Chris’ Blog

Our trip to Guilin

We decided to take a trip to Guilin, which is a town southwest of Shanghai. It is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in China and very natural.

Day 1

Our day started on the day before Chinese New Year. Up until today, the sounds of firecrackers and fireworks could be heard for the past week, slowly building in frequency and intensity. This year we decided to get in on the action. We headed down to the local fireworks store, which was normally a sporting goods store that had a corner of the building converted for the New Year’s fireworks. Generally fireworks are only widely sold close to New Year, although people still set them off all throughout the year. We walked in the store and were met with the usual screaming and shouting and pointing that occurs at all retail outlets. We stood back for a few minutes to take in the situation. They had a fairly large selection, mostly firecrackers, Roman candles, and some shells. We decided to go low-key and buy a string of firecrackers. We selected one that looked nice, but wasn’t too expensive and had a nice label so I could mail it to my Dad. I think we paid about RMB 30, or $5. Here’s a picture of Christine in front of the store with our prize.

We headed back home and decided to set them off right away. We found a lighter and decided that the best place would be near the fountain in our apartment complex. I was even able to find a spot still marked by the last person that used fireworks here. We’re all ready to go: I’ve got my six-foot string of firecrackers, a lighter, and Christine’s got the camera all ready. I must say that I felt rather nervous. Even though everyone around here sets these off wherever they happen to be standing, I still felt like I was doing something I wasn’t supposed to. Oh well… So, I lay the sting on the ground, lit the fuse, and calmy but briskly walked away. Now, I’ve lit off a few firecrackers in my time, but of course being in Canada where they are illegal you can only do one or two at a time. I wasn’t really prepared what happened. Since we were setting them off between four buildings, the sound was thundering. The sound echoed between buildings, smoke was billowing, and every once in a while one firecracker would shoot off to the side and exlode. As you can see, Christine wasn’t prepared either. She was all ready to document the whole experience on film, but the was really only able to get a “running away” picture before getting one shot toward the end. You can see the paper still flying. After the paper settled and the smoke cleared. I said, “Well, that’s it.” Christine replied, “What!?” We headed back to the apartment, serenaded by the two or three car alarms we’d set off. Good times.

That evening we flew to Guilin. On the way we flew over a city where we could see fireworks going off all over the city. That was pretty cool. I’d never seen fireworks from above before. We landed in Guilin, met our tour guide and went to the hotel. We decided to go for a walk near the hotel. There was a canal there and a path that we could take. It was pretty nice. We saw some crazy fountain light show. There was some Celine Dion music playing followed by a Kenny G. version of Hotel California. Christine took a bunch of pictures of a bridge, so I better include one. On the way back we also saw these guys in boats with these crazy birds standing on the boat as well. It was really cool. We didn’t know what they were doing with the birds, but later we found out that the people near Guilin use birds to fish. They tie these birds to a boat. Then the bird dives down, catches a fish, and when the bird comes up, the man takes the fish away and puts it in a basket. That’s the way to fish, if you ask me. Let the birds do the work, I say.

Later that night, at around midnight, the whole place went crazy. We watched from our hotel room window as the whole sky was lit up with fireworks. We had an almost 180 ° view of fireworks. People were setting them off between buildings, on the sidewalks, even shooting them out their windows. Out of the windows seemed like a bad idea, but I must say that if there’s one thing that the Chinese know how to do, it’s bring in the new year.

Day 2

The next morning, it was off to a nearby city of Yangshuo. We took a river boat along the Li River. We were lucky because the past fews days it had rained, and raised the level of the river enough that we could take the river cruise. The river wound through some really scenic spots with these kind of limestone mountains. The river was really shallow, maybe one metre in places. In fact the river boat that was ahead of us ran aground. They were able to get it back in the “deep” water by pushing it out with long poles, but after that we were the lead boat.

We had lunch on the riverboat, some kind of deep-fried little crab. Even on the river you can’t get away from the vendors. They would paddle up next to the boat and try to sell pomellos, and whatever else.

We made a stop at a couple of places with caves. The first place was the crown caves. When we arrived there was a guy that asked me to hold his bird for him and give him RMB 10. It sounded reasonable to me. We saw some goats grazing outside. They seemed pretty shy, probably because it was the year of the monkey. Once we got inside, there was a boat ride and a rail car ride. We ran into someone else who wanted us to take her picture and give her RMB 10…okay.

Whatever you do, don’t push the RED BUTTON!!!

A little later we went to the silver caves. The caves were pretty cool. They were full of calcium deposits lit up like a 70’s bachelor pad. I kept looking around for a disco ball. Of course once you’ve seen one green and red backlit calcium deposit they all start to look the same.

Then we made a stop at a place with a famous tree. The Banyan tree has one root system and several “trees”. It was pretty cool. Today was also Chinese New Year. It is the year of the monkey, so of course, everyone and their monkey was out for a walk.

That evening we went for a walk down Yangshuo West Street. We saw some crazy new year dragon dance. There was a dragon and a monkey and guy playing some music. First a human pyramid had to be formed in order to get some cabbage or something down from a pole, then they went to every store and then the dragon and the monkey fought and scared away evil spirits for that year. At least, that’s what I got out of it. We practiced our bargaining skills a little bit and then decided to head back to the hotel. We wanted to get some western style tea for our room, so we stopped at a store. We couldn’t find the tea we wanted, but they did have some tequaila or something with a snake in it. I hope you’re not supposed to swallow the whole thing.

Day 3

The following day we were up and away bright and early. Christine headed out and took some pictures of a nearby vegetable market. Let me tell you, that’s the place to go if you want fresh chicken delivered to your door.

Our first stop was a tea plantation. There we learned about different kinds of teas and how to drink them. Guilin is famous for osmanthus tea, and we were very fortunate that they had a large supply to sell to us. We also went out to the fields to practise our tea leaf picking.

We went to elephant hill, so named because it looks like an elephant. More monkeys here. We also saw a guy talking on his cell phone while navigating his raft. There ought to be a law…

Later we went to the Shangri-La village where there was dancing and singing.

That evening we walked to a pedestrian street in Guilin where we bought more things including some candy covered fruit. So good. Christine also took a couple pictures of the landscape during sunset.

Day 4

Gu Dong Mountain was our first stop on day four. It was really interesting. We began by taking a short boat ride and then testing our strength by lifting some piles of wood.

Then we went for a pleasant walk through the forest. There were bridges and waterfalls and the like. Be careful, though, it’s quite slippery…

In case you were worried that we wouldn’t get enough exercise…there was more exercise. They had these great hurdles that kept getting taller as you went. No problem. On our way out we saw a graveyard for extinct species and we also learned that we didn’t set our firecrackers off the proper way. Oh, and in case you were afraid that I fell off of that bridge, don’t worry. I was acting.

Then we were off to Seven Star park where we could see camel hill. On the way we stopped to pick some strawberries. Strawberries in January; does it get any better than that? Candy-coated strawberries in January! Camel hill is so named, becuase to some it resembles a camel.

Then it was home. As I remember, the return trip was uneventful. And when I say, “As I remember”, I mean to say, “I don’t remember”. We also took some pictures of various signs during our trip. The Chinese seem to be quite concerned abuot striding, as we remember seeing similar signs on our trip to Beijing. It seems to be well warrented, as striding is just one, (well, stride) away from running. And imagine 1.3 billion people all running at once!

The remaining signs seem to be directed towards musicians. Certainly Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, and B.B. King would not be welcome in Guilin. (I read somewhere that B.B. King sired over 30 children, which in my books is a litter. I thought I would spell that one out since it was a bit of a stretch)

I hope you enjoyed this installment of our adventures in China. I’m going to bed.