right…  

Perfectionists as we are and having come so far we made it our mission to find the exact location where the artist must have stood. We found the spot, it the middle of the river. 

The Chinese tourists began taking many pictures of the crazy foreigners standing in the river! I’m so proud of us for finding the exact shot, in Chinese terms, that moment will live in my heart forever.

Katie, Katelyn, and I at the exact spot the artist stood.

Yangshuo – A Western Colony of Sorts

I kept trying to find the best way to describe Yangshuo and I’ve decided to just call it how I saw it. I’ve never been to an actual colony but I have to imagine that Yangshuo is what it would be like. The meeting of East and West in a tiny place along the Li River.

The availability of western food and alcohol was beyond belief, I must admit I think I went 48 hrs without eating any Chinese food……. It’s just so hard to resist sometimes.

My favorite part of Yangshuo was cooking class. I have always enjoyed cooking, in college I had an apartment senior year where I would cook meals all the time with my best friend. I’ve tried my hand at replicating Chinese food in my apartment this year but I’ve had no luck whatsoever. A friend who had traveled through Yangshuo the week before went to a cooking school that he absolutely loved. I decided to check it out.

The school is actually in a fully functioning restaurant, we were welcomed and given a table in the dining room were they allowed us to sample flavored baiju and chose what dishes to make. I was allowed to choose two meat dishes and one vegetable dish.  Then we went up to the classroom, where we each had our own wok. I was given the ingredients for vegetable dumplings, beer fish, and sweet and sour pork; the dishes I had chosen to make. I was taught Chinese style cleaver usage and how to properly use a wok. Within 40 minutes my dishes were done.

One done we sat back down at our table in the main dining room where we were able to feast on our dishes. Random fact in the south dumplings are served with soy sauce not vinegar.

A Stop-Over in Guilin

Guilin is the capital of Guanxi Province and although it is very important to the Province of Guanxi it has little importance for travelers. We used Guanxi as our base for exploring the Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces, but in retrospect we could have easily done it from better locations. Namely Yangshuo, but that’s another blog post, let me not get too far ahead of myself.

Dumplings and French Fries to Celebrate Spring Festival

The day we arrived in Guilin was “Chinese New Year’s Day” or the first day of Spring Festival, naturally everything was closed or extremely expensive. We decided to explore the area and found ourselves wandering the streets. We could tell that the night before had been quite the celebration in Guanxi as all the streets were dyed red by the fireworks. To our surprise we stumbled upon the world’s tallest copper pagoda.

Katie, Katelyn, and I at the pagoda. 

By far the highlight of Guanxi was definitely our day trip to the Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces. We took a private van on a terrifying trip to the town. We literally passed four car accidents on our way. The fog was so thick we could barely see thirty feet in front of us. We rounded hairpin turns far faster than we ever would have in America. I can’t tell you how many times I wondered if we would survive the trip. I’m not a religious person, but if I was I’m pretty sure I would have prayed the whole way.

Once we were there our horror was quickly forgotten as we came into the most picturesque little town complete with fog. Now for anyone in the west fog is just fog, and you might not understand why it astonished me so much. Here in China fog is generally smog and it chokes you as you go outside. But here it was fresh and clean fog. Amazing beautiful fog, I love fog.

Look at the fog!

An awesome bridge.

I wish I taught English in a town like this.

The most picturesque little restaurant

Climbing the actual terraces you had to be careful where you placed your feet as the slippery mud could easily send you tumbling down the mountains.  Yet the feeling of fresh air in my lungs was so elating that I often forgot the fear of death that should have been engulfing me.

There are times in China when I see things that I learned about in history class in America. Unfortunately I was never really interested in Chinese history so those times are few and far between. Seeing the rice terraces was one of those moments.

Flea Markets Very Different in America

Most of the time I see things in China and I think to myself, I’m in China, they do things differently here. I think for the most part in the scheme of culture shock I have reached cultural acceptance. Some days however I see things that push me right back to the shock phase. A moment like that occurred when we visited a large market.

The beginning of the market

While in Xishuangbana we read about a flea market type thing in Menghai, in my mind I pictured the Meadowlands flea market in New Jersey. That market is filled with vendors selling all sorts of clothes, housewares, and street food. Not quite what we found in Menghai, instead we seemed to be at a huge food market selling fruits, vegetables, live animals, meat, and not a lot of street food or non food goods for that matter. 

Enclosed part of market selling fruits, vegetables, eggs, and live animals.

Now I’m used to seeing live animals for sale, but when I walk into a warehouse full of raw meat in 80 degree (Fahrenheit) weather, I can't help but feel utterly shocked. The smell nearly made me a vegetarian.

The raw meat market

After seeing the meat warehouse we were in the mood to get as far away from the market as fast as possible. We had been expecting lots of food vendors selling street food, not raw meat. In our search for a restaurant we stumbled into a place selling some sort of noodles, noodles seemed really safe, so we figured why not. We went in and sat at a table, we were then led to the refrigerator where we were told in Chinese to pick out what we wanted. 

The Refrigerator

We assumed we were choosing the ingredients to go into the noodles. Turns out they made a dish showcasing (is that the right word? Do I speak English?) each of the ingredients we chose! It was so simple but also some of the best Chinese food I’ve ever had.

Our Chefs!

Our first dish, delicious!

More dishes! 

To Buddha's Footprint or Bust!

Although still feeling quite under the weather I pushed myself to travel a bit through the region. 

The street our hostel is on

My friends and I ventured out to see where the Buddha supposedly passed through the area. 

The archway welcoming us to Da Meng Long

A short bus ride from the city of Jinhong brought us to this beautiful village where few foreigners go. The woman we bought water from was so excited to sell it to foreigners, we had a lot of fun speaking to her in our broken Chinese.

As we wandered through the town we were very uncertain of where exactly the pagoda was. Luckily we stumbled upon the stairs up the mountain. In China it seems to be the norm that they build cement stairs up all the mountains, so when you go hiking your actually climbing a lot of steps.

Legend says that Buddha even left a foot print on the top of a mountain. A pagoda was built there on the foot print in his honor. Here we are standing in front of Buddha's footprint.

Here we are!

Although I thought I was going to die on my climb up, I’m so glad I forced myself to do it!

The Bus Ride From Hell

Generally I don’t get sick, I’m lucky in that case. I remember in school watching my friends battle cold after cold, and although I did sometimes catch the sniffles, I seemed to be immune. I’d be ten times more likely to take a “day of rest” then a sickday.

It seemed however, that this luck came at some sort of price. When I did get sick it was always at the worst times, I’ve been to many hospitals and clinics in the towns and cities I’ve visited. Fun times, nothing says vacation like a double ear infection. Of course there are also the holidays I’ve spent many a Christmas/Thanksgiving/4^th of July on the bathroom floor (and its not because I got to vested in the festivities).

I suppose good luck comes at a price.

While in Kunming I ate some street food. This could be said about anyday though. Most my food consumption comes from smiling street food vendors happily preparing food for me. I’ve had stomach aches before, but never anything more.

That changed the night we went to Xishuangbana. On our way to Jinhong, a city in the Xishuangbana region, I developed the worst food poisoning I’ve ever had. Not the best way to spend a 12 hour bus ride I might add. I ended up being sick for most of our stay in Xishuangbana :-(

Evil Street Food