We've just returned from an amazing trip to Guilin/Yangshuo/Longji, China and I wish I had the time to blog about all of the fun and adventures we had over our 11 days. Highly recommend. We forgot how much we love being outside, exploring and biking/hiking...which we did every day over the holiday. Since Xmas/New Year are not traditional Chinese holidays, and it is the middle of winter, there were little to no tourists and we basically had all of the trails, mountains, rivers, and rice terraces to ourselves. A typical day consisted of being mostly outside and only coming in to eat or sleep...it really made us miss living in a place like Colorado where you can be active and outdoors all year 'round.
We felt like time travelers, in more ways than one. First, since we traveled south, the weather was somewhat warmer (in the 40's-50's) so we experienced some autumn-like weather and scenery. I loved the colors in the leaves falling as we hiked around. It always seems like the fall season comes and goes so quickly wherever we live and that I miss the colors changing. So this was a perfect step back in time to sit back, relax and enjoy the refreshing, crisp fall air and natural beauty.
During our favorite part of the trip we also seemed to travel back in time to days when life was more simple, technology was limited and self-sustainability is key. Upon arriving in the Longji Rice Terraces, we were dropped by the bus at a gate surrounded by 70-something year old ladies in traditional dress, offering to porter your bags through the hillside on their backs. We threw our packs on, politely declined the offer, and viewed another Chinese couple pay one of the ayis ("aunti") to carry their luggage and 3 year old daughter in her bamboo basket. We were told there was no road, only a footpath to get further into the villages among the rice terraces. So we hiked in, up green-ish stones, around enormous rice terraces, through the mist of the winter fog. And 45 minutes later, we reached our village and a place to stay...a wooden guesthouse, kind of built like a reverse rice terrace...smaller on bottom and each floor above getting gradually wider. It was built in a traditional method, using only wooden pegs to join the lumber, no nails or screws in the foundational structure of the building.We checked in for about $12/night and headed up the creaky stairs to our room, which had large, traditional wooden windows looking out onto the rice terraces...breath-taking. Since peak season is in the warmer months, and everything was pretty traditional here there was no insulation in the building. We found a hole in the wooden wall that had been repaired with a piece of duct tape...all that separated us from the great outdoors :) 
Needless to say, after some hikes in the now winter-like weather (we had snow flurries and ice one day), it didn't take us long to find the "xiao kou" or small fire/grill in the family's kitchen. So we would sit around the open fire in the corner of their kitchen with the Chinese family that lived there...adding wood, peeling garlic, practicing our Mandarin, and eating...as we dethawed from a hike or passed the evening hours when it was dark and you couldn't go anywhere. This, I think, was my favorite part of the trip. We really felt like a part of their family in that kitchen and they welcomed us as such. We had a taste of real life in the countryside as we shared time with them...and during this time of year, it was lived around the fire...source of heat and food. 
We saw and appreciated the time and effort of preparing a meal in a place where a 45 minute uphill hike on foot was necessary to get anything from outside of the small village. They picked their dinner from the garden in their backyard and slaughtered the chicken walking around the front door. During the days, clothes were mended and new designs sewn on them...at night, meals cooked and stories told...all around the fire. Erich and I would hike around the countryside all day until our toes or fingers were numb, then knock on a wooden door and ask to come in to a random stranger's home to sit around the fire and warm up...and they were all so happy to share the warmth they could provide along with tea or snacks and broken conversation. The simplicity of it all was alluring to us. Part of me thinks that had we gone here first rather than last on our trip, we might've stayed the whole time there. 
Needless to say, after some hikes in the now winter-like weather (we had snow flurries and ice one day), it didn't take us long to find the "xiao kou" or small fire/grill in the family's kitchen. So we would sit around the open fire in the corner of their kitchen with the Chinese family that lived there...adding wood, peeling garlic, practicing our Mandarin, and eating...as we dethawed from a hike or passed the evening hours when it was dark and you couldn't go anywhere. This, I think, was my favorite part of the trip. We really felt like a part of their family in that kitchen and they welcomed us as such. We had a taste of real life in the countryside as we shared time with them...and during this time of year, it was lived around the fire...source of heat and food. We saw and appreciated the time and effort of preparing a meal in a place where a 45 minute uphill hike on foot was necessary to get anything from outside of the small village. They picked their dinner from the garden in their backyard and slaughtered the chicken walking around the front door. During the days, clothes were mended and new designs sewn on them...at night, meals cooked and stories told...all around the fire. Erich and I would hike around the countryside all day until our toes or fingers were numb, then knock on a wooden door and ask to come in to a random stranger's home to sit around the fire and warm up...and they were all so happy to share the warmth they could provide along with tea or snacks and broken conversation. The simplicity of it all was alluring to us. Part of me thinks that had we gone here first rather than last on our trip, we might've stayed the whole time there. 
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