Christmas in Guilin

Very delayed, I apologise...

For Christmas this year I got a festive visit from my little brother - best present ever! I think he came in the guise of Christmas elf because the number of presents coming out of his suitcase seemed endless - it came to form what can only be lovingly described as ‘Christmas corner’.

                                           
'Christmas Corner' - the Santa hat doubled as the tree

                              

He definitely didn't get much rest when I was in control of the schedule – as soon as he arrived I introduced him to an early morning, sunny, Guangzhou and then dragged him off to my Chinese class. The first thing my Chinese teacher asked when we arrived was if he spoke Chinese – I think his confused face said it all!

Despite my delight at his arrival in Guangdong within 24 hours I’d already shipped him off to Hong Kong – no time for jet lag on this holiday!

Following his return we decided to head north to the city of Guilin for a few days, as I had a few days Christmas holiday.  Guilin is famous across China for its amazing and unusual mountain scenery. 

To get to Guilin from Guangzhou we took an overnight bus, finding the correct bus station in Guangzhou was a challenge in itself! I’d been told by friends that it was a sleeper bus so we would get bed-type things to sleep on; this was something I couldn’t imagine, so I was a bit apprehensive about what kind of night we were going to have.  Before getting on the bus the bus driver told us to take off our shoes. Well actually he was waving plastics bags in my faces and trying to pull my shoes off. I didn't know what he was trying to do, perils of being keen to be first on the bus I suppose. Normally talking your shoes off before getting on a bus is not a good idea, goodness only knows who had been there before you, but I soon discovered he wanted us to take our shoes off because we were walking straight into what can pretty much be described as a bedroom on wheels.  The cabin was full of metal framed bunk-beds and very thick blankets (better not to be too concerned whether they had been washed or not).   The beds were definitely designed for Chinese people. At 5ft7 I just fitted to beds, didn't stop me having a great night’s sleep though, I’m not sure the same can be said for James...

The unexpected interior of the bus

So sleeping on a bus was how we spent our Christmas Eve this year but it did mean we arrived in Guilin nice and early on Christmas day. We opened Christmas corner before we left Guangzhou (James wasn't so keen on the enforced rule of having to wear a Santa hat when opening presents!) so we were ready to start our festive bought of touristy antics.  One of my friends, Owen, who is here through the same organisation as me, flew to Guilin the day before he was tucked up nicely in bed when we arrived bright and early. After a breakfast of French toast and fresh orange juice (fresh fruit juice is impossible to buy here and it was Christmas after all), we were all ready to explore a very misty Guilin. 

In Guilin, the main attractions for tourists are the unusual hills and their accompanying parks, which are scattered throughout the city and surrounding area. Instead we decided to go to the Reed Flute Caves – that way we weren't waiting for the weather to break to be able to see anything. I didn't know what to expect in these Caves. The only cave I've ever been to is White Scar Caves in England, which I remember as being wet and low-ceiling-ed but lots of fun. In contrast the Reed Flute Cave is dry, cavernous and very well illuminated with lots of coloured lights. We had to tag onto the back of a Chinese tour so we had absolutely no idea what was going on so we entertained ourselves with taking a ridiculous number of pictures (most of which got deleted) and analysing the names given to the different rock formations – one which I distinctly remember was called ‘a bumper harvest of fruit and vegetables’ because the rocks looked like different fruits and vegetables. The lights definitely made the cave a more interesting place but it wasn't the most exciting thing I've ever done, probably due to us having no idea what was being said.

The locals thought we were a little wacky to say the least!

Reed Flute caves in all their multi-coloured glory!

For Christmas lunch we found a network of food streets in the centre of Guilin and settled down for some Chinese fare served out of interestingly shaped wooden bowls (they looked a bit like shells or giant nuts); the people on the next table were eating out of bamboo shoots. We felt Christmas lunch called for something different for Christmas lunch, and quirky bowls fitted the bill nicely. The rest of our Christmas day was spent pottering about Guilin and trying to catch a glimpse of the famous ‘Elephant Trunk Hill’ (a rock that looks like an elephant drinking out of the river), personally I’m not convinced it looks like an elephant but I wasn’t about to pay the extortionate entry fee to change my mind.  It’s pretty fair to say on our low key Christmas day we all got far too excited when we saw the many fishing with birds – it’s not something you see everyday (certainly not down here).

We retreated late in the afternoon to the warmth and comfort of our hostel to escape the slightly miserable weather (It was colder and damper than we are used to down here, and even James thought it was chilly!). Our hostel had a very good bar (obviously very important) and casual area so we treated ourselves to a few cocktails and chilled out in preparation for the evening’s festive activities.

 

Our festive activities involved a Christmas party which was organised by the hostel. Our festive spread for the evening was very impressive – there was dumplings, noodles, fish, pork, beef, chicken, tofu, vegetables and of course rice (everything but turkey) so we spent a good amount of time tasting our way around the table with the other hostel residents. Some of our friends from our Beijing training (who live in Yunnan province) were also in Guilin so they came and joined us for the evening which made for an even more festive atmosphere (we were all wearing antlers). The ‘Wada Girls’ (the lovely ladies who run the hostel) rolled out the party games for the rest of our evening’s entertainment – here was numerous rounds of Chinese dice game with cups (I’ve forgotten the name), but I’m happy to say I won at least once, peanuts carrying races with chopsticks – James absolutely blew the rest of us out of the water there, he can no longer peddle out the excuse of ‘I can’t use chopsticks’ and of course the obligatory rounds of charades. And for the winners and losers there were plenty of prizes and forfeits – Owen’s one-man nativity still leaves me traumatised.

We were even treated to jingle bells on the Erhu (two stringed traditional Chinese instrument) by the janitor, who then really started the party by dishing out the rounds of Baijiu (Chinese rice wine - 60% alcohol – tastes revolting).

So my Christmas was more fun, festive and more gin fuelled than I ever expected. I haven’t had gin in months, what was I supposed to do?!?!

Boxing Day was spent doing the Li river cruise. The guide told us that a misty day on the Li river was one of the must see things in China (I think that’s what they tell all the tourists when it’s raining!) The Li river is famous because of the startling scenery (when it’s not raining), so famous that it’s even on the money (20 Yuan note). The cruise was lovely but I’m very glad I had my gloves on. Our afternoon was spent on another tour around the Yangshuo countryside (a small city near Guilin) – we ended up feeding a buffalo and going to a tourist attraction that was definitely not historically authentic but trying very hard to fool us otherwise – we ended up dancing with traditionally dressed actors and James ended up in a wedding ritual! I’m still not sure what was going on!

The famous mountains along the Li River

A fisherman and his birds

The view on the money -  worth every penny

Apparently this is a windows 7 background view?!?

The 'historical' village

The LongJi rice Terraces

Our Saturday was spent at the LongJi rice Terraces – this was the day I’d most been looking forward too. Before I arrived here, when I thought of China I thought the great wall and rice field – I’m happy to say I've now seen then both. After a very long and winding bus trip to the paddy fields, we dined on some VERY fried noodles cooked by the lady in the car park (glamorous or what!), before starting our assent to the top of the paddy fields in the hope of experiencing the breath-taking scenery – sadly again the weather was not on our side. Despite not being able to see the most famous view (the one shown on our very glamorous tickets), I’m still happy I saw the paddy fields – the mist had cleared lower down the mountains and imagining Chinese scenery is something I’m getting quite good at!

The bus journey back to Guilin was a slightly surreal experience for me. The bus (which was public) was so full that I was forced to sit on a tiny plastic stool in the bus aisle whilst simultaneously being grilled by a fellow passenger (in Chinese) about where I was from, what my job was and most importantly how much I earned (I lied to her about the last bit) – definitely not how I expected to spend my afternoon when I woke up that morning!

Our final day in Guilin was just James and I. Finally we had a sunny day, and even a little bit warm! We whiled away our lazy Sunday strolling in the sunshine around the lakes and river in the city as well as eating A LOT of bread (it was tasty and unusual). It was a change to all the noodles I felt like I ate in Guilin!

For some reason our (very uncomfortable) bus trip home only took 6 hours rather than the 11 hours it took us on the way there – not quite sure how that works. It did me the chance to us hone my Chinese navigation skills on our late night taxi ride home – I definitely need the practise!

G x

There are lots more pictures on my Flickr - blogger was being annoying and not letting me add some of my favourites.