Pretty Rocks

Thursday 15 July 1999 – Friday 16 July 1999                    

Guilin is another short plane trip from Shanghai, and well worth the visit although we were sad to find it so completely overrun by tourists.  The river cruise which we had envisioned as a peaceful, uncluttered voyage through spectacular scenery was in fact a nightmare of screaming tourists all crammed onto a modern, decidedly unexotic boat complete with megaphone-outfitted tour guides. 

The tour boats left Guilin and traveled upstream to the backpacker Mecca of Yangshuo.  It was not hard to imagine that once upon a time Yangshuo was a quaint fishing village, but based on the number of shops and stalls packed into each of the tiny cobbled streets, the main source of income had become tourists.  The main highlight, however, was the cruise itself, or more specifically the landscape we travelled through.  There are some extraordinary limestone peaks jutting up along the banks, features that have inspired many a Chinese painting and many a Suzhou garden.  There are also quaint picturesque villages and fisherman out in small boats … bobbing up and down among the debris. 

One of the highlights of our stay in Guilin was Pippa’s birthday dinner, which we had at a wonderful Chinese restaurant in a top hotel.  One of the age-old Chinese philosophic principles is known as the "Union of Opposites" (yin and yang, that sort of thing), and nowhere is this more evident than in Chinese haute cuisine, which has pioneered the concept of "revolting delicacies".  Fortunately, we found that by steering clear of unidentified beasties, we could actually enjoy a magnificent dinner.  The following day, we were once again on the road, this time heading for home.

Homeward Bound

Saturday 17 July

We flew from Guilin back to Beijing, scouring the airport shops for more teapots to add to our burgeoning collection, and spent a final night at the China World before our flight back to London the following day.  We splurged on a truly outstanding meal at their French restaurant and reminisced on some of our encounters whilst on the road.  We were sad in a way that our journey had come to an end, but frankly glad to be leaving China.  It is not a particularly traveler-friendly country, unless you are cocooned in a tour group.  That aside, we cherished the sights we had seen, without going so far as to want to experience them again.

And so we left China the following day, bound for London where Pippa’s dad collected us from the airport, waiting to hear the gory details of our deportation at the border.  After two days in England, visiting friends and catching up, we were on another plane bound for New York and home.  The first leg of our trip was over, and we had a couple weeks to write up our diary before our travels began once again, this time in Southeast Asia.