Beihai

For Yen's birthday, I decided to take her to Beihai, an old colonial port city on the Guangxi coast. We left at 8:30 Saturday morning on the 90 minute train ride from Nanning, and got the train back at 4pm Sunday. Enough time to see the city and relax.

We arrived at 10 an went straight away to the old colonial district. Beihai was one of the treaty ports opened up after 1876 and, for a brief period, it had a small boom. British, French, Dutch, and Portuguese merchants set up shop along the north end of the city (which is built on a peninsula that juts out westward in to the South China Sea). However, by 1900 it was clear that Beihai would not be another Shanghai or Hong Kong, and most of the merchants pulled up and left before the outbreak of WWI. What is left then, is a few blocks of decaying 19th and early 20th century building, with only the first floors being maintained.

Zhuhai rd

Old colonial ruins

However, it was very hot and so after a couple hours we opted to head to our hotel. Being that it was Yen's birthday I opted for a good hotel. We got the only in China named "Golden Shining New World Grand Hotel" with an ocean view and a balcony. It was actually a couple blocks back from the ocean, but still a great view. It also had a Chinese restaurant that had some of the best Chinese food I have had here. Definitely a place I would stay again.

After a couple hours hiding from the sun we decided to head out to the beach. Silver beach stretches for several kilometres along the south side of the city. There are two sections of the beach, one free and one not. The free section was nice but crowded and dirty. Beer cans and plastic forks floating in the sea.

However, the pay section was spectacular. The beach has gotten some hate online but I have no idea why. Yes it sucks that you have to pay 100rmb to have a clean beach because local yokels don't have enough decency to clean up after themselves, but this is the PRC. For 100rmb you get a huge, beautiful beach. At night it was almost deserted and Yen and I had a km of it all to ourselves, watching lighting in the distance in the dark. One of my better experiences in Asia. We liked it enough to come back the next day after we checked out of the hotel. 

However, by 1:30 we were hot and ready to head back, so we went to a Starbucks near the train station for a small lunch, then headed back to Nanning.

Beihai is a cool city and definitely worth a weekend trip, especially if you are in southern China. If coming from farther away it may not be worth making the trip, especially as China does as much as it can to make tourism difficult. But as a city to visit, it was well worth it. Made for a lovely birthday weekend for Yen.

Nanning's Qingxiu Mountain

I've started and stopped this blog several times this year, so I thought I'd finally finish it.

Qingxiushan is a large mountain area in the southeast of Nanning. It is also the largest tourist attraction in the city. It has existed for centuries, but was only converted in to a tourist spot in 1984, when the local government decided to pave road and create spaces for temples, monuments etc. 30 years later it is THE park to see in Nanning It offers a botanical garden, temples, trees, and monuments. From the university it is an hour on the B10 bus to the north gate. A bit of a trip but well worth it.

According to the official website, Qingxuishan

has been identified as the autonomous-region-level scenic spot in 1989, one of the “Top Ten Scenic Spots” of Nanning in 1997, national first AAAA Scenic Spot in 2000, Advanced Unit for Construction of National Civilized Scenic Spots in 2005 and 2009 and the “Grade A Scenic Spot in Rapidest Development” of Nanning in 2010. State leaders including Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin, Jia Qinglin, Wu Guanzheng, Wu Yi and Hui Liangyu have visited here too. At present, the Scenic Spot is receiving tourists over 2.2 million person/times annually.

So yeah, there is that. Despite this advertising, it is actually well worth a visit if you are in Nanning.

The temples are a mix of Chinese and Thai (the mountain hosts delegations from ASEAN). Theoldest temple there allegedly dates to the 4th century, but the current one, like many of the temples in the PRC, was constructed in the 1980's as they cleaned up from the Cultural Revolution. Still, the current temple is impressive, if not historical. The Thai temple was built in the 1990's to celebrate Chinese/Thai friendship. It is less a temple and more a tourist attraction shaped like a temple. Still, both are interesting enough to see.

Thai Temple

Chinese temple

There are also several monuments in the park, usually dedicated to communist leaders or anti-Japanese uprisings. Though the history of the park is offered in Chinese or, less comprehensible to the English speaker, Chinglish, they are interesting to see.

anti-Japanese monument

ASEAN statues.

This one is obviously the Philippines

a gate. No idea.

Walking around the mountain area takes a few hours. It is usually a full day, especially in the summer months, when water and shade are necessary. Well worth the trip out for the scenery, plants, and overall green. Also being on a hill mountain it is a bit cooler in the hottest months.

Finishing Up in Nanning

With a month to go here in Nanning I am really starting to look forward to the next stage of my career. The next four weeks will be busy, but it'll be nice to finally be done.

I still have two and a half weeks of classes left, plus a 6 day intensive at the IELTS Centre. It is a nice little chunk of change to finish in Nanning with, though it leaves me a bit rushed. Still, nice to keep busy these next four weeks. It will also be nice to finish with motivated students, as all the ones at the College have already graduated (or haven't) and so have no motivation at all. Makes my life easier, but less enjoyable. Professionally though, Nanning was good for me. It gave me an intro in to university work, and showed me what to do (and in the case of one college, what not to do), but even that is valuable information moving forward. In that sense GXU has been a success, and I am happy to have had that experience. However, professionally there really isn't anywhere for me to go here, so that limits any interest in staying.

Personally there is absolutely no reason to stay. I am actually very ready to head out. Nanning has been great for making friends, but that is about it. I do enjoy having bbq's by the lake near our apartments, and walking around the west lake near here, but that is not reason enough to live in a city. There is just nothing in Nanning. Even the campus, which was once a green oasis in a dull, grey, urban sprawl, is being dug up. Any green space or hint of China pre-1998 are being systematically destroyed to make way for ostentatious gates and grey buildings. Time to move on.

The province of Guangxi is far more beautiful, but with trips to Guilin, Detian,and Tongling Gorge done, and Beihai this coming weekend, I feel that I have "done" Guangxi. Obviously there is more to see, and I haven't really been to the northwest at all, but as a 20 month stay goes, where the focus was on professional development and paying for a wedding, I have still seen the highlights, which were spectacular. So with little going on personally, and less professionally, it is time to move on.

That being said, I hope to keep in touch with the people I have met here, some of which are staying. I don't think I'll ever be nostalgic for Nanning the way I am for Daegu (in fact, I know I won't), but the friends I have made here have made the last two years much better than they otherwise would have been, and I will be nostalgic for that. Mike, Matt, Charlie, Tad, Richard. I'll hopefully be in touch with all of them in the years to come.

Tongling Gorge

After Detian, we took the hour long drive up to Tongling, arriving at the hotel at around 6pm. At 130rmb ($26Cad/22,000krw) it was about the best deal you could get. We then headed for dinner and a couple Saigon beers we had picked up at Detian in the park next to the lit up gate. I was hoping to see stars, but the sky was very overcast, so we were out of luck.

gate at night

view from the room

out front

After a long day at Detian we were asleep well before 10pm. 

The next day we were up at 6am to get breakfst and head down in to Tongling gorge. Although not nearly as visited by tourists as the falls, I think I may have liked the gorge more. A canyon in a sub tropical rainforest that ends with a much taller waterfall. I say hiking, but most of it - as with many natural places developed for tourism in China - has lots of steps. Something my knees are feeling today.

Much as with Detian, there isn't that much to say, it is something to see and experience.

mountains at the top on the gorge

making our way down

the raging river

the falls

To hike the whole gorge in and out you only NEED about 90 minutes, but we stayed for almost three hours. It was such a great place to experience. It is a beautiful part of western Guangxi. The whole area is the northern end of the karst mountains that spread through Vietnam in to Thailand and Burma. 

After the hike we quickly showered (my shirt looked like I had been swimming in it - a gorge in a humid tropical climate does not lend itself to air circulation. It is like breathing water). Then, it was off to Jingxi, a small town just west of the gorge for lunch and a quick look around. It was a cool small town, but an hour was about all we needed. Then the four hour drive back to Nanning.

Jingxi reservoir

The trip was definitely a highlight of Guangxi for me and up there with Guilin as the best of Guangxi. We will be in Beihai later this month for Yen's birthday, but otherwise our time in Guangxi is up. We (or at least I) will be back in October to grab a couple boxes we are leaving in storage, but I doubt I will be in Guangxi again except for an occasional visit to friends in Nanning. So it seemed like if we were going to see any more of the province it is now or never. I am very glad that we did.

Detian

This weekend, Yen and I went with my coworker Richard and his wife Xiaohua to the Detian waterfalls along the Chinese the border with Vietnam. Detian is advertised as the "3rd largest transnational border waterfall in the world" and despite that advertising, it is actually a very cool place.

To get there usually requires a bus ride across town to Langdong terminal, then a bus ride back across town before heading west, meaning 2 hours after we leave our front door we would be right back there. So we decided to hire a driver. At 500 rmb a day (100Cad/84,000krw/4200php) plus tolls and gas it was only a couple hundred more per couple than taking the bus. Plus we had a car, and not a bus full of Chinese tourists. It also meant that we had a lot more time at the falls than we would get if we took the bus.

We left at 645am and were at the entrance to the falls my 10am. The entrance is 10km from the falls but they offer a shuttle bus for a mere 45rmb (roll eyes) or you can walk. Given it was a great day, we decided to walk it. The locals thought we were nuts, but it was actually a very pleasant walk, which got very cool as you approached the Guichun river and realize that you are looking across it in to Vietnam.

northern Vietnam

a customs point

The border seemed very porous, and people on the Vietnamese side were clearly loading up small boats to take concrete across the river as we were walking by. It is always strange to me, a border is just a line in the sand, and yet on the Vietnamese side it is dirt road and shacks, and on the Chinese side it is paved roads and walkways.

After the walk we entered the main tourist area, and decided to stop for lunch. We went for "Vietnamese" food (Chinese food written in Chinese AND Vietnamese) and then headed in to the falls. The area around the falls is another 6-7 kms.

Tourist area

The area around the falls is spectacular. The falls themselves are beautiful, and well worth the effort it takes to get there. The larger part of the falls fall on the Chinese side and so, much like Niagara falls, seeing them from the north is considered the better way to go. However, unlike Niagara, it is not an easy border to cross, and so we opted to stay in the north. Anyway, pictures are worth more than words so:

countryside

left is in Vietnam, right is (mostly) in China.

Chinese side

from up top

There is some dispute between China and Vietnam over where the exact border is located (China has a border dispute, how unlike them.....). The old stone marker set between the French and the Qing has it north of the falls, whereas administratively it has been about a km south between the falls. There is also some legitimate issues with it being moved north by the French during the republican period in China. In reality the river makes the border the entire way, and neither side seems particularly interested in arguing about it. Unfortunately the stone marker was not open when we got there, so we couldn't see it.

After a few hours there we opted to head back. We were heading to Tongling to stay near the gorge and hike it the next morning.

To get there by bus, go to Langdong bus terminal in Nanning and get the direct bus to Detian (early morning, times change) or else the bus to Daxui county and then transfer. The last (only?) bus back directly to Nanning leaves the falls at 3pm, so if you are doing the buses directly there and back, you will only get about two and a half hours at the falls. Enough to shuttle in, see the falls, and leave. But if you want to hike and explore the area, better to stay near the falls. You can also do what we did and rent a car. Any tourist centre in Nanning can help arrange this for you, and if you have a group of 4-5 it isn't all that much more. You can also do what we did and combine it with Tongling gorge and somewhere else to get in as much of western Guangxi as you can. Unless you are on a real shoestring budget, or are travelling solo, I'd get the car.