25. Final days in China. Paddy fields and mountains

Guilin and Yangshuo – Paddy fields and mountains

Another town, another festival. The Lantern Festival marks the end of the New Year / Spring Break and is celebrated on the full moon. It is another family day and Yangshuo is full of people carrying their children in their arms (no pushchairs in China), dressed in their best western style clothes – out en-family to watch the fireworks and see the lanterns. We arrived by boat, having navigated the shallow river of Yulong for four hours through the most remarkable landscape from Guilin. We are in the South of China after a 28 hour train ride in “hard sleeper” from Beijing.

The weather is warm – actually hot - and the pace slower, the people gentler and friendly. There are few factories though the ever-present smog hangs here too. The land is flat and the agriculture is more traditional – paddy fields, water buffalo, fishermen using cormorants to catch fish from rafts of bamboo and people washing their clothes in the river. But then there are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of remarkable up-thrusts of karst rock towering above this plain, like giant phalluses up to 1000 metres high, many housing a network of amazing caves. We climbed one that had a huge hole near the top – the moon hill. The view from above the hole was incredible – peak after peak stretched in front of us as the sun set.

Back in town the celebrations were gearing up. The town thronged with 10 thousand people – a solid mass of humanity. The park was full of lanterns and the show was about to begin. We gave up on the show – a very amateur affair despite an audience to die for and the glittering compere. But then Andy and I discovered we were the celebrities’ around here as we were followed by photographers and TV film crews! We were wandering the town, people watching, trying special sweets and food, listening to haunting music of the one stringed, violin like instrument played here and each time realised that a press camera was rolling.

Shops and restaurants were open throughout the city but in a low key, empty sort of way. Amazing because the streets were so packed you could only move with the crowd. Police were everywhere but stood in packs, smoking, talking on mobiles and taking photos. The VIP’s were in town too – we had seen them arrive in a noisy, black European limousine procession, accompanied by blue and red light flashing police-cars. These were the round bellied men and women now sitting at tables groaning with uneaten Chinese delicacies, drinking English gin and Scottish whiskey with labels prominently displayed, while smoking European cigarettes.

The night ended with a brilliant firework display which also marked the end of the spring break. The time that reality was to hit home for over 20 million rural migrant workers who no longer had a factory job to return to, in a country where many rural workers have been dispossessed of their land with the promise of urban riches. This beautiful place is very poor, housing substandard – often a whole family will live in what we would consider a room. A kitchen here does not have oven, fridge or washing machine. Cooking is on a single calor gaz ring or, more often, a fire burning a special fuel block. Implements are limited to a wok and a kettle. Homes are swept with a brush made from twigs. Few own a vacuum cleaner, never mind a car. In fact, few have more than a light run from electricity. Families move around the country with their beds rolled up and on their backs. This is the country that has just announced a multi-million dollar stimulus package that aims to put a fridge and micro-wave oven into every rural home. The cities are little better for the majority of workers where many sleep in hostels separated from their families.

We left Guilin by an extremely crowded train for Nanjing, the last leg of our trip here. Nanjing was, in stark contrast, wet and cold. All three of us have hacking coughs and lungs so full of grime that it is hard to breathe. The hostel is like a fridge, our room like a prison cell and the nearest toilet and shower is across an open courtyard. We move rooms to have an en-suite, turn the air-conditioning unit to heat and close the curtains. China has not grown on us. Nanjing is ugly – destroyed by the Japanese during the Nanjing massacre when 300,000 men, women and children were murdered in 6 weeks when the Jap army went out of control. The communists rebuilt the city and modern business is now rebuilding again – replacing four storey concrete blocks with 30 storey glass and concrete blocks.

Piers is to live here for six months and we admire him for his ability to smile and get on with it. He has learnt to eat the food that we never got to grips with, is amazingly patient with the unusual way the Chinese have of interpreting your requests and his ability to make Chinese laugh at his Chinese banter. We were sad to say good bye to Piers after an amazing month of travels but very relieved to get back to the UK and a fabulous roast lamb dinner prepared by Sue.