Guilin and Yangshuo: Day 2

The guidebooks all say not to linger too long in Guìlín 桂林, and for good reason. It isn't that the city lacks for attractions and scenery - there are numerous karst peaks located in the area that deserve to be explored. The problem is that accessing them would take a big bite out of your wallet due to exorbitant entrance fees. My wife, who hates spending money almost as much as she despises the outdoors, consulted with the staff at the Guilin Riverside Hostel, where we had just spent the first of three nights. Their recommendation was to visit Reed Flute Cave 芦笛岩, namely because it was a cave and thus offered protection against the rain - there had been thunder and lightning the previous night, the morning awoke to a heavy downpour that saw the narrow street in front of our hotel briefly become a small lagoon (and which delayed our departure following breakfast) and it would rain off and on throughout the course of the day. What clinched the deal for Pamela was that it would only cost ¥1 (16¢) to take a public bus out to the cave from the city center. After passing through some of Guilin's less-prosperous districts, we alighted from the bus and before locating a restaurant to have some lunch, got our first glimpse of the spectacular karst scenery for which this part of China is noted:

Unlike the bus, admission into Reed Flute Cave wasn't particularly cheap at ¥90 ($14.50) for an adult, plus you were required to join a guided tour. Inside, in true Chinese fashion, many of the rock formations were given imaginative names that I thankfully cannot recall, but the colored lighting did highlight the natural beauty of the formations:

Also,  in true Chinese (tourist) fashion, there were opportunities to part ways with some more of your hard-earned rénmínbì. We successfully resisted the urge to purchase photos of ourselves taken with what appeared to be some kind of crystal, but my daughter wanted to pet some turtles, so she offered to pay the ¥5 (80¢) each required to do so (and we accepted). I still don't understand why it was necessary to keep the poor reptiles inside dark caves other than it had something to do with their being symbols of longevity. It was even claimed that one of the creatures was nearly a thousand years old!:

Still, Reed Flute Cave was an interesting place to visit, and not a bad introduction to the Chinese countryside that we had come all this way to see, as the view outside the exit and pass the souvenir hawkers confirmed:

A short climb uphill led to a pavilion with some decent views, though things would start getting far more spectacular in the coming days the further we got from Guilin:

Back in downtown Guilin, we took a rest at the Riverside Hostel before heading out in search of something to eat for dinner:

With its Foosball table and dartboard, the hotel kept Amber occupied while we waited for a break in the weather. During this time, we booked tours for the next two days, to the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces 龙脊梯田 and for the Li River 漓江 boat trip from Guilin to Yángshuò 阳朔, respectively. These reservations were easily made through the front desk of the hotel, one of the many good things going for it (breakfast was another one). If you should ever pass through Guilin (and visiting this part of China is highly recommended), the Guilin Riverside Hostel would be a good place to stay. 

Meanwhile, the rain had abated and we set out in search of food. Here, Amber poses in front of the Sun and Moon Twin Pagodas 日月双塔, not as spectacular in the daylight compared to when they are lit up in the evening (see the previous blog post), but still a reminder of which part of the world you're in:

Come dinnertime, we found ourselves again on pedestrianized Zhèngyáng Lù 正阳路, where we munched on pizza at an outdoor restaurant while sampling the local Líquán Beer 漓泉啤酒, a light-tasting brew that nevertheless grew on me the more I drank it in the days to follow:

And the great thing about Chinese food streets (like those in Taiwan) is that if you're still hungry after dinner, you can always stop for goodies like grilled oysters:

Next up: tripping in the paddy fields

Guilin and Yangshuo: Day 1

I've never been bitten by the China bug, but one place in this vast country that has always interested me has been the scroll painting-like mountain scenery of Guìlín 桂林. Even if the name isn't familiar, you've no doubt seen the pictures of mountainous spires jutting straight up out of a landscape dotted with rice paddies. And for the next few blog entries, that is exactly what you're going to see here as well, for the Kaminoge family took advantage of our daughter's spring break from school this past week to fly from Shànghăi  上海 to Guilin in the southwestern province of Guăngxī 广西 in order to soak up some atmosphere and do some serious sightseeing.

Guilin is just over two hours by air from Shanghai. Things got off to a rocky start, however, while we sat in the plane on the tarmac for over an hour, waiting for clearance for take-off. Such delays are common in China, as the country's paranoid military authorities severely restrict the airspace available for civil aviation purposes, with the result being that civilian flights start getting backed up as the day progresses. Once in the air, our flight was rocked by turbulence almost the entire way to Guilin. Then, back again on solid ground, our taxi driver pulled away from the curb before I'd gotten into the cab, with the right rear tire actually running over part of my foot. Fortunately, nothing was damaged, but it was a scare. We eventually arrived at our accommodation, the Guilin Riverside Hostel 九龙商务旅游酒店, in one piece. The Riverside Hostel was our home for the first three nights of our trip. With a nice location next to the Táohuā River 桃花江, English-speaking staff, tour-booking services, Western-style breakfasts and a small but comfortable, wood-floored room, this inn is justifiably popular with foreign travelers. So naturally my wife, who prefers staying in the kind of concrete and linoleum hotels popular with Chinese tour groups, was a little disappointed with our lodgings. 

Once checked in, we set out to explore the city. Guilin has a population of 4.7 million, but its downtown area, though lively, is somewhat small. Walking along the main drag, Zhōngshān Middle Road 中山中路, the atmosphere was not unlike that found in southern Taiwan, with the street scene evoking images of Kaohsiung 高雄 or Kenting 墾丁 (minus the latter's proximity to the ocean, of course). Pamela, getting hungry, stopped to buy some kebabs from a street stall:

The pedestrian-only Zhèngyáng Lù 正阳路 was where we eventually found a restaurant to sample some local dishes. First up was Guilin rice noodles 桂林米粉, which I found to be lacking in flavor, and which Amber was shocked to learn contained horse meat (specifically, the bowl on the right. We could've ordered some with more standard fare like beef or pork, but I want my daughter to experience new things, even if we didn't tell her it was horse until after she had eaten some. Dog meat is also widely available in this part of China, and Amber was constantly worried that my wife and I were going to spring a canine surprise on her at meal times. Don't worry - we didn't):

Another local specialty we sampled was Guilin snails 桂林田螺, which were quite tasty. My daughter wouldn't eat these, but did enjoy using a toothpick to pry the meat from the shells:

Guilin would prove to be a typically dirty and dusty Chinese city in the daytime, but at night parts of it are very attractive, such as the Sun and Moon Twin Pagodas 日月双塔 located on Shān Lake 杉湖:

As we made our way back to the Riverside Hostel, sightseeing boats plied the waterways around central Guilin:

The first day might've been brief, but we were to keep ourselves pleasantly busy in the days to come...