Intro: We have officially begun winter break and Victoria (Spanish teacher) and I hopped a flight to Guilin. (Days are not counting travel to Guilin which would technically be day 0).
Day 1 Our first day in Guilin we booked a full day excursion out to the Long Rice Terraces and true to Southern China form, it was cloudy and rainy the whole time. Luckily, the rain stayed mostly contained to the morning (although the sun never came out) so our guide took us first to some indoor activities. First, we watched performances by some of the Red Yao women of the "Longest Hair Village." This area, Huangluo, is home to one of the many ethnic minority populations throughout china. In many tourist areas, the historic clothing, food, and performances of ethnic minorities are used to promote tourism, and everywhere in China, part of the tourist aesthetic is watching performances. From my studies of anthropology and Tibet, I am of two minds about the ethics of essentially "ethnic performance" as consumerism (questions of culture vs. costume, exploitation, and access to inclusive experience vs perpetual otherness come to mind) but I enjoyed my time nonetheless. These women are practitioners of a historic art of haircare that enables their hair to grow extremely long while maintaining its health. They do so through a complex style of rice-water washing, and that technic and the chemical makeup of the specific rice water they use is now popular in different haircare brands across the world, which the museum we got to spend time in also showed us. (I had a fun time half understanding the Chinese speaking museum guide, trying to slowly read the museum signs, and looking at the pictures.) Unfortunately words like "the chemical makeup of rice washing techniques aren't the most common so it took my still-learning-chinese brain a while to figure out what was going on.
Then, we made our way into the mountains and to one of the terraces. Because of the extremely heavy fog cover, we weren't able to go to other locations or take the mountain cable car, but we were given essentially free rein to explore along the pathways of the terraces we did reach. They were BEAUTIFUL. The whole area is recognized by the UN's Agriculture division as a vital heritage farming technique area, and it is simply picturesque (even in the winter when the yellow and green are muted by the lack of live plants.) I truly can't express my joy when wandering the pathways, and the pictures do not do the area justice, but I'll leave some here regardless. (Better quality and more on instagram)
Single terrace
A broader view of the terraces {plus me :)}
Clouds and stacks of rice
Day 2
On day 2, we took a river cruise down the Li River (丽江）and headed to Yangshuo, a smaller city about a 5 hour journey away. This trip was truly incredible. The Li river carves its way through Karst formations pictured in historic Chinese paintings, and even the specific formations on the Chinese 20yuan bill. Even though the weather was still kind of cloudy, there was no rain, and the inside of the boat was well heated. Despite the comfy interior, I spent most of my time out on top of the boat taking one billion photos of the mountains, the river, the birds (those are terrible), the water buffalos, and generally just watching each formation go by. The air was cold, but Shijiazhuang can be quite polluted so it was nice to be outside in an area free of a lot of those concerns. The karst formations were so fascinating that even when I went into the cabin to read, I found myself pulled to look out the window virtually every page. As the beginning to a long break after a 20+ week semester, this trip was the perfect mix of relaxation and awe.
Arriving in Yangshuo, Victoria and I were instantly in love with the place. The location the boats drop you off is in a tiny enclave outside the true city that is unarguable touristy, but in a lot of the best ways. We checked into an awesome hostel with no one running the desk (just a note with our room key and name) where our room's balcony overlooked a cute street and sat underneath multiple of the mountains. We were down the street from the houses of historic artists and poets (The Lakes by TS was on repeat in my head), because this area of China, much like the Lake District of England was for the romantic era, became the escape and inspiration of artists and poets. We toured their houses, all free entrance, and full of drawings and some poetry. Then, we sipped coffees and pints watching the river go by in a tiny cafe. We loved Yangshuo so much, that our plans to bus back to Guilin the next day were cancelled, we booked the room an extra night, and decided to just adventure the area the next day.
Day 3
Having decided to stay an extra day, Victoria and I slept in, went for a late breakfast at a local place (that was delicious) and then went to the bus station to make sure we could get tickets for the next day. The bus station was slightly outside the tourist area and in the main city of Yangshuo. (It's still a small for China city and randomly interspersed with giant rock mountains.) Once we booked tickets the next day (an unneccessary precaution as you can just approach any bus on the road an they'll basically take you to the Guilin airport especially during tourist off season), we looked for something to do. Most people in Yangshuo rent little motor bike/vespa things, but we hadn't done that, so we took a Didi to one of the local scenic areas. This is where the beauty of Yangshuo shines. It is a light-adventure dream playground. We got dropped next to a farm, saw a sign that said horseback-riding and ATVs (in Chinese) and were on horses 5 minutes later. then we walked down the road 5 minutes and declined to rock climb on account of bad shoes. 5 more minutes away we were at a butterfly valley cave and waterfall (less pretty in winter) and then a 5 minute taxi ride away we were bamboo rafting. I have decide to call my Chinese level "good enough to get Ito things but not out of them" because while I wanted to do all of these things, when the fine print part of the conversation starts to happen I get lost and just start saying yes. After our adventure filled day, we went back to the hostel and read books on a balcony that finally saw some sun and just enjoyed the atmosphere. That night we went to west street, a typical Chinese tourist area that's lit by neon lights and small food carts, and had a generally pleasant evening.
Bamboo rafting
Victoria and Horses
My classic .5
A more unique light display
Views from a Chinese Hostel
The next day we hopped a bus straight to the airport and flew back home.