We woke up today in the city of Guilin. As we looked out the window it was raining quite heavily. Luckily it cleared a little whilst we ate breakfast. After a western style breakfast we ventured outside our hotel through one of the cities many parks and along the Li River. It was interesting to take in the surrounds of a city. Guilin is the least populated of the cities that we visit in China, 750 thousand. After our walk along the river and on Pedestrian Street we made it to our lunch destination, a local Chinese buffet. I (Josh) personally enjoy the buffets as there is a wide variety of food that caters well for all of the tastes amongst the group.
After lunch we departed for Longsheng. The bus journey took 2 hours, ventured across farmland and up a winding mountain, and required 2 buses as the first bus was too long to travel up the winding road to the carpark close to the top of the mountain. The bus was filled with the “horrible” (our personal opinion) singing of our peers as we travelled. The morale was high as we were excited to see our first mountainous region of China. The final part of the journey to the top of the mountain was on foot. We ventured past many local stores and houses as we ventured through the villages on the way.
After settling in our homestay style hotel we had a trek through the rice fields and past many local houses. The hike took 90 minutes and involved some climbing. The path was amazingly well kept for such a remote area and the entire path was made of laid cobble stones. The views from the trail were absolutely stunning and it was amazing to see the patterns amongst the rice paddy beds. It was also fascinating to see how the clouds would float in and then out so seamlessly.
Once we returned to the hotel, we ate a tasty meal of rice and other traditional Chinese foods which we found quite refreshing after our walk through the humid climate of Longsheng. After dinner we had the wonderful opportunity to interview a couple of the local village people about their lives for our Journey Doc. It was great to hear how differently their daily life it to ours. Finally we filled in the last hour before bed catching up on the adventures and playing cards.
– Josh Seddon and Sam Howard
