Ron and Amy
Go To China
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Day 6
Xingping
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| A friend of Amy's had been to China years before and had told her that
we must visit the village of Xingping, so we did. Xingping is also on the
Li River about half the way between Guilin and Yangshuo. We had gathered
up our belongings and checked out of the Bamboo House. We returned to the
bus station and found a mini-bus
headed for Xingping. The buses never want to go anywhere until every seat
is occupied. Most buses employ a woman who acts a conductor, collecting
the fares and trying to drum up more business. So even after the bus leaves
the bus station, it creeps along at about five miles per hour for the first
mile or so while the woman hangs half out the open door hoping to spot a
few extra passengers. They do a good job. On most every bus we rode on,
every seat was filled with a few extra passengers riding on the engine cover. |
Rooftop in Xingping
More Xingping |
| We arrived in Xingping in about 45 minutes. We were the only western tourists
on the bus so when we arrived we got the undivided attention of all the
salespeople who wait at the bus station, which was a small mud parking lot
with two other mini-buses. We received many offers of, "hello taxi",
"hello hotel", "hello water", "hello boat ride."
We started feeling like celebrities because we had our own posse that followed
us everywhere. After several blocks, we spotted the Xingping Inn, which
looked decent. We could put down our bags and hopefully our entourage would
give up on us and head back to the bus station to prey on the next bus. |
The dreaded hole in the floor |
| The proprietor was friendly and helpful. He didn't speak any English but
he had a notebook with a dozen or so phrases written in English. I got out
my Chinese phrase book and through a series of pointing to different phrases
in each other's books, we established that we wanted a room. He established
that he would give us a room for 70 yuan (not even $10 USD) and a 50 yuan
deposit. The mattresses left much to be desired and the toilet was just
a hole in the floor. On the
other hand, the room was big and quiet and there was a postcard
view out the window. We weren't in the mood for hotel shopping, especially
with our whole posse behind us, so we took the room. |
Amy insists on wading |
He had bikes for rent too.
The tires needed air and the seats needed to raised but we worked it out
by pointing to different parts of the bikes and using pumping and wrenching
hand gestures. This area of China is also famous for its spectacular caves.
Xingping had one cave tour according to the book, The
Lotus Cave. The proprietor was even nice enough to ride his bike to
the edge of town with us and show us the correct road to take to reach the
cave. We encountered more beautiful
scenery and a creek that
could only be traversed by a tiny
bamboo bridge or by wading through the water. Once we found the cave,
we were issued hard hats and joined a group of Chinese tourists. The inside
of the cave was illuminated by all kinds of colored lights. The tour guide
only spoke in Chinese and apologized to us that she didn't know much English.
We told her it was no problem, we were only there to dig the psychedelic
light show. Different areas of the cave did have names that were written
out on signs in Chinese and English. The funniest one was "Growing
Mammillary Stalactites," which we assumed meant that they looked
like giant nipples hanging down from the ceiling.
After the tour, we returned to the village. One the way, I was quite impressed
by large red dragonflies that buzzed around over heads. I tried several
times to get a photo of one but they would not hover in one place long enough
for me to get anything other than a blur.
We had a good dinner in town and returned to our hotel. Even though the
hotel had four floors, we seemed to be the only people in the building other
than the proprietor, his wife and young son. We went up to the
roof, which afforded great
views of the village and the surrounding hills. I wanted to explore
the village some more. Amy was satisfied to stay at the hotel. She had brought
things to work on, several drawings and a play that she had been writing.
It seemed as though we were the only tourists left in the village. All the
bars, restaurants, and most of the shops were closed for the night. I wandered
around the desolate streets. I found one side street that was particularly
dark and foreboding. I was curious what the Xingpingians did to while away
their evenings. Even though many of the homes were little more than stone
huts with an ancient wooden bench or two, it seemed most of the households
watched TV just like Americans. One family was huddled around the set watching
a Tom and Jerry cartoon.
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The Lotus Cave
More Cave photos
Even More!
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| Next Page - Guilin, Chongqing |
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