Guilin

Nihao!

(Sorry for the 2 week blackout, but Blogspot is part of the sites which are not accessible in China).

When I left Paris, I said that I was sure I would get lost at some point during my trip to China.
Well, it turns out I was right, I got lost on my way from the airport to the hostel, about 15 minutes after landing.
The instructions from the hostel were very clear: take the public bus which goes to the city center, then take a taxi from there to the hostel. Cannot be easier.
At the airport, I managed to find the booth to buy the bus ticket, and the employee points to the right to show me where the bus leaves. So far so good.
When I get out of the airport, there are 2 buses. I show the ticket to the bus driver of the first one, and he nods at me, and points at the luggage hold.
30 minutes later, I get to a place where no taxi is waiting for customers, but a guy comes to me, and tells me that for about 3 times what I was expecting to pay for a taxi, he will bring me to the hostel.
I refuse, and we eventually settle for twice the expected price (all of this in Chinese, of course...).
While we are on the road, I try to identify where we are on the map, and realize that the bus did not bring me where I was supposed to be. Which probably explain the lack of taxis at the arrival.

Anyway, I eventually reached the hostel safe and sound, and found the little palace I had booked.
I say palace because, first, the name of the hostel is Ming Palace and, second, because I have booked a single room for the next 6 nights, and the room is amazing.
About twice as big as the dorm I shared with 3 other persons in Hong Kong, and it has its own bathroom, which is twice as big as the one I was sharing with 20 persons in Hong Kong.
And all this for 14 euros a night, which explains why I could afford this incredible luxury.
It will be great to have comfort and intimacy during a few days.

And, furthermore, the staff is incredibly friendly and helpful, which is really appreciated.

First day in Guilin, spent wandering in the streets, which is a real pleasure. Not too warm, not too crowdy, not harassed by people who want to sell something, and because there are very few Occidental tourists, specially on their own, people are very friendly and smiling.
And I had forgotten how blue eyes are photogenic for them, several persons stop me in the street, in order to make a picture with their daughter / grandfather / ..., just as last time I was in China, years ago.

One important thing: I had been told that nothing was written in English, not even the names of the streets, that's not true, all the street names are written with our alphabet, and every road sign pointing to a touristic place is translated in English... and French (or German, depending on I don't know what)!

When you need help in the streets / shops / restaurants, even if they don't speak a word of English, all of them will use their smartphones to translate to Engish the information they want to give you.

The Elephant Trunk Hill, which is supposed to be the twin cliff of Etretat was turned into an amusement park, where you can hire traditional clothing for the picture, attend a show with an elephant (and even ride it), buy any kind of sweets or souvenirs that you might want.

It even includes what they call the "Mysterious Ancient Village". This sounded interesting, I had to go there and check what it was. And here is what I discovered, after 10 minutes of walk in the park:

The 2 small lakes around which the city center is built are the perfect place to have a walk at any moment of the day.

Close to the hostel, there are plenty of small pedestrian streets, which seem to be brand new, but were built with the traditional architecture.
They are full of small restaurants, shops, cafés and so on, it is a real pleasure to get lost (voluntarily this time) there.
And a bit further, wider pedestrian streets, with plenty of very modern shops, selling clothes, shoes, souvenirs, plus other restaurants.
In case you had not understood, I really like Guilin, it is a great base camp to spend a few days.

Then it is a full day away from the city, to go and see the famous terrace rice fields of Longji (which means Dragon's Backbone, because the rice terraces resemble a dragon's scales, while the summit of the mountain range looks like the backbone of the dragon).

On the way up the mountain, a stop in the Long-Hair village of the Yao minority, Huangluo, with houses that are built by the river and mountain to bring fortune and happiness.
There are some 120 adult women living in the village, 80 of whom have hair of over 1.4 meters.
They let their hair grow without ever cutting it, and still wear the traditional clothes (well, at least in front of the tourists...).
Because their hair is so long, washing, brushing, braiding and coiling it up looks like a ceremony.

Then I share a lunch of about 15 different dishes (vegetables, meat, and (very) sticky rice cooked in a bamboo stalk) with 7 tourists from UK and Canada.

After that, the whole afternoon is spent hiking in the rice fields, with farmers preparing the terraces, little lizards running away between our legs, and chicken looking for rice seeds.
The construction of Longji Rice Terraces started about 800 years ago during the Yuan Dynasty when the minority Yao people fled to the mountainous area away from war.
They excavated long planting ranges for rice and turned the mountains into fertile fields with the stair-like mountain slopes working as a convenient and water storage and irrigation system, and avoiding landslides during the heavy rains.

For dinner, I have a so-called pancake, stuffed with cumin beef and lots of spices. My mouth burns during half an hour afterwards.

More octopus fritters (remember, Kyoto, a few days ago...):

Another dinner will be taken from a BBQ booth, where you chose the sticks you want, and they cook it in front of you.
Easy for the cabbage and mushrooms, I knew what I had in front of me. Not so easy for the meat, I just picked them up randomly.
Good choice for the meatballs, bad choice for the other one, which turned out to be fried cartilage. This is not the first time I make this mistake, I should be more careful by now...
Note for the future meals: DO NOT answer Yes when they ask you if you want your food to be spicy, you stupid tourist!!!!
I almost choked on the first mouthful, eyes filled with tears, but I was a good girl, and finished everything (except the cartilage...).

And no, I didn't try those ones, and don't plan to try them before the end of the trip, sorry.

Another highlight of the province is the cruise on the Li River, from Guilin to Yangshuao.
I am lucky to have a nice weather, it has not always been the case during the last days, and it would have been a pity to see all this through a window.

  

The game for everyone is to spot the part of the river which is represented on the 20 yuan bill.
Done!

In the afternoon, most of the people who boarded the cruise fall into what I would call a trap for tourists.
We have the choice between
- spending 3 hours in Yangshuao, where the guide says that there is nothing to do except shopping, and that we should not do any shopping there because everything is a lot more expensive than in Guilin
- paying for an optional tour, to go and see a fishermen's traditional village
We end up paying for the optional tour, which is basically the visit of craftman shops inside a building which was constructed with the traditional architecture, and don't get to see any fisherman...

During the last full day in Guilin, I decide to head to Daxu, an ancient village about 20km away from Guilin.
In order to get there, I am supposed to take:
- a local bus to go a certain crossroad
- then a long distance bus which will take me to Daxu
First problem: I don't identify correctly the crossroad where I was supposed to stop, and therefore wait for 40 minutes without seeing any bus for Daxu.
When I realize which mistake I have done, I manage to find the bus stop where I was supposed to wait.
Then, when I buy the ticket to the woman who is in charge of collecting the money inside the bus, I tell her that I want to go to Daxu, just to be sure.
She answers me something which seems to be a question, and I just keep on repeating "Daxu" and showing her the name written in a paper in Chinese, because I don't have any clue what she is asking me.
Eventually, she asks a question to a couple who is sitting behind me, and I understood that they are going to the same place than me, and that they will show where to go where we arrive.
That's nice :)
40 minutes later, we get to Daxu, and the couple indicates me to wait with them at ths bus station, it seems that we need to take another bus, not sure why.
Another bus arrives, they wave at me to follow them, and I get onboard.
10 minutes later, we have driven about 10 kilometers, and are obviously getting away from Daxu.
Then the bus driver stops, they get out of the bus, show me that I also have to stop there.
I show the name Daxu to the bus driver, and then he opens huge eyes, and points at the road behind him.
It turns out that the couple was not going to Daxu, but somewhere else.
So I managed to get where I wanted, but because people try to be helpful with the poor Occidental tourists, but don't get any word of what you say, you end up getting lost in the middle of nowhere.

20 minutes later, after taking another bus, I come back to Daxu and can enjoy the old part of the town, at last!

Back in Guilin, I find a nice booth where they cook noodles, and it takes a couple of minutes to the cook to understand that I actually want to eat, and not only have a look at what he is doing.
After a lot of talking and waving, he eventually prepares something (not sure what) for me.
It will be cold noodles, with green onions, coriander, soy sauce, garlic... and chili, as usual.
I am going to cry again today. But it was part of the best meals I've had since the beginning.

Last evening in Guilin, tomorrow I will take a flight to Kunming, and will probably miss Guilin. I have felt amazingly well here during 6 days.