Longji (Xinzhai) Dining

The madam of the house was the jack of all trades. She took care of the hostel business alone while her husband worked elsewhere. In the morning, she left the hostel to solicit for business at Heping. Food at the hostel came from her garden and the hills behind. She was also the one to clean and cook them for the guests. Amazing woman!

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.

A Rotten Day in Guilin

Day 9 (31st March 2011) 

One night at the Dragon Backbone Rice Terrace village of Xinzhai was enough. I saw the lady going off to work early, presumably to pick up more guests. This must be her normal routine.

After having my breakfast of bamboo rice (mixed with bits of mushroom, fried peanut and dried pork) at 8:30 a.m., I decided to leave.

I used the footpath through Dazhai Village to get to the parking area. Shortly after waiting at the parking area, a bus arrived at 9:00 a.m. It would leave at 9:30 a.m. My immediate destination was Heping, from where I would catch a bus to Guilin. The fare to Heping was RMB7.

Just after the ticket office is the junction of Heping. The actual Heping town was a short distant away. The bus stopped and the driver was kind enough to show me the direction of Guilin. Just as we were talking, and as at Chengyang, a bus was seen heading towards us and moving in the direction of Guilin. The driver said that would be the Guilin bus. I quickly disembarked and walked across the road to wave down the bus. I was off to Guilin at 10:30 a.m., with no waiting time spent at Heping.  The Dazhai bus was still there with the driver seeing me off. What a nice gesture. The fare was RMB9.

The bus terminated at the same bus station where I took the bus to Sanjiang, i.e. Qin Tan Bus Station, at 12 noon. Walking out from the station, there were tuk tuk touts and taxi touts and all other touts. I ignored them all and decided to wave down a taxi. The fare was RMB10 to Zhongsan Nan Lu to Guilin Train Station/ bus terminal. This time, I decided to check out another place to stay. From the first visit to Guilin, I knew there were a few hostels along Zhongsan South Road. This time, I checked into Happy Hotel, which offered RMB70/ night. Throughout this trip, I found this to be the most satisfactory place to put up for the night, even though the room was a little bit too small.

Since I have visited all the key spots on this trip, minor spots that I would be visiting while in Guilin would be the Elephant Hill Scenic Park, Jinjiang Prince Palaces and Mausoleum and Seven Star Park. I checked this out with the hostel receptionist and she tried to promote her tour packages to other places. I was not interested and was only keen to go to Elephant Hill Scenic Park that afternoon.  She said that she could arrange to get the entrance ticket to the Elephant Hill Scenic Park for RMB20 instead of the usual RMB40 through her tour guide. However, a service fee of RMB10 is required. I could join a tour group which would be leaving at 1:00 p.m. and on arrival at the park the tour guide would purchase the ticket for me for RMB20. It was such a sweet talk. After a quick lunch at an eatery behind the hostel, I was back before 1 p.m.

Shortly after 1 p.m., a car arrived, and not a tour bus or a van which I had expected. This was odd. There were the driver and the tour guide. While cruising along the road, my suspicion grew. The guide was babbling like any other tour guides. I was not hiring a tour guide and I was not keen to be guided. This would cost money, and certainly, more that RMB20. Something was wrong. I could not remember exactly what I did or said, but she kept on harping on visiting other places for a sum of which I could not remember. I was not interested and was adamant in going to Elephant Hill Scenic Park, which by now we have passed. The driver finally stopped the car. Angrily, I opened the door and walked away. I was not going to pay for this attempted scam. Those in the tourist business in Guilin are rotten to the core with their scams. Who could I trust? No one! I was determined to find my own way around and would approach the receptionist on my return to the hostel to demand an explanation.

With the help of passersby and my GPS, I found my way to Elephant Hill Scenic Area. I did not buy the entrance ticket as I was sure it was not worth it just to see the hill. I spent a short time outside the park and continued to walk without direction.

Soon, I saw the twin Pagoda. It was Shanhu Park. Again there was an entrance fee to go to the Pagoda. I could not be bothered with it and walk around the park, taking in the scenery.

Soon, my GPS told me that Zhongsan Zhong Lu (Zhongsan Middle Road) was ahead. I walked over to the road and there was a department store there. Outside, there was a stall selling fast food. I bought three sticks of skewered food.

After allowing for my aching foot to rest for a while, I attempted to walk back to the hostel, knowing that Zhongsan Middle Road and Zhongsan South Road forms one continuous road. However, I made a wrong turn and was lost. With aching foot, I decided to take the easy way of taking a taxi back. I asked how much, and the lady driver said that she would use the meter. At the stop where I got out, the meter showed RMB8++. On giving her RMB10, and expecting her only to give me a change of RMB1, she said that she was charging RMB1 for the petrol. What the fuck! It was only RMB1 and I could afford it. The Guilin people in this tourist industry are really rotten and have no morals.

On entering the hostel, the receptionist quickly babbled an apology and tried to explain things. I could not catch all that she was saying. She returned my RMB10 and I decided to let things end there.

What a day!

That evening, I strolled over to Xicheng Pedestrian Street. I mistook Xicheng for Zhengyang Pedestrian Street. Hence, I was quite surprised that Xicheng Pedestrian Street was not crowded with tourists.

After the cancellation of the Zhaoxing trip where I planned to stay for two nights and the single night stay instead of two at Xinzhai Village, I had three extra unplanned days. By this time, I had visited all the key spots on this holiday trip. I still had six days to go before my departure from China.

No Bus to Zhaoxing, So Off to Dazhai Village, Jinkeng Rice Terrace

Day 8 (30th March 2011)

I woke up at 5:00 a.m. to pack up to go to He Xi Bus Station. The trip to Zhaoxing would take 4 - 5 hours. When I arrived at He Xi Station at about 6:00 a.m. it was still dark. There were people at the station there already. The station light had not been switched on. When the ticket counter opened, I asked about the bus to Zhaoxing.

The ticketing clerk, a different lady from a day earlier, replied by asking back whether there was a Zhaoxing bus parked at the station. If there was none, then there would be no bus to Zhaoxing for the morning. There was none. A tout offered to take me to Liping where I could take a bus to Zhaoxing, but I was unprepared to do that, as this would be too much hassle. In addition, this would also mean that I would have problem getting a bus back to Sanjiang later on, and thus, disrupt my travelling plan. As such, I abandoned the idea of visiting Zhaoxing and instead push forward my plan to visit Dazhai, a village in the Jinkeng Rice Terrace further away than Ping'An from Longsheng. It formed part of the Longji (Dragon Backbone) Rice Terrace.

Before leaving He Xi Bus Station, I decided to shoot a short video of He Xi Station. After that, I took a tuk tuk for RMB3 for the short trip to He Dong Bus Station, where the buses to Longsheng were based. At He Dong Station, I was again one of the earliest passengers there. I bought the ticket for RMB18 for the 7:00 a.m. bus to Longsheng.

At the station, there was a luggage screening machine like those used at the airports. As I thought I need to screen my luggage, I reached for my back pack and at that moment, panic struck when I realised that the back pack was not behind my back. I looked around and I was sure I did not leave it anywhere at the station. It must have been left in the tuk tuk when I came over from He Xi Station. There was no way of getting back my back pack. It was as good as gone. At the same time, behind my mind, I had the feeling that when I was shooting the video of He Xi Station before leaving, I was not carrying the back pack, meaning I could have left my back pack at He Xi Bus Station. I was not sure but decided to go back to He Xi Station just to confirm it. There was a chance that it was still at He Xi Station. It was already 6:30 a.m. and I quickly got on a tuk tuk. By this time, I realised that the tuk tuk fare was RMB2, and not RMB3 as I overheard some one mentioning it at the station, and that I have been duped just now and the day before. On reaching He Xi Station, I quickly walked into the station and there was my back pack on the seat where I sat while waiting for the ticket counter to open. After taking my back pack, I took another tuk tuk back to He Dong Bus Station. The time was 6:40 a.m.

The bus from Sanjiang reached Longsheng at 8:30 a.m., after 1 ½ hour journey. I did not stop for breakfast but instead went around asking for the bus to Dazhai Village to see the Dragon Backbone Rice Terrace.

The bus to Dazhai left the station at about 9:00 a.m. but stopped just outside the station to pick up more passengers. It finally left at about 9:20 a.m. for Longsheng. The fare was RMB9. Mid-way through the journey, at about 9:45 a.m. the bus stopped at an area with nice building and buses parked outside. Some guys in uniform stepped into the bus and a guy thrust out the entrance ticket he was holding and asked for RMB60. That was the way the entrance tickets were sold to "outsiders" who were taking public buses to the Dragon Backbone Rice Terrace. There was a lady who came in too and she started soliciting for business asking me to stay at her hostel. I ignored her, because I knew I could find my accommodation on reaching Dazhai Village.

The bus went up and around winding roads. The scenery was beautiful with a stream flowing beside the road. Finally, we reached the parking area to Dazhai Village at about 10:30 a.m. The whole trip from Sanjiang had taken 3 ½ hours.

There were no old women, or for that matter anybody, who approached me to carry my back pack, although I saw them sitting underneath a building. They were probably waiting for a tour bus, not a public bus. The entrance to Dazhai Village was blocked by an inspection office. I showed the guy manning the post my ticket and proceeded to enter the place after it was stamped. About five minutes' walk away was a row of souvenir shops selling handicrafts. The tout who came in the same bus was still trying to convince me. In the end, I decided to follow her. There were really two villages there; one was Dazhai Village and the other Xinzhai Village and they took different route. The tout was from Xinzhai Village and I later ended up at her hostel for a room which cost RMB50, after bargaining.

(Download this 3,000 x 2,000 px map for your reference)

Xinzhai happened to be perched mid-way up a hill whereas Dazhai is at the foot of a hill. Xinzhai seemed to be less developed and I noticed only one other hostel there. This is a village occupied by the Hong Yao or Red Yao ethnic people.

The tout happened to be the owner of this hostel. Later, during my stay, she told me that she worked as a maid in Shenzhen for ten years. On her return, all her saving went into the construction of this hostel. Her husband who was a carpenter laboured to build it. Amazing! Presently, her husband was away at work and her only son was at school at another place. She stayed with her in-laws and basically took care of the hostel business alone, being the salesman, manager, cook, gardener, and everything else. I really admired her grittiness.

She suggested that I should see the terrace field the same afternoon. There would be no sun rise to see in the morning as the atmosphere would be covered in mist. After cooking me the lunch, I asked her how to get to the top of the hills. She advised me to follow the main path (i.e. the wider path) and to keep to the left path. Not being fully fit, I was glad when I finally reached what I presumed to be the Viewing Point No. 3.

On the way up, I saw a total of less than five women working on the terrace, planting vegetables, etc. It was still spring and too early for ploughing. The air was foggy and the field was covered with brown and decaying paddy stump from the harvest in autumn. It was not exactly at its most glorious sight. Nevertheless, the view of the terrace at some angle was very beautiful. I could only imagined its beauty when it was covered in water with the reflecting sun or when it was green with growing rice. I came at the wrong time and when I asked when was the best time to visit, the lady said, "June".

After 45 minutes, I finally reached my destination. I could have climbed further up to reach the top, but I presumed this to be Viewing Point No. 3. This was good enough for me already. I was back in the hostel by 2:00 p.m., disappointed that the vista had not been greener and the air clearer.

At about 4:00 p.m. I decided to explore Dazhai Village. I walked to the main road and from there walked to Dazhai Village. If I had known then, I could have used a foot path just outside the hostel where I was staying to go to Dazhai Village.

Dazhai Village was much more developed than Xinzhai Village and the layout was more organised. It looked more beautiful and modern too. There were many hostels here, and there were more tourists here too. There were a group of Russian speaking kids (how do I know?) at the village too. It seemed busier than Xinzhai. However, if you prefer the traditional look of a Red Yao Village, you should stay at Xinzhai.