Traveling in China - Day 12 and 13 - Going Home

Picture from the train ride home

By this point we were all pretty anxious to go home and do laundry. The trip was fun but there is something nice to being in a familiar bed (and being somewhere with a space heater).

Traveling in China - Day 11 - Nanning's Night Market

We took the train from Pingxiang to our last destination, Nanning (南宁). The train ride was about 4 hours long and cost ¥30 ($4.75). When we arrived in Nanning, it was crowded and raining. I missed the small cities already. The first hotel we went to was quite a bit more than we were used to spending, so we ended up spending the next 45 minutes finding a hotel. Turns out that hotels just cost a lot more in bigger cities.


View Forbidden Fort in a larger map

When we got to Nanning and settled down, there was not anything left to do but eat and call it a night. After we ate dinner, we went to Nanning's night market.

Traveling in China - Day 10 - Vietnam Border

In the morning, we packed our bags and started walking to the bus station. Our next stop was going to be to a city near the Vietnam border called Pingxiang.


View Peak Fort In Longzhou in a larger map

Before we got to the bus station, we saw the bus that we needed to take already leaving, so we had it stopped in the middle of the street and got on. At this point the bus was already almost completely full and we all had quite a bit of luggage. Yay.

Traveling in China - Day 9 - Hike in Longzhou (龙州)

I have no idea how many national parks China has, but I have apparently been to at least one of them.

The second day we were in Longzhou, we decided that we would go on a longer hike (that hopefully was less stinky than the day before). We talked to Serena's uncle and he helped us get to a place where we could hike. We didn't know that the place would cost ¥30 ($4.75), but as Chinese people are prone to do, Serena's uncle paid for us all to get in.

Traveling in China - Day 8 - Longzhou (龙州)

Riding a bus through the countryside 

In the morning we woke up then went to the bus station so we could wait in line to get our bus tickets. After waiting about 20 minutes, the lady at the counter told us to follow a young man, he led us to a section of the bus station where we could wait for the bus. He explained that they did not sell tickets where we were going but that we would just have to wait. Our things were still back at the hotel, so we went and got them just so we could return and wait for a bus.

Traveling in China - Day 7 - Detian Waterfall (德天瀑布 [Détiān Pùbù])

Detian falls. Our destination.

Today was a waterfall day, so I woke up super excited! It took us a lot less time to pack up and leave the apartment than I anticipated. Guess it is nice to be able to fit everything in a couple of backpacks. We all shed a tear as we left our apartment for the final time (one giant collective tear; not three separate ones).

Traveling in China - Day 6 - Rock Park in Chongzuo (崇左)

After a couple days of doing next to nothing, we decided that we should get out and explore a bit before we went on to the next city.

We decided to go to 崇左石景林 (Chongzuo shi jing lin). I think the best translation would be scenic rock place or rock garden. Not sure, but they did have a lot of rocks.

Traveling in China - Days 4 and 5 - Rainy Days

At this point we decided that the hotel was cheap enough that we would make it our semi-permanent home. It was easier having a place where we could put all our stuff and not have to worry about taking over someone else's home. 

Day 4 of the trip I decided to get up again before everyone else to find a real breakfast this time. No good.  I went to the main part of the city and there was nothing. I did buy some fruit (some guava. Super good. Hadn't had that since I lived in Taiwan). On the way back to the hotel, I went to the supermarket and bought some candy. Yep. Totally splurged the whole trip and spent about ￥40 -  ￥50| $6.50 - $9 on food every day of the trip. Some days I even spent more (actually... I probably didn't, I just want to feel like I splurged a bit though). 

When I got back to the hotel, everyone was still sleeping. Yep. Lazy day. The rest of the day was spent watching TV shows or movies on our computers and playing Settler's of Catan. It was nice to watch "Rudy". Hadn't seen that one in a while. 

The next day was more of the same. It was a rainy day (come to think of it... nearly every day of the trip was rainy but this day was a bit more so than others). We did more with planning for what else we would do on our trip. Got junk food at the supermarket and watched more TV and played more games. It was nice to relax and be lazy (though technically, I think by virtue vacations are supposed to be somewhat relaxing and lazy). 

Loida taking advantage of a rainy day.

Traveling in China - Day 3 - Fun in Chongzuo (崇左)

The hotel we stayed in was not super fancy (well... ok, the key thing was pretty cool), but it least it provided a warm (private) shower and plenty of blankets. The bathroom still had a squatter, and it wasn't the cleanest (not too bad if you didn't look at the walls) but for what we payed, we were pretty happy. We all slept very well. In the morning I got up before everyone else and decided to go on an adventure in an attempt to find a delicious breakfast. I remember when I was in Taiwan that the breakfasts there were amazing! Since we were in southern China (much more like Taiwan I have been told) I fully expected to find some great breakfast food.

Traveling in China - Day 2 - Going to Chongzuo (崇左)

26 hours spent in any space can be tedious. Especially if you only have 3 feet above and to the side of you to move around. In the morning I pretended to sleep for as long as I could. The guy snoring I think did a better job at pretending. Rock solid performance.

Eventually I conceded defeat and decided to turn on some tunes and look out the window. I must admit, after seeing the dismal, flat and cold grey setting of Zhengzhou, I was a bit relieved when I looked out the window and saw some green and some mountains! By time we "woke up" we were just about in Guangxi province. At about 9:00 we passed the city of Guilin. This is considered by much of China to be the most beautiful place in the country. I have heard a few times that it is also considered one of the most beautiful places in the world. It is a tourist city and as such, the train station actually looked clean. How nice.

The reason Guilin is famous is because of the mountains. You know how when you think of Chinese mountains, you think of these steep pointy mountains that you would see in Kung Fun Panda or a Chinese watercolor painting? These are the mountains from Guilin. These type of mountains are called karst. If you have seen all the Star Wars movies, then you have seen images from Guilin. The mountains were used as background images for the Wookie planet Kashyyyk. (See these images)

This is a picture I snapped out of the train window as we were passing Guilin. Not much, but you can see some of the mountains in the background. 

Traveling in China - Day 1 - Off to Guangxi 广西

Here in China school doesn't get out around Christmas time. Fortunately for me, this past Christmas was on a Sunday, so I had the day off, but I still had to teach English classes for a week afterward.

What IS nice however is that the Chinese new year is a <understatement>pretty big deal</understatement>. This means that from the beginning of January until the middle of February has no school! Woot!

I was able to endure a week of nothing in my apartment before I realized that doing nothing is only slightly more fun than actually going to work. That called for a plan. A plan to do SOMETHING! When most people go to China, the go with the intent to travel. Sounded like a good plan to me, so that is what I decided to do. I talked to a couple other teachers here who wanted to travel as well and we decided to go to southern China near the border of Vietnam. From Zhengzhou (Henan province) to Nanning (Guangxi province) is just over 1000 miles (see map below). It is about the same distance as driving a car from Provo, UT to Kansas city MO. (Incidentally, I just found out from Wikipedia that Nanning is sisters cities to Provo. How cool is that?!)




View Larger Map