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

The Spring City

Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I did Kunming differently. The truth is, I did very little in Kunming, I was so tired. The fast paced nature of our trip seemed to catch up with me. I did wander around the city a bit, but mostly I enjoyed the free wifi and comfy couches at our hostel. Instead of tales of exciting adventures I give you some pictures of what I saw.

Beautiful Gates near our hostel

With a hostel like this, why wouldn't you want to take a day and just hang out?

We splurged on an en suite private room!

Kunming is famous for over the bridge noodles. It was ok, but I've had some better  specialty food...

We went to a bar and when I looked up we saw a map of Kauai. Made me miss Jess and brought back so many memories about our trip.

At a different bar, I left a note on the note wall.

Look a temple! I should know more about it and be more excited about it, but I swear I've seen a thousand temples in China and they all kinda look the same....

This is in front of an exhibit about the Flying Tigers  (the flying tigers  were pilots who fought in WWII) notice the dinosaur in the foreground.... Is this China trying to tell us that dinosaurs were around in the 1940s? 

Stewart's sells Malt-O-Meal cereal!!!!!!! Made me miss home!

I've Met The Doctor in Baisha

On an excursion out of Lijiang I found myself in Baisha, a wonderful town, and home to the Naxi people. 

Getting to Baisha was a little confusing and when I left the hostel I must admit I was only half certain I knew how to get there. Once I was there I was only 60% sure I was actually there until I saw a restaurant I had read about in Lonely Planet. However despite my somewhat confused state I couldn't have been happier. With dirt roads and picturesque mountains this beautiful town was exactly what I had wanted to find. As I wandered through the streets I was also able to see an example of the last pictorial written language used in the world.

Naxi Writing (last pictorial language in the world) 

Although a definite improvement from Lijiang there were still some touristy things in Baisha, or at least what the Naxi people thought tourists wanted. Here you can see the original Mona Lisa (according to the man selling it). When I told him I has seen the original in France he seemed kinda offended...

We also got to see the Doctor. As an avid Doctor Who fan, I love that this man is known as The Doctor. I suppose technically speaking, I even got to go into his TARDIS.

We found it! 

Here is the doctor coming out of his clinic

His full name is Doctor Ho (very similar to Who) and he is a famous doctor of Chinese medicine. Fluent in five languages including English we were able to converse with him easily (perhaps he isn’t fluent at all and its really the TARDIS’s psychic power working in his brain). We arrived at his clinic (TARDIS) during a lull and were able to spend about ten minutes with him undisturbed. At 92 years old he told us his motto “Eat simply, live simply, and above all, be optimistic.” He also made us promise to visit again in 10 years as he will still be practicing medicine. As the Doctor is a very famous man new people quickly arrived to have a world with him. As other people came to see him seeking medical advice we were able to see him work with herbs to create medicine for a woman looking to get pregnant.

The Doctor explaining a perscription

Katelyn, Katie, The Doctor, and myself.

Lijiang – The Old Town

When planning our trip my friends and I wanted to see the important sites in Southern China. One of the places that kept coming up was the Old Town of Lijiang. My Chinese friends told me all about its beauty and charm. With its proximity to The Tiger Leaping Gorge and numerous small Naxi villages we quickly seized the opportunity to go. Finding a great hostel in the Old Town itself.

Beautiful Chinese Architecture

A Man With a Falcon!

It was so pretty!

When we arrived in Lijiang we were stuck by the clean air and blue sky. The feeling of joy quickly disintegrated as we began walking through the streets. All the shops looked the same, all selling the same dingy touristy things.

A McDonald's? 

However we did stumble upon a rather interesting sight. Here something that looked like a desk drawer was burning in the middle of the square. There was a huge media presence and the fireman watched it burn for a period of time before putting it out. Once the fire was out everyone clapped. I'm still confused by this event.

Genghis Khan was here!

Despite some beautiful sights in the town, I found myself very underwhelmed in Lijiang, seeking instead day trips out of the town. What I did however learn in Lijiang had a lot to do with Chinese culture in general. All the things in the shops were hundreds of yuan overpriced, however few Chinese tourists were haggling. It seems that in China people will at times over pay for things to prove that they can pay for them. This is so different from American culture where we constantly search for deals for fear of over paying.

Some of the best street food ever.