Guilin, Longji Terraces, Yangshuo, and End of Trip in Hong Kong

After spending several days in the Shanghai and Hangzhou area, we took a flight down to Guilin. I had previously been to that area before, but when I was there the weather was not very good and a lot of the views weren't as good as they normally are supposed to be. There is also a lot to do in the Guilin and Yangshuo area, so it is a good place to spend a few days.

The first day in Guilin, we were planning to head out to the Longji rice terraces, but there were torrential downpours in Guilin city. Everyone was telling us that if we went to the terraces, we wouldn't be able to see anything since they're up in the mountains and it would be foggy there. The last time I had tried to see the terraces, it was also rainy and foggy, so at first I was pretty disappointed I would miss it again. However, after some discussion, we decided to just roll the dice and go out to the terraces. Luckily enough, as soon as we started driving, we got outside the heavy rain and things cleared up more and more the closer we got. The views at the terraces ended up being really beautiful. 

Since it was still spring time, the views we had were of a near infinite series of water pools reflecting on the sides of the hills. All four seasons have distinct views on the terraces: spring has the water pools, summer has the green rice plants, fall has the yellow color of rice ready to harvest, and winter has the all white look of snow covered terraces. Maybe someday I'll have a chance to see them all.

Longji Village

Longji Village

Phil, Chris, and Derek Walking on Terraces

Terrace Covered Hills

Terraced Hillside

Wes on the Terraces

Repairing Terraces

Valley of Terraces and Villages

More Vertical View of Valley

Lone Worker on Terraces

After the day trip to the rice terraces, we headed south to Yangshuo. I have previously been to Yangshuo, but it's one of my favorite places in China and incredibly scenic, so I didn't mind going back there. We spent a day biking along the Yulong River, where there are nonstop karst mountains, rice paddies, and river views. 

Wes Getting Ready for a Day of Biking

Karst Mountains and Rice Paddies

Yulong River

Farmer in Rice Paddy

Yangshuo Scenery

Shaky Video on Bike Ride

We also rode our bikes out to Moon Hill and took a hike to the top. From the top, there are great 360 degree panoramic views of the whole area. It is really beautiful and worth the steep hike.

Moon Hill

Phil, Wes, Chris, and Derek at Moon Hill

Valley from Moon Hill

View from Moon Hill

Besides biking around in the countryside outside of the city, you can spend some time within the city of Yangshuo itself. The views from even the rooftop of our hostel were amazing. The main West Street area, although it's a bit touristy, is fun to spend some time in as well.

West Street

Canal Side Cafe

View from Hostel

View from Hostel

Night View from Hostel

Late Night Street Barbecue near West Street

On our last day in Yangshuo, we took a cruise on a bamboo boat down the Li Jiang or Li River. It's one of the most famous sites of China and a really beautiful stretch of mountains and river.

Wes on Cruise

Li River

The Boys Cruisin

Li River

After our time in Yangshuo, we went back to Guilin to take a night train down to Shenzhen and eventually cross the border to Hong Kong. Derek had to leave, so it just left three of us. Hong Kong is always a great place to visit and we were excited to get down there. Chris had very kindly used some of his hotel points to book us a room with an amazing view and rooftop pool at the W Hotel. We only had a single day and night in Hong Kong, so we couldn't see too much. It was also raining pretty hard throughout the afternoon and early evening, but we made the most of it. We also met up with some fellow Northwestern alums and ate a great dinner at a Korean barbecue.

W Hotel Room

View of Busy Harbor from Hotel Room

Infinity Pool on W Hotel Rooftop

Hong Kong Skyline at Night

Hong Kong was the end of the China trip and after our time there, Chris had to head back to the US, whereas it was time for Phil and I to start the Southeast Asia part of our trip. Stay tuned for the next leg of the trip: Singapore!

For more pictures, see: 

http://picasaweb.google.com/wallred10/LongjiTerraces#

http://picasaweb.google.com/wallred10/Yangshuo02#

Wuzhen and Hangzhou

The next stop on the China trip was a half day trip to an historic river town call Wuzhen. I'd previously been to another river town called Xitang and while Wuzhen is similar, it's also a lot more built up and developed. Wuzhen is mostly a tourist destination now, whereas Xitang still had people living within the historic area. However, despite Xitang being potentially more authentic, Wuzhen was in a lot of ways more beautiful.

The river towns are built around canals with old style Chinese buildings lining the water. They are very picturesque and even more so at night, with the water reflecting the lights.

We spent an afternoon and evening in Wuzhen, walking around and eating some of the local food. It's a pretty peaceful place to visit.

After Wuzhen, we spent the next three days in Hangzhou. I took the guys to all the usual spots in Hangzhou, biking around West Lake, the historical Hefang Street, and some of the pagodas.

Chris, Wes, and Derek at West Lake

West Lake

Tree Lined Path

Gardens and Bridge

Traditional Chinese Medicine Shop on Hefang Street

Baochu Pagoda

The Boys at Baochu

West Lake and Hangzhou

Derek and Phil at Chinese BBQ

Late Night Street Food at Baishaquan

Meat Sandwiches

We also rode bikes to the tea terraces at Longjing Village in the southwest of Hangzhou. It's a great place to relax, drink tea, and have some nice views.

Buying Tea at Longjing

Wes Preparing Tea Leaves

Line Dancing at Longjing Village

It was cool to have my friends come visit in Hangzhou and to show them around my hood. We saw a lot of cool things, ate some good food, and caught up on all the old and new.

For more pictures see:

Wuzhen - http://picasaweb.google.com/wallred10/Wuzhen#

Hangzhou - http://picasaweb.google.com/wallred10/HangzhouVisit#

Shanghai Expo and Start of Summer Travels

It's been awhile since I updated the blog here, the main reason being that I spent most of the summer traveling around Asia. Luckily enough, I negotiated some leave from my work so that I could meet up with some of my old Northwestern buddies in China and then do some more traveling through Southeast Asia with Phil. Since there are too many places to write about, I'll probably do less detailed posts than normal and just post a few of my favorite pictures with some comments.

To start out the trip, four of us met up in Shanghai. Phil flew in from Zurich, Switzerland, Chris flew in from San Francisco, USA, and Derek flew in from Beijing, China, all with varying levels of jetlag.

Nanjing Road

View of Pudong

We mainly met in Shanghai because it was the easiest place for everyone to fly to and also because the Shanghai Expo was going on. In China they say that the 2008 Beijing Olympics brought China to the world, whereas the Expo is a chance to bring the world to China.  At the expo there are large pavilions for most of the countries of the world that allow Chinese people to catch a glimpse of the cultures of some of these other countries.

We went at night to avoid some of the huge crowds and heat. The expo itself is ok, but there are huge lines for all the pavilions and once you get inside a pavilion, there isn't too much interesting to see. The best thing is to just walk around and see the pavilions from the outside.

European Pavilion Area

UK Pavilion

USA Pavilion (Boring Office Building or Car Dealership Style)

Spanish Pavilion with Long Lines

Canada Pavilion

China Pavilion (On Right)

South Korea Pavilion

Axis of Evil Pavilions (North Korea - left and Iran - right)

It was great to meet up with some of my old college buddies after not seeing some of them for two years. We had around 10 days of traveling in China, so there will be another post or two of China before I get to the Southeast Asia pictures. Stay tuned!

For more pictures, see: http://picasaweb.google.com/wallred10/ShanghaiExpo#