Guillin

26th April 2008

We have just had the most amazing time in the south of China.

Tianjin Airport has a direct flight to Guilin twice a week - Saturday and Tuesday. So we had to get up extremely early one morning to catch the only flight on the Saturday. We arrived, yes arrived, in Guilin at 8.30 am and having been accosted by the tourist information girl and (as we subsequently discovered) told a lot of rubbish, we got on a bus to our very nice hotel. Our early arrival threw them into confusion so they upgraded us to a suite for the one night we were there -well, OK we would put up with that!

We wandered around a beautiful lake, were engaged in conversation by young people who wanted to try out their English, and then met up with our guide for the afternoon. Mount Yao was our first stop and an amazing chair lift ride to the top (thank goodness!). We were blessed with good weather - it usually rains - and the view from the top was stunning. The trip down was interesting - we got off at the half way stage and took a toboggan down the mountain. It was the nearest we will ever come to the Cresta Run and it was breath-takingly fast - if you let yourself go.

The afternoon was spent lazing about on a river and taking part in a proper Chinese Tea ceremony. This elaborate way of making tea seemed hugely time consuming compared to our 'bag in a cup' method but we enjoyed the whole thing so much we bought tea and pot and cups! Next time you are around I will make you proper tea in a proper pot although I am not at all sure I can do it with the effortless charm that the young Chinese woman exhibited!

Sunday dawned very much as predicted - very wet and cool. This was the day we were to spend on the boat cruising the River Li. When we booked the trip I had had visions of us lounging on a single boat, taking in the amazing scenery, sipping on something cool and shading my eyes from the sun, in a very colonial sort of a way. The reality was of being part of a huge convoy of boats (there must have been twenty five or so each carrying 100 passengers)taking shelter from the torrential rain under the very small overhang on the back of the boat with a lot of other foreigners, wearing my trusty mac, Dave and I sharing an umbrella we had had the forethought to pack! The rain and mist added mystery (clouds!) to the scenery and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience as we travelled from Guilin to Yangshuo despite the weather. We saw cormorants and water buffalo and a few brave men who risked their safety and clung to the sides of the boat to try to sell us 'Happy Buddhas' and other sodden items. We were not tempted.

Our hotel in Yangshuo was reached on foot from the harbour area after trekking through the market place and main street skipping over puddles and avoiding calls to 'Come lookee'. Our luggage had been moved by bus and we were anxious about whether or not it would be in the same place as us that night - it was. The hotel was something from colonial times with a vague smell of mustiness and damp - due to all that rain I suppose. The town of Yangshuo was beautiful in a tourist sort of a way. The architecture had been preserved and it was very much as you might have expected things to be in the days of Somerset Maugham.

I discovered that I had left my leather jacket behind in the hotel in Guilin and rang Lee, the guide we had had that morning to escort us to the boat down the river. She managed to track it down and we arranged for her to bring it over the following day and to also guide us around the local area.

Monday was a good day. We met up with Lee and our driver and she took us on a trip around the paddy fields where we saw more water buffalo and workers in the rice fields. We stopped by the Number One Scholar's house and met a dear old lady of 73 who lived there very much in the way the villagers always had. As she was so old, her coffin was already in the house ready for her use! She stroked it lovingly as she explained that death was part of life and she was ready for the circle to be completed.

We were accosted the whole time by ladies wanting to sell us anything they could lay their hands on and Dave was forced to get me a flower filled alice band - the photo will show that it was not my best look.

The morning culminated in a climb up Moon Hill - something of a legend in the area. Our lovely guide, not wishing to be unkind, reckoned that the trek up and back down the hill ( lots and lots of steps) would take us (unspoken but implied - two oldies) about two hours. We got ourselves prepared. The day was hot, the sun was shining and we had our water. We were joined at the bottom of the hill by two toothless old women who carried cold packs full of drink and fans to cool us on the way up. For this service they would eventually require a hefty payment and our guide told us we should not use them but that she couldn't tell them to go away as they would shout at her! We set off with them dogging our every step - they were so close in fact that one of them kept standing on my heels!

It was hard going - the steps were relentless and I had to stop on a number of occasions to catch my breath. Dave though, set a cracking pace and didn't stop at all! We reached the top in less than 30 minutes and were back down in 50! So much for oldies! The view was terrific and having worked to get up there we enjoyed every minute! Lee told us some fairy tales about the place and it was not hard to imagine that this place had magical properties.

Of all the places in China, I had wanted so much to visit this area. It did not disappoint. It was the real China (although somewhat touristy because of that). It was the scenery that you see in every Chinese brush painting and it reminded me of growing up in Malaysia. It was charming and delightful. Would we go back? Probably not, as it would not be the same as being seen for the very first time.