A Slow Stroll Through China

Today being my last day in Guizhou I decided to take a bus a little ways out side of Guiyang proper. Following instructions combined from my online reading and that which i had gleaned from conversations in Chinese, I made my way to Tianhetan. Tianhetan is a large park that is known for its waterfalls and for its cave systems. For 50RMB you buy an all inclusive ticket that includes admission to the park and a boat ride through the cave system.

As soon as I entered the park the rain that had been threatening to fall for three days finally came, but aside from worrying about my camera the rain did not damper my exploration of the park. There were many beautiful waterfalls and fast moving rivers, many complete with a system of water wheels used for grinding incense. Once through the waterfall section of the park I boarded a boat with 10 other people for a tour of the underground river. All the rock formations along the river have been lit in many different colors in order to bring out their natural shape and provide a nice view along the river. Our boatman explained the names of all the rock formations, which for the large part had been taken from Chinese literature, as he navigated us along the waterway.

Once the boat ride was complete we were free to explore other lit parts of the caves and to make our way to the exit of the park.

Once back in Guiyang I bought a few last minute items, including a copy of the Wizard of Oz in Chinese, and began packing for my return trip to Changsha. In Changsha I will get to say goodbye to all my new Chinese friends, go to a few bars, play Majiang, sing at KTV, which should provide me with an excellent send-off.

Today was my first day to firmly explore Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou, and I had three things on my list to accomplish: buy a flute, which Guiyang is famous for producing, go to Qianling park to see the mountains and monkeys, and finally to visit Tianhetan (which will be the focus of tomorrow's exploration).

First, however, a note on my hotel; my travel friend told me about this place in attempt to allow me to avoid the expensive hotels of Guiyang, however, he forgot to mention the difficulty of finding the place. When I got into Guiyang I took a cab to where he had circled on my map and after an hour of looking around and asking everyone on the street I was finally pointed in the direction of a nondescript building with a sign that did not say the name of my hotel. After being assured that this was the place by several people I walked to the door, but there was an electronic keypad on it and it was locked with no one in sight to open it. Exhausted, I finally called the hotel and was told that they were on the seventh floor, but after a confusing discussion with an accent I didn't understand the lady in charge figured it would be best to just come down and help me. So, we walked up four flights of stairs, got in an elevator, went to the top of the building, walked down the hallway, unlocked a door, and I was in the hotel. After inspecting my room I paid and was given two keys and the code to the electronic key pad. It has proven to be a nice, cheap place to stay and has not been much trouble, but it was an adventure to even find this place.

In the morning I set straight out for Qianling park, which is only a few blocks north of my hotel. The park itself contains four mountains and therefore is enormous. Upon entering I began to climb the first mountain I came across in hopes of finding some of the infamous monkey troops that haunt the park. It turns out they were not hard to find and about half way up the mountain I was surrounded by two troops of them. They were very used to humans and would walk along side you in hopes, one assumes, of being fed. Once I reached the top of the mountain, where a small structure has been built to look out over the city, even more troops of monkeys joined our parade. They were all tame and I got several good pictures, but it was still a bit unnerving.

On my way down the mountain I stumbled onto the Hongfu Buddhist temple, which was dedicated to the goddess of mercy. Being that the goddess of mercy is my favorite kind of tea and that it wouldn't be a trip to China, for me, without visiting a Buddhist temple I decided to pay the 2 Yuan fee and look around. The temple is largely outdoors and is centered around a large statue of the goddess with flowering trees and a reflecting pool. The temple seemed more geared to actual practitioners rather than tourists as is the case with many other temples, so  it had an enjoyable environment centered around peace and quiet.

After spending another few hours in the park I made my way toward my hotel, buying a Guiyang vertical bamboo flute along the way. When I returned to my hotel I discovered that my computer had crashed, which led to the remainder of my day being spent trying to fix the software on my netbook. When all attempts failed and hunger proved victorious, I made my way to the outdoor Chinese barbecue. Shaokao, as it is called, consists of meat or vegetables on a stick grilled over an open flame and was a staple food for us foreign teachers every evening during our terms. Beef, vegetables, dumplings, and the local beer (Maotai) make for an excellent way to end a day.

I have pancakes and an early bus to look forward to tomorrow.

08-17-2010

Last night I went with my newly made Chinese friends (a lawyer from Sichuan and a communications manager from Guilin) to hear the traditional singing of the Dong people, which sounded similar to the Tuva throat singing of the Mongolia and was amazing to listen to. However, I have been told that there is not much left to see in Xiaohuang and that I instead should go to Biasha, so it looks like another bus trip today. Catching the bus here is rather difficult so I am grateful to have met Chinese people who are leaving at the same time as me to help me catch the bus.

I am currently on a bus with a destination that is unknown to me, my Chinese friend has told me a couple times but his accent is a little hard to understand in Chinese. I told him I wanted to hike, so he decided to take me with him to this place which was recommended to us by the lawyer from Sichuan. I still plan on being back in Guiyang by the evening of the 20th, so this should not change my plans there and should provide an interesting spur of the moment travel experience.

After a two hour bus ride through some of the worse roads yet we arrived in Luoxiang (洛香) and ate a quick lunch and set out to find a way to Zhaoxing (肇兴) which turned out to be our final destination. We decided that the fair for a motorbike was too expensive (15元 or $2) and began hiking the 8km. The hike was easy going and had a lot of beautiful views, my only complaint was the heat, which caused me to drink through all the water I had brought in a rather quick fashion. Along the way I the two of us discussed traveling, pollution, government policy, and tea: all of which was entirely in Chinese (This is my proud face ^-^). 

The town of Zhaoxing is quite nice, it is set up for tourists and has many shops to buy things made by the Dong minority in the area as well as many guest houses. The good part for us, however, is there are very few tourists, owing to the rather difficult journey to get here. Our guest house has wifi (hence this post) and a porch overlooking the river in the middle of the city (where I am writing this post from). Tomorrow we plan to hike around the area and then leave the next morning. More later, right now I need a shower.

08-16-2010

After a rather sleepless night, caused by a combination of heat and a good book, I headed to the bus station across the street. As has proven to be norm so far, I could not get the bus at the time I wanted today and had five hours to kill in Congjiang. During this time I did a little exploring, but most of the natural beauty of the area is being overrun by rapid development and one has to walk quite a distance to get anywhere worth seeing. I had intended on buying my ticket today for a return to Guiyang on the 20th, but it seems that the bus station does not sell tickets more than once day in advance, which makes me a bit nervous considering my luck with tickets so far.

On Guizhou Food.

So far from my limited experience the food from Guizhou has been amazing. It is not a complex style of food but it allows for many variations that you choose. The set-up is as follows: There are many baskets with many different types of vegetables and meats you can, seemingly, choose any number of these you desire, I'm not sure because I always stop at two. To your choices the chef adds hot peppers, ginger, and several spices and cooks them in a wok along with soy sauce and vinegar. Unlimited rice is provided as well as a simple soup that changes based on the restaurant. The result is a simple yet amazingly delicious dish that I look forward eating as much of as possible while I am in Guizhou. So far the tomatoes or snap peas with pork have been my favorites.

Xiao Huang

Today's bus ride to Xiao Huang began as one of the most comfortable bus rides I have experienced. The bus was too crowded with people's things for me to sit in a regular seat, so I was given a cushion near the driver leaning against a big bag of something soft. By the end however another 15 people got on our already crowded bus, which left me holding my bag with only half of my butt on the cushion. It was quite impressive, but I have no pictures due to the driver's fear that word might get around about his unsafe driving practices. The town of Xiaohuang is populated by the Dong minority group and most of the people here wear their traditional clothing and make traditional crafts. This is, however, no necessarily for tourists sake because I have yet to see a place to buy their hand crafts nor do they charge for pictures, this may be a genuine connection to their culture, that or there are too few tourists to try to scam (Two Chinese travelers I am staying with and myself seem to make up the only three). Tonight we are going to someones house to hear the traditional singing of the Dong people and tomorrow I plan to hike around. As it stands I plan on leaving after tomorrow to see some of the other things I have been recommended in the area.

08-15-2010

Several days on road and rail. It took an 11 hour train from Changsha to Guiyang, which was made quite enjoyable by some great scenery and a wonderful book (The Beach by Alex Garland). I spent one night in Guiyang and took a 2 hour bus the following morning to Kaili. There isn't much to Kaili beyond being a hub from which one can reach many small minority villages in the mountains and near the local rivers. I spent the day exploring the town and buying a few small items that I won't mind carrying in my bag. Morning was accompanied by yet another bus ride, this one took me 8 hours to Congjiang and may have been the worse bus ride I have experienced, which is considerable considering the 20 bus ride I had through Inner-Mongolia last year with many bus break downs along the way. This bus ride was around many twisted mountain roads with barely enough room for our bus, let alone the numerous oncoming cars, people and carts. The bus driver did his best to shorten the length of the trip, but this resulted in a speed that seemed more at place on a freeway than a back road in Guizhou. At times it felt as if we were driving up and down a staircase. I had some difficulties with the ride making me feel sick, but I was much better off than the villager who sat next to me; the ride made her VERY sick, making everyone glad there were several available buckets on the bus. Congjiang is a nice little city on a river, but it still suffers from the dust of constant construction and demolition, which seems to coat much of China, so I am looking forward to tomorrow's two hour bus ride along even less developed roads to Xiaohuang.

Since I have been in Changsha I have gone to a Japanese style arcade, Korean barbecue, several nice Hunanese restaurants, and to Karaoke. Tomorrow I am being thrown a going away party by a couple friends that won't be here when I come back on the 24th, so we will be playing Majiang, eating dinner, going to karaoke, going to eat street food, and then out to a bar. It should be a lot of fun. Another update will follow once I arrive in Guiyang and have established an internet connection.