A Beginners Expedition to China

With Jan’s holidays set for March we looked at the options. Toowoomba did not get a Guernsey, the Barrier Reef was a possibility but did not offer adequate “adventure” so we settled on China and invested in a copy of the Lonely Planet guide. Plan A was to do the Chinese equivalent of Kakadu, Ayers Rock, the Barrier Reef and Sydney Harbour in a week. The LP suggested that for an expedition of that magnitude in China you should allow about five weeks. The more we read and discussed with friends it became apparent that for a week, a visit to even just one regional location could be a challenge.

The LP says “China is not so much a travel destination as a mind boggling phenomenon”. Our experience would confirm this.

Plan B was formulated: go to Guilin, 500 km North West of Hong Kong and spend a few days amongst the spectacular scenery of the limestone pinnacles in the “karst” country. This turned out to be a good idea and we survived a week riding bikes, cruising on river boats, bamboo rafts and walking through this fascinating part of the world where civilisation dates back to 214 BC.

Forewarned that the language would be the single greatest barrier and the other hurdles to be encountered would be minor in comparison we set off with confidence exceeding capability by a wide margin.

A study of the LP suggested a good plan for Day 1 would be to take the train from Hong Kong to Shenzen, walk across the border, train to Guangzhou (formerly Canton) and then the afternoon plane to Guilin. It worked out well. However, the execution of the plan was an adventure in itself.

The train ride from Hong Kong was straightforward as was the border crossing. Getting local cash out of the ATM at the border proved to be more of a challenge than we could manage (all the options are in Chinese, very tricky) so rather than lose the card to the machine we left the cash for later. The ticket for the second train ride was written in Chinese but the train “number” in Arabic numerals was handy. Once settled into our seats we found the gentleman opposite spoke English. A retired vet, having studied many years ago at University of Queensland, he was surprised we did not have onward travel bookings and were planning to figure it out as we went. Chinese are great travellers but everything is pre arranged and mostly they travel in tour groups with coloured caps and travel bags. The other man opposite lived in Hong Kong and was working in Guangzhou. Lawrence offered to assist us to get the airline tickets and accommodation for that night. This was more good luck than good management on our part as finding the airline office proved more difficult than the LP suggested and once there we found the three desks all have a different purpose: one for making the booking, the second to pay and the third to issue the ticket. Lawrence also assisted by making a phone call to the hotel and not only making a booking but he negotiated a lower rate than the LP indicated. Refusing our offer to have lunch he gave us his mobile phone number and e-mail address and went off to his work. He was very kind; it was a great start to our adventure.

From the centre of this city of ten million people we took refuge in the Orchid Garden across the road from the railway station. Twenty acres of tranquil luxury, the garden is set behind a high fence which removes the noise and hassle of the city traffic (ten lanes wide, the traffic is constant and seems to have its own rules - close your eyes and off you go). With thousands of orchids and a number of ponds stocked with hungry carp we accepted the complimentary tea in the “Tea House”. This was a delightful tea making ceremony rather than just a refreshing cup of tea. The girl dressed in a tea making silk suit, sat us in old timber chairs on the veranda, played some appropriate music, warmed the cups and tea making equipment then proceeded to make and bless the tea following a time honoured tradition. It was wonderful. Then time for the reality check; back outside, across the road again (the traffic is still amazing) and into a taxi through the congested suburbs of Guangzhou to the airport.

The ride in the China Southern B737 turned out to be far better than anticipated. Arriving on time at Guilin, a city of one million people we were amazed at the size of this modern airport complete with aerobridges and baggage carousels. Being the centre of one of the more popular scenic areas of China, Guilin gets many visitors, mostly local but sufficient foreigners to warrant a Sheraton Hotel.

The pre booked hotel car took us the 30 km on the new freeway into town. The driver apologised that “Robert” was unable to meet us this evening. Being late (2030) we dropped the bags into the room, checked out the spectacular lights on the limestone cliff across the river and were ready for dinner. The hotel restaurant specialised in Korean food so we selected a couple of dishes from the photo menu. The food was fine but the vintage 1999 Chinese red wine was bad news. We read later that although grapes are plentiful in China, the wine making techniques differ from Western methods and the fermentation is done in an oxidising environment. The good news is the resulting wine never goes “over the hill”, the bad news is it starts out over the hill !! That was the end of Chinese wine for the week. The beer was OK and green tea was forever available.

Now we are in “China”. Whilst beginning to figure out what to see and do we meet “Robert” in the foyer. He works for CITS (China International Travel Service) and was “waiting” to assist us in our plans and make the bookings. Robert spoke good English and has visited Australia many times; his brother lives in Parramatta. After a discussion on concepts and possibilities we decide on a plan and commission Robert to make the bookings. Today in Guilin, tomorrow the river cruise through the limestone pinnacles, then two days in the Yangshou countryside, return to Hong Kong by the overnight train to Guangzhou then the Pearl River ferry. The plan sounds good. Whilst mindful of touts and others, Robert instilled a degree of confidence and backed this up when he produced the train tickets that evening.

Guilin is in the heart of a tourist area. Billed by the Chinese as a five star scenic district, it has a number of extraordinary features within 100 km and is high on the list for tourists; similar to our Blue Mountains. Guilin has developed into a modern city with wonderful parks and gardens around the river and adjoining lakes. Downtown looks like any other major city with large modern office and retail buildings all with “Schindler” lifts and escalators. There is even a subway rail system and an underground shopping mall. We found a small gift for Kirsten in one of the underground shops. Jan took over the negotiations and after some ruthless bargaining we settled up. Only later did we find that the Y50 (AUD8) note in the change was a fake !! Outside the CBD it is back to the typical Asian lock up shops and roads cluttered with bicycles.

The Golden Elephant Hotel is on the river opposite the Elephant Park with a limestone formation resembling an elephant’s trunk drinking from the edge of the water. A short stroll along the river brought us to Café Language, recommended by the LP for breakfast. Breakfast was OK but the coffee was delicious. Strolling along the river we encountered a local art gallery with many scenes from this region of limestone pinnacles. Most contained low clouds and with three days of mist since arriving in Hong Kong, this gave us an expectation of the days ahead. In March there are only a few sunny days.

We took a taxi to the Reed Flute Cave on the outskirts of town. These limestone caves are inside one of the many limestone pinnacles which rise 200 to 300 meters from the flat countryside. Reed Flute boasts international fame and we were not to be disappointed. The caverns are huge and the formations extensive. The lighting is superb. At the back of the largest cavern, a still pond reflected the ethereal blue and violet lighting of the nearby stalactites like a mirror, it looked like a wonderland.

For the return journey we upset the taxi drivers and took the local bus, it was great fun. This provided a slow but interesting ride through the industrial and residential areas which was highlighted by a passing view of a 500 year old large pot used to cook rice for 1,000 people at a time; more rice, ha ha !!

Back in the city we alighted at the central lake and walked around the gardens and pagoda, a small minute of peace and quiet. A short walk along the river bank brought us to the Elephant Park. By late afternoon the rush of tourists was over and we had a pleasant walk around the parks and gardens. We declined the steep stairs to the top of the 100 meter high hill in the centre. Birds in cages chirped their songs which could be heard throughout the gardens; in the old mansion now turned into a museum we could glean from the sketches and paintings that local wars were a feature of life for many centuries; sculptures of musical instruments in the park surprised us with their modern themes.

For dinner we chose a Sichuan Restaurant from the LP. This turned out to be a short stroll from the hotel. On arrival we walked around the tables to see what the locals ate. Mostly they were eating the house speciality of Spicy Shrimps. To avoid the chillies, we selected the salted duck. The staff were uneasy with this; however the owner came out to advise “they had not prepared this dish today”. We asked for his recommendation and the resulting smoked duck and garlic beans were superb, but the quantity of rice was daunting (P), (yum more rice- J) ha ha !!

Up early for breakfast we were at check out in time for departure to the river cruise. It had rained during the night and the phone system did not allow the hotel to connect to the Amex card system. Having paid cash to Robert for the ongoing expedition we were in a pickle. My requests to use a manual docket went unheeded. Now the bus driver is late for his next pick up and the mobile phones are running hot. Robert changed from a meek mild mannered gentleman into a fierce warrior and told the manager and receptionist in no uncertain terms that they must do a manual docket and let us on our way. They complied. The mini bus driver had made other arrangements for his pick ups and now we are off to the other side of town to transfer into this other bus. What a ride, I had my eyes closed for more of the journey - yippy yahoo!! Changing lanes every fifty meters, missing bicycles, avoiding collisions by just a coat of paint and even using the other side of the road we eventually met up with the other mini bus. Then off down the highway and west into the limestone pinnacle territory.

A winding narrow country lane weaving around the pinnacles and across rice fields belied the tourist activity. Forty boats were filling up with 100 people on each. All had arrived in a bus; some in large coaches, others like us were in mini buses. All of these vehicles have to return on the same country lane. The congestion is phenomenal. No wonder the drivers do not want to be late and have their passengers miss the boat.

What a spectacle. Forty boats lined up on the edge of the river, all parked in tightly side by side perpendicular to the flow. Only the upstream vessel can leave when it suits. All the others must wait until their neighbour departs. We have a modern craft with English speaking guides and were assured of a “quality” lunch. This looked a much better option than the smaller local boats. Since the snow in the distant mountains had not yet started to melt and the monsoons were some time off the river depth is low. The vessels make their way slowly through the shallow waters which provides plenty of opportunity to look at the thousands of pinnacles in the mist. The views were just like the paintings we saw in Guilin. It was eerie and almost monochrome with the soft edges of clouds on the mountain peaks and fishermen on bamboo rafts shrouded in mist.

The boats politely follow each other through the narrows, however in the wider ponds ours goes a little faster than the local boats which provided some interesting views of the bamboo raft traders and the fish delivery man. He arrives in a motor boat and ties up to the back of the boat to discuss each cooks requirements. From a tank in the front of his boat he selects some fish with a net and hands them over to the kitchen hand. Then untying his small boat, he is on the mobile phone to take the next order. Each boat is self contained, the kitchen is at the rear and not only is the washing up done here but some boats even had the Chinese equivalent of a Hoover twin tub washing machine to clean the table linen.

The three hour trip finishes at Xiang Ping, a 1,700 year old village. Here the boats discharge their passengers at the congested wharf area and return upstream empty ready for the next day.

The wharf area is a small market full of tourist souvenirs, trinkets, local fruit and sugar cane. The stall owners are all enthusiastic sales people as are the individual traders with a basket of goodies over their shoulders. Our guide says we have an hour before our mini bus departs and invites us to walk around the village. The few narrow winding lanes of this small village contain all sorts of treats. Ancient doorways reveal pottery shops, a motor bike repair workshop (complete with girly calendar on the wall!), local restaurants and even a cottage noodle factory where the produce was hung over wooden sticks in the street to be air dried. Jan took some wonderful photos of the school, the bicycles, the local folk and the rather crudely strung power cables. An old pagoda shared the summit of a limestone pinnacle with a mobile phone tower.

The bus ride to the town of Yangshou some 30 km downstream took us through small rural settlements and villages. There is not a skerrick of the flat land that is not cultivated. Small industrial workshops and yards herald the outskirts of Yangshou, a town of 300,000 people in the heart of this scenic region. When the river is at full flow the tourist boats terminate here and return each evening to Guilin. We are met by Lucy, a young tourist guide who speaks excellent English and walks us through the tourist mall to the River View Hotel. We discuss the options for the next two days and Lucy determines that we should enjoy a day of bike riding and a day of walking through the countryside. Other options include limestone caves and rock climbing on the vertical sides of the more spectacular of the many limestone pinnacles. Jan was not keen on the latter; the valleys looked just fine thank you.

The ATM next door to the hotel works and we are comfortable that we have sufficient local cash to tackle the local traders and have dinner. Wary from Guilin, Jan ensured that none of our bargaining would result in another Y50 fake note.

With arrangements made for the next day Lucy gave us some tips for the local delicacy of “beer fish” for dinner and departed on her bicycle. The town is popular with tourists from all over the globe and we saw more foreigners here than everywhere else put together. Dinner in a busy restaurant in the mall was good. There was no concern about the fish being fresh. They are kept in tanks outside the restaurant and the live fish was brought for inspection before being taken to the kitchen. Served with a delicious mix of ginger, shallots and tomato all cooked in beer, the fish was complemented with the obligatory bowl of rice and green tea. The walk back was a gauntlet of market traders and we did succumb to purchasing some small items including a cashmere shawl from Inner Mongolia, a silk scarf and a hand fan.

We elected to have breakfast on the balcony overlooking the river. Then with the bicycles selected with soft seats, Lucy guides us through the morning traffic of downtown Yangshou, past the markets and out onto a quiet country road shared with a few other tourist cyclists, some local motorbikes and the odd farm motorised cart. Leaving a new housing estate, the limestone pinnacles are everywhere. Mostly rising to 250 meters or more in height the tops are as big as a dance floor while the footprints are around the size of the Sydney Olympic stadium. 20,000 of these pinnacles are dotted around the karst region of 80 km by 30 km from Guilin to Yangshou. The country side between the pinnacles is flat and cultivated with a spectacular mix of rice paddy fields, fish ponds, grass for the fish, vegetables and sugar cane. The fields were a hive of activity with water buffalo pulling ploughs preparing for the next season’s crop of rice, people cutting grass for the fish and others cutting vegetables to take to the market. The odd barn houses chickens and pigs. Small villages provide homes to the farmers and their families. All of the dwellings have satellite dishes for television.

Leaving the narrow road we venture onto a small unsealed lane which meanders through the fields to the river. Here we transfer the bikes and ourselves onto a bamboo raft for a ride downstream. This puts the adventure back into boating. Made of ten sticks of thick bamboo the rafts are just over a meter wide and about eight meters long. Each has two seats in the middle. There are about fifty rafts tied up and our “driver” places the bicycles behind the seats, beckons us aboard and pushes off with his bamboo pole into the quietly flowing shallow stream.

There are several rafts on the river, some with bicycles, all just slowly enjoying the magnificent views of the pinnacles and the peace of the country side which is occasionally interrupted by the sound of a motor bike traversing one of the narrow access paths on the levee banks of the rice fields. Every five hundred meters we traverse a small dam which keeps sufficient water for that area to be elevated by water wheel to the irrigation channels which spread their way around the maze of fields. The rafts are pushed and shoved over the dams. The downstream drop is around a meter but the strong construction of baling wire allows the rafts to survive. Some travellers were game enough to stay on the raft and ride it into the pond below. We were not in that category !!

Around one bend a stationary raft with a lady and a steaming pot is providing sustenance for hungry travellers. We declined the snacks and the beer.

After an hour or so we reach the third dam and bid farewell to our raft driver. Back on the bikes we move downstream around numerous pinnacles and past many farm villages until we reach the highway. A large tourist raft park on the last pond before the main road is busy. Five or six coaches are parked and their tourists are out on large rafts which accommodate about ten in standing room only. To ensure the participants are having fun, music blares over the countryside from surrounding speakers. Our local transport was much more personal, fun and action backed.

Our journey takes us along the side of the highway which accommodates bicycles in a wide lane on the edge of the road. At Moon Mountain we turn off to a small village by the Dragon Cave and Lucy leads us to her house where we are given tea and a late lunch cooked with local produce. The small omelettes with pork mince and mint were delicious as too were the vegetables, rice and green tea.

We elected to take the shorter option for the ride back to town, even though this meant taking the highway. Fortunately there was not a lot of traffic and the drivers were reasonably tolerant of cyclists and did not often encroach on our lane. School was out and kids are the same the world over at that time of day, skipping and laughing their way home.

For dinner we selected a restaurant in the mall which was recommended by the LP. The Peking duck was superb.

Up bright and early, we are met by Lucy and a motor bike lady for the day’s adventure. The vintage design motor bike with two seater side-car looked like it had character. Jan and I share the side-car seat and Lucy is on the pillion seat. The machine was robust to say the least. Off out through the pinnacles we travel about ten kilometres through the country side to a thousand year old village and dismount the trusty machine for a walk through the village and paddy fields.

Most of the buildings have been constructed from mud bricks which only last fifty to a hundred years. Whilst this ensures builders a career, it belies the history. However there was one large building made from limestone rock bricks which have survived many centuries. Visitors are allowed to wander around most of this village which is still inhabited and even boasts a “Farmers Restaurant” which was one of the few English signs we encountered. Wells in the public areas still provide water, although one had been modernised with an electric pump replacing the hand drawn rope.

The extensive paddy fields cover the country side and our walk takes us along levee banks past vegetable patches and rice fields to the river. Crossing a small stone arch bridge, Lucy mentions it was built in 1200 AD.

A couple of hours later the fields turn into blossoming fruit orchards and tree nurseries. Back onto the motor bike the next stop is the Dragon Bridge. With a span of sixty meters and constructed with limestone blocks, this was quite an engineering feat in 1650. The local legend is a Dragon appeared when the last block was added and the two sides were joined. The population, in thanks called the bridge the Dragon Bridge, the river the Dragon River and the village the Dragon village. Bamboo rafts line the two sides. Most are used for fishing, though some are fitted with seats for cruising. We didn’t see a dragon the day we visited though.

On return to Yangshou we booked accommodation in Hong Kong over the internet through “Wotif”, checked out of the hotel and had lunch with Lucy. We discussed the various Chinese delights and Lucy told us the two most popular dishes with the locals are Sweet and Sour Pork and Lemon Chicken. These were ordered along with rice. However we opted for ginger tea. The food was good and the tea was great; several pieces of raw ginger are boiled for ten to fifteen minutes and the tea is sweetened with honey.

Bidding farewell to Lucy we set off for the overnight train from Guilin to Guangzhou then the ferry to Hong Kong. The mini bus ride from Yangshou to Guilin rail station was exciting. Much of the journey was spent overtaking a few slow moving trucks. The driver would race ahead at every possibility, only to stop a few minutes later to drop off or pick up a passenger. We overtook the same trucks about ten times!! On arrival at the railroad station, Robert kindly turned up to guide us to the first class soft sleeper waiting room. He spoke to one of the staff and assured us they would take us to our carriage. A few trains came and went to various destinations and then the train for Guangzhou was announced. Leaving Beijing around 40 hours earlier it had another fourteen hours to reach its destination. As the sit up seat wagons and then the second class three high “hard” sleeping wagons passed we were relieved to find that our wagon looked quite comfortable. With four bunk beds to each Pullman style compartment there was a small table, hot water thermos and of course green tea!! Doonas and pillows were provided together with soft slippers for the trek to the bathroom.

Departure was on schedule and we found the dining car was ready to serve dinner. More green tea and rice!! The wagon was full except for our compartment; but, not for long. Just as we thought we may be able to use the two lower beds the attendant knocked to chase one of us up to the top bunk and within minutes we stopped and two noisy men arrived. After turning on the lights to read the paper and calling all their friends on their mobile phone they eventually retired. The clickety-clack was soothing and we slept well. At daybreak Jan suggested that having survived one night we should consider the Trans Siberian railroad. My response was not so enthusiastic. Soon after there was much movement in our wagon and we arrived at Guangzhou. Off the train and out to the taxi rank we show the taxi driver the symbols Robert wrote which we hoped meant “take us to the ferry to Hong Kong”. It seemed to work, we zoomed around the freeways from the station, through the Pearl River tunnel and arrived at the ferry terminal.

Departure was on schedule and we boarded the 400 seat catamaran built a few years ago in Fremantle. During the ride down the Pearl River we passed numerous craft with various degrees of seaworthiness, past the new airport and arrived at the downtown terminal two blocks from the Holiday Inn. Unfortunately our room was not ready so we filled in time at the Peninsula Hotel. First stop was Tiffany’s (just peking !!) and then high tea with cucumber sandwiches and scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam. Delightful. No green tea in sight !!

What a great holiday we had, lots of adventure with many laughs, good food, a very different destination rich in culture and beautiful scenery.
In Peter words, it was OK, but said with a big grin, I think he enjoyed it.