Oct 26, 2012 - Thursday 25th October

In the morning we went to a small rural village where we spent some time in a 300 year old house discussing its various aspects with the current owners. One interesting thing he showed us were his birds who would perform tricks to voice commands. The locals ferment alchohol complete with snakes in the bottles. Also manadarin orange peel being dried on the ground for future medicinal purposes. THe local electricl wiring was a little scary to those of us who are regulated. You only need planning approval for the size of your house. Once that...

Oct 26, 2012 - Tuesday 23rd October

Up at 5am to get our bus to the airport for our flight to Guilin. Arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. Boarded on time then sat in the plane for 2 hours before we took off! On arrival in Guilin we went to the Reed Flute Cave. The caves have been formed out of eroded limestone. Many beautiful images and light displays. Then to Fubo Hill and on to Guilin Seven Star Park. Guilin is a city of around 700,000 whose main industry is tourism. Over 300 different national leaders have visited the City and its local sites. There were...

Oct 5, 2012 - belief in dog

“The dusty dog is the tastiest.” Well, I’d asked. The dusty dog was the local Chinese variety, pet or meat. Yellow or black, short-haired, with a curly tail. One dog in the village looked so intelligent I swear she understood when I told her I wished I could take her home. Our guide Robin said about one in a hundred dogs was smart enough to be trained to hunt. He also said the blood of the black dog warded off bad luck and was used to christen new cars. Roosters are also used. If I were a guide and had no qualms about fabrication, what...

Oct 5, 2012 - iconic landscape I

Dawn broke how it usually does in these mountains, with a whole bunch of people yelling from scenic overlooks. The noise was endearing. Must be love. After breakfast we packed up and climbed to those same overlooks and past to a trail traversing the upper terraces. Mist twined obligingly around every picturesque undulation; scalloped layers of ripe, golden rice descended into cloud. Work on the terraces began 700 years ago in the Yuan Dynasty and was finished 300 years later in the Ming. Dynastic changes may not have affected this area so...

Oct 4, 2012 - Ping'an, medieval modern

Wood and stone houses in Ping’an straddled walkways built into the side of the mountain. Drainage and streams from higher up run under. All the sounds were village sounds: cooking, chickens, talking and singing, a stray radio. Our hotel felt like a medieval inn, creaky wood and layers of human habitation, except for the gamers in the dining room. Nicholas salivated. With some expert fiddling by Todd, internet access in the room turned out to be actually better than in Xi’an. On a path above the village I encountered a Yao woman, her long...

Oct 3, 2012 - Guilin and Golden Week

Getting quiet, cooling off in the rice terrace village of Ping’an (Peaceful Duck?). It took the greater part of the day to reach here from Guilin, the nearest big city. Is the line of traffic to get to the car park to get in the line for the bathroom before getting in the ticket line and then the slow, maneuvering, squashing mass - not exactly a line - waiting for a shuttle bus up to the trailhead, to a line to hike up to the village, is that interesting? Probably not. That’s just travel during Golden Week. But surprising, and refreshing to...

Jul 12, 2012 - Last day in China

Cormorant fishing did not materialise in the end last night. After getting onto our boat the engine gurgled and died. In their wisdom the little men decided to moor us in the middle of the river in the dark whilst spending 45 fruitless minutes arguing over how to restart the boat. In the end another boat came to pick us up but by this time we had decided that dry land was the preferred option. Whilst we were waiting however a little cormorant fishing man was pottering around our boat so we saw nearly as much as we would have done if we'd...

Oct 17, 2011 - Guangzhou/Yangshou/Guilin

Bus hopped to the Chinese border, had to wait 1.5 hours for bus to Guangzhou. Enormous manufacturing/distribution centre with miles and miles of wholesale warehouses. City has a population of 12m - over half the total population of Australia! Friendly, helpful people. Stayed 3 days at Grand Continental, $40pn - huge room on 28th floor, floor to ceiling windows, flat screen TV, kitchen - a bargain. Spent time just absorbing the place. Fantastic bus ride from Guangzhou to Yangshuo - 6 hours of tunnels (some 4 mks long) and bridges, through...

Jul 17, 2011 - Clay and delay

Up and a quick breakfast before boarding the bus – luggage packed and taken away as we're scheduled to leave at 4:00 this afternoon. Xian awaits! The day started with a visit to the factory where they make the Terra Cotta warriors. We took a look at the kiln and got an explanation about the great clay that is used to make these and other objects. Then into the workshop to see a man who does individual busts for about $900 – the ones on display were quite good. Then an explanation of how lacquer ware is produced. Then, surprise, we were...

Apr 16, 2011 - Guilin

Today was a rare day in all our travels – not much on the schedule. So, this is going to be a short post. And here we go. In the morning we said a reluctant goodbye to Shanghai. What a vibrant city it is. And, like Beijing, a city we want to return to someday to explore in more detail. We were off to the Shanghai airport to board a 2½ hour flight to our next destination – the city of Guilin. Well, actually our main destination will be a 4-5 hour cruise along the Li River. But, that is for tomorrow. It was mid afternoon when our flight...

Jun 6, 2010 - Foggy day in Guilin

STANDARD SIGHT SEEING The fog was even more extreme today but today is all we have left here so we stuck to our plans. The first site was Yao Mountain which had a chair lift to the top that is supposed to be a major tourist site. On a clear day it would be spectacular but today…not so much. There was the option of taking a sled ride down the mountain. Simon had done a very small one in Singapore and blistered his hand because he had to pull on the breaks so hard. This discouraged him from trying this much, much longer and steeper run. As it...

Jun 5, 2010 - Guilin China

China Visas: Prior to leaving Canada we had read many things about getting a Visa to China and they all seemed negative for people in our situation, that of applying for a visa in a third country. The official China Embassy site even indicated that Visa’s would not be issued from Hong Kong. Because of this we planned our trip to have us in Hong Kong a long time (2.5 weeks) to give us time to get the visa, and China for only 3 weeks so we would not have to apply for the more difficult long term visa. Now, way back in Calgary I went to the...