The flight from Guilin (closest airport to Yangshuo) to Shenzhen didn’t leave until 11:15pm, so we had some time to kill in Guilin. Ryan originally wanted to go to the airport and chill there for 7 hours, but I convinced him we should do the 4 mile walking tour of the center city instead. We stored our bags at the bus station and headed off.
Two things occurred in Guilin that we had been warned/told about but had yet to encounter.
1) We were celebrities! The stares were unwavering. People would turn their heads as they passed to continue looking. 3 people asked to take pictures with us, and countless others snapped pictures more discreetly. The girl in the picture below gave me a big hug after snapping the photo.
2) A man on a street corner chatted us up in very proficient English and then invited us to a tea ceremony at his home, which we politely declined.
Guilin was a very pleasant stopover, known for its water features, as the city with 2 rivers and 4 lakes, and many hills that pop up out of nowhere in the city. The walk took us through parks and along the water, past groups of people playing cards, the two pagodas in Fir Lake, boats, people fishing and swimming, and others singing in the pedestrian tunnels under the bridges.
(Oops, forgot to log out as Ryan again).
The hospitality of Guangxi people (Guilin’s province, where my wife is from) makes it hard to leave. That’s why I like going to my “other home” as often as possible.
You might find Shenzhen to be like a concrete jungle. But my visit, back in 2006, was for work. Crossing the border and taking a train the Hong Kong was the highlight of that particular trip.
Maybe as a tourist you’ll get to see some things in Shenzhen I missed.
Have fun.
Hey Lee, we just passed through Shenzhen for the night, taking the trains to Hong Kong the next day…but definitely got the impression it was a concrete jungle.
Yangshuo was great and I’m glad we made it to that area of China … it has been my favorite so far!