Nanning - farewell China, roll on Vietnam!

After lovely Yangshuo, poor Nanning had a lot to live up to in order to impress us. However, even though it isn’t especially beautiful, we did have a surprisingly nice time on our one full day out there. We arrived mid-evening  at a bus station a couple of miles out of town, and the local bus we were looking for to get us into the centre was nowhere to be seen. Before we had the chance to get too frustrated, some very helpful Chinese girls, in town to celebrate National Week, translated the impenetrable bus timetable for us and recommended another bus that got us to the same part of the city. Our hostel was very basic with a handful of pristine dormitories and a couple of private rooms, but the facilities were immaculate so it felt fine to be in a dormitory, sharing a bathroom (something we’ve been trying to keep to a minimum, but when on a budget…) The common room area was perfect for working too. 

The main purpose for our visit to Nanning was to secure our Vietnam visa, which the hostel arranged for us during our stay. It was an utterly painless procedure – we just handed over our passports, some passport photos and some cash and two days later, our passports had Vietnam visas installed neatly on their pages. Definitely an improvement on our experience getting the China visa in Bangkok!

We had one day of fun before two days of work, so we decided to see as much of Nanning as we could. Although there is not a huge amount to see and do, the city is the capital of Guangxi and as such it was well kept with several parks and museums. 

We strolled through one park just off the main street, but this was heaving with tourists, so we headed to the Guangxi Provincial Museum instead (which was empty – I guess museums are not well frequented when the nation is partying!). 

We also passed the Science and Technology Museum on the way, which was heaving with families (and quite right too – it looked like an excellent museum) where we saw a massive model of Optimus Prime that we had to hover around for ages to even try to get a good photo of. Optimus Prime in a science museum – the Chinese vision for future technology may be quite ominous (or very cool…)

Sign on the fencing around Optimus Prime!

The Guangxi Provincial Museum was fairly simple, but we saw some great porcelain and some enormous bronze drums. 

 

 

The most interesting part though was the museum gardens, where there were some small stone bridges beside an ornate Wind and Rain bridge. 

The wind and rain bridge was a commonly built community structure, popular in the Guizhou and Guangxi procvinces, used to link A and B but also to protect the community in a town or village from the wind and rain, as well as to shelter them from the sun on a hot day, and offer somewhere for the community to gather to play games, talk and socialise. This bridge was extremely well preserved and had been converted to a restaurant (which spoiled the effect somewhat) though as the grounds were so quiet I think we saw the bridge at its best. Being surrounded by beautiful gardens helped to make this a very tranquil place to spend the sunniest part of the day!

We were starting to get hungry so we wandered down Zhongshan Lu to see if we could get something to eat, but despite its reputation for being a renowned food street, things obviously hadn’t started up yet so we kept walking until we found a dumpling restaurant – a great substitute! 

We then struck gold (of a curious kind) as we found the river - while wandering some secluded steps for a better view, we found a makeshift bar overlooking the river and the bridge! The seats were even in the shade, and perfectly placed to enjoy the view. We ordered a couple of beers here, where it was also very quiet for such a great spot… until a few more people started to show up, and the singing began! We’re still not quite sure what was happening, but there was a rotation of singers very earnestly singing anything from pop songs to traditional Chinese songs, and there seemed to be some kind of competition and scoring going on. Each singer would also come round and shake the spectators’ hands as they sang, making the whole experience seem like a local X Factor audition. 

This looked like it was going to go on for some time, so we discreetly slipped away after we’d finished our drinks and headed over the bridge to see what delights were to be found there. This was also pretty strange! Swimming in the river is quite a popular pastime (no idea why, as the water looked quite filthy), and the river bank was swarming with men, women and children launching themselves into the murky water. 

Look carefully for the guy cleaning his motorbike!

One guy was even washing his motorbike in there! Entertainingly, there was a handful of men in embarrassingly brief speedos doing some stretches pre-swim, and occasionally dropping down to do some press-ups – perhaps a bizarre mating ritual?! They could have at least put on some clothes for the press-ups part!

Right next to the river we found Binjiang Park, where we found more people wandering around in their swimming trunks, and basking on benches in the dying sun. 

We explored the park briefly, but decided hunger was taking over and made our way back over the bridge, resisting the temptation to check up on the X Factor crowd on the way. We doubled back on our earlier route, and this time found the Zhongshan Lu rammed with every kind of seafood you can imagine. I tried a spicy squid kebab, which was delicious, though Bradley wasn’t convinced!

We went back to the hostel and watched The Dark Knight – with Chinese subtitles so that the receptionist could watch it with us – though I think some of the plot may have confused her as she seemed to think we were watching Spiderman at first. She soon questioned what this peculiar superhero was up to, and why he was a bat and not a spider… It’s quite hard to explain in broken English the nuances of superhero mythologies.

The next two days we worked at the hostel, and got take away rice and noodles to keep us going. Suddenly our time in China was over, and after one last tired night’s sleep we were boarding a bus for the border crossing with Vietnam, and the journey to Hanoi. 

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Yangshuo - night-light beauty (balance is restored)

'no kitty this is my pot pie'

It only took a brief spin down the road on the bus and we were in Yangshuo, the relaxed tourist town south of Guilin. Yangshuo is surrounded by limestone karst landscape just like Guilin, but has even more accessible cycling routes and a network of rivers to cycle along and (by bridge or boat) cross. Our arrival wasn’t completely straightforward as the hostel’s directions were terrible (it was a little out of town compared to the majority of places to stay) but once we found it we were pleased to find a quiet, friendly place with a brilliant room and fantastic bathroom. Score! 

We settled in and got stuck into a day of working, accompanied by the hostel cat. 

View from right outside the hostel.

For dinner, we popped out and walked into the outskirts of town, and found a brilliant restaurant – Gan’s Noodle Restaurant. The food was fresh, aromatic and nicely spicy, and Gan and his wife were really friendly and helpful. We’d be back over the next few days!

All this working must be tiring, as the next day we slept in massively (must have been the genuinely comfy bed – a nice change from all the flat mattresses out here). Despite the late start, we hired some bikes for the afternoon, and cycled into town to explore Yangshuo properly.

It’s a fairly predictable tourist town – plenty of bars, cafes and souvenir stalls through the main streets, but the riverbank is a charming ride and the backstreets have lots of shady routes you can shelter from the sun in. We made a quick stop to ask for directions for a short country bike ride, where we were given some free fruit to try (yum! Thank you YHA!), and before the afternoon wore down much further we cycled out and did a brief local loop past some rice fields, then headed back to the hostel with some beers and enjoyed the sunset. Soon enough, our tummies started rumbling so we headed back to Gan’s for dinner!

One of the highlights of the Guangxi province, and all of China in fact, is the Li River, and this is best experienced by boat. There are several different boat trips you can take, and start/finish points you can choose, but it seems to be universally acknowledged that the most beautiful section of the river lies between Yangdi and Xingping. 

We arrived at the bus station and immediately boarded a bus about to leave for Yangdi (which is close to Guilin, so it seemed an odd journey, to be going back so soon!). Yangdi is little more than a drop off point for the Li River boats, so there was nothing to do except head down to the river and organise a boat. This proved a little more tricky than we’d hoped – even the ticket office seemed to be part of some scam to overcharge tourists (we’d done our homework on prices before we left) but we finally managed to haggle what seemed a fair price for a bamboo raft down to Xingping.

Well – they call them bamboo rafts, but they are more                                                        bamboo-esque rafts, made of sturdier stuff than bamboo!

It was a peaceful way to travel, and we had a raft to ourselves (plus the driver) so it felt quite luxurious. The journey was an hour and a half, and the scenery was stunning, with forested limestone peaks on both sides as the river wound its way south.

The last stretch was pretty notable as well for being the scene on the back of a 20 Yuan note! J We tried to recreate this as a photo but the angle wasn’t quite right…

Scene from the back of a 20 Yuan note....oh and Kerry!

Xingping wasn’t much more of a town than Yangdi, though it did have some charming backstreets and a main road where we picked up a bus back to Yangshuo. That was the bus ride of nightmares – the road was in dire need of repairs and was breeding potholes and, weirdly, speedbumps, so every couple of minutes we’d either fly over a speedbump or fall into a pothole before emerging victoriously from the other side. The road was an obstacle course! Naturally, the way we chose to recover was to pick up some more beers, enjoy another gorgeous sunset from the porch of the hostel (with company from the playful cat), and then wander down to Gan’s for another excellent meal. Our regular patronage must be paying off - we were given some bonus vegetables part way through our meal!

We had one last day in Yangshuo to see as much countryside as we could, so we were more organised this time and woke up bright and early to cycle out to the Dragon Bridge along the Yulong river. 

This is a decent length bike ride, about 4 hours in total and 20km across some cycle paths that occasionally rivalled the road from Xingping! They were manageable though and our rickety hostel bikes coped pretty well. We only took one wrong turn (all that uphill cycling and we knew we were going off track and away from the river – phew!) and that was easy to rectify by heading back downhill and finding our hidden turning amongst the trees. 

The paths took us through several small villages of only a handful of houses each, and it seemed to be a game for the local kids to wave at all the cyclists, so we were often greeted by a chorus of hellos as we passed! 

Dragon Bridge................where's Wally? :)

The Dragon Bridge itself wasn’t particularly grand, though from its height you can see some lovely views of the river and surrounding fields and peaks. The bridge allowed us to cross to the other side and curve back along the river bank toward Yangshuo. 

This path back seemed in much better shape than the path there, so we enjoyed a smoother ride as we admired the passing scenery. 

 

We saw a farmer take his cows (or maybe water buffalo?) for a nice bath in the river, it felt very tranquil in the autumn sunshine.

 

In order to cross back over the river, we enlisted the help of a real bamboo raft, which managed to get us and our bikes aboard in one trip. It seems that every time we’ve been anywhere near a river in Yangshuo, we’ve heard the word ‘bamboo?’ echo around us as if we were in a cave, so it was good to finally say ‘yes, we would like a bamboo raft please’! 

It was our last night in lovely Yangshuo, so we celebrated with yet more beers, and another lovely sunset.

Somehow we didn’t realise this our first night, but every evening the limestone peaks are lit up in a subtle but effective light show that lends the whole environment an otherworldly metallic glow, as if we’re on the moon. The surrounding peaks are even more beautiful in this simulated moonlight. 

We absorbed this sight for the last time as we headed down to Gan’s for one last gorgeous Chinese binge, where we tried his spring rolls (also divine) as well as all the noodle and rice goodness we’d been indulging in over the past few days. Gan gave us more bonus veg to enjoy, and since we felt so sad to be going and because we’d been so happy eating there, we decided it would be nice to offer a tip at the end of our meal – but they were very reluctant to accept it. We did know that tipping is not the norm in China, but assumed that it would be appreciated since we had been there so many times and they had been so generous by letting us try new things and have extra veggies. So we insisted on them taking the tip, but I think we made them feel quite uncomfortable as the next thing I knew, Gan’s wife was running after us with an apple, an orange and a bottle of coke which she then insisted we accepted! It was very sweet and everyone seemed very happy with the outcome, and hopefully we didn’t offend anyone!

Gan’s Noodle Restaurant

The only slight problem to report from Yangshuo is just one of those irritating things that can happen if you aren’t thinking ahead enough – our bus back to Guilin was cancelled due to the busy traffic on the roads. It was National Week in China, a huge holiday (like a string of bank holidays in a row) so Yangshuo was filled with domestic tourists celebrating National Week, as well as international tourists celebrating Yangshuo! Getting between to the two towns was clearly proving to be a bigger nightmare than we had anticipated, so rather than return to Guilin to get on the train to Nanning (which we were going to miss anyway), we simply booked a bus to take us straight to Nanning instead. A little bit of money lost, and a less pleasant journey perhaps, but it got us to Nanning in a similar amount of time. Another lesson learned!

Lovely Yangshuo, you may just be our China highlight!

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Guilin – Night-light Robbery!

Sun and Moon Twin Pagodas

Twenty hours later… we finally pull into Guilin train station, having grown tired of trying to get comfortable on our bunk beds and stretched out into the tiny aisle seats as the train emptied. Guilin has a small station so it is not the organised chaos of larger cities, where you are siphoned into smaller clusters until you’re standing bemused on a train platform: instead, you are tipped out into a station square where taxi drivers and hotel owners accost you within moments. Seeing as we were at the station, we decided to buy our train ticket onward to Nanning for a few days later, so we wouldn’t need to think about that nearer the time. Bradley set off to sort that out while I held the fort with the bags, and although I was invited to stay at several different hotels and enter several nearby taxis, I patiently ignored these requests and observed the square around me. It seemed that everywhere I looked, there was someone with a satchel of information on some tour, or hotel, or bike hire establishment… this was the kind of tourist trap we had somehow avoided so far throughout China. Fortunately, we had already booked somewhere to stay, so we didn’t need to linger too long or ponder how to proceed, and jumped on the bus heading toward our hostel.

The Backpacker Hostel was located just off the main pedestrianised road into town, and run by some very enthusiastic and helpful people. We had a really spacious bedroom, with some lovely traditional furniture and a view out to the main streets below. We quickly ditched our backpacks and headed out to stretch our legs and check out central Guilin.

Which may have been a mistake, as the next thing we knew some pesky creature had stolen my iPhone from my bag. A note here on security – we’ve been careful and all that, and should know better from our previous travel experiences that you have to be so careful, but until this point I guess we’d had no trouble, and so perhaps we got a little complacent? Who knows, but it was a costly mistake, and didn’t bode well for our stay in Guilin, which was a shame as we’d been really looking forward to our time here. We beat a hasty retreat to the hostel to sit down and reset all my passwords and so on, which took up most of the evening.

Inevitably, the next day was spent feeling a bit blue and annoyed. Bradley very kindly offered to buy me a new phone as an early birthday present as he knew I’d be missing the ease of communicating with friends and family, so we spent most of the day trooping through the endless phone shops and pondering whether to buy one or not, when we changed our minds and opted for an iPod Touch instead. 

Secretly I don’t think I wanted to get anything new to figure out (as I’m not very technically minded) so something that works exactly the same as my phone did seemed ideal – and the phone/text part is very little use out here! I’m now in a very happy relationship with the iPod! Oh Apple, you really are too attractive. Of course, it does make you feel a little like an over-privileged child to be in a position to have a replacement in your hands within days, but there is no denying we have the money available for a situation like this. It highlights how very fortunate we are, even if we are on a budget.

 

One lovely highlight in Guilin is the Sun and Moon Twin Pagodas, both situated in the middle of a lake in the centre of town. They look gorgeous by day and are also lit up beautifully at night. Most walks around the town take in the Pagodas – and the outskirts of the lake are an enjoyable walk too, comprised of elegantly landscaped gardens and an army of sculptures. You can go onto the Pagoda island, but the view from the lakeside was so impressive we were content with that.

'Bom bom bom - by-i-yah,
Bom bom bom - by-i-yah'

It was only round the corner from our hostel, and we returned several times to wander by the lake before we left Guilin (it was also a great shortcut to avoid the main tourist street!).

Guilin is surrounded by beautiful scenery, and bike rides, but as we are going to Yangshuo as well we decided to save the nearby countryside for there. Instead, we had the famous Longji (Longsheng) Rice Terraces to visit, otherwise known as the Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces (because the mountain looks like the back of a dragon, and the terraces look like scales). We booked a day trip out there with our hostel, perhaps our second mistake in Guilin! You can make your own way out there, but it relies on the mysteries of local buses and not getting lost in the countryside as you walk from town to town, so we decided a day trip might be safer. 

Unfortunately, it was a very ordered day (without the hiking time we’d asked for) and involved less than two hours on the terraces, including the lunch break and the walk through Ping’An, a village at the heart of the rice-growing operation here. But these two hours were very special and made the day worthwhile – the rice terraces look incredible from the heights reached by the bus, and even more so as you walk through Ping’An, which follows a path to the top of the terraces. Ping’An is essentially one narrow stepped walkway through tall, narrow houses, with craft stalls on the steps and the occasional restaurant scattered through the town. 

The tour guide led everyone to a busy, crowded restaurant and seemed very confused when we decided, along with three other backpackers we’d got chatting to on the bus, to pick our own lunch destination. We got a headstart on the tour group and reached the top of the village, and from there found some even more spectacular views of the rice terraces. 

The autumn rice terraces are starting to turn golden from a vivid green, and the rice is close to harvest. The rice terraces are farmed by local minority Chinese villagers, including those from Ping’An, although it must disrupt community life to have so many tourists trekking through your livelihood! We were also told that very little money from tourism (e.g. entrance fees to the terraces from tour groups) is fed back into the minority village communities, which seems very unfair since they cultivate this incredible sight.

The rest of the day was taken up with a delicious lunch at a small restaurant we found on our way back through Ping’An, and waiting while the rest of the tour group went to the Yao Long Hair show. We might have felt more in the mood for it ourselves if we hadn’t had to pay extra on top of the tour price (the itinerary for the tour had stated that the show was optional, and we could do an afternoon hike instead if we preferred… which we’d all been told we could easily do, except that we couldn’t as there was nowhere to hike to or from). All this deviating from the tour made the day feel like a ‘Choose your own Adventure’ story, but never mind. In retrospect it may have been quite interesting to see the show – Yao women never cut their hair, and so have what is alleged to be the longest hair in the world – but we had a pleasant time chatting to our new friends (who’d had a similar vision for the day as us) and picking up tips on other destinations! We all went for a very uninspiring walk around the show grounds, where the majesty of the rice terraces felt a distant memory, and although we were feeling a little cheated, we did feel sorry for our tour guide – he spoke very poor English, and seemed bemused as to how he could help us; not really his fault though as he wasn’t the one who had promised us all an English speaking guide. 

The rice terraces are well worth a visit, and Ping’An is a fascinating town to walk through, but if you ever visit, try to find your own way there as our trip essentially consisted of walking from one photo hotspot to another, and the atmosphere would have been lost among the crowds if we hadn’t slipped away from our tour group at just the right time.

That night we treated ourselves to yummy dumplings for dinner to cheer ourselves up, before one last day of exploring Guilin without a phone-buying mission or an inadequate tour! The central streets of Guilin could be any tourist haven in the world – there are shops selling t-shirts and souvenirs, fast food (including McDonalds and KFC) and market stalls in any gap without a shop. Bearing in mind that this environment had been conducive to the earlier theft, we limited our time here and headed out of town, across the main bridge, which gave us the chance to admire the Li river fully. We then took a walk to the north of town, where we could view the limestone karst formations rising up around the town centre, before having an amazing lunch at a local street restaurant where you get to pick all the ingredients you want from a huge array of meat and vegetables, and watch them stir fry it for you. Even though we picked out a lot of vegetables to bulk out a substantial stir fry, it was still only 50p each for this fine dining (which was also very popular – every time a table became free someone would grab it from the street!) Much better than going to McDonalds (which we have done in emergencies!). 

That last day in Guilin restored our spirits considerably, and turned around a mixed few days. The scenery as we wandered back along the Li river was incredible, and it was nice to leave behind the negative experiences we’d had and appreciate our last day fully. 

We finally understood why Guilin was so popular and Guangxi was regarded as such a beautiful province, and we couldn’t wait to get to Yangshuo the next day and explore the area further.

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