You take Picture

After four days of touring Hong Kong we decided to cross the border into mainland China and take an overnight sleeper train from Shenzhen to Guilin. We wanted to travel by hard-sleeper; however, we found out the hard way that purchasing tickets a few hours before a train departs isn't always the best. The only seats available for the train were in the soft sleeper class, which were twice the price but were quite nice.

Whenever we reach a new city we always try to find a map and explore the local area to get our bearings. What we weren't expecting was to be invited to join a game of bad mitten. So, after a few hours of sleep and glasses fogging over, we tested our bad mitten skills. As one could guess, this didn't go too well; however, we all had a great experience and were invited back anytime (we assume that's what they said as we parted ways). We grabbed some yummy dumplings for breakfast and watched groups of people doing their morning exercises, from Tai Chi to line dancing. (We managed to stay out of those)

As we walked around the rivers and lakes taking in the scenery and lovely pagodas we were suddenly ambushed by Chinese in the trees. As strange as it sounds, we seemed to be an added tourist attraction around the lake as several people took our pictures, some discreetly and others not so much. A group of kids ran up to us asking "you take picture", so the "laowai's" (foreigner) obliged, and we even threw up the peace sign which seems to be the Asian photo trademark. We were going to get a picture with our camera, but they disappeared into the trees giggling as quickly as they appeared. We have discovered the Chinese people to be surprisingly nice and extremely, but sincerely, inquisitive of foreigners as you are shamelessly stared at where ever you go.

Halloween unfortunately isn't as widespread in Guilin as it is in the States and other big cities; however, there were a few Halloween decorations and costumes. We didn't dress up as we were too lazy to go shopping for any costumes unlike other Westerns around town. A highlight for many locals was to admire the ridiculously dressed foreigners as they hung out downtown. So we had a couple beers and watched too.

Without any real plan yet for China we broke down and joined one of the flag-led tours through the hostel to Longsheng with some friends we met the night before. The Ping An rice terraces are a highlight of the Guangxi province and although they had been recently harvested, the vista was still quite extraordinary. Though said to be touristier than other terrace locations, you could still catch a glimpse of weathered farmers tending their crops that have been built into and along the mountain side of the Dragon's Backbone. Our tour took us to the village of the long hair where we took-in an "authentic" long hair show. Although touristy, it was neat seeing the actual villagers that only cut their hair once in their lives when they get married. We ended up breaking away from the tour and began to wish we had more time to hike up and down the soil stair cases as it came time to make a mad dash to the bus.