Guangxi Christmas

I haven’t been able to leave Shanghai much this year due to Covid restrictions, but when China suddenly got rid of all the rules this December I decided I would go to Detian waterfall – the largest waterfalls in Asia! I had long ago bookmarked this location after seeing so many photos of it on WeChat travel ads. I was dubious that it was really as magnificent in person as it was in the pictures, but a few folks in one of my WeChat travel groups confirmed that it really is that amazing and I decided to go.

Wednesday, December 21

I took an early flight to Nanning, Guangxi. A 45 minute taxi ride took me to the Xixiangtang bus station where I bought a ticket for Daxin. The station was super empty and only a few buses were leaving. I was lucky and my bus was scheduled to leave just 10 minutes after I bought a ticket. I got a noodle baozi and a cup of some sweet beverage with red beans and rice and got on the bus. We drove West and passed fields of dragonfruit plants which look like cactus. Then the karst formations began to appear! They’re so picturesque. We made a stop on the side of a street in Daxin, but I decided I should wait to get off at the bus station. The owner of my guesthouse had told me to transfer in Daxin to another bus that would go to Shuolong. I had bookmarked the Daxin bus station on my phone’s map, but as we kept going we seemed to be getting further away from it…I asked the attendant on the bus if we were going to the bus station and she said no. I’m often able to get by with my basic Mandarin skills, but in this region of China I was having trouble understanding anything. This sweet woman on the bus tried to help me, but I couldn’t understand any of her questions. Eventually she came to understand that I needed to go to Shuolong and I came to understand that she had called someone who would pick me up in a car to take me there. No matter where you are in China, there’s always someone who knows a driver nearby who can take you where you need to go. After 4 hours on the bus I got let out on the side of a street in the middle of farm fields and there was my car waiting for me! The woman on the bus had sent him my hotel’s address and he took me straight there. I was greeted by the friendly owner at Daxin Tianpindi Homestay. He made me some tea and took my order for dinner. The hotel was mostly empty, but I did meet one other guest Lin who’s a man in his 50s from Chengdu who is also a math teacher! We chatted a bit (with translation assistance from WeChat) and I learned that he rode his bike from Chengdu to Lhasa, Tibet in 1987! This is a distance of about 1200 miles and an elevation gain of more than 10,000 feet. Dinner was delicious – roasted pumpkin with ginger and noodles. In the evening I watched the one and only lesbian Lifetime movie “Under the Christmas Tree” which was incredibly boring, but I’m glad it exists.

Thursday, December 22

I had noodles for breakfast and then hopped in a car with Lin and friends. Our hotel owner told us the best time to see the waterfall is at 1:00 so Lin’s crew was going to visit a nearby village called Mingshi and invited me to come along. Once we were in the car they informed me that they all have covid, so I was glad I had already recovered a few days earlier and was hopefully immune! The scenery was gorgeous. The sun was shining bright and there were hazy layers of karst formations in every direction. The whole area is mostly farm land. As we went further, the road got closer to the rocks and it reminded me of the stretch of I-70 going towards Glenwood Springs with tall walls of mountain on either side of the road. Unfortunately when we got to Mingshi we were told an important government official was at the village so we weren’t allowed to enter. I didn’t quite understand what was happening, but we turned around and headed back towards the hotel and onto Detian Waterfall. I was shocked at my first glimpse of the waterfall. It really was as idyllic as it looked in photos! There were ribbons of water in three tiers coming down from the lush green mountains. We got on a bamboo raft and floated closer to the falls on a short trip that cost $5. The falls are right on the border of China and Vietnam. We weren’t allowed to cross over to the other side of the river since it was across the border. The water was a gorgeous turquoise color and completely clear. I saw a rainbow in the mist of the falls as we got closer. What a gorgeous sight! We returned to the walking path where we were separated from the falls by a barbed wire fence. We passed viewing platforms that are no longer in use because they fall on the other side of the border fence. I saw a platform high above us on the side of a mountain which I wanted to visit. I thought the only way up was on the “magic carpet” so I bought a ticket for $9. As I got closer I saw that I could have taken the stairs for free. Oh well. I sat back as the giant conveyor belt dragged me up high above the waterfall. From on top I could see the lazy river snaking through farmland before it pored out over the falls. My magic carpet ticket also allowed me to take a very long slide back down the side of the mountain – the very thing my younger self probably asked for on numerous hikes as a child. I sat at a little hut overlooking the waterfall and read for awhile before walking back to the hotel.

Friday, December 23

I woke up to another beautiful sunny day and once again had noodles for breakfast. At 9am a car picked me up and took me to my next hotel in Mingshi. The hotel is called Lost in Nature and it’s absolutely lovely. I had my second breakfast and then set out on one of the hotel’s bicycles to explore the area. I found an extensive system of bike trails and spent the day riding around the mountains. The landscape was lovely! I also found it amusing that the local agro-residential association had banners all over town featuring the Chicago Bulls logo.

The hotel’s chef came down with covid, so our only dinner option was spicy hot pot.

Saturday, December 24

I decided not to do much today. I slept in and had breakfast and then headed down a small path near my hotel. I brought my binoculars along for some birdwatching. Near the hotel were heaps of Red-Whiskered Bulbuls hanging out in the trees. So cute!! The path kept going so I also kept going. I spent several hours walking around the countryside and made it to a nearby village. I made it back to the hotel for a nippy rooftop swim while it was still sunny out.

I had a yummy Christmas Eve dinner at the hotel with fried noodles, spicy and sour potatoes and homemade passion fruit wine.

Sunday, December 25

I got up early to see the sunrise from the room. While I was there I noticed all sorts of birds in the pond next door and ran downstairs to get my binoculars. To my delight more and more birds showed up to the pond as I watched, including a Common Kingfisher! And as I watched the birds the sky got more and more orange and pink. A delightful Christmas morning! I had breakfast and then went to the nearby highway to wait for my first bus of the day. After an hour I was at Daxin Bus station where I waited for my second bus and four hours later I was in Nanning where I regretted my decision to spend my Christmas day traveling for 10 hours, but I was close to the end! My last leg of the day was a train to Guilin. Once I got to Guilin I took a taxi to my hotel where my good friend Jamey was waiting for me! We headed out to find a nearby spot for dinner and stumbled upon a strange cave spa near the hotel. Being very intrigued by the decor we decided to come back after dinner. Christmas dinner consisted of mapo tofu and some green beans. Afterwards we returned to the cave for a foot steam.

Monday, December 26

I woke up and video called my dear friends Josh and Amy who were in Colombia teaching English at the same time I was. Jamey and I got a ride to Yangshuo and arrived to our hotel around 1pm. It was a cozy hotel in the countryside and we were the only guests. We had lunch at a nearby restaurant which had Thai-style food and then rented some scooters for the afternoon to ride along the Li River. The water was gorgeous and we watched the bamboo rafts go by. For dinner we had a local speciality – luosifen or snail noodles. It was a noodle dish with little tiny snails on top. Pretty yummy!

Tuesday, December 27

Jamey woke up with Covid and quickly made her way back to Shanghai before her symptoms grew worse. We debated the ethics of flying with Covid, but given that the government is telling people it’s okay to go to work with Covid, and given how prevalent it is now, she decided to take the short flight back home to rest there. I got Thai-style tofu curry for lunch again and then met up with a climbing guide my friend Song had recommended named ‘A Shui’. He took me to Swiss Cheese Wall which was full of climbers! There were several benches and shelters that had been constructed at the base. It’s one of the most popular crags in Yangshuo since it has easier routes as well as harder ones. As the name implies the rock is full of holes and was super fun to climb on! I managed to do two 5.8s, a 5.9, a 5.10 and then finally a 5.7 before my hands and arms couldn’t handle anymore. Song met me at the climbing spot and then took me to her studio which is under construction. She has an old house which she is fixing up to be a studio for woodworking. It’s in a small village near a great swimming spot. We got dinner at a spot called Demo which was a treat because there were delicious tacos and pizza!

Wednesday, December 28

In the morning I relocated to the Climber’s Inn. Gary said goodbye to me and gifted me a pomelo. I gifted him some ibuprofen and a covid antigen test. When I arrived at the Climber’s Inn the owner, Lily, recognized me right away! I had stayed at her hotel back in October 2019. She is a super cool lady from Hunan province who learned how to climb in Yangshuo and then opened her hotel geared towards climbers. I dropped my bags and she walked me a few blocks to a breakfast spot where I could try the local oil tea. I was a fan! Afterwards I caught a didi to Ruyi Peak where there is a cable car and glass bridge. The views from the cable car were lovely, but perhaps I’ve already seen so many beautiful views on this trip that the viewing platform wasn’t very impressive. I headed 10 minutes up the road to Moon Hill and was happy to be the only person around. I hiked up hundreds of stairs and got to one of the nicest arches I’ve ever seen. It’s a perfect hole in the rock. By this point in the afternoon I was starving, so I walked down the main road until I found some food. Lunch was a big yummy bowl of egg-fried rice. Across the street I saw Gold Water Cave and couldn’t resist going in. The cave is probably best visited in summer when you can soak in the mud pools inside, but this time of year they were bone dry. I was joined on the tour by a family from Dongbei (northeast China) who were on a roadtrip across the whole country. They’d been driving for two months and would keep going for several more. It was a married couple and the wife’s parents traveling together. The cave had some nice formations so I wasn’t completely disappointed by my visit. The weather was growing colder and potentially rainy so I made my way back into town on the back of a scooter. For dinner I was happy to find a Western restaurant near my hotel. There used to be lots of them when I was here in 2019, but many didn’t survive covid and a lot of the surviving restaurants are closed right now for the low season.

Thursday, December 29

Today was my big adventure! A caving trip with A Shui. He picked me up at 9:45am in his tiny little electric car covered in Kobe Bryant stickers. We were joined by two of his friends – Chen and another guy whose name I forget who’s an outdoor sports teacher from Guizhou! We drove north for 45 minutes and got to a large orange/pomelo orchard. After a short climb up a hill we were at the entrance of Devil’s Cave! The formations inside were absolutely gorgeous. They glittered in the light of our headlamps. I have long been obsessed with caves and I was so happy to be inside a wild one. We did a few small climbs along the route and three rappels and then before I knew it we were at the other end of the cave. Afterwards A Shui called a friend who prepared Yangshuo beer fish for lunch! We also had xiaomizhou (millet porridge) and some delicious homemade pickled daikon and carrot.

In the evening I got deep into an internet wormhole that began with a rewatching of the Caves episode of Planet Earth, included a stop at the Facebook page for the Chinese Cavefish Working Group and ended with this lovely documentary about caving in China.

Friday, December 30

I met my friends Song and Saman in the morning to climb. We were joined by Anna who also lives in Shanghai. Together we would do a multi-pitch climb up Low Mountain via L’Echo des Montagnes! As we walked to the base I told Song about my trip to Devil’s Cave. She told me that after she entered that cave for the first time she felt like she lost all desire to keep making art because she could never produce anything as beautiful as what nature had made in that cave. The approach was short and then we started climbing! Saman led us up the first pitch which was 5.8. The three of us were simul-climbing which is always a bit more nerve-wracking than being on a tight belay. After the first pitch I realized I was the weakest climber of the group and decided to go first up the rest of the pitches so I could have a better belay and not risk pulling anyone else down if I fell. The first pitch was a bit miserable because it was still pretty chilly outside and the rock was so cold I couldn’t feel my fingers at the end. The second pitch was super easy and a few parts we just walked up. By the end of this pitch the sun was out! Song led the third pitch which was also pretty nice and easy. As we got higher we got better and better views of the clear, blue river right below us, the Fall (?) colors on the trees and the karst peaks all around. I was so thrilled to be on my first multi-pitch climb in China and was of course thinking of my late Uncle John the whole time. The anchor for our final pitch was tiny and we mostly hung by our personal safety devises. Turns out the fourth pitch was the hardest! There was a bit of a hard move at the start of it which I fell off of twice. I felt a bit of pressure since there was another group behind us, but finally made it over on my third try. This spiky limestone rock was super rough on my fingers and they were very tired. The rest of the pitch was cruisy and then I was at the top! There was a metal box containing a register, some emergency food, and a QR code to scan for rappelling safety tips. We took some pictures together and enjoyed the sun and then did our first rappel. The anchor we arrived at had no ledge at all – all four of us had to clip into the chains hanging from the rock face. We all laughed at what a ridiculous situation we were in – hanging from the rock by only a jumble of cordelettes while we tried not to squish each other. I was lucky and rappelled first from the anchor since I was at the bottom of the pile. A minute later I was standing on solid ground! We walked through a cave tunnel that took us straight through the mountain and then emerged at our final rappel location. Once we got down I recognized this wall as the one I’d been climbing on back in October 2019. We spent some time on a very polished 10b route called My Dad’s Bigger than Your Dad. I made it up 1/3 of the way before I decided my arms were too tired. Everyone else made it up though! The light was absolutely gorgeous late in the day and the rock glowed a sort of orangey color.

Back at Climber’s Inn I met two new climber friends who were also heading out to dinner – Yu (an older software engineer who lives in Shenzhen) and Margaret (a PhD student from Shanghai who’s going to Georgia Tech). We had the most amazing meal! Guizhou beer fish, fried tofu with vegetables, and two other dishes I’d never had before. One was called 蓑衣蛋 or “souyidan” – souyi is a traditional type of straw coat from China and dan means egg. It was like sweet and sour fried eggs! Absolutely delicious. The other little treat we got was 拔丝芋头 which were little caramelized balls of taro and they were divine. The three of us talked mostly about climbing. Yu told us about famous ice climbing sites in China including this perfect Christmas tree-shaped formation in Henan which was the topic of a short documentary. He told us that ice climbing is so intriguing to him because the formations are different every year depending on the temperature and amount of water. I did ice climbing once with Uncle John (maybe twice?) but perhaps I’ll give it another try when I’m back home. Margaret told us about climbing in Georgia which I had never thought of as a place with climbing!

Saturday, December 31

In the morning I took a taxi to Wine Bottle to meet Song and others from the hostel. I made it (very slowly) up a 5.9 called Summit No. 1. Then I decided to try a 5.10a that Song had just led. I was about 10-15 feet above the ground when I slipped and fell. A totally normal occurrence in top-roping! However, this time I fell all the way to the ground and landed hard on a slab of rock. I was in an incredible amount of pain, but nobody at the crag seemed to think too much of my injury which seemed a bit strange to me. I had found the experience to be terrifying! I think there were a few factors that led to my fall. The rope was brand new so it was extra stretchy. Song had left the rope clipped into some of the draws which increased the amount of friction in the system. My belayer wasn’t super experienced and didn’t catch my fall as well as she could have. I was really so lucky that I was able to walk after this fall and learned a lot about how to prevent such accidents in the future. I had never really considered just how dangerous the start of a climb is when you’re still in the ground fall potential zone. I stayed around the crag a bit before I decided that I wasn’t going to be climbing anything else this day. I headed back to the hotel and got into bed. The hotel owner brought me some ice and in the evening they prepared some dumplings for me.

Sunday, January 1

In the morning I made a short journey to a nearby spot for noodles. I heard fireworks and music coming from a tent set up across the street from my hotel. I initially thought it was a New Year Celebration, but then realized it was a funeral taking place. An old man in town had passed away according to Lilly. His casket was on display – decorated with colorful paper and a bird on top, very similar to the one in this photo. People came by all day to make offerings and a four-person band played loud music throughout the day to keep evil spirits away. It made an interesting soundscape to my day in bed.

In the afternoon I hobbled over to Cavers Caving Club. I met a woman named Laura who runs it and she pulled some English-language cave literature for me and made me some tea! She was so sweet. She showed me pictures of a cave centipede species she discovered yesterday. She’s very interested in cave bugs and also cave pearls. She told me about camping in caves – once she stayed for an entire week in a cave and she said it was wonderful, she slept so well. Yanghsuo has over 3000 caves she told me, and many of the old men who are the only ones who know the locations of the cave entrances are dying without that knowledge being passed on. She works on surveying new caves as well and showed me the phone app she uses to collect data about the size of a cave and create maps. I had a lovely time learning from Laura about caves! I’m excited to learn more about caving when I’m back in the US later this year.

Monday, January 2

Back to Shanghai!