Orchestrated Beauty

(Alaina)

Hello all!

I believe Alex left you just after our flight to Guilin, so that’s where I’ll pick up. We were all excited to start a leg of our journey that involves fewer English signs, and more China… whatever that may be. The city of Guilin has been a perfect introduction. Guilin is both a prefecture and a city at the center of the prefecture, all within the autonomous region of the Zhuang people. Zhuang is one of the many ethnic minorities in China, and it happens to be the most prevalent. The Autonomous Region status guarantees that the representatives from the area are all Zhuang, and gives other special considerations, such as exception from the one child policy. If anyone has been to Vietnam, Guilin reminds me very much of Hue. While it has all the trappings of a large city, the pace of life is clearly much slower and less frantic than Hong Kong or New York. What was interesting to learn was that even the peace is government maintained. Because of its beautiful location, the economy of Guilin centers around tourism, so in1998 the government rebuilt most of the city to better accommodate all the Western and Chinese tourists. To make sure the city remains tourist friendly, the government has placed industry restrictions and even building height regulations. The resulting city is fascinating. The beauty is a unique combination of extreme modernity, tradition, and nature. It does seem apparent, however, that all the beauty is carefully calculated. For example, there is a famous rock that looks like an elephant drinking water. It’s very green and lush; apparently the government planted trees on it just so they could charge people to visit. Much of the construction looks traditional (though it was recently built), while the posts of street lights are tubes of neon light, and behind it all rise ragged mountains.

Anyway, in Guilin we checked into a very lavish hotel. I don’t remember the details of dinner (shock!). We visited a night market, which was fun, but seemed a bit more touristy than some of us were looking for. We woke up early and Cassie Alex and I ventured out to find breakfast. We were surprised to find that at 8:30 there was virtually nothing open save for a few 24 hour fast food joints. We ended up going to McDonalds, though even there they couldn’t give us coffee because it hadn’t been made yet. It seems that America wakes much earlier than China. (I could get used to the late start here.) We then took a van to a wharf on the Li River where we began a 5 hour cruise. The Guilin region is known for one of the most quintessential topographies of China. Google the Li River, and you’ll recognize the mountains from classical Chinese paintings. The boat we took was very nice- two floors of seating and a third floor for viewing. All the boats are owned by the government, which presumably gets direct profit from the tourists. As our boat (which was following a long string of others) proceeded down the river, the mountains enveloped us on both sides. It was pretty cold outside, but we had perfect seats so I was very happy to watch the beautiful scenery and relax for a bit.

The cruise brought us to Yangshuo, a smaller city of the Guilin prefecture. It used to be a fishing village, but I think it’s evolved as another tourist destination. West Street is the hub of activity, where both sides of the road are lined with endless stalls of everything imaginable. You can’t take a step without being offered scarves, caricature drawings, scroll paintings, and so many handicrafts. We spent several hours walking through the market. I had fun trying food. I got a cup of this warm sweet black sesame goop that looks like sludge but tastes pretty good, Cassie and I got some great dumplings, and we all tried dried persimmons. I’m not feeling so great right now, and I suspect one of the above as the culprit… they were all yummy though, so I think it’s worth it in the long run. (And now I have time to write a super blog!) We got dinner at a nice café, my favorite dish being a delicious orange chicken. There was also a great soup of clear broth, mushrooms, lettuce stuff, and chicken, and a dish of spicy beef, onions, and peppers.

After dinner we went to see a show directed by the famous Zhang Yimou, who created the opening ceremony of last year’s Olympics. He’s gone on to do much since the Olympics, but the Yangshuo show was his first major one. After fighting through a huge crowd, we eventually found our seats. The “stage” is a large lake-like portion of the Li River. I honestly can’t describe the show because it was a) so innovative and b) so trippy that I’m not even sure what was happening half the time. Seriously, save a shroom and come see this show instead. At various points there were several hundred people lined in white lights standing on walkways through the water, a woman dancing on a giant rolling moon, and dozens of kids in canoes with flaming torches. All the while, the mountains would sometimes be lit with white or multicolored lights (coming from projectors). The whole place would be black, and then suddenly purple mountains would spring out of nowhere. I had to keep reminding myself that they were actually there and not some surreal backdrop. There are over 600 actors- interestingly, 300 are professionals and 300 are local fishermen, children, etc.

Okay, this blog is now quite long. But then, the things we’re doing and seeing are quite exciting :)

Thanks for reading