Day Eight – Hiking in Xingping

Friday 22 January 2010
8:30am Hike to Snail Hill
10:30am Hike to the top of Laozhai Hill
11:30am Eat Guilin Noodles with school kids in Xingping
12:30pm Hike to spot of the image on the back of China’s 20 yuan bill
1:15pm Continue hiking to Nine Horse Fresco Hill
2:30pm Catch a bamboo raft back to Xingping (very cold)
3:15pm Attempt to warm up by the fire in our hostel
4:00pm Give up, start on our four hour trek to the Guilin airport
12:15am Finally board delayed plane back to Nanjing
3:30am Throw down our bags and hit the sack as we say goodbye to a trip well planned

The view from the roof-top of our hostel:



Kiersten: As we headed out that day, I admit that I was a little apprehensive. After our experience of being cold and wet the day before, I didn't really want to have that happen again. But the whole day was absolutely wonderful! And we were able to hold off becoming cold and miserable until we had seen everything we wanted to. As we climbed to the top of a nearby karst mountain that morning and then looked over Xingping and the Li river, I was again struck with how incredibly beautiful it all was. I felt awed and lucky to be able to be there and see it all. What a wonderful trip.

At the start of the hike up Lao Zhai Shan (the nearby karst mountain). Hiking up steep slippery stone steps in the rain might not be the best idea, but we made it!

From the top:


Eric: The hills around Xingping were my favorite. It was still raining, but we weren’t willing to pass up the opportunity to see more of karst mountain beauty. Our trip to and back from Snail Hill went quite well, and I was quite excited to find that in the rock bed along the path there were ironically quite a few snail shells to be found. Much to Kiersten’s amusement, I couldn’t help but stop and sift through the rocks to find the best ones. The day went by wonderfully, but a few minutes into our boat ride back to Xingping, the wetness that had accumulated on our clothes throughout the day began to be more apparent. As we reached our hostel, we were forced to take a break and try to warm ourselves by hot coals pulled from the furnace. It didn’t work, however, and the whole way to the airport both Kiersten and I were wondering if we had gone too far with our adventure. The cold and the wet was painful, to say the least. Would we do it again? If you were to ask me on the bus, I’d have said no, but ask me at any other time, and I’d say definitely.

I loved our trip. From Hong Kong to the Longji Rice Terraces to Yangshuo to Xingping, Kiersten and I had a wonderful time. Things could hardly have gone better.

Taking the little ferry across the river.



Snail Hill. It really does look like a snail shell, doesn't it?

Eric looking for snail shells with Snail Hill in the background. He got so excited by them. He reminded me of his Grandma Matthews- I have almost the exact same picture of her looking for shells when we went to visit them in Washington. Like grandma, like grandson.

Not the best picture and we weren't at quite the right angle, but the is the same view that is depicted on the 20 RMB banknote. (Chinese currency) We thought that was neat.



Can you see the little man on the raft? I love this picture.


This particular mountain is called Nine Horse Fresco Hill. The whitish areas are supposed to look like horses. You have to look really hard, and even then they still don't look too much like horses.

Our raft-ride back to Xingping.

Day Seven – Shivering cold, but still loving it

Note: I know this was already almost a month ago but I already had these posts ready to go and I wanted to get the rest of the trip posted- mostly because we just love looking at these amazing pictures :).

Thursday 21 January 2010

9:00am Bike ride in heavy rain through countryside (trying to make it to Dragon Bridge again)
10:30am Realization that our ponchos were not keeping us dry at all, and that we were still less than half way to Dragon Bridge
10:40am Ride back to Yangshuo in rain
12:00pm Eat lunch while shivering from being soaked wet
2:00pm Take a bus with friends Thomas and Jessica and Aaron and Courtney to nearby town of Fuli
2:30pm Walk around Fuli and buy hand-painted Chinese fan (our first souvenir)
4:30pm Travel back to Yanshuo
5:30pm Take a bus to small town of Xingping, where we would spend the night



Eric: Note to self—don’t try adventurous bike rides in cold rain with only a five kuai poncho to keep yourself warm, especially when you only brought one pair of pants with you. That morning ride was beautiful, but it sure left us shivering for the rest of the day. We knew it was probably going to rain our last couple of days in the area, but somehow we still thought that we were going to do everything the same as if it was dry. As can be seen from the itinerary above, though, that supposition did not last more than an hour and a half. We were therefore happy, then, when our friends from Nanjing walked into the same restaurant as we were finishing our lunch. After a few minutes of looking at the map, we decided we would take a bus to Fuli, where we could safely walk around with umbrellas and enjoy the beauty around us while still staying dry. We did not plan on buying a fan there, although Fuli is famous throughout China for its hand-painted fans. How could we say no, though, after we took a look around the shop of one gifted family and hear the amazing prices they were offering them for. We left with a fan, and we were very happy about it.

Kiersten: Although our little bike ride mostly backfired, that first half hour of it was amazing. I love rain- running in rain is my favorite way to run- and the first part of the bike ride felt like that. Then it got wet, very wet, and then very cold. I tried being toughing it out- when every single one of the flimsy buttons on my also very flimsy poncho broke, I just tied little knots all the way down the front in an attempt to keep it together. I know I looked awfully silly but hey, if it gave me at least 10 more minutes out there before giving up, it was worth it. The route we took for our bike ride was beautiful. Flat- not hilly like the day before (that was killer!) and we were surrounded by the majestic karst mountains on every side.

The little town of Fuli.

Some our friends who we went with.

The fan store we visited- 'Peng Family Fan Technique Factory'

Learning how to make the fans!

This is the one we bought.


Walking around the town some more:

Hello from Shanghai!

We have been in Shanghai for about two weeks now, but we only just today got our internet set up. It's amazing to realize how much we rely on and use the internet. Especially with being in China (the only way we talk with family/friends back home is through email and Skype). So we have definitely felt cut off from the world the last two weeks. Though I guess there has been some upsides. Example: less time spent looking at recipe blogs (yes, this is one of my favorite past times).

A lot has happened and there has been a lot that we have wanted to post about - Eric's week in Qingdao...moving here...apartment finding adventures...Chinese New Years...Valentines Day...finding a 3.5 kilogram container of ice cream at an amazing price at Metro (talk about heaven!)...buying and cooking with raw meat for the first time since being in China... but it seems silly to backtrack and post about everything now. And probably extremely boring to everyone who reads them. However, you may still get stuck with reading about half of these. :)

Day Six – Biking in Yangshuo

Wednesday 20 January 2010


8:00am Ride bikes to shore of Yulong River
8:30am Board bamboo raft for trip down Yulong river
11:00am Hike Moon Hill
12:30pm Begin bike ride to Dragon Bridge (遇龙桥)
1:30pm Ride through ancient town of Longtang
1:48pm Spend three hours wondering if we are ever going to make it to Dragon Bridge
4:30pm Reach Jinbao, decide that “no, we are not going to make it to Dragon Bridge.”
4:35pm Catch a ‘rescue bus’ from Jinbao through Baisha and back to Yangshuo
7:00pm Eat dinner with friends Thomas and Jessica

Eric: Despite a few disappointments throughout the day, our first day in Yangshuo was definitely a day to be remembered. It was a big change from the ethnic minority villages and rice terraces of the previous two days, but standing atop Moon Hill and looking out, I could not help but stand in awe at the beauty of this area. We had originally planned to ride our rented bikes up to the 600-year old Dragon Bridge, but due to a few wrong turns and maybe a few too many picture stops, we didn’t make it. In fact, we hardly made it half way. But the countryside was beautiful, and I have no regrets at all about making the trip.

Riding through the town of Longtang, I felt like I had taken a step one hundred years back in history. What amazed me about the town, though, was that although there was a stand at the front collecting tourist fees to pass through, the town was anything but touristy. On our left was the schoolyard where children were in class. Down an alley were the sweet smells of a meal cooking on a fire. At the end of another passage was a small girl peeking sitting on her doorstep. To us, this was a stop on our trek through the countryside, but to these people, this was home. I was thankful to be a witness to it, and I admire them for their work ethic, although I know that to them it is all that they know. If they don’t work, then they don’t eat, and it is as simple as that. The weather was beautiful that first day in Yangshuo, though, and we are glad that we got a long bike ride out of it.



Kiersten: Even though we did get lost (we seem to do that a lot!), I had a blast riding our bikes and wandering through the countryside. For one, it felt so good to be on a bike. But I mostly really enjoyed it because of all that we saw. We passed through a ton of little villages and I don’t think we saw another tourist while we were out riding. It was a great contrast from just earlier that morning when we went on our raft ride. We had been really looking forward to the raft ride, thinking it would be quiet, away from everyone- just us and the river and the mountains. Unfortunately, instead we encountered- even on the river- people constantly trying to sell us stuff. They had their own huge raft/stores that our boatman would inevitably stop at. (Nice as he was, I have my suspicions that he was in cohorts with them). So getting on our bikes and riding away felt so good- like we were escaping.

On our raft ride:



Our boatman.

Eric helping to lift our bamboo raft over one of the many little dams that we had to cross.

Off to Moon Hill!



The view from the top was gorgeous!


Things we saw on our bike ride:
Eric took a ton of pictures of cows. I can't tell you how many times we stopped suddenly because he saw another one.

This was in the village of Longtang that Eric mentioned.

I think we were already lost by this point.

But so beautiful!


Do you see the scarecrows?

Our first glimpse of Jinbao. A place never looked so beautiful to our tired legs.
Our 'rescue' bus!