The time we could spend in south China was always going to be a little constrained. At one end we had the need to wait for visas in Hong Kong and at the other the need to escape to Tibet before Chinese New Year, a notoriously difficult time to be travelling in China. As a result of this, and not wanting to take any more flights, we have had to make something of a whistlestop tour of the south west provinces.
We crossed the border from Hong Kong to mainland China at Shenzhen. Shenzhen is the Milton Keynes of the east. Twenty five years ago it was just a small border town but with the spoils of big business it has ballooned in size and is now reputed to be the richest city in China, earning the status of Special Economic Zone (SEZ). The area around the border has a bad reputation for pick pockets and scammers so we didn't hang around long.
The night sleeper bus was an experience quite beyond praise. I am not sure if such vehicles exist outside china, but I'll describe the layout. Passengers are arranged in hip-width bunks running the length of the bus, two high by three across. A belt is provided to strap you to the bed, rather like an ambulance stretcher. These buses are definitely designed for the average Chineser rather than a tall Britisher. Sam got a middle aisle, top bunk, which was probably the worst option as it meant she spent the whole night balanced on a plank trying not to drop off either side each time we powered into another pothole. After twelve rather uncomfortable hours we were dropped off in Yangshuo and were met by the owner of the homestay we were visiting, which was generous considering it was 5am and the temperature was hovering just above freezing.
Yangshuo is a small, pretty town set between the Li and Yulong rivers. All around there are great thumbs of karst limestone jutting up from the paddy fields, creating the kind of beautiful cloudy landscape you imagine when you think of China. Sadly we timed our visit with the worst weather China has experienced for fifty years and the cold, damp days meant that we probably didn't make the most of the surrounds (the photo is what it could have looked like). We still managed to hire some bicycles and head out into the villages along the river. While in Yangshuo Sam had a few language lessons from our host and we both tried our hands at Chinese caligraphy. We were both crap at it but we have kept the results so that we can stick them on the fridge when we get home.
Next stop was Guilin, just ninety minutes from Yangshuo. Again our will to explore was a bit sapped by the cold and damp, but we enjoyed (apart the depressing zoo) a trip to the Seven Stars Park and the spectacular Reed Flute Cave. Tourist sites in China are doing a roaring trade, apparently at peak times it can be shoulder to shoulder. Sites have been developed for the domestic market, which seemingly demands mistreated animals in fancy dress, coloured lights, piped music and Disneyesque attendants in ethnic minority costumes. Still, the high entrance fees for these places seems to be spent on keeping them clean and well preserved. Indeed if some of the original features are starting to show their age then they have few qualms about flattening and rebuilding them.
Next stop was Kunming in Yunnan province, a stone's throw from the northern border of Vietnam. Kunming exists in a different weather system to Guilin and was mercifully much warmer than the places we stopped in Guangxi. There wasn't a lot to see in the city but we spent an enjoyable couple of days defrosting and watching the world go by.
We left Kunming on the sleeper train bound for Chengdu in Sichuan province. The train was a fairly unpleasant one as we had landed the compartment near the latrine. I think there must have been a little seepage from the toilet into our cabin as it smelt pretty ripe every time we stopped at a station. We shared our cabin with a young couple and their 4 year old daughter who were heading home for the spring festival. Being in festive mood they bought us a present of a bag of spicy chicken toes. Not wanting to be rude we went and got a couple of beers from the restaurant car and tucked in. They were not the greatest snack it has to be said, although I liked the fact they still had the pointy claws on them in case you needed to pick bits of twangy skin out of your teeth afterwards.
On the topic of food, the cuisine in the southern provinces of China is a little on the wild side. Popular dishes in Yangshuo included dog and cat hotpot and the highly amusing spicy dried rat, which looked very much like it had been run over by a lorry. I suspect it may have been. In Guilin many restaurants displayed a menagerie of unlikely animals for you to choose for your dinner, some of which we couldn't identify but suspected may have featured on the WWF endangered species list. We stuck to the more familiar pork, beef and chicken dishes with the most adventurous dish being pigs ear with chilli and garlic.
Chengdu is home to China's main giant panda breeding and research centre. Pandas are only active first thing in the morning so we paid an early visit to catch the iconic creatures before they all crashed out for the day. According to the spiel the panda's chosen diet of bamboo is so fibrous that they can only just consume enough calories for a sedantry existence. Activities that require lots of energy like mating are avoided where possible and this contributes to the fragile state of their existence in the wild, although the ones we saw seemed to have plenty of energy for bowling around doing commando rolls and jumping up and down trees so perhaps they just have their priorities wrong. The highlight was seeing a heap of 6 very small panda cubs sleeping in the nursery. The museum at the end was a typically bizarre display of unsettlingly amateurish taxidermy and jars containing pickled panda sex organs. Weird.
Next stop is Lhasa, Tibet, a mere 44 hour train ride away. Getting all the permits sorted has been a pain but we got there eventually and leave tomorrow night. Tibetan new year is on the 7th Febraury and Lhasa should be full of nomads and pilgrims for the occasion. Happy New Year of the Rat to you all.
