When you first land in Guilin ( Guanxi Zhuang Province)what greets you is a cool breeze even in the warm Chinese Autumn. For Travellers going to Guilin during the Chinese National Festival (1st to 8th of October every year) another surprise awaits. It is that one week when the city’s designated flower, The Sweet Osmanthus, blooms. The name Guilin itself translates to “ The Forest of The Sweet Osmanthus”.
Guilin is famous for its natural history. It boasts of a 22000 strong population of lime stone mountains called Karst formations and the topography is called Karst topography. This happens because of melting of layers of soluble bedrock made of Limestone or Dolomite.
On our arrival before checking in at the hotel we had a Chinese Breakfast. It is called the Mifen Noodle Soup and it is the speciality of Guilin. Various cut vegetables like Spring onions, beans and onions along with meats like pork and lamb are put into a bowl of boiling hot rice noodles just removed from the boiling pot. It is then sprinkled generously with roasted peanuts. You then take it to a large kettle where there is some rice stock. Once you’ve poured yourself some stock, next to this is a station which has a lot of sauces ranging from the mildly flavoured Soya sauce to the fiery hot chilli-garlic sauce, again a speciality of this region. Add some sauce according to your preference and your yummy noodle soup is ready. All this for 3 Yuan! If you’ve taken a 5 am flight with the rubbish they pass-off in the name of food on the flight, you will really appreciate this food. This then became our favourite option for breakfast, lunch and dinner throughout our stay in Guilin.
Also on the roadside pushcarts they sell another speciality of the region, the Pickled Tofu. It is a thick layer of tofu (The hung-curd of soybean milk) with a spicy curry like sauce on top. Yummy again.
A Cable car ride upto the Yaoshan Mountain is a very nice experience. You can spot trekkers beneath your feet in the car. Also the scene from the top of the mountain is picture perfect. A layer of mist settling over the karst mountains gives a dream-like effect.
Karst formation has lead to the birth of many caves with stalactites and stalagmites in the area. One such cave is the Reed Flute Cave. Like all tourist attractions in China, the administration has made an attempt to make the place more attractive by lighting up the stalactites and stalagmites with many a colour lights. Although personally I find it a little too ‘Fruity’ for my taste it is a big hit with the locals and tourists. Some even get married in this cave, I was told, for a fee of course. With or without the lighting the cave is truly a marvel of nature and is quite beautiful. Like all Chinese stories each formation has been imagined to be a character. Dragon, snake, Demon, Monster and even the Statue of Liberty have been envisaged.
Mount Fubo is a small mountain named after the famed General Fubo who was a benevolent ruler of Guilin. One can climb up the mountain (if you have scaled the Great Wall, this is like child’s play) and get a view of the Guilin City. Quite a view, I must say.
The Elephant Trunk Hill is another attraction of Guilin. The Rock formation gives you the impression (with the help of a little imagination, of course) of the head of an elephant with its trunk in the water. In fact there is similar rock formation visible at a distance from this very place which is even more close to the shape of an elephant’s trunk. There are also some ancient Pagoda’s in this area.
A Cruise along the River Li ( a arduous 5 hour long journey ) is also on the cards. The Journey begins in Guilin City and the ferry boat takes you to a village called Yangshou and drops you off there.
The cruise gives you a glimpse of the topography in General, the beautiful undulations of the Li River, daily lifestyles of fishermen, shepards on the banks and womenfolk doing dishes or washing clothes by the river. The ferry staff will also be selling you strange stuff like snake-wine ( A Jaar full of snakes topped up with wine). One can also see some ancient villages from the Tang dynasty.
Yangshou is a village only in name. It has something called the West Street where the locals will be selling wares ranging from fridge-magnets to fake Gucci Purses. It is like a shopping district of a metropolitan city!
Guilin is a pleasant diversion from Cities like Beijing and Shanghai and one would like it to be that way!
For more pictures go to my Fickr page : http://www.flickr.com/photos/maitreya8/
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