The Beginning: Guilin and Yangshuo Part 1

My dad and I began our trip on Saturday, October 21st by flying south to Guilin, which is in Guangxi province (that money was for our plane tickets, which you have to use cash for). Our original plans were to land in Guilin and then take a taxi about an hour and a half south to Yangshuo and get a hotel there. From there we would travel back and forth to sightsee. Our plans changed after we talked to the tourist bureau in the airport. Our new plans were: stay in Guilin Saturday night, take the river cruise down to Yangshuo on Sunday, stay there Sunday and Monday night, head back to Guilin and stay there Tuesday night before finally leaving for Shanghai on Wednesday.

Saturday we spent some time resting and walked around Guilin. Guilin may be much, much smaller than Beijing, but it’s just as busy in the main districts. We walked down a walking only street that was full of stores selling all kinds of things and little stands selling local snacks. The food in the south is pretty different when compared to the food we usually eat in Beijing. They eat a lot more fish, especially in Guilin and Yangshuo because the Li River that runs through both cities has provided them with food for centuries. The snacks were really different though. Here is a picture and explanation going clockwise from the top left to bottom left: pig tail, pig foot, duck head, pig stomach (partially obscured), duck something (I think), duck feet, and giant pig ears. I found some cookies instead.

On Sunday we took the Li River cruise down to Yangshuo. The cruise is essentially why everyone comes to Guilin and is essentially why Yangshuo is even on a map (hmm, not the one up top). A scene from the river is featured on the back of the Chinese 20 RMB currency. The cruise is about four hours of looking at really unique landscapes and it’s hard to show in pictures. There were some interesting things too though. I found out that even on the water you can’t escape the vendors. As we were chugging along, vendors on bamboo rafts would line themselves up with the boat and when they got close they would hook on and board the boat. After a few minutes they would give up and try to hit the next boat. Near the end of the cruise there were also a bunch of kids waiting in the river with goggles on yelling something at us. It turns out they wanted us to throw stuff/money over the sides for them. I thought this was ridiculous because coins are rarely used in China and I can’t imagine what a tourist would have that they would want to throw over the side of a boat.







Well after arriving in Yangshuo we had to walk through the giant gauntlet of vendors while dragging our suitcases behind us. We also picked up a tourist guide, named Connie, who wanted to show us around. We just ignored her, but she stuck with us all the way to our hotel. After almost two hours of resting in our room we went out to look around the town and find dinner, but first we ran into Connie again. She was just waiting for us outside the whole time. We told her no thanks and went on our way.

The touristy part of Yangshuo is really interesting. There is a main street that is lined with shops selling stuff for tourists and lots of restaurants. All of the restaurants had essentially the same menus. All of them had western breakfast and coffee in the morning, western or Chinese food for lunch and dinner, and then turned into a bar/club at night. While my dad and I were walking along the street looking for a place to eat, we randomly found two of the girls from my CET program. They knew I was going to Guilin, but didn’t know I was going to be in Yangshuo. We ate dinner with them and talked for a while before heading our own ways. For the rest of the night my dad and I walked around and looked at some of the other stores along the street, before heading back to our room.

I’ll update everyone on the next two days in the next post.