Longsheng Rice Terraces 龙胜 |
This past weekend I
went to Guilin and Yangshuo, two popular tourist destinations in the south of
China. We flew out Thursday night, arrived at the Ming Palace International
Youth Hostel around midnight, and passed out. Friday morning, a bus picked up
our group of 10 and drove us two hours to the Longji Rice Terraces (or Longsheng in Chinese). The hike was
really pretty and not too difficult, except for one stretch of stairs that gave
me flashbacks to climbing Hua Shan. This weekend was the Tomb Sweeping holiday,
where families from all over China visit the tombs of their ancestors to pay
their respects. It was pretty cool to see all the tombs decorated and hear
firecrackers going off throughout the weekend. While I wish I could see the
rice terraces in season when they are filled with water, it was still a
beautiful and rewarding hike.
Decorated tomb on the terraces |
Our group! (minus Mariah, plus Chinese girl who wanted a picture with us) |
On the terraces,
there is a village of Yao, one of 55 ethnic minorities in China. The Yao
women are known for having extremely long hair. One woman took down her
hair for us (for 10 元!) and I found out that she had two huge
sections of hair not even growing from her head anymore, that she just attached
to her hair with a comb. It was interesting to see and I enjoyed practicing my
Chinese, as usual. We finished the hike with lunch at a local restaurant on the
mountain, and took the bus back to Guilin. That night, after dinner, two other
girls and I got a massage that kind of felt like I paid someone to punch me for
an hour, but was actually pretty good.
The next day, we
planned on going down to the Li River and taking rafts from
Yangdi to Xingping, the most scenic part of the river, but the hostel neglected to tell us their tour was not offered that day (even though we had been asking them about it the entire day before) and then we were unable to get a bus to Yangshuo until later in the day. We decided to go to the famous Reed Flute Caves, only 30 minutes from the city; something we were planning on doing Sunday anyway. The caves were awesome, once you got past the touristness of it all. The colors were helpful to light up the cave, although a little over the top. Nonetheless, the cave itself was huge and incredible and we really enjoyed it. We then went back to the center of the city, had lunch and wandered around Big Banyan Park (which didn't have the famous big banyan!) and finally got on the bus.
Yangdi to Xingping, the most scenic part of the river, but the hostel neglected to tell us their tour was not offered that day (even though we had been asking them about it the entire day before) and then we were unable to get a bus to Yangshuo until later in the day. We decided to go to the famous Reed Flute Caves, only 30 minutes from the city; something we were planning on doing Sunday anyway. The caves were awesome, once you got past the touristness of it all. The colors were helpful to light up the cave, although a little over the top. Nonetheless, the cave itself was huge and incredible and we really enjoyed it. We then went back to the center of the city, had lunch and wandered around Big Banyan Park (which didn't have the famous big banyan!) and finally got on the bus.
"public bus" |
West Street 西街 |
Upon returning to Yangshuo, we had dinner (German food this time), walked around, and eventually loaded up on another bus to the airport. We got in very late, around 2 am, but luckily we had Monday off because of the holiday. I had a nice time in Yangshuo and although I would definitely never stay at that hostel again, I wish I could have stayed another day or two in the town to enjoy the nature in good weather.
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