Climbing the karsts
Trip Start
Sep 17, 2007
1
116
272
Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Guilin,
China
Friday, February 22, 2008
Guilin Flowers hostel is conveniently located right across the street from the train station. The door was even open and we sat in the common room while waiting for someone to wake up. Then waiting for someone who understood me to wake up. But finally we got a key and went upstairs to take a nap. After an extended period of time I dragged Erin downstairs for breakfast and to get a train ticket out of town. Given the crowded trains, we figured we should get it as soon as possible
in the middle of the city
. The line at the train station was long but surprisingly orderly, and it moved quickly. We handed the paper with our requests and were given tickets for the day we wanted (a first). The price came up and it was much more expensive than it was supposed to be. Almost double in fact. But I figured that was just China and paid up. It was only much later in the day that Erin had a realization and told me I wasn't going to be very happy with her. When writing the character for "hard sleeper," she had instead copied the character for "soft sleeper." A simple, $50 mistake. She was right, I wasn't happy.
After the train station we set out to climb a karst. We took a bus up through town and walked to one of the peaks, which had tripled its price, then walked to the other one. After a short climb we had a good view of the surrounding city.
And Guilin is a city. You see pictures of the peaks and you think of Guilin as a little town. But Guilin is as big as any other Chinese city. It almost swallows up the peaks inside the city and covers them with haze. So while the view was certainly good, it was hazy and slightly disappointing
Fubo hill
. We clambered back down and made our way down the river and across the bridge to Seven Star Park. The other thing we noticed was that, for the first time in months (since India), it was actually warm. Not only warm, but hot. We soaked in the delicious heat for a couple minutes and then Erin started complaining that it was too hot. Sigh.Seven Star Park was one of the first tourist sites in China. Like during the Tang dynasty in the 6th century. Everthing is old in China. It really is a nice park, and it was a nice day to go. There are seven peaks inside the park, supposedly forming a constellation. We wandered around with the Chinese tourists and marvelled at the sheer number of photo-ops. You could get your picture taken with: peacocks, little monkeys, yaks, camels, Bill Clinton's podium, and in various traditional costumes. It was quite a sight. They even have a zoo in the park. They had some interesting creatures, including red pandas and giant cranes. Around the back we found Camel Rock, which really does look like a camel. Further on a token panda was contentedly chewing on a bamboo plant.
From here we climbed up towards a lookout point on one of the peaks. At the top we had an amazing view in all directions. And what a view it was
a peacock bush
. We were high up and looking across the river towards the city. This meant we could see the hundreds of peaks that rose up in and behind the city. The peaks extended out in every direction. The haze still made it difficult to capture in a photograph, but it was very pleasing to the eye. We stayed up there until the sun had turned the sky slightly red, and then climbed down.We made our way back to the city center and found a big fast-food style local restaurant. We were waved downstairs to the English menu and I ordered a kimchi (Korean). It was amazing and enough for the both of us. A very relaxing dinner. Afterwards we walked down the main street and found an enormous night market that apparently happens every night. They were selling all kinds of junk here. It was quite a festival atmosphere and pleasant to browse the stalls. We stopped in the park to see the pagodas lit up at night and finally made our way back to the hostel. A good day.
~Travis
