Chengyang
Trip Start
Aug 28, 2008
1
27
29
Trip End
Nov 11, 2008
Chengyang,
Guangxi Zhuang,
China
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Having the morning in Liuzhuo I planned to to do some exploring of the city but because of the late night the night before both myself and Gavin failed to wake up. When I looked at my alarm clock it was five minutes before the time that we had to leave, oups, so I quickly got dressed and threw my stuff into my bag and made it only a few minutes late.
We had another bus journey and then another bus journey through the countryside to Chengyang. Chengyang is a rural area famous for its wind and rain bridges. Our hotel had a great view overlooking the river. After arriving we went for a short walk down to the village where there is a couple of guesthouses and restaurants before having a banquet style meal dinner and playing a Chinese game called Majong. which is a game that I seem to be quite good at!
Me, Gavin, Simone and Anna are getting along really well and the tour guide is great but the two vegetarians seem really antisocial. They really don't seem to be enjoying themselves and are struggling to adjust to the local lifestyle.
19/10
This morning we met up with our local guide, Tim, "the coolest guy in Chengyang" who gave us a tour of the local area. Firstly we walked onthe famous wind and rain bridge which is a beautiful wooden bridge over the river, constructed without any nails. From here we were given a tour of the local villages and learnt about local village life and went over a couple more small wind and rain bridges. On the way back we walked through rice fields irrigated by bamboo waterwheels to a more remote village where we shared a drink with some of the local old men in a drum tower, which is a kind of meeting place for villagers. The people here were so friendly.
In the afternoon we went to a cultural performance by some of the local villagers and Gavin and I climbed to the top of a steep hill so that we could get a good view of the sorrounding countryside.
