China trip – Part 6.
It’s Thursday, April 19, 10 days into our 2-week trip to China. We are on our third stop, Guilin, a popular tourist destination because of its renown karst topography.
Destination cities – from Beijing in the north, traveling south to Hangzhou, Guilin, and Hong Kong
Guilin is about 1000 miles southwest of Beijing. We are staying three nights at the Shangri-la Hotel in the center of the city.
The city itself is not very charming. Fodor’s travel book explains that Guilin was heavily bombed during the Second Sino-Japanese War (from 1937 -1945) and rebuilt in the utilitarian style popular in the 1950’s.
Original settlements on the Li River banks go back as far as 314 BC. The city was established in 111 BC during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
A dozen small ethnic groups call Guilin home and so a variety of living conditions and lifestyles prevail throughout the region. There are about 8 different Guilin languages – Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Zhuang and Mienic languages, to name some of them.
Yesterday we took a river cruise down the Li River along the karst peaks (per my previous blog) – today is our last full day here. Here I took a photo of the view of the city from our motel window.
Guilin
On the corner square right below our hotel window a large group of mostly women are working out to upbeat music.
We venture out on foot to explore the city. On the opposite corner square from the dance/exercise group, another boom box is belting out tunes and couples are gathering to dance. I turn to take a photo, and this happy couple strikes a pose.
(By evening the square is packed full with dancing couples.)
Back to our morning walk … A few blocks from our hotel we enter an open market, where the locals shop for groceries –
Abundant fresh produce:
Fresh meat
How long does it stay fresh?
Yum! Pig’s feet! And what’s that next to the feet?
No idea what to do with these items
Ugh! A pigs face? Uh, so, Halloween mask or something? Waste not, want not. Pig snout stew? Do instructions in English come with these purchases?
Get your fresh chicken here!
Throw it on the barbie
Throats slit, feathers plucked, they’re ready to go!
You want a closer look, do you? No????
Yep, their throats are slit, alright
Chicken feet are a delicacy, of course! Not sure about chicken heads. Don’t really want to make eye contact with the thing, be forced into a conversation with it, before I cut its head off.
On the other hand, if you really want fresh chicken or duck, just buy a live one out of this caged selection:
Live chickens on the left, ducks on the right
Eric thought of buying all the ducks and then setting them free on the river. I could purchase bread to feed them! But then they’d all just be caught again … Yum! Peking Duck is calling us for dinner …
Well, it certainly does make you think about what you’re eating, that another animal is giving up their life to provide you nourishment, and you basically have to tell them so, make amends to the animal face-to-face when you buy it. Fair enough …
A lot of families come through on their motor bikes to shop.
Not sure how they would carry their groceries. Add a live duck to the mix?
It was quite amazing to see parents with their children riding through town traffic on these small bikes – no big deal, no helmets, no need to hold on …. no worry apparently, about safety.
No problem, this toddler is perfectly secure…
No room for a car seat?
Yes, there’s a toddler in there …
Hey, it works! We saw families riding on electric scooters in every large city we visited. Didn’t see or or hear of an accident – thank goodness. Not that they don’t happen! Can’t imagine. I wonder what the accident statistics are or how much news coverage these accidents receive. In any case, there doesn’t seem to be much worry or government safety regulations concerning travel on electric scooters. The Guilin city streets are designed with separate parallel lanes for cars and motor scooters. But of course, these lanes merge into intersections … Here, I took a video of the intersection right below our hotel – gives you an idea of how one might worry about the safety of an entire family on an electric motor scooter …
Oh, and by the way, cars and scooters do not yield to pedestrians. The rule seems to be: The biggest moving mass on the road gets the right-of-way. Note to pedestrians: Get out of the way of anything that can run you over!!
In the afternoon our driver Terry delivered us to a popular site in the center of Guilin, The Prince City Solitary Beauty Park. Inside are the decaying remains of an ancient Ming Dynasty palace built in 1393. Sun Yat-sen lived here for a few months in the winter of 1921. We walked around the park and then climbed up the main attraction in the park, the Peak of Solitary Beauty. This is a 492-foot high karst peak, with carved stones leading to the top. It’s an intense workout for your legs getting to the top, but totally worth it for the great views of Guilin. Here we are climbing the steps to the top of the Peak of Solitary Beauty:
And views of Guilin from on top:
Guilin
Climbing back down now …
It was difficult to capture a photo of the peak from the ground. This is my best effort:
Peak of Solitary Beauty
For dinner, our concierge, Ray, had made us reservations at a fabulous restaurant – Chunji Roasted Goose Restaurant (yes, roasted goose is their specialty). Terry, our driver, delivered us there and back again (Do I feel special? Pinch myself!). It was top-notch in all respects, round tables with cloth tablecloths, elegant lighting and decor, prompt, polite service … Here, I’ll share my photos of the evening. First, the restaurant:
Our server:
Chinese local beer was great!
Some of our dishes (Victor always makes fantastic choices!):
Too pretty to eat!
And one last photo of the busy chefs in the massive kitchen!
Well, okay. It’s Friday morning now, April 20. Today we travel by several trains to the last destination on our trip – Hong Kong! We have met Terry, our driver, out in front of the Shangri-la Hotel and are ready to hit the road to the train station in Guilin. Oh, except Eric can’t find his raincoat.
Yeah, we are in for several new adventures today, for starters, we wake up to a torrential rain. (An omen?) While Eric digs in his suitcase looking for his raincoat I take a video.
Are you ready? Pile into the van with us and Terry. We’re on a new adventure!
The Decompression of a Boomer 