guilin, day 1

13.06.2010, guilin

we arrived at guilin after flying for 50 mins on china southern airlines. the imigration check at baiyun airport was very strict for foreign passport holders. almost all of us had to take off our shoes to be scanned again and they called it 'the vip protection'. what a name. the one checking our passport at the counter yelled to those manning the scanner so that's how i heard the term.

everyone got a packet of salted peanuts and a choice of mineral water or their herbal tea- wong lou kat. MAS's peanuts are better.

the airport. our local guide, miss wong was there waiting for us as soon as we got out. she called us to call her 'xiao wang' and it reminded us of a dog's name. shhh....don't tell her.

our ride for the next few days. the one who picked us up at the airport was the woman's son. she took over her son's duty on the second day because her son had some unfinished business at the school/college. how lucky.....3 persons serving the 4 of us.

the journey from the airport to the city is about 40 mins. guilin is not as developed yet because there are not as many high rise buildings as other more developed cities in china. the road condition was also quite bad. potholes everywhere! so it was a very bumpy ride on the van.

and the weather.....oh what can i say except it was wet wet wet and wet!!! it started drizzling when we were in the van and the drizzle did not stop at all the whole duration we were there. yes, no kidding. it rained 3 whole days!!! i had never seen gloomier skies in my travel. no blue sky or warm sunshine.

from 28 C in guangzhou, i came to 21 C in guilin. the temperature was cooling but the amount of water. gosh.

was it their rainy season? maybe....because on 16 june was tuan wu festival....you know the day we eat dumplings and have dragon boat race?

and guess what, our trip to china this time around coincided with national public holidays!!! imagine the crowd and local holiday makers!!! they had 3 days off because of tuan wu festival and everywhere we went, we only saw local chinese. i did not see any malaysians in my whole trip. are we lucky or what??

so a trip to guilin will be incomplete if there is no park, cave, river and limestone hill. these are what you are going to see but if you expect specific names, sorry lah. they are all in chinese and i also cannot remember them. just feast your eyes.

the guide brought us to a park to kill the time before lunch.
there are a lot of thousand-year-old banyan trees in china and this is one of them.
gurong bridge in the park.

you see the mould on the stone?? when the water in the lake swells, that is how high it can get.

interested to dress in traditional chinese customes? well, you can do so for a small fee. basically, things in china are not expensive at all. you will only go broke from buying and buying and buying more locally made goods.

a bridge made entirely of crystal glass. it is closed to the public but if it was opened, it could only accomodate 30 persons at one time.

next, lunch. all meals are included in the package i got. i paid rm1190 for the full 3 days trip to guilin including the flight tickets to and from guangzhou and accomodation. i think the price is ok.

the meals were all ok, edible. not too bad. we had fish in every meal and another meat dish. then two vegetables and one soup. watermelon was the only fruit served. we could not finish all the vege dishes.

next, to a boat cruise on the river that runs through guilin. not sure of the name but i think it is part of li zhiang. i think only lah.

our boat. you can climb to the upper deck to take photos. it drizzled a bit while we were there. luckily everyone brought umbrellas. clever.

the river was a bit swollen.

can you see the image of an old man wearing a hat???


they call this the elephant drinking from the river. i think you can make out the elephant's trunk without any problem.

different modes of transport on the river.

things one can do with the water from the river. resourceful.

and now, a trip to china is also incomplete if they do not bring you to see their ??? it is locally made products rightthe government's order. so we went to see silk, knives, tea, and cordyceps.

this is one selling knives which are very light and very sharp. no one bought the knives but......we bought these instead.
multipurpose hangers!!! very very handy to save space in the cupboard. i got 2. rmb30 for one.

next- silk quilt shop.

i bought one last time i went to beijing and i love the quilt. now, the silk is put in better quality quilt cover that i feel like changing mine. but no lah, mine still can be used. lucky them. all of them got one each. single bed quilt is rmb380. they gave each of us a free silk scarf. i also got one.....polka dot green.

then it was dinner time. eat eat eat only.
we got half a roast duck in this meal.
we still had some time before our night's activity after dinner, so we pestered the guide to let us roam a departmental store nearby. yippee!!!
guilin exhibition centre. big hor???
these are some of the tit-bits i got from the supermarket. if not for the time agreed, i am sure we would have stayed much longer. there was so much to see. we even had time to check out their sanitary pads. hahahaha.....and they have so many more varieties just for the brand whisper! why ah?? the chinese really get a lot of choices in all sorts of sizes and packagings.
in china, you have to pay 20cents for their plastic bag. see, they have started recyling much earlier than us.

dad loves the sweets i got back (bottom left). he has eaten quite a lot. they are soft and not too sweet. i bought rmb20 (rm10) worth of sweets.

ok show time. dream like li jiang. it is a musical performance incorporating ballet, kungfu and chinese acrobats. interesting. we were in a theatre together with so many other local chinese.
no photo taking during show time. at the bottom right, the performers trying to sell their dvds at the end of the show outside the theatre.

then the guide brought us to see some night views of the city before checking in at hotel. it was still very wet but luckily the rain was very very light.
my lousy camera cannot get clear shots at night, so these are the best i can get.
there is a waterfall behind those trees.

my room for the night. this is 4star quality in guilin, which is only about 3 star international quality. the bed was the hardest bed i have ever slept on in a hotel room. luckily we found an extra blanket in the cupboard and we put it on the bed for another layer. our room was on the second floor and we could hear the voices of people talking outside down from the street. so again, no good sound sleep....but at least i did get some sleep.

and ...that is the end of day 1 in guilin.