We woke up bright and early this morning to the scenic views of the Longsheng mountains. The hotel felt like a warm cosy cabin as we ate a western style breakfast such as toast, pancakes and muffins. The group was happy about the change from the rice we eat everyday. We got our gear on and headed for a hike through the rice fields. It was great to feel the fresh vibrant air on the walk instead of the cool air blowing inside a bus. We made our way down a lush area with many trees and bushes of all kinds including the main source of produce rice.
When we got to our destination we found an ancient house to be explored. It belonged to an elderly women whose family had moved to the city. She was keen to stay in the village so she opened her house up as a museum for foreigners to visit so that they could learn more about the on the traditional lifestyle. The house was built by Mr. Hou Yongsheng and his son and it is over 150 years old.It is one of the seven ancient houses in the Longji Village. It is now named the Ecological Museum of Longsheng. This was an eye opening experience to see how many live in a different part of the world. We learned things about how they live on the second floor so dangerous animals such as tigers can’t attack them. We briefly meet the women who was so gentle and shy. We started our trek back up the mountain as the foggy sky started to clear so we took in more of the scenery on the way back.
After the walk we headed down the mountain towards to the smaller bus which took on us down the twisty part of the journey. We then transferred to our big bus and continued our trip back to Guilin only to find a landslide blocking the path. This meant we needed to take a different route which was a little longer and delayed some of our Guilin adventures. When we arrived in Guilin we dumped our bags into our rooms quickly in order to have our late lunch as soon as possible. The groups was happy as this meal, like breakfast, was western style in the form of pizza. As we filed in and all order our pizzas or other food items our lovely tour guide Joe decided to pay for all our food which was a generous gift.
Next we had a circle-time talk about what we had gained from the trip so far and what activities we thought worked best. The group seemed to think that one activity that worked well was when we had the opportunity to socialise and bond as a group in Longsheng. We also enjoyed the spontaneous moments that occurred during the trip like joining in with the locals when they are welcoming people to join them in their traditional dance.
We had a quick nap before setting off for a enjoyable walk to see Guilin at night, looking at the many elegant bridges and structures in the lake. It was lovely to just take-in the scenery and shoot some nice photographs. We finally had dinner in a restaurant above a market with many of the tried and tested dishes our trip group likes including sweet and sour pork, spring rolls and dumplings. To summarise today was an incredible day giving us opportunities to see how the people lived in the village 150 years ago, to explore more of the stunning scenes of Longsheng and to see Guilin by night.
– Callum Ferguson and Paul Bourke