Southern China

The 13-hour flight to Hong Kong went surprisingly smoothly; the plane wasn't full so I had two seats worth of space to stretch and sleep on. I guess I must've slept over eight hours, and also managed to watch episodes of CSI and Mad Men that I hadn't seen before. From Hong Kong airport I took a bus to Guangzhou. The border crossing was done on foot, and was simple and straightforward. In true Chinese style every bus passanger got a sticker to wear, and it helped a lot as I just had to point at the sticker and I was hustled to the right bus with great efficiency.

Guangzhou

The bus arrived to Guangzhou after dark, and the city was beautifully decorated with lights. Every tree had beautiful dreamy christmas-light type decorations, and the tall buildings had tasteful lights running across them. I guess it is due to the 16th Asian Games which were held in Guangzhou when I was there. My hostel was located by the riverside, and although I was exhausted I had to go for a walk by the river to enjoy the scenery in dark!

The downside of the location was mosquitos. I hadn't had any major problems with mosquitos before, and I figured that although there were some in the lobby, I would be fine in my room. I was seriously wrong, as I woke up at 3 am to a seriously swollen upper lip. After rolling in the bed for a couple of hours due to jetlag, mosquitos and the awful smell of repellent I had applied I finally managed to fall asleep again. When I woke up again, I had more bites; one in the corner of my eye and several on my left hand and wrist, all swollen. My mirror image was a lovely combination of Angelina Jolie (upper lip, luckily the bite was bang in the middle) and one Chinese eye. Oh well, at least I could see and eat without problems!

I spent only one day in Guangzhou. It was taken up by obtaining a hard sleeper ticket for a train to Guilin (easy with the note written for me by the hostel people), a stroll in the Orchid Garden where I enjoyed a lovely cup of tea, and a visit to the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King, a well preserved tomb site with a museum containing all the treasures of the tomb.

Guilin

The train to Guilin took 12 hours, and passed by in a blink as I managed to sleep for ten hours. The train arrived in the early hours of the Saturday morning, and by eight am I had already booked myself on two tours on the upcoming days as well as a train ticket to Kunming. In Guilin I first saw the Solitary Beauty Peak in the very city centre and enjoyed the show of examinations held for the candidates for imperial government officials; in this case, excited Chinese tourists seated in a row of small cubicles. I lunched at a local noodle restaurant, where a meal cost 3 RMB and you were given a bowl of noodles and meat, and you could add the spices and broth from big vats as you wanted. Probably the best noodles I've had this far!

Then I braved the local busses and succesfully found myself from the Reed Flute Cave. I had seen the hundreds of photos my boyfriend had taken there five years earlier, but I still wasn't prepared for the extreme beauty of the stalagmites and stalactites formed by an underground river. They looked like melting mushrooms, spiny and spirally towers of gothic cathedrals, extraterrestrial landscapes. Awe-some.

When I returned from the cave, I felt incredibly cold, as the temperature was around 10-15C compared to the lovely 25C of Guangzhou and HK. What was meant to be warming up under a duvet turned out to a five-hour nap, and I heard that it had been raining all of that time. A quick tour of the town in the evening revealed a night marked with a lot of souvenirs and little gadgets, as well as a weird party at the central square with singers and badly coreographed fashion shows.

Li and Yulong river tours

I had booked a pricy river tour for Sunday, and it turned out to be totally worth it. We spent over four hours on the Li river on a bigger boat (compared to the bamboo rafts that some tourists braved regardless of the cold and rainy weather). The Li river has the views you can see in every Chinese painting - the snaky river and hump-like steep, round-topped hills. It is claimed to be the most beautiful of Chinese sceneries, and a picture of it can be found on the reverse of 20RMB note. Although the weather was misty, the views were stunning. The river cruise ended in town of Yangshuo, a very touristy town where 15 million tourists pass through every year. As shopping for souvenirs for several hours didn't interest me, I opted for an extra tour to the Yulong river.

Yulong village and Yulong river were a lot less touristy and very enjoyable in their rustic, calm atmosphere. We saw a lot of rice fields, ducks feeding on shrimps, living in the rice paddies, water buffalos (which we got to feed and pat) and fishing with cormarant birds. They bind a string around the neck of the birds so that they cannot swallow the fish they catch, so the fish can be retrieved from their beaks. There also was relaxing bamboo rafting in the stunning views.

The guide on the tour, Yang Yang, was very friendly and fun. He was happy to answer all of our weird questions and didn't get annoyed when we wanted to photograph ducks instead of the famous views. And by we I mean me and four American girls who I teamed up for the day. They were good fun and as the hostel hasn't been too sociable, it was good to find company on the tour. He told us that typically the prettiest building in each village is a Party meeting hall, and I asked him some more questions about the topic. Apparently they hold events every week, and what surprised me, is that not everyone is eligible to be a party member. Only the best 4% of students get opportinity to join. I had always assumed that the party was for everyone to be a part of, but it sort of makes sense to have the smart people in the deciding team!

Minority and Rice Terrace tour

Monday was yet another tour day. I had booked to go and see the Dragon Bone rice terraces, but the tour included also a stop at Yao minority village. The women of the Yao grow their hair very long, and only cut it when they get married. The longest hair was about 2.5 metres long! They dress up in traditional red dresses and wear their hair according to their status (single, married, married with children). The village was built of wood unlike rest of China I've seen, and we visited a traditional house and a show where the Yao women sang, danced and displayed the traditional wooing procedures. It was surprisingly interesting and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would!

The rice terraces were unfortunately mainly clouded over, so climbing up to the highest peak at 1000m was not rewarding at all as the visibilty was zero. The views from lower down were ok though, and it was possible to imagine how pretty it would be from the top. The lunch was in the village of Ping'an, and as the tour group was Chinese (except for me), a group of lovely Chinese invited me over to their table allowing sharing of food and sampling more things. The traditionally cooked rice and chicken inside a bamboo stick was delicious, as was the smoked pork and beer fish!

I have enjoyed Guilin a lot altough I've been wearing my warm fleece and jeans since I arrived. I even invested in gloves. The entrance fees here have been a lot pricier than in Beijing, but on the other hand the souvenirs have been a lot cheaper (at least the starting price) and seemed a lot better quality. I guess that they can't sell any old China crap to Chinese tourists - they want something local, something different, something pretty, and they know how much it's worth, so there's no point putting the starting price extremely high as you would with foreign tourists. Also, if you travel all the way here and want to see the famous views, I guess you won't say no to the high entrance fees.