Guilin and Yangshuo

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.

"public bus"

That afternoon, we finally made it to Yangshuo and fought our way onto a “public bus” to West Street, where our hostel was located. West Street is a pedestrian street packed with tourists, shops, and international food, and we definitely took advantage of the situation by getting some delicious burgers (from a guy who claims he has cooked for Putin and other politicians/celebrities!). We walked around and did some bargaining for souvenirs, but once it started pouring, we went back to the hostel and went to bed. The hostel, Monkey Janes, had a rooftop bar and was rumored to be very loud, but we were lucky to be in a quieter side building. Although, what we didn’t realize until we went to bed, was that the bedding was all slightly damp, which was awful. But I can’t complain too much considering the other people from our program who also stayed there had a sewage pipe explode and flood their room, causing problems too nasty to explain here (but I will leave it to your imagination).

West Street 西街

The next morning, Kim, Sarahann, and I planned on waking up early (6 am gah!) to bike through the countryside. I was really looking forward to exploring the famous mountains and nature in Yangshuo and getting out of the city, but it was pouring rain so we didn't get to go. After breakfast, we walked around and shopped some more before getting on another bus to the Li River. While I didn’t get to bike, the drive featured some very unique mountains making for a beautiful ride. We then took a bamboo raft up the river to “9 Horse Mountain,” took some pictures, and turned back. The boat was extremely relaxing and drifting through the mountains was gorgeous. I only wish it could have lasted longer, but we made the best of what the weather gave us.

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.