Guilin - Home of Grotesque Caves
Trip Start
Oct 24, 2005
1
56
150
Trip End
Ongoing
Guilin,
China
Thursday, January 4, 2007
Dry River
. Very clean and comfortable (despite the non-stop smoking and slurping of rice noodles by nearly all the other travelers).Six hours later, we stepped off the train into frigid Guilin. Guilin, a city of just under one and a half million people, is set along the Li River amidst innumerable karst formations (think Halong Bay on land). It is a beautiful city, dotted with pretty lakes and countless parks. Finding a hotel was, of course, our top priority. No problem, we had our trusty guidebook, which would show us the way. We walked/bussed it from the train station to the center of town and began to wander around aimlessly. Fortunately, as we were crossing Central Square, a man said "hello" to us, and then kept talking to us -- all in perfect English (with better pronunciation than most of our students). We asked him if he knew where the hotel we were seeking was, and in fact he did. He pointed the way out to us, then continued walking with us. Once at the hotel (which we would not have been able to identify, as it did not have any English signs), he helped us communicate with the staff, none of whom spoke English. While the rooms had been cheap in Nanning, they sure weren't in Guilin -- nearly double the price, and the rooms we were shown were far below my ridiculously high expectations of cleanliness. As such, we decided to try another hotel, one which our new friend, Norman, knew about (no, he wasn't a tout)
Guilin Park Waterfall
. This place was about the same price, and not nearly as nice as the subpar one we had just left. Not wanting to tow Norman around all afternoon, we decided to settle for the previous hotel, with hopes of finding something better for the next day. We spent the remainder of the day wandering around the downtown area, which has a very nice pedestrian mall, lined with shops and restaurants, as well as a very nice central square area which faces a picturesque lake in which two pretty temples sit. During our roaming, we encountered another eager English speaker who invited us for some tea. Both Mac, our new acquaintance, and Norman asked to show us around the city the next day -- neither wanted money (one worked at a museum and the other was a professor at the university), rather they both were incredibly eager to practice their English. Norman told us we were the first native speakers he had ever met, and he really wanted to prepare because he wants to volunteer to help with the Olympics next year. This has proven to be a continuing thread throughout our travels in China: we've been approached by loads of people, all eager to practice their English. We've been invited to countless meals and tea houses, nearly all of which we've declined.
Since being in China, I've thrown all my preconceived notions about the country out the window
Kog on a Ball
. The country is totally different than I expected -- it's gorgeous and wildly varied. It is way more advanced than Vietnam in so many ways, something I didn't expect. I thought: Communist country, even bigger population, lots of countryside -- it'll be pretty much the same. Nuh-uh. After a night of dreaming about tofu with tomato and Chinese giants, we were a bit slow to wake up. Which meant we missed the early train to our next destination: Guilin. There was another train an hour and a half later, so we had plenty of time. Not as much, perhaps, as we thought -- we found ourselves running to the train station with only fifteen minutes before the train was scheduled to leave. Once inside the train station, which was giant compared to the one in Pingxiang, we froze. There were scads of people, about twenty different ticket windows, and not a word of English in sight. How could we possibly know where to go? All the city names were in Mandarin characters, not Pinyin, which uses the Roman alphabet. With no time to spare, I shot towards the only window with no line and crossed my fingers. I showed the lady the train number and our destination and prepared for the worst. Unnecessarily, as she spoke English -- surprise! Within two minutes, I had two (comparatively expensive) tickets on to Guilin in my hands. We raced up to the platform and made it with mere minutes to spare. While more expensive than the train from Pingxiang, this train was really nice. Very clean and comfortable (despite the non-stop smoking and slurping of rice noodles by nearly all the other travelers).Six hours later, we stepped off the train into frigid Guilin. Guilin, a city of just under one and a half million people, is set along the Li River amidst innumerable karst formations (think Halong Bay on land). It is a beautiful city, dotted with pretty lakes and countless parks
Outdoor Elliptical
. Finding a hotel was, of course, our top priority. No problem, we had our trusty guidebook, which would show us the way. We walked/bussed it from the train station to the center of town and began to wander around aimlessly. Fortunately, as we were crossing Central Square, a man said "hello" to us, and then kept talking to us -- all in perfect English (with better pronunciation than most of our students). We asked him if he knew where the hotel we were seeking was, and in fact he did. He pointed the way out to us, then continued walking with us. Once at the hotel (which we would not have been able to identify, as it did not have any English signs), he helped us communicate with the staff, none of whom spoke English. While the rooms had been cheap in Nanning, they sure weren't in Guilin -- nearly double the price, and the rooms we were shown were far below my ridiculously high expectations of cleanliness. As such, we decided to try another hotel, one which our new friend, Norman, knew about (no, he wasn't a tout). This place was about the same price, and not nearly as nice as the subpar one we had just left. Not wanting to tow Norman around all afternoon, we decided to settle for the previous hotel, with hopes of finding something better for the next day (which we did, and for much cheaper too!). We spent the remainder of the day wandering around the downtown area, which has a very nice pedestrian mall, lined with shops and restaurants, as well as a very nice central square area which faces a picturesque lake in which two pretty temples sit. During our roaming, we encountered another eager English speaker who invited us for some tea. Both Mac, our new acquaintance, and Norman asked to show us around the city the next day -- neither wanted money (one worked at a museum and the other was a professor at the university), rather they both were incredibly eager to practice their English
Shan Hu Temples
. Norman told us we were the first native speakers he had ever met, and he really wanted to prepare because he wants to volunteer to help with the Olympics next year. This has proven to be a continuing thread throughout our travels in China: we've been approached by loads of people, all eager to practice their English. We've been invited to countless meals and tea houses, nearly all of which we've declined.Since being in China, I've thrown all my preconceived notions about the country out the window. The country is totally different than I expected -- it's gorgeous and wildly varied. It is way more advanced than Vietnam in so many ways, something I didn't expect. I thought: Communist country, even bigger population, lots of countryside -- it'll be pretty much the same. Nuh-uh. China is far more advanced than Vietnam: there are very large, wide, well-paved highways and a good road system throughout the country; modern electricity runs into the countryside; loads more cars and bicycles (while Vietnam has bicycles and cars, most people have motorbikes. Here they also have motorbikes, but they're different (very cool, actually) -- they're all electric!); there's no trash in the streets -- it's very clean (I haven't seen a litterbug in China yet -- in Vietnam everyone throws all their trash in the street); and so on and so on. But the biggest misconception I had about China was about the people -- they're amazing
Solitary Beauty Peak - Chengyun Palace
! They're all very happy, smiley and incredibly positive. Everyone is very willing to help out (and they're all very keen to practice their English!). But anyhow, back to Guilin....Guilin is a very popular tourist destination -- especially for the Chinese (even though we think it's cold, the people from Beijing and Shanghai find it seasonably warm). As such, they charge large amounts to get into the tourist destinations. Such large fees that we only visited one of the city's many parks -- solely due to our frustration at the disparity between the prices listed in our guidebook and those they are actually charging (often two to three times (or more!) the listed price -- e.g.: the one place we went to was listed at 15Y but we had to pay 50Y -- in the off season, nonetheless!). Because of the hefty fees, we ended up walking around the city a lot, but never actually entering any of the parks.
The one park we did pay for the pleasure to enter was Solitary Beauty Peak Park. Soaring more than 700 feet above the rest of the city, one can see the peak from any point around. The main attraction of the park is to climb the peak, from the top of which one can see the amazing views Guilin and its surrounds has to offer. Unfortunately, the whole time we were in Guilin, it was very overcast, so by the time we reached the top, the visibility was not very good and we weren't able to really get the whole effect
Solitary Beauty Peak - Chengyun Palace Guards
. The park also boasts a 14th century palace which has had a rough life, being destroyed and rebuilt a few times. We were able to go inside part of the palace and watch a traditional performance. While at the park, we ran into Norman, who showed us around and chatted with us for a bit. So "why" you ask the Grotesque Caves? Well, the signs one does find in China that are written in English are often not the most accurate -- perhaps something someone wrote using a thesaurus, and the writer was definitely not a native speaker (nor fluent). So you often find some very amusing signs. For example, in Guilin I took pictures (in order to remember) two particularly comical signs. The first was at the big city park (which we also didn't enter because it cost 65Y to get in!). Here there was a big sign showing pictures of the many things to do inside the park. Next to each picture was a little text explaining each picture. One of these was espousing the virtues of the park (beautiful waterfalls, etc.), and one of the things is listed was "grotesque caves." The second sign I had a chuckle over was inside Solitary Beauty Peak Park. There was some grass, around which was a fence. Obviously, you weren't supposed to walk on the grass. There was also a sign, which intended to further illustrate this point. The picture on it was quite clear (a person on the grass with an X through her), but the text... not so much: Civilisation is from everything. Kind of a nice message, but not exactly what I think they intended. I'll try to remember more of these and pass them along as we continue our trek through China.
Guilin was a beautiful city, and we really enjoyed our time there and the people we met. Unfortunately, the clock was ticking on our visa, and we knew it was time to move on to our next destination: Yangshuo.
