This is the account of the time we went to the most beautiful place in China. When President Clinton visited China he went to Shanghai, Beijing, and Guilin, and after having been there, I can see why. Guilin is in the south-west-ish part of China, and is famous for the huge limestone cliffs that jut out of the otherwise flat farmland landscape. It is also the picture on the back of the 20 RMB note, which we use and see everyday (so everyday leading up to our trip just gave us more incentive to go there!).
In short, our trip was incredible. It gave us the much needed breath of fresh air (literally and figuratively) that a city of 16 million people just can’t offer. We had four days off from school, and though we didn’t have much time, we packed our trip to the max and had a blast!
Quick sidenote: one of the aspects of living in China that we can’t quite wrap our western minds around is the concept of working on Saturdays. In order to get four days off, we had to work a 6-day work week, so our days off were Sun, Mon, Tue, and Wed. It just felt so wrong to work on a Saturday, (although the two day work week when we came back was not so bad ;)!
In short, our trip was incredible. It gave us the much needed breath of fresh air (literally and figuratively) that a city of 16 million people just can’t offer. We had four days off from school, and though we didn’t have much time, we packed our trip to the max and had a blast!
Quick sidenote: one of the aspects of living in China that we can’t quite wrap our western minds around is the concept of working on Saturdays. In order to get four days off, we had to work a 6-day work week, so our days off were Sun, Mon, Tue, and Wed. It just felt so wrong to work on a Saturday, (although the two day work week when we came back was not so bad ;)!
On our first day in Guilin we took a river cruise down the Li River and found ourselves dwarfed besides the giant limestone “karsts” on either side. Our guide kept pointing out shapes that were named after the different things they looked like: horses, buddhas, faces, etc…we were told that we needed “100% imagination” to see them, haha. While we couldn't always see the horses, buddhas, and faces, we didn't need any imagination to see that it was GORGEOUS!
Our river cruise ended in Yangshuo, which is a beautiful small town set along the cliffs of the river. We enjoyed the festive atmosphere, the bright colors, and the fun little shops on the narrow streets with the looming cliffs up above (during the day that is, the blasting karaoke music on those streets at night didn't give us the same quaint ancient Chinese village feel).
(click on the picture to see it better)
We drove through rice fields to get to a smaller river, where we floated peacefully on a bamboo raft, watched the art of cormorant fishing, and fed water buffalo.
Cormorant fishing is an old method of fishing where the fishermen use cormorant birds to fish. Cormorants dive down into the water and can swim three times faster than fish, so it is a very quick method of fishing. The fishermen put a ring around the birds’ necks so that they can’t swallow large fish, and then feed the birds with smaller fish. Apparently it takes 3-6 years to train a single bird!
The rest of our trip we spent biking through the countryside, hiking up Moon Hill, exploring neon-lit caves, taking pictures with all of our Chinese fans (too ridiculous), and adventuring through the beautiful Longji rice terraces.
With the narrow streets, the water buffalo, and the quaint towns we biked through, our time in Guilin was pretty much the opposite of our life in Shanghai…and it was such a nice treat. :)