Ladies and germs, I am back after an 11 day travelling expedition in the
People’s Republic of China. The best way to wrap my blog around the trip is to give you a day-by-day play-by-play!
It all started with my good friend Andrew Tate studying Chinese in Beijing this summer, and with his program ending, we decided to travel around Southern China together before he went back to UNC. Although I didn’t have a break from classes or anything, I packed a bookbag and hopped a flight from Bangkok to Guilin. **Note: every single shop/restaurant/bus station had a tv with the
Olympics on every channel. Loves it!**
August 11: After going to the Chinese Embassy (sa-thaan toot jinn) three times in one week, I got my Chinese visa (wee-sa) so I could fly. I arrived late to Guilin, and Andrew, having arrived an hour before by train, picked me up at the airport. We checked in at the
Guilin Flowers International Youth Hostel and went exploring around town. We found an underground dance club and waltzed right in. We were the only foreigners and we ordered Coronas off the menu, to which we received a strange barely-alcoholic beverage: the
Purple Godsend. Great way to start my stay in the Guangxi Province.
August 12: Early in the morning,
Casey Yancey, our other travelling companion arrived and we seized the day. We spent the day at the Seven Star Park (Qixing Gongyuan) where we explored a mineral museum of the region, marveled at exotic plants, and spelunked the Seven Star Cave (Qixing Yan) which would prove to be one of my favorite experiences. We were entirely alone in the deep dank cavern, and it was the first time I fell in love with limestone. We also visited the matching Sun and Moon Pagodas in a lake that could only be traversed via underwater tunnel.
August 13: This is the day we climbed a
Karst, and I began to love Southern China. A Karst looks like a mountain in a landscape, but rather than being form by tectonic uplift, it the result of limestone dissolution. The land is worn down by waters, and with subterranean drainage leading to magnificent caves in association, the karst is the limestone bedrock that has persisted while all else has dissolved around it. They reminded me of more massive, tree-covered hoodoos like I saw at
Bryce Canyon in Utah. We climbed the karst (Fubo Shan), took in the exquisite views, then went below it to the Returned Pearl Cave (Huanzhu Dong) and the Thousand Buddha Cave (Qianfo Yan). These caves were more touristy and tampered with. The karst landscape and defines southern China is right out of a fairy tale. That evening we travelled by bus to Yangshou where we booked a room at Monkey Jane’s Guest House.
August 14: Yangshou is the most beautiful place on Earth. Bold to say? Yes. The karsts in around Yangshou were impressive and we had to explore. We woke up early and went on an excursion with the bartender Sally that we met the night before. We rented bicycles and travelled through rice paddies and dirt roads between karsts to arrive at Yulong River where we rode bamboo rafts for a few hours south. The day was an idyllic sunny one, and after the raft ride, we climbed Moon Hill (Yueling Shan). This karst was a showcase to the work of water on
limestone with a giant moon-shaped crescent carved out near the top. We climbed to the top and the view was killer. Hilarious little Chinese women followed us the entire way up trying to get us to buy their water and juice, but for some reason they won’t take no (boo yao) for an answer! We followed up our sweaty adventure upwards, with a tour downwards to the Moon Water Cave. Hardhats and flashlights to boot, we explored this saturated cave and ended up covered in mud from head to toe before coming back out on the other side to discover a gorgeous rice paddy valley.
August 15: After a night of beer pong on Monkey Jane’s Rooftop Bar whereupon we met Monkey Jane herself, we got a late start. **Note: Monkey Jane is about 24, owns the hostel and bar, is scantily clad, a bitch, and always sloshed and belligerent**. With Casey worn out, Andrew and I rented bicycles and ventured to the north to a nearby village Xing Ping. Firecrackers abounded due to a holiday involving spirits, and we tried to order the local specialty of
Rat, but we saw a rat in a cage the size of a medium-sized dog with price tag to boot and changed our minds.
August 16: Bus back to Guilin. Let it be known that Guilin is the 11th most populated city in China at 46 million people. 46 million yelling, spitting, wild people. We stayed another night to Guilin.
August 17: Just your average 19 hour train ride to Kunming! Welp, there goes August 17!
August 18: A 9 hour sleeper bus to Lijiang was less than pleasant. The train had bunk beds and room to move around, bathroom included. The bus was a cramped situation where I couldn’t even lay my arms by my sides without overflowing onto my neighboring passengers who were inevitably very Chinese, very grumpy, and a little smelly. Everyone smokes, even on the bus.
August 19: A 5am arrival in Lijiang, we found a very quaint almost
Staunton, Virginia-esque cobblestone village. Not yet bustling in the early mist, we finally found the Pan Ba Hostel. Sleep-deprived but running on adrenaline after escaping the bus, Casey slept while Andrew and I planned to conquer a mountain. The area of Lijiang, the next province over from Tibet, is considered the foothills of the
Himalayas. We took a bus to the glacier-encrusted Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. We rented heavy jackets that came with baby-sized oxygen tanks and went exploring to the 4700 meter-high peak. The Spruce Meadow that we went to near the mountain was one of my favorite experiences. While we could not see the glacial peaks clearly through the thick, low clouds, the meadow itself had a mycological diversity that I have never seen. I’ve always loved mushrooms, but the fungus in the area made me scream! The oxygen tanks were an absolute joke so Andrew and I just sucked on them taking a cable car down the slope.
August 20: We experimented with the local indigenous foods of the
Naxi culture (pronounced nahk-see, not like Nazi, which I had too much fun with at the time), and we were very pleased. **Note: Tibetan Dumplings are the best food ever, but avoid the Yak Butter Tea like the plague** We also visited the Black Dragon Pool which was an adorable park with a karst of its own, ripe for the climbing. Andrew and I scaled Elephant Hill and took in the circle of mountains around us. The foothills of the Himalayas I tell you! That night, I took a sleeper bus back to Kunming for my flight back to Thailand.
August 21: The day of my return to Bangkok. NOT!! I got to the airport bright and early and discovered that my flight did not exist. Andrew and Casey continued travelling to Dali in the Yunnan Province so I was alone with no Chinese speaking ability. Apparently Orbitz didn’t think a 24 hour change in my flight plans was worth notifying me about.
Fuck you, Orbitz. I ended up getting a hotel, making friends with a cute Chinese girl in a coffee shop and buying a pretty dress, but I also was in the process of developing a pretty nasty allergic reaction to
MSG. 
August 22: Waiting the airport during what would have been my Climate Change Midterm Exam back in Bangkok, I ended up making it home. Met a really killer guy from Connecticut too on that flight who teaches English to Chinese kids. Either way, I made it home, found out I didn’t miss anything important in Thailand, and much fun was had by all.
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