**FLASHBACK** Guilin and Yangshuo

Once again, the October National Holidays are right around the corner. This year is especially special for China - it will be the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Beijing has been busy gearing up for this event over the past couple of months. The final rehearsal was two Fridays ago when the curfew kicked in and all of the subways were shut down and roads were blocked. Sadly, I may miss the October 1 festivities since I'll be busy traveling to Tianjin this year, although none of the civilians are allowed to watch them live anyway.

Ever since I hit my two-year mark in China, I've been feeling waves and waves of nostalgia. Time really flies...fast! I think my biggest fear now is the thought of blazing through my China experience without taking the time to soak it all in and documenting as much as I can.

So flashback to two October Holidays ago - Lauren, Ash, Kate, Kaylen, Kevin and I had planned a last minute trip to Guilin and Yangshuo. At that time, we were wide-eyed China virgins who wanted to see the countryside and "the real China" (whatever that meant). Located in southwest Guanxi province, both Guilin and Yangshuo are surrounded by beautiful, rolling limestone karst mountains. A lot of the Chinese landscape paintings you see depict scenes from those two areas.

Sadly, Guilin's natural beauty has been ruined by over development these days. Ugly concrete buildings now surround the once pretty landscape, and the city is overrun by buses and buses of local Chinese tourists. Still, it was nice to see a different side of China and do a little bit of people watching.


Yangshou was really where I fell in love with the Chinese countryside. We stayed in a villa right outside the town, and it was surrounded by fields of greenery and muddy ponds. Every morning we woke up to farmers singing in the distance.


One of the highlights of our trip was the cooking class at Yangshuo Cooking School. We toured a wet market in the morning, and then went to a mudhouse in the afternoon where we made our lunch. Lunch consisted of beer fish, steamed pork and mushrooms in pumpkin flowers, and stir fried eggplant. Yummy!

One of my more vivid memories of Yangshuo was the afternoon when we all broke off in pairs, rented bicycles and rode around a la tandem style. Poor Lauren carried my arse - she did an awesome job because it was heavy and difficult for her to steer the bike (oy oy oy oyyyyyy!!!!!)!!!




Anyway, I miss Yangshuo - it always conjures up romantic memories of me and my friends hanging out in the countryside - feeling carefree, adventurous and having lots of fun. We were so innocent and naive back then - new to China, didn't know anything about the country, and everything felt so foreign and exotic. As Jarter says, whenever we look at pictures from the past, we feel sad and old. Well, maybe it's because he is old, hahaha!!! Anyway...looking at these pics makes me want to grab my backpack...and head into the hills again.