China Provinces Travel Story ~ Guangxi Zhuang
This China provinces travel story takes place in Guangxi Zhuang Special Autonomous Region. (For more pictures of this area follow the links). This travel story is about a group of Canadians on a 10-hour bus ride from Nanning to Wuzhou, in southern China. The lunch stop in Guiping provided an interesting insight in cultural differences. See more pictures of Guangxi China travel -- Nanning Green park, the China attractions Guangxi Caves at Yiling and Nanning Zoo. Guide books had mentioned one of the main tourist attractions in Wuzhou was the Wuzhou Snake Repository, where, it reported, cats were fed to snakes for the amusement of tourists. Whether true or not, that tidbit had most of the group a little unnerved, and wondering just what type of place we were heading into . . .
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Lunch in Guiping ~ Bus trip from Nanning to Wuzhou China
The strangest sound I have ever heard in a restroom was the soft ‘Ribbett-ribbett’ of a chorus of frogs. A dozen of them, each no bigger than a child’s fist, were perched placidly on several small grey stones, nicely ensconced on the countertop under a snug dome of chicken wire, kept cool and moist by the dripping cold water tap. They looked happy enough, but what were they doing here?
The airy restroom was for restaurant patrons where we had stopped for lunch, in the city of Guiping, located almost directly on the Tropic of Cancer, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Though it is not unusual in these parts to find miscellaneous critters in wire cages at markets or outside restaurants, awaiting their turn as the Blue Plate Special, we’d never expected to find them in the Ladies.
I was travelling with a few dozen Canadians who’d come to China to bring home their newly adopted daughters. Today we were being bused north then east from Nanning to the city of Wuzhou, where we would visit the orphanage that had been ‘home’ to the babies until just a few days ago.
When this bus trip appeared as one item on the itinerary, it set off many a parental alarm: Ten hours! Through the mountains! With a new baby! On a bus! As for me, I was delighted at the chance to see a part of China well off the tourist track. Wisely, I kept my thoughts to my baby-less self.
By Charter bus . . .
We’d set off early this morning, half-filling a large new-looking bus our tour company had rented from the government, easily identified as such by its license plates. The driver, a taciturn government employee with a schedule to keep, communicated mainly by blasting the horn long, loud and often at everything and everyone on the obviously new highway.
Pedestrians, water buffalo, cyclists, mopeds, taxis and farm trucks were all hailed by staccato blasts that startled the babies into loud wails and set their tired parents’ teeth on edge. Cruising along at 90 km/h, horn blaring, this bus was easily the largest vehicle on the road, its driver demanding the right of way even in oncoming lanes. Many times we held our breath, watching in wide-eyed horror for the crash that, thankfully, never came. After all, who would dare to hit a government bus?
Keeping one eye on the road ahead just in case, I took in the passing views of a valley filled with endless rice paddies and cane fields, dotted with plots of corn and ponds thick with lotus blooms. After an hour or so, the road headed up into the mountains. Here, long sections of the highway lanes along side us were new slabs of concrete about a foot thick curing under a layer of damp straw.
New Highways Kunlun Pass . . .
Every so often, we came across workers -- mostly women and older men -- who were making concrete in those small concrete mixers then dumping it from wheelbarrows into the wooden frames and leveling it. Hard to believe if we hadn’t seen it: They were laying this huge ribbon of concrete through these mountains by hand.
As the road leveled out at the summit, our guide pointed out a large granite monument, and called out between blasts of the horn, “This is Kunlun Pass. During the battle with the Japanese invaders, there were many Japanese killed here.” Historically, this area is steeped in conflict, from the Taiping Uprising in 1850 and Mao’s Long March in the 1930s. On this mountain, 4,000 Japanese and hundreds of Chinese lost their lives during the Chinese-Japanese war (1937-1945).
Through the pass, the road winds down into a large, flat valley where the Pearl River makes its way another 400 kilometers east to Hong Kong. Here and there, needlelike weathered limestone formations -- called karst mountains -- seem to have sprouted randomly in the fields. Many parts of Guangxi are riddled with huge caverns and these karst formations, the most famous being near northeastern Guangxi Zhuang's well-touristed city of Guilin.
Guiping for lunch . . .
We reached Guiping roughly halfway through our day’s journey, more than ready to stop for lunch. The restaurant was up several flights of wooden stairs in one of the many old colonial buildings that are the legacy of other invaders, other times. Almost immediately, several young women began piling our our large round table with glasses of cool beer and Coke, pots of green tea, and bowls of rice, and fragrant steaming soup they ladled expertly from china tureens.
A dozen heaping platter soon filled the turntable in the middle of the table, and we emptied almost as soon as they appeared. Whole fish deep-fried and sauced, BBQ spare ribs with sesame seeds, and chicken with vegetables were a few that we could identify. One of the hardest things to translate in any language, it turns out, is the name of foods. Many very tasty local specialties were one-offs, because we never knewwhat to ask for to order them again. Even though we thought we knew the name for one exceptionally tasty shredded pork dish flavoured with bone marrow gravy and served on chubby noodles, we got something entirely different when we asked for it another day.
In my experience, although you may not know exactly what you are eating, you may be pretty darn sure that nothing so exotic as badger or snake will appear unbidden on your plate. Much the same as in Canada, say, where some restaurants will offer buffalo or wild game, so too, here, dishes of shark’s fin, bird’s nest or turtle and the like must be ordered specifically from the menu.
But the sight of these caged frogs in the Ladies gave me pause for thought. Is it possible my theory on unasked-for exotic foods was flawed? I tried to recall anything I had eaten at lunch that could conceivably have been frog legs, but came up blank. As we stopped us in our tracks, and puzzled over all possible meanings for this chorus of ribbetters, one of the men in our group was passing the open Ladies room door.
One of the women called out to him. “Hey, come have a look,” she said.
Indicating the cage of frogs still quiely ribbetting, she asked, “What do you think of this?”
Stopped short by her question, he ducked his head through the doorway, and took in the situation at a glance.
“Oh, cool!” he said. “Natural mosquito control! What a good idea.”
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You may also be interested in these pages about Guangxi China
Nanning China Green Park and Ethnic Park
China Attractions Guangxi caves at Yiling Scenic area
More pictures from Wuzhou at Guangxi China
Or Go To China travel info and other China Cities
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