Chengyang Dining

Chengyang consists of a cluster of Dong villages. Dong Village Hotel where I stayed offered both Guilin cuisine and the local Dong cuisine.

Although its menu offered a small selection of food, most dishes were not available. This could be due to the lack of visitors. When I was there, the only other visitors who came were a French couple who arrived at night. Hence, it was understandable that the hotel did not keep a large stock of food. Therefore, guests were obliged to accept the limited choices that were offered.

Epilogue

There were some unexpected discoveries and there were some disappointments.

Huangyao is a real discovery of a gem, courtesy of Am of sayingtheunsaid (http://sayingtheunsaid.blogspot.com/). Visit this place before high-rise buildings started sprouting up on the periphery of the village and spoiling the beautiful, rustic scenery. Some parts are already being developed. The Chinese are already there, but not in hordes as at Yulong River, Li River or Yangshuo.

Xingping is nice too. There were a lot of Chinese day trippers but was very quiet at night, with no night activities. Explore the river front, both at the jetty and the area near the bridge which were over-grown with bamboo groves. Right across the bridge, within a short walking distant, is the viewing point of the hills denoted in the RMB20 note. The old part of the town, which you can reach by walking along the alleys, was rustic and charming too.

The greatest disappointment was the scenery along the Yulong River and between Xingping and Yangdi. Maybe, my expectation was too high, thinking of the time before mass tourism came to Yangshuo. Maybe, I thought I could see super still water with those clear, blue sky reflecting off the Yulong River or Lijiang, green leaves in abundance everywhere, with nobody around or man-made structure at every corner. It was the pictures like those on this page and those in Chinese painting that drew me to this part of the world.

 

The timing of the visit in spring with the misty weather, the horde of Chinese tourists and the artificial and man-made structure everywhere spoilt everything. Every where you look was misty white. The cold winter turned the bamboo leaves brown on the edge, which otherwise could have been beautiful, especially along the Yulong River. The Yulong River and Li River at Yangdi could have been very still, reflecting the beautiful hills in the sun but no, there were the never-ending ripples from moving rafts carrying the hordes of Chinese tourists. The hill and water scenery at Gongnong Bridge could have been so beautiful but those man-made structure and the tourist rafts really spoilt everything.

Chengyang was a disappointment. There was only the Chenyang Bridge to see. The Drum Tower was not spectacular. Ma’an Village, right across Chengyang Bridge, sees its traditional houses slowly being replaced with brick and cement houses. The villagers are going to kill off tourism in Chengyang if they are so money-obsessed. When you cross the modern bridge from the village side to the main road and attempt to walk along the road towards Chengyang Bridge (not on the village side) or other villages the next day, you will be asked to pay for entrance fee again. This is unbelievable! The entrance fee of RMB60 is already steep enough and squeezing more money out from visitors is not going to be healthy for the local tourism industry.

Dazhai could have been spectacular. At this time in spring, only some of the villagers were getting their rice fields ploughed. The raining season has not arrived and the fields were brown from the dead rice stump. It there was rain and sun, the water-filled field would reflect the sun light giving the rice terrace its magnificent sight. Unfortunately, the sky was misty white, not clear and sunny.

I read a fair amount on Zhaoxing. Getting there directly is a problem. I read in blogs that buses departed from Sanjiang to Zhaoxing twice a day, early morning and mid-day. The morning bus was said to be reliable on its run. However, this was not the case. There were no direct buses. This was a great disappointment too.

Anyway, the best part of this trip was the first four days, and it was really fulfilling. If I were to go back, I would be going there in June.

Chengyang, Land of the Dong People

Day 6 (28th March 2011)

The next morning, I was on the road by 6:45 a.m. I wanted to explore Zhongsan Road to check out the locations of hostels along this street. There were quite a small number of hostels at the southern end and less further north. I would know where to go the next time I was back in Guilin.

I returned soon. As I was checking out from the hotel, the elderly man arrived. What a dedicated man, providing such good service! He led me across Zhongsan South Road to his booth.

I paid him RMB60 and was issued a receipt accordingly. A lady, introduced to me, would lead me to the Sanjiang-bound bus when it arrived. Then, the lady left. 8:30 a.m. came and went. There was no lady and there was no bus. Finally, she showed up a few minutes late and led me to the bus stop adjacent to the ticketing booth. At 8:45 a.m., the bus arrived. Finally, I would be on my way to Sanjiang. She came aboard the bus and clocked the ticket (or so I thought).

Mid-way through the journey, she said I should get off the bus. I was caught by surprise. Wasn’t this the Sanjiang bound bus? No, we had actually arrived at Qin Tan Bus Station. She led me to the departure gate. The bus would leave at 9:30 a.m. That was fine. Since there was time to kill, I went to the loo just before departure time. On coming back, the conductor asked for the ticket. I gave her the receipt and then suddenly, she passed me a ticket which she was holding in her hand. The fare was RMB37.

I realised that I have once again being scammed, this time by an elderly man in cahoot with other scammers. He made a tidy sum of RMB23 just by being nice and offering half-truth as advice. He probably made some more money by introducing me to the hotel too. How could I again trust another Chinese! Are there any honest Chinese in the tourism trade?

The bus departed as scheduled at 9:30 a.m. There were some surprises in the bus. At least three men sitting on the row in front of me spoke Fuzhou, and they seemed to be travelling independently. On the row behind me on the other side, there was a Fuzhou couple with their kid. I could not believe it. So many Fuzhou were travelling to Sanjiang.

From the husband, I found that he was working in Sanjiang. Were there many Fuzhou working in Sanjiang? It was a city that seemed to be under rapid development, with construction work being carried out on very road and street.

The bus finally arrived at Sanjiang at He Dong Bus Station (for long-distant buses from Guilin, Longsheng, etc.) after 3 hours at 12:30 p.m. I inquired at a ticketing counter and was advised to take a tuk-tuk with a fare of RMB2 to He Xi Bus Station (for local buses to Chengyang, Zhaoxing, etc.) to get the transportation to Chengyang Bridge. On the way, the tuk-tuk driver asked me about my destination and on learning that it was Chengyang, he offered to take me there for RMB40. It was affordable but anyway, I negotiated with him and his final offer was RMB35 for the 40 minute ride. I took it mainly for the experience as this was my first ride in a tuk tuk.

At the entrance gate to the cluster of villages at Chengyang, the tuk tuk driver stopped for me to purchase the entrance ticket. It was RMB60. He drove through the modern bridge and stopped at the first hotel near the Chengyang Bridge, Cheng Yang Bridge National Hostel. It was fully booked and we were told that all other hostels in the villages were fully booked too. He reversed and returned to the modern bridge where there was a hostel, Dong Village Hotel situated beside it (owned by Michael Yang, whose name appeared frequently when you do a search on Chengyang accommodation). The rate was RMB80 and affordable.

Earlier, I was told by some villagers at Chengyang Bridge that there would be a folk performance at 3:30 p.m. The only problem was where. From Chengyang Bridge, I strolled along the foot path which would lead to Ma'an Village in search of the performance. Ma'an  Village lies barely 50 metres from Chengyang Bridge.

Though Chengyang was highly recommended by Western bloggers, I saw modernisation creeping in already, with cement and brick being used in new buildings. Commercialisation has also crept in and I have this unpleasant feeling that the villagers were very much material oriented, at least as far as money was concerned. It was a major disappointment, in so far as Chengyang Bridge and Ma’an Village were concerned.

Chengyang Bridge itself was occupied by villagers selling handicrafts and souvenir. The river flowing beneath it was not very clean, with rubbish clearly seen here and there. The waterwheels, which could be an attraction themselves have been abandoned, neglected and were decaying. The Dong villagers performing their dances, singing and playing music at 3:30 p.m. did not seem enthusiastic and the performance lack-lustre. During the drinking ceremony, donation was solicited. At Ma’an Village Square where the performance was conducted, the old women sellers would come back to you over and over again to sell their wares, even after you have bought them. I overheard one Chinese visitor saying to the old peddlers that she had bought some items already and asking them why would she needed to buy so many.

If you think you could walk on the main road to another village after paying the RMB60 entrance fee a day earlier, you would be disappointed. There are youngsters right on the main road side of the modern bridge who would stop you from doing so, saying that the entrance fee was for the earlier day. The official in uniform there would not stop them. This was pure greed. Shameful, really!.

It was not worth a night’s stay and you should just save the cost of accommodation for somewhere else. I have enough of this over-rated place.

Instead of staying until check-out time of 12:00 noon the next day, I had decided to leave early the next morning for Sanjiang for my onward trip to Zhaoxing.