Banana Pancakes, Anyone?

Hello and welcome back!  Time to put on your Birkenstocks because today we shoulder our backpacks and head to idyllic Guangxi province, my favorite place in China, to date.

Next time you're buying a big bag of baozi, check your yuan-notes.  They always have a picture of Chairman Mao on the front (the same picture, from his good side) and on the back, an scenic vista or important government building.  Ironically, on the 50-yuan note (the second-highest denominated note) you will find a picture of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet.  Wandering thoughtfully away from that issue, we turn to the subject of our adventure, the 20-yuan note.

The famous vista you see on the note is the karst formations on the Li river, which flows through Guangxi, one of the most southern of Chinese provinces. Guangxi, an Autonomous Region, has a long border with Vietnam and that Southeast Asia climate and vibe.  The highlight of the area is the scenery, rice terraces, biking and rock climbing around Yangshuo, a small town on the Li River.

The Mighty Li River

Yangshuo is in the Lonely Planet guidebooks, so it is officially on the Banana Pancake Trail.  For those of you not familiar with the ways of Southeast Asia backpackers, there is this from Wikipedia:

YangShuo Bananas

"There is no firm definition of the Banana Pancake Trail, as it is a metaphor to describe the ever-developing travellers' trail going through many different places in Southeast Asia rather than an actual route or road (much like the Silk Road). However, the term is used to describe, amongst others, Goa, Pushkar and Varanasi in India, Halong Bay, Hoi An, and Hanoi in Vietnam, Vang Vieng in Laos (with its rites-of-passage river tubing), Sihanoukville and Siem Reap (Angkor Wat) in Cambodia, Bangkok (with its famous Khao San Road), Pai, the islands of Ko Pha Ngan (with its world-infamous Full Moon Party) and Ko Phi Phi in Thailand, and Penang, the Perhentian Islands and Melaka in Malaysia. In Indonesia Lake Toba,Yogyakarta, Mount Bromo and the islands of Bali, Lombok and Gili Trawangan are considered to be on the Banana Pancake Trail.

As the tourism expands, the Philippines has become part of it as well, and the Trail's stops in the Philippines are thought to include the island of Boracay, Siargao Island, the dive centers of Puerto Galera in Mindoro island, the islands of Palawan, the surf spots of San Juan La Union, plus the Cordillera mountain regions that include the spectacular Batad and Banaue rice terraces, and Sagada.  The Banana Pancake Trail also seems to have a northern extension into China with Dali, Lijiang, and Yangshuo as the major centres." (Wikipedia)

Guilin lights up at night

So there you have it!  We have crossed paths with our intrepid backpacker friends in Bangkok and Malaysia and, as it turns out, also in the PRC.  EP and I spent a long weekend wandering the area, biking, climbing rice terraces and rolling on the Li.  And while we had crossed the Banana Pancake Trail, we were not backpacking.  Noooooo.  We were learning the ways of a guided tour in China.  The Chinese "improved" Guilin for tourism by installing neon, of course, and an evening river cruise with a music show. The river Li, while absolutely dreamlike in its beauty, is also packed with a long armada of river cruise boats.  Dozens of boats careen down the channel at full speed, jostling for position in the turns and passing each other in the straightaways.  Passengers watch the scenery cruise by, take pictures when instructed to by the tour guide and take a break only to duck below decks to "noodle up" at a lunch buffet. Guilin partially prepared us for the Beijing Death March and Pee-Pee Boy, which I will cover in a future YRC.

Li River Cruiser. Note chef in back...

Neon Caves!

Famous Elephant Trunk Hill!

Back on topic!! As you probably have perceived in the YRC, China is not a place where you go to....relax.  No, even as you step off the plane in Shanghai for your first visit, you will feel the tension rising, your pulse will start to jackhammer and by the time you clear customs you are READY TO ROCK!!  The adrenaline turbines wind up, synapses start to crackle with energy and it's CRANK IT ALL THE WAY UP TIME in the 'Hai as you blast into town.

Guilin was like that, too.  There were the traditional "photo spots" where people stood in line to take the "perfect" picture, gifts shops, tourist areas and Elephant Trunk Hill,  the Pink Bridge of Guilin.

The YuLong River

On the other hand Yangshuo is pristine, mellow and it feels like you are, well, not in China. The un-frantic YuLong river is framed by awe-inspiring scenery and there are small bamboo rafts that are poled down the river, rock climbing and some great bike riding. We stayed in a rustic mountain lodge that had...you guessed...no neon and no ditches to fall into.  Our intrepid travel partners Steve "Sharpie" and Kristi "Sly" Shea traveled for a week down there and came back with a very un-Chinese glow of mellowness.  I'll bet it was the pancakes...