Spring Break trip to Guilin and Yangshuo

Yangshuo mountains

Qing Ming

Our Spring Break coincides with two holidays:  the Chinese Qing Ming Festival and the Western calendar's Easter.  Qing Ming, the Tomb Sweeping Festival, is a holiday to commemorate ancestors. It is similar to the Catholic holiday, Toussaint, or All Saint's Day, when families visit grave sites with flowers and candles.  In China, workers get a three day holiday to spend time with family and visit the graves of relatives.  Like many Western religious holidays, it is also a time for family vacations.  Tired of the the cold in Beijing,  we chose to spend our spring break by heading to the warmer, Southern regions of China. Our holiday began with a three hour flight to Guilin. When we arrived in Guilin and saw the mountain terrain, Lars exclaimed: " This is the China I have been waiting to see!"

The misty mountains

After flying to Guilin, a charming "little" city in Southern China, we embarked on a four hour, leisurely boat ride down the Li river. The scenery is other worldy. One can see how the filmakers of Avatar were inspired by these mountains.  The mountain terrain has long been know to inspire artists, as many of the traditional Chinese artwork is based on the landscapes of this region.  Indeed, the mountain vistas are also immortalized on the 20 Yuan note.

20 Yuan note: Yangshuo mountains

We spent three days at the Yangshuo Village Inn, a lovely little eco-friendly boutique hotel. No TV, water heated by solar energy, no plastic usage, excellent food.  Their friendly staff arranged activities in the area for us, from visiting ancient stone villages and cruising down the river on bamboo rafts, to biking through the rice paddies, and watching local fisherman catch fish with their trained cormorants.
Check out their website at www.yangshuoguesthouse.com

One of our favorite villages was an old stone village around which newer, more contemporary abodes have been built. It is very common in China to tear down the old to make room for the new. In this village, the locals have preserved the ancient town center. It was quiet and still, no sign of tourism or commercialization like we saw in other villages.  We meandered through the narrow, cobblestone streets, marveling at the ancient architecture. Lars, who has  a new fascination with photography, followed some free range chickens.

Wo shi sui (I am ten years old)

The highlight of the excursion was encountering a tiny old man wielding a bunch of keys. He invited us in to see the interior of an old house, once the wealthy landowner's home in the village. Though falling apart, we could still see the grandeur in the hand painted tiles, marble columns, and expansive courtyard.  Our new friend was delighted that Lars and Katrine were so willing to converse with him in Mandarin.  Our little ambassadors! 

Bike Ride:

pit stop for some noodles!

Tandem bikes through the rice paddies!  Our guide took us off the beaten path, away from the main roads and tourist buses. It didn't take long to find quiet, but muddy, side roads leading out into the fields and through farms. Next time I eat rice, I will remember these paddies.

Bamboo rafts:

We spent a leisurely afternoon floating down the river on
bamboo rafts--the Chinese version of the Venetian gondala.
It's fun to partake in an activity that is not designed solely for the foreign tourists.  The river was dotted with these rafts, full of local Chinese families on vacation. People called out greetings to us as we floated past, always politely asking where we were from. 

Ladies were selling flower crowns on the bank

                                                                                                                    This is definitely an area of the country to which we will return, and we highly recommend it to anyone who wants to come visit.
We are now back in Beijing, happy to return to spring time weather. We'll spend Easter weekend at home, and attend Easter Sunday at our English speaking Church service.  The gray and dusty Beijing winter has faded away--in it's place budding flowers and baseball games. In this season of re-birth, we feel blessed to be experiencing our new life in China.

Spring Break Trip 2012: Guilin and Yangshuo