Guilin Adventure 桂林，很多的山！

Yet another amazing adventure! This past Thursday I completed two of my mid-term exams for Cantonese and Mandarin. Feeling rather free from all prior anxieties, I and my friend Jonathan Pager from Arizona decided to plan a weekend trip to Guilin (桂林）. This was a rather ambitious decision that was made rather abruptly, but we were so excited about traveling to Mainland China. We both have great interest in living in China, and so we set off with little hesitation.


Guilin is a 12 hour bus ride away from Shenzhen, which is the first city across the border from Hong Kong into the Mainland China. It was only 130RMB (~20USD) to take our bus. This isn't an ordinary bus because it actually only travels overnight and all passengers have their own bed. They are surprisingly comfortable, however not completely horizontal and the foot space was very cramped. Other than that, not too shabby for 20 bucks!

Allow me to explain what happened first. We didn't actually know that the bus was going to be this cheap. We were intending on taking the train via China's Railway System. However, the desk didn't speak English. I was able to speak in Chinese well enough to explain where we were going and when we would need to return in Chinese, but wow was it difficult! Especially when tons of Chinese speaking only people are looking at you amazed with the fact that I am a foreigner speaking an ounce of Chinese. It was a cool feeling, however you must know that I am far away from fluency. But at least I was able to say "liang ge pian dao guili. women xingqitian hui lai zhe'r ,hao ma?" This meaning we want two tickets to Guilin and would like to return Sunday. She understood me! I looked up to the heavens and thanked God for the fact that she understood me, then was disappointed when she said, "meiyou". This meaning they didn't have any tickets left. Lesson learned: their are many people in China. Always book in advance. Especially on weekends.


At that moment, we had to decide on whether we should just go next weekend, or take a bus. Realizing that next week I would have to study for another exam, we decided to take the bus. On our way to look for the bus, this man with one arm comes up to us asking for money. This is common in Mainland, so we have learned to just walk away and smile because if not you may get swarmed. Especially in Guilin. This guy was really bugging us though. A younger Chinese man comes up and tells the man to leave us alone and then starts speaking in English with us. We told him we were looking for the bus station to go to Guilin, and then he asked if we needed a translator. Barely knowing the guy, I questioned whether or not this was a good idea. But he came across to be very helpful and because I was with Jonathan we both agreed it would be good to have him with us.

Next thing you know, he has taken us to this local travel agency and we end up getting tickets for 20 bucks each. We told him in return for his help we would pay for his ticket. This was the least we could do for him being so helpful. There were a lot of good reasons for us to take the bus. Not only was it cheaper, but it was just as comfortable (besides the bumps) and we got a chance to better understand the road systems in China. Not only were we able to gain this new perspective, but we were able to see what China looks like from the window quite clearly. I can now answer the question, "Is everything made in China?" Almost! It seemed an endless amount of factories where we could see people working inside making various things.

Well, I could write pages about other cultural differences such as how crazy they are at driving! But, let's fast forward 12 hours to where you can find out about Guilin. Guilin is in Guangxi (广西）Province, northwest of Guangzhou (广州）the capital of Guangdong（广东）province. Guangdong is the province just north of Hong Kong. We arrived in this largely populated town/city - hard to say - at around 8am. We had booked a nice hotel online for free, and it was only going to cost us 30USD at the counter (15 a piece!). However, upon arrival we realized that maybe it would be better to do what we came to do - which was to see Li River (漓江）and then take an overnight bus back that same day. This would save us money and still allow us to experience this beautiful place. Wow, the whole city is surrounded by these oddly shaped mountains. They endlessly stretch so it seems. The downtown is in a flat region in between this stretch of mountains, and the river is flowing alongside the eastern part of the city on down south towards the smaller city of Yangshuo (阳朔).


My roommate is the one who recommended us to go here. He even gave informed of us a small village worth visiting and where we could also get on the Li River by boat. The small town to which we were heading to was known as Yangdi (杨堤). So, after practicing my Chinese by ordering fruit in the local market for just nickels and dimes (2元~.20cents), we hopped on the bus that would take us to this village. It was about an hour drive it seemed. Once we hopped off the bus in this remote area, I felt like I had just entered another world! I had never seen such an environment as this. The city had countless people, but here you could count the number of people. Not only that, but there were no tall buildings. The mountains were surrounding the villagers' homes, and everyone seemed to be working strenuously on various projects that obviously needed to be done to upkeep their shelters and crops.

Many of the villagers were older than 40 it seemed. Our guide, who by the way is from Fujian (福建) and named "Mr. Lu" (卢先生), informed us that most people his age leave there homes to find jobs in the city. He explained how he also did this and went to find work in Shenzhen. However, it is hard to find work if you don't have a good education. It is hard to get into good schools in China because it is very competitive. Anyways, you could see that many of these hard-working villagers made no money whatsoever. Instead, they grow their food and tend to their shelters on their own. It was difficult for me to get a picture of the villagers. In fact, I didn't even get one picture in the small village unfortunately. This is because we were swarmed by older ladies holding bags of oranges chanting "2 kuai, 2 kuai". As they continued to pursue us, they would look us in the eye and smile, knowing that we had more than enough money to buy. I was overwhelmed at first, but then I finally bought a bag from one of the ladies. She was the oldest of the group, and would not leave me alone. I ended up giving her 5 kuai and told her "meiguanxi" when she asked me if I needed change. I was glad to let her keep the rest. She looked at me and gave me a sweet, wrinkled smile that I will not soon forget.

Soon after, Mr. Lu was helping us bargain for the cheapest boat. The first guy offered us a very cheap deal, but he was older and Mr. Lu thought we should have someone younger lead us. Just in case you are unaware, everything is in Chinese - there is no English at all. I can read some characters, but not enough to get around. So, it was a blessing to have met Mr. Lu. He was no doubt a Godsend. Finally, we decided to let the older man take us because he was offering us a much cheaper price than the others. Now here is where I let my pictures do the talking:






Yea, so that was what we came to see. Although it would be nice to have more days to hike to even more spectacular views, we knew we wouldn't have the time or energy to do more than the boat ride. Still, this was a great experience. However, I am extremely adventurous and was craving to explore more. Especially into the caves. Supposedly, the mountains have a number of caves - two of which I was able to get pictures of from the boat.

We got back on to land and the older man kindly asked us if we were hungry. He wanted to take us to eat some food in a nearby village, which he said would also be where we could take a bus back out of the mountains to Guilin. Such a nice gesture! I told him "fei chang gan xie ni" meaning thank you so much. He said "bu ke qi". The villagers are very down-to-earth and friendly. Their kind nature and hard work ethic makes me want to consider living as a villager!

This took up most of our day, but we did have time for a late supper before our bus would leave for Shenzhen at 7pm. So, we being typical Americans, went to Pizza Hut. I know, I was upset to give in to the western food, but you wouldn't believe how nice Pizza Hut's are in China and Hong Kong! Luxurious, but still rather cheap as well (cheap for foreigners). Plus I just wanted some pizza! It had been a long day of crackers and bananas and oranges - now it was time for a meal.

Now, I will Fast forward again to the end of the trip when we arrived back in Shenzhen. Mr. Lu asked the question that Jonathan and I knew was coming, "how much money will you give me?". Knowing he was going to expect us to pay him, I offered him 120RMB, which is about ~20USD. He said he wanted 300RMB, but we came to an agreement. Jonathan really needed help with Mandarin, and Mr. Lu really needed to make some money. So Jonathan and him made a deal to meet once a week for Mandarin lessons. We couldn't have done the trip without his help, so I was more than willing to give him the money - even though it was a bit out of my budget!


Overall, I am glad to have experienced this diverse area in China, and hope it has better prepared me for my time in Yunnan. I say this because Yunnan will be even more ethnic than Guilin I am sure. As I continue to learn more and more each day, I am continuing to be thankful for the opportunity I have had to be here. Next stop: ? We will see...