Guilin it, to win it.

 

Guilin was on my life list. I actually can’t remember how it got there, but most likely I had heard someone talk about their travels there and it got stuck in my memory. Visions of mist covered mountains with a meandering river running through them. An idyllic countryside village. As my sister Holly and I did not have time for it seven years ago, I was adamant about going this time around. When I stepped off the train into the glaring florescent lights of the high rise buildings around me I was immediately disappointed.

If Guilin ever was a romantic countryside village, it no longer was. The tall pointy mountains were still there, but could hardly be seen due to the city that had sprung up around it. Rice paddies, had been replaced with a concrete jungle, farmers, with the hustle and bustle of city life. So much for seeing another side of China. We were picked up from the station by a spunky young Chinese girl from our hostel, WADA, and thank goodness—the hostel was tucked back into a nondescript complex we would have never found on our own in the dark. It was one of those lucky travel moments that you cherish after a long travel day(s). 

We settled into our room, including putting up our mosquito net for the first time to protect us from the mosquitoes that had wandered in from a window that had been left open. As we had been put into a twin room rather than a double, Pearce and I had to squish onto one bed together. It reminded me of college. 

As we had limited energy left that night we wandered out to the common area to grab dinner and sat next to a young couple from the Canary Islands. They actually tipped us off to a trip they were going on the next day, Longji Rice Terraces, if they could get another two people. As we really needed to get out and do something fun, we signed up for the trip as well, knowing little about what it was we were going to see.  I am so happy we did.

The next morning we met our friends from the night before and another couple who also happened to be Spanish, hopped in a minibus and escaped the city. We drove about 2 and a half hours away to the Dazai Village that is part of the Longji rice terraces or the “Dragon’s Backbone”. These terraces are one of the world’s largest and one of the oldest, dating back to almost 1000 years ago. The 26 square miles were officially complete in 1700. The minority group that lives in Dazai are called the Yao. The women are most famous for having extremely long hair, so much so that they are in the Guinness Record holders. You had to pay a fee, like anywhere else in China, to get in but once you did you were free to hike all over the countryside.

Our minibus driver walked our small group through the first village to the start of one of the trails and so up we started. Everywhere you looked it was a scene from National Geographic, whether it was the land or the people, everything was just stunning. Climbing our way up the stone paths we got to see people living their lives: in the fields laying fertilizer, drying seed, or just hanging out with their kids. It was a nice change from the “performance” you see as a tourist in the cities. Not to say there wasn’t a little of that going on, much like any other place we have visited people encouraged us to look at the things they were selling, but here it was almost like an afterthought.

 

We spent most of the day meandering our way through hillsides climbing up one hill, stopping at the top to catch our breath and to take pictures and then winding our way back down the other side. In fact we took so many pictures that we had to head back before we had even finished the whole circuit so that way we could make our bus in time. We did arrive in the starting village with a half an hour to spare so we grabbed some beers and relaxed with our Spanish friends. In the course of our discussions we learned that Sonia from the Canaries was also a doctor and that Alberto from Madrid had worked for Accenture. What a small world!

So in the end, although Guilin proper was overrated, our tour to the countryside more than made up for it and was one of the highlights of our trip so far. The next day we headed off to our next destination, Yangshuo, which we had heard through the backpacker grapevine would totally make up for our Guilin bust.