Adventure Time

(Ryan Dougherty)

We woke up early yesterday morning vowing that we would have a Chinese breakfast.  No more sausage and egg for us!  We wanted fried noodles, hot soy milk, buns, and dumplings with mysterious black goo (which was delicious).  After breakfast, Julie met us in the lobby for our last day in Guilin.  We piled into the van for one last sight-seeing adventure.

Our first stop was Elephant Trunk Hill.  The reason for the hill's name is immediately apparent: the river nearby runs through the hill, carving out a large chunk that leaves a narrow strip to one side that looks like an elephant's trunk.  We walked around the nearby park, complete with a giant Chinese chess board, and piled back into the van for our next destination ...

We then proceeded to a series of Buddhist shrines in a cave from the Ming dynasty.  The next  stop was the highlight of the day: Reed Flute Cave.  It was breathtaking.  It was hard to tell where the stalactites ended and the stalagmites began.  As Julie said most of the experience came from “imagination.”  She showed us the various shapes within the rock structure: lions, owls, cities, snowmen, Buddhas, vegetables, mushrooms,  and more.  What made the caves even more spectacular were the colored lights that illuminated the vast chambers.

After Reed Flute Cave, we ventured through the treacherous roadways of Guilin to the silk factory.  It is chaos here, organized chaos. People honk at each other not to yell, but rather to kindly inform them that they will soon be passing them on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic, and would they kindly move. Here we learned about how silk is made; how “is very strong” and “made long fibers.”  Colin wanted to barter for silk, but since it was government-run, no bartering was allowed....which didn't stop him from trying.  We then piled back in the van one last time and headed to the airport.

After lunch at the “Lucky Shamrock”, an “Irish” pub that served rice, eggplants, fish, and noodles (traditional Irish right?) we said our goodbyes to Julie and went on our way to Lijiang.  During our Kunming layover, we decided to buy mystery food at the airport convenience store.  Chris bought eclaire candies that exploded with chocolate when you ate them (kind of like gushers, but with more caramel).  He also got what looked like dog food, but was “Delicious Visible” according to the only English part of the packaging.  Colin got spicy sunflower seeds and mystery milk of some unknown flavor.  I got a package of chocolate “Melty kisses,” which were interesting mini chocolate cubes.  Lizzy won with her candy.  She bought coconut candy that didn't taste very much like coconut, and cemented our teeth together.

After another short flight (and broken Chinese conversation with the nice woman beside me) we were in Lijiang.  We were greeted by our new tour guide Jennifer.  Jennifer is Naxi, a minority group local to the Lijiang area.  She speaks English very well and has a great sense of humor.  We got into the Van and journeyed into the city.  When we got there, we blearily walked through the city to our hotel, where we promptly fell asleep.  Unfortunately for us, a lovely couple decided to have a very loud and long discussion outside our windows at 1:30 in the morning.  But that aside, we slept fantastically.

Today has been a wonderful day.  In the morning, we got to walk around the old part of town where our hotel is located.  It seems as though time has stopped because most, if not all of the old architecture is preserved (if not rebuilt).  I really like how the city is designed with irrigation canals running down the cobblestone streets.  After breakfast, we took our van with Jennifer to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.  The drive over was breathtaking.  The mountain was unlike anything I had ever seen before, and got more and more beautiful the closer we got.  We all climbed aboard a bus that would take us up the mountain.  The bus ride was probably the most fun we had all day.  It was like a roller coaster ride with the windy turns and bumps that propelled Colin and Lizzy into the air multiple times.  We then took gondolas up the rest of the mountain.  The view up there was spectacular.  The clouds rolling off the peak in the distance and view of the city in the distance were enough to make anyone's jaw drop. 

What was even better than the view was the Buddhist temple that was there.  The monk at the temple was very nice and showed us how to pray properly.  He then invited us to drink orange juice with him while we tried to communicate.  This was very hard since he spoke Cantonese and we spoke very broken Mandarin (but we managed to get a lot of information across).  Much to our surprise, he pulled out his cell phone and began talking with someone else.  We were impressed at the cell reception you can get in China.  We bid our friend goodbye and made our way back to the gondolas.  We decided to try some yak meat that a local was selling near the gondolas, it was surprisingly good.  On our way back down, the wind was blowing so fast that they had to stop the gondolas and wait for the wind to die down!  After another incredibly fun roller-coaster ride down the mountain trail, we were at a beautiful glacial river (which was bright blue).  The waterfalls, and mirror-like water made the nearby mountains all the more beautiful.

After the mountain, Jennifer brought us to a park run by the Naxi that was full of Naxi culture.  There was a river running through similar to the one in the mountain.  Deeper in the park was a large temple area with a beautiful castle-like temple.  There were elaborate carvings and murals everywhere that popped with bold blues, greens, reds, and whites.  There were many gold statues to the various Dongba (the Naxi religion) gods.  There was a very large, golden statue of the Dongba god Shu at the top of the river.  After our time in the park, we ventured back to Lijiang to see a cultural show of the the various ethnic groups surrounding Yangshuo.

The show was great!  The performers were really good, combining acrobatics, dancing, and traditional ritual into one.  The garb and music of each ethnic group was unique and fascinating to watch.  After the show, Lizzy and Colin were still humming the tunes.  It was a great way to end our day.  China has already shown us so much, I can't wait to see what is next around the corner.