龙脊梯田 (dragon's back rice terraces)

It was worth it. We had to get up at 6.30am in order to make the 3hour trip from 阳朔 to 龙胜 (which turned out to be much longer, but that's a diff story) in order to visit the rice terrace (梯田) since we had to catch a flight back to HK at 6pm the same day.


The view of 龙脊梯田 up at 龙胜 is absolutely breath taking. The multi level of rice terraces have been built over hundreds of years by generations of farmers. Comprehensive irrigation system is in place to distribute water from nearby catchment areas to each section of the terrace.



Despite the rain, we still had an enjoyable time hiking up beside the terraces. We only had enough time to go to 七星伴月 (picture above) which is the must-see in 龙胜. Would certainly like to come back here in a different season, eg the autumn to see the hills all turned golden with the ready-to-be-harvested paddy...

Perhaps due to difference in micro climate, while we saw quite a lot of paddy fields in 阳朔 starting to bear flowers and the fields beginning to dry up, the paddy up here has only just come out from the nursery and terraces are still filled with water (and happy ducks...).



[Images courtesy of Chai Yew Wei]

漓江漂流

One of the highlights of visiting 桂林 and 阳朔 is to enjoy the scenery of 漓江 between and around these 2 towns.

Didn't realise that 漓江 comes all the way down to 广西 province (just goes to show how little I know about China geography...)

The picture on the right is taken on 遇龙江, one of the offshoots of 漓江, easily accessible from 阳朔 town. Someone had the brilliant idea of slowing down the gushing water and turn this place into a tourist spot. The guy in the picture is crossing 遇龙江 by walking on one of the many 堤 built to provide a calm surface for tourists to leisurely 漂流 ( see picture below) along the amazing scenery.

This is one of the few places in China where you see local people appreciating the value of protecting the environment. No motorised boat is allowed of this stretch of the river to ensure that this place is as unpolluted as possible (and hence keeping the tourist dollar coming).









[Images courtesy of Chai Yew Wei]

Noodle and massage in 桂林

This not very exciting looking vermicelli is the famous 桂林米线. Since we are actually in Guilin, it's simply called 米粉. Seems like 米粉 is the staple diet of the place as we saw locals eating it for breakfast, lunch & dinner! There are slight variations of the way it is served by different places - you can sometimes get soup to be poured on the noodle, the condiments also vary by place. I don't know how they made the sauce but this simple looking dish is very delicious.

We were taken to this little 大排挡 (sounds funny to say little big "pai dang"!) by our lady taxi driver who brought us from the airport to the hotel. She managed to convince us that we should book the ferry tickets to go to 阳朔
for tomorrow on the night we arrived. She then offered to show us a local place for supper and even offered to pay for the noodles (mmm.. I wonder how much commission she made from the ferry tickets). Anyway, we didn't let her pay for the noodle - it's only RMB 2.50 per bowl and we were initially so skeptical that we only ordered 2 bowls among 4 of us...

Thinking about getting a massage after 米粉 and so happened there were quite several of them just next door. Initially we thought they didn't seem too dodgy, but after a dressed up woman walk past in 4-inch stilleto plus the guys noticing that the girls in the massage place opposite wearing hot pants under their white coats (what's the deal with these white coats by the way...? They do that too in HK. Are they supposed to somehow imply professionalism?). Another tell-tale sign was girls sitting outside some of the massage places on the same road. In the end, no massage that night.

From the photo on the right, you can probably make out the 按摩院 next to 龙记.


[Images courtesy of Chai Yew Wei]