When we landed in Guilin, the temperature was about ten degrees warmer, the air must have been 95% more humid, and my hair, which I had straightened that morning (to match my passport photo) went absolutely insane. The mass of frizz and curl was out of control... So I just let it do it's thing-- that is, walked around looking like a crazy person.
Our tour guide, Cassidy, addressed us politely as Mr. and Mrs. Greig (I am not sure if anyone has really called us that before), told us that we were a very young couple, and that she liked a Canadian named Alanis Morrisette. Then she took us on a whirlwind of activities.
Our first stop was in the Reed Flute Caves, a large network of caves karsted into a limestone hill. The caves were well labelled and highlighted with bright coloured lights. Some of the rock formations were named in hilarious Chinese English, like, "Cloudy Outside Window With Curtains" and "Centipede Frightened by Reflection in Magic Mirror."
Karst formation reflecting in a pool of water.
Next we visited Elephant Trunk Hill in the heart of Guilin city. It is a natural arch carved into a limestone hill on an island in the Li River. If you use your imagination, it looks like an elephant.
Elephant Trunk Hill.
We also indulged our tour guide in some promotion for her company. She said they were having some sort of photo competition.
China Travel Depot.com
Our last stop of the day was at an organic tea plantation where we sampled Osmnathus, Yellow, Oolong and compressed tea (a mixture of white, green, yellow and Jasmine tea, fermented and compressed). Somewhere in the rows of tea plants, Tom lost his mind, and paid $100 for a brick of compressed tea. The sales girl really upsold him on that.
Tea plantation.
Cassidy took us back to the city for dinner where we could sample Guilin cuisine. Specifically, spicy fish and rice noodles. We ordered four times too much food (no doubt the staff knew this, but wanted us to pay for it), so we invited the guide to eat with us.
Basket of crabs outside the restaurant.
There was no doubt the food was fresh, as we watched the server pluck a fish out of a giant bucket, and kill it for our meal. After dinner we saw that in addition to fish, there were also live turtles, crabs, snakes, ducks and some other kind of bird just waiting to be someones dinner. I don't like thinking about it!
The following day, we took a two hour drive to Longshen to view the famous Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces. The road was dusty, bumpy and windy, and we were thoroughly jostled when we arrived in the mountains. We hiked upward for about a kilometer past residents selling souvenirs and food from stalls to reach a lookout point above the terraces.
Bags of mushrooms and dried goods.
Little boy watching Spongebob Squarepants.
The day was misty, so we couldn't see far, but the view was still breathtaking. The Longshen rice terraces have been constructed by hand over the last six hundred years.
Longshen Seven Stars and Moon rice terraces.
Tom and I at the rice terraces.
We had lunch in a little village and a local cooked it for us. I was a bit disturbed, because I am pretty sure they killed the chicken to feed us... And the resulting dish was basically boiled chicken chopped up with a cleaver. Every piece had bones, fat and gristle. Some of the meals we've had are very touristy and very reminiscent of Canadian Chinese food. But this time... I REALLY felt like we were in China.
Colourful peppers in the Longshen village.
On our last day in Guilin, we took a 4.5 hour cruise down the Li River. We were able to marvel at the "grotesque" karst peaks (a typo in the guide brochure). And marvel we did. The landscape around Guilin really may be some of the picturesque scenery in the world. We took hundreds of photos over the course of the day. We also shared our lunch table with a generous Korean couple who kept offering us Korean chocolates and mandarin oranges that they had brought with them. In return, we offered them one of our granola bars.
Karst topography on the Li River.
The scenery on the back of the $20 Yuan bill.
$20 Yuan bill.
Water buffalo on the Li River.
Our destination at the end of the Li River cruise was a small city called Yangshuo. Yangshuo's main industry is tourism, so we spent the afternoon shopping at souvenir stalls and taking in the atmosphere. In the evening, we went to see a show called, "Impressions" directed by the director of the 2008 Olympic Games Opening and Closing ceremonies. The show took place on a huge outdoor water stage, with the karst limestone peaks back lit in the background. It involved several hundred actors and dancers from the local school, as well as some participation from local fisherman.
In the morning, we took a two hour ride to the airport so we could move on to our last city in our Charms of China tour, Shanghai.
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