Jing Du Guilin

... the year to travel in China. I almost started smoking. Almost. Lesson learned. <br><br>After escaping TGH by driving a rail-car through a depressing, theme-park style cave (a harrowing event, by the way), we made our way to Ping' An village and the Dragon's Back Bone Rice Terraces. The terraces were carved into the mountain sides over 600 years ago and while the tourists have come in a big way, the farming is still done old ...

... show them to people. If you're trying to pronounce any of the words above remeber that 'q' has a 'ch' sound and 'x' has a 'sh' sound! This writng of Chinese characters and our attempts at pronunciation proved great entertainment for the other passengers, drawing crowds at some points and prompting much debate about the correct characters for words at others. We also learned those trusty hand signals for numbers I mentioned in the last post, though nobody ...

When we first heard we were taking the train to Guilin, we were surprised to hear the ride would take 16 hours. Then when we received our tickets we noticed it was actually more like 20 hours. Then we boarded the train and didn't arrive in Guilin for 26 hours. <br><br>All in all, the train ride was not bad. The only difficulty was the amount of luggage we were traveling with. Between the 6 of assigned to share a hard sleeper we had at least 12 large bags. This was far to much for ...

... someone come from between the parked cars and get in. I thought oh no all hope is now lost. But off in the distance I saw the light on top of another taxi. This time I did not waste any time. I quickened my pace. I was not going let someone steal this ride. As I got to the cab and was about to get in the driver shook his finger at me and motioned me on. There were 7 taxis ahead and I had to take the first one. I got in I was prepared ...

Version francaise plus bas After a painful day of traveling through public holiday traffic jam, interesting bus changes, crowded local transports, and securing a room at 8.30pm, beating a chinese family in a run through stairs to the last house of the village (and being ripped off for it), we woke up the next morning in Ping'An, among the most amazing rice terraces arrangement you can imagine. The early start enabled us to enjoy the sunrise, and, more importantly, to get a ...

... in mountainous areas had something to do with transportation. Anyway, I thought Sanjiang deserved a short post so I can link the picture of the sign for the "Island of the Taste Delicious Food Garden". We did end up eating there, unfortunately, it looked like the best restaurant in Sanjiang. It wasn't as "taste delicious" as the sign would lead you to ...

After Yangshuo So Young and I went to some really awesome rice terraces near a town/city called Longsheng. This wasn't too far from Guilin. The interesting part of this expedition was that we thought a car was going to pick us up from the train station in Guilin and take us right to the hotel near Longsheng. Well...the car did pick us up, but didn't exactly take us to the hotel because it was at the top of a small mountain. So, it was pouring down ...

Chinese Mama made some calls the next day and found out the terraces were finally open, but the government was still forbidding people to stay in the villages because of the weather. After taking a few more plague buses and with some carefully constructed misdirection to subvert the powers of the ticket office (they wouldn't let us in!), we finally made it to the terraces. Walking along the road that hugged the terraces' ridge and ...

What a place, think however it needs a long explanation so will steal a small amount from my notes. Lets see how it goes. Signifies a turning point from me, here a rush of people cities and roads gives way to dirt tracks, hill villages and faces peeping from shuttered windows. tourism can be followed here but I have managed to avoid it by hiking a good couple of hours straight up to the village of Ping'an, when I got there I was glad to ...