The Guangxi Experience

by+Christian+Jacques+Heyer

I flew to Guilin on Chinese New Years Eve. When I landed in Guilin， my guide Cindy was waiting with the driver wearing a wide grin. Located in northern Guangxi， Guilin is traditionally inhabited by the Dong people. About a four-hour drive from Guilin is a landscape of mountains and rivers. The car stopped at a gate and Cindy flashed a card to the office. It was the entrance of a park comprising several villages.

Dazhai is the biggest and most famous village of the eight in the park， and they are mostly within walking distance of each other. Upon our arrival， several women greeted us in traditional costume， with wicker baskets on their backs. Cindy explained that the baskets were for our bags. Their Zhuang minority clothing was amazing： Collarless and embroidered jackets paired with loose and wide trousers and colorful embroidered belts. As we approached the stilted-house village， we met more women along the way， some selling various items along the railroad tracks. The villages in Longji Terrace area are mostly inhabited by ethnic minorities， primarily the Zhuang and Yao groups.

Most houses were of typical wooden structure. Built on the hillside， they are stilted， with two or three floors. We arrived in our hotel which was actually a house rented out by some local inhabitants – simply decorated with aromatic cedar. Most rooms lack a heater， but the owner gave us an electric blanket to pre-heat the bed before going to sleep. We had a quick rest， but I was really eager to walk around the various areas of the village and explore. It was quite calm in the late afternoon. Only a few kids were still returning home from school， and a few girls were barbecuing bamboo shoots to pair with their specialty： stuffed bamboo rice.

The next morning we accompanied our hostess to her garden， where we gathered vegetables and bamboo for lunch. The woman told us all about myriad plants there. After she removed their leaves， we cut some long bamboo and carried it back to the village. The locals were quite amazed to see a foreigner lugging the long bamboo shoots， and we stopped several times to pose for photos and even stopped to visit some friends of our hostess.

That evening， we enjoyed a wonderful dinner of local specialties prepared fresh from the garden. Our last day in Dazhai， in the morning we headed to top village of Tiantouzhai.

After Dazhai and Tiantouzhai， our driver came back to the entrance of the park to pick us up. We left the Zhuang minority area for Sangjiang， a Dong minority area. After dropping off our luggage at the hotel， we headed to town， where there was a lot of activity. “Most couples marry on one of the three first days of the year，” explained Cindy， and we were lucky enough to witness numerous processions in the street. Cindy explained that we could join the wedding by simply buying some gifts for the bride.

We rushed to a shop and bought some baskets of fruit and joined the celebration. Kids stayed up late lighting firecrackers. Family and friends were all consumed by cooking outside： Some boiling a soup， some killing a chicken， and others cutting preserved fish with a knife and a hammer（yes， a hammer！）

After eight days of experiencing the various cultures and taking hundreds of photographs， I headed to a riverside retreat on Yangshuo Mountain. This was to be the relaxing conclusion of my trip， an opportunity to sort my photos and lounge around on the river terrace， but Cindy booked some bicycles to tour the fantastic landscapes of small orange plantations along the river framed by the mountains like those on the reverse of the 20 yuan banknote.

After those days there， I really wanted to go further， maybe deep into the mountains of Guangxi and Yunnan. But that will have to wait until next year.