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.


After about 30 minutes, a bus finally came so that we could travel further south to Longzhou. The bus was not very nice. You could tell that we were in a more rural (and wet) area because the entire bus was muddy.


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It was about a 2 hour bus ride and cost ¥25 ($4). Although the ride was bumpy and slow, I enjoyed seeing the wonderful scenery and gorgeous mountains. I also noticed that in this part of China, they grow a lot of sugar cane. A LOT of sugar cane. From Daxin, to Longzhou, any area that was cultivatable was covered with sugar cane. We passed many towns and villages where it was very apparent that everyone in the town lived, breathed, ate and worked sugar cane. Sugar cane is pretty popular in China. People chew on the cane like you would chewing tobacco (ok, not exactly the same, but similar concept where you put something in your mouth, chew it, then spit it out). It is also common to make drinks from sugar cane. Presumably, they also use it to make sugar (crazy I know).

This is what most of the trip looked like. Sugar cane and Karst mountains.

A view from the trip from Daxin to Longzhou.

Once we finally arrived in the city, we waited to meet up with Serena (the student from Chongzuo; she went to Longzhou to spend a few days with her uncle). We got bored of waiting and knew that we needed to find a hotel eventually anyhow, so we just walked to the first hotel we could find. We walked in and it was ¥70 ($11) a night. Good enough for us. This was another instance where they obviously had not had foreigners stay before. The girl at the counter really did not know what she was doing. She started getting our passport information and eventually got to the point where she realized it was a bit beyond her capabilities. She gave up and just had us give her the deposit. This hotel was a bit nicer. The toilet flushed, and it even had an Internet cable!

This is the type of tricycles that were all over in Longzhou. Not very roomy. This was at the bus station. They just wait around like taxis to give people cheap transportation.

For the rest of the day, we were told about a hike that overlooked the city. I had been wanting to go on a hike ever since I got to China, so I was really excited to walk up a mountain. Serena had the three of us squeeze in the back of one of the tricycles and told the driver to take us to the mountain. It was just down the street... close enough that we wish we would have just walked. Fun experience nonetheless.

Once we started, we were taken back by the amount of garbage on the trail. We are used to garbage on the ground (because China has a lot) but I don't think we were used to seeing this amount. We assumed that it was just because it was the beginning of the trail. Sadly, that was not the case. The entire trail had garbage everywhere. If only that were the worst part.

After hiking about two minutes, we started to smell something. Something bad. Something very bad. It was hard to tell what it was. At first we thought that maybe it was a garbage dump (or maybe a person dump), but we kept hiking and the smell would not go away. For the life of us, we could not figure out where the smell was coming from.

This might just be my favorite picture from the entire trip. I think the facial expressions on Jerry's and Loida's face brilliantly illustrate how bad it smelled the entire hike. 

This pagoda was on top of the peak

It didn't take us long to get to the top of the peak. Once we did, we knew where all of the pollution in China comes from, and began to suspect where that horrid smell was coming from. We could see a large plant with plenty of smoke. I assumed it probably had something to do with all the sugar cane.

I think I have seen smoke stacks like this in every city I have been to. Not sure if they are coal plants, food processing plants or garbage incinerators (or a combination of things). I am pretty sure though that they contribute to the pollution problem in China.

A view from the peak, looking down onto the city

Click on this panorama for a larger image. I think it illustrates a nice contrast with the small city and the countryside.

Found a cave on the way down with some sort of devil god inside. Pretty sure he is the keeper of trash. There was a lot near him.

Loida showing how stinky and garbagey this trail is.

After hiking, we walked back to our hotel and checked out some of the city on the way back. We had dinner later that night. After dinner, we went to find places with soft serve ice cream to see if we could find some that was good. It was not good, but it was cheaper ¥1 ($.15). We walked home after that then called it a day.

I would say about 30 percent of the non scooter traffic are trailers like this or large trucks carrying sugar cane.

Trucks waiting to go into the factory.

Looks like the factory indeed does have something to do with the sugar cane.

These girls rode their bike past us a couple times. I don't think many foreigners ever go to Longzhou.