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 - 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.