Random adventures, great people, and the one thing I can’t do without: mountains. A late post is better than no post at all, right?

Midterms in China are, sadly, just like midterms in the states. They consume far too much of your time, stressing you out and making you eat unhealthy things (switching out Nutella for the obligatory fried dumplings/rice/noodles/anything). The reality of midterms, plus the two-week visit of my dear Swedish friend and other daily happenings in Beijing, has postponed my blogging quite a bit.

Nonetheless, about a month ago, I took a four day solo trip to Guangxi province. It was one of the best trips (if not the best) I’ve made so far, making it very much worth a blog nod. For all you folks who don’t have a clue about the geography of the Chinese provinces (me included), here ya go:

Guangxi is home to some pretty cool-looking mountains, a couple of beautiful rivers, and some incredible countryside. Luckily, I got to experience all three in quite dissimilar fashion.

RICE

Guilin is one of the main cities in the province, and a 90-minute bus ride from Guilin is something called Dragon’s Backbone Rice Terraces. The terraces are a pretty big attraction for Chinese tourists (the whole 1.3 billion of them), but luckily, I visited them a week after the national holiday, meaning they were as empty as can be. The trails along the terraces were lovely, along with the German and Oregonian company I met along the way. The terraces had already been harvested and were a light brown color, much different from how they were shown in pictures (but isn’t that always the case?). Nonetheless, the farmers were setting them on fire, causing a cool-looking smoky effect.  I suppose that sometimes the coolest things aren’t quite what you originally expected. Perhaps the greatest part about the terraces was the trip back to Guilin. I researched the bus I needed to take, found it, and grabbed a seat. On board, we were moving and all was well…until the bus flew by the station where I needed to transfer buses. I started asking people on the bus where we were going, telling them then I needed to get to Guilin, but all they told me was “Sit! Sit!” in Chinese. With no other choice, I sat down and put my faith in these 15 Chinese people I’d never met and could only slightly communicate with as our bus turned in the opposite direction of where I needed to go.

Then, something bizarre happened. As the bus drove along and my hopes continued to dwindle, it randomly started honking. Lots and lots of honks. All of a sudden, the bus stopped in the middle of the road. I looked out the window to see another bus, going in the opposite direction, slowly coming to a stop. “QU GUILIN!” the driver called out. I expressed many thanks, exited my bus, ran across the road, and boarded the other bus while trying to digest what/how/why that had just happened. Oh, China. You’re so weird.

RIVER

After the terraces, I headed to Yangshuo, Guangxi’s hippie town. Its location makes for great rock climbing opportunities, and the Li River runs right through the middle, making for some stunning scenery. A bike ride along the river seemed like a lovely idea. I rode and stopped to take a break on a bridge, where I watched hordes of tourists sit on rickshaw rafts they paid $40 to ride. I admired from afar and my inner budget-traveler chuckled as I pedaled away with my $1.50-per-day rental bike. What started as a planned bike path turned into me ending up in some tiny village, which turned into me ending up in some farmer’s field. With views like this, though, I had no complaints–only thankfulness and a vow to get lost more often. After an eventful day, I headed back to my hostel to relax. I met some Germans visiting for the weekend, and we decided to go out for a few beers at one of the cheapest bars in Yangshuo (which the inner-budget traveler couldn’t resist). At the bar, we got into a long discussion with the owner, who also happened to lead guided tours. He works for a company called Young Pioneer Tours, which specializes in tours to “places your mother wouldn’t want you going to” (quoted from his business card). They lead tours to Iran, Cuba, Tibet (haHA!), Iraq, and their specialty: North Korea. The bartender-slash-guide went on and on about his four trips to North Korea, talking about its beautiful countryside and warm people. “The only thing that most people know about North Korea is what the media tells them, and the media couldn’t be more wrong.”

I still can’t decide if I believed him or not, but then I had a thought: on what basis am I making this decision? On the basis of media. Regardless, it was yet another bizarre experience that is just so China. It made me think a bit harder about the power of media, both positive and negative, from an American perspective, a Chinese perspective, and a worldly perspective. Pretty interesting stuff.

MOUNTAINS

On my last day, I decided I wanted to get up-close and personal with these mountains I’d been dabbling with. I’d never been rock climbing before, and a 6-hour trip with a guide and gear cost only $40…could there possibly be a better or more beautiful place to try it?

Even better, I was the only one who had signed up for the tour that day so it was just me and my guide. I managed to climb 5 different faces and had some sore arms as proof (and some pretty good GoPro footage): My last adventure was a short hike to the top of a mountain, where there was supposedly a wonderful scenic spot. Like always, the Chinese smog got in the way, but it left me with a hazy and eerily cool-looking view. When life gives you smog, just pretend it’s some morning fog. My final shout-out goes to the two Belgian guys whom I met on my hike down the mountain. We were hiking in opposite directions, so we said hello, asked where the other was from, and so on. Fast forward 30 minutes and we’re having a deep conversation on the side of a mountain about Chinese politics and China’s economy. They’d been traveling through China for 3 months, mostly in the Muslim-heavy West, so their findings were far different from my 3 months of living in the relatively traditional capital.

I had to run and catch my bus so we were forced to part ways, but that random, bizarre, and awesome encounter was the cherry on top of an excellent solo trip. Stay tuned for my next blog post where I’ll give my second take on three trips to three different cities (all of which I traveled to in 2013): Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Xi’an!