The five-day trip to Guangxi province in the southeastern part of China was thrilling, educating, entertaining and most importantly a daring adventure for most us students who benefited from the trip. There is nothing more one could desire from a fantastic trip than enjoying bamboo rafting, cruising on a first class luxurious boat, moving under a 1500m cave, enjoying boat ride on the swallow lake among others.
On my part, I captured a lot of fascinating facts about the Guangxi Provinces relating to their culture, important scenic centers, ethnic minority groups among others and hence I take this opportunity to share some of the knowledge I have acquired from this trip.
What I learnt along the way.
QINGXIU MOUNTAIN AND SCENIC SPOT
This was our first point of call after landing in the city of Nanning (sometimes known as the rich city). This scenic center is a modern one and its interlaced with first class roads to help covey visitors around.
It has more 2000 different species of tree and with oldest tree in china called the LON LIN LAN TREE which is about 1800 yrs.’ old.
LESSON: Taking care of nature is one surest way of preserving our cultural heritage for future generation. Someone took care of the same tree for more than 1000 years and It’s now a source of tourist attraction.
Hun fun at The Cycad Garden of The Qinxiu Mountain Scenic Spot.
The Lon Lin Lan Tree which is the oldest tree in China and it's more than 1800 years old.
GUANYIN TEMPLE
Just like every place of worship, the atmosphere in this temple looks quite serene with those around to worship sending a clear signal that time to worship is not time to play. You can hardly even get an eye contact with any of the attendees as they are focused just on what they are doing. You are allowed to make wish at the entrance before you are asked in to perform the various rounds of worship.
LONG XIANG TOWER
The name of this tower means dragons and elephants tower, it was built during the Ming dynasty and was destroyed by the Japanese during WW2 and rebuilt again by the Chinese government and today it’s a major tourist attraction center.
LESSON: It was destroyed by the Japanese and instead of being left, it was rebuilt and its now earning the government income through tourism. Tenacity is the key.
A picture of Long Xiang Tower.
GUANGXI METEOROLOGICAL BUREAU
FACTS GATHERED ABOUT THE BUREAU
•It has more than 2500 automatic weather stations.
•A total of 10 radars in the province.
•Satellite data available every 30 minutes and 50 minutes.
•The forecasting skill for the bureau is at 81% (very high forecasting skill).
•It also uses the Chinese forecasting model called grapes for forecasting.
•It has center for prediction of heat waves.
•It has 30 centers for monitoring negative oxygen index among others.
At the station we also had the opportunity of experiencing how weather presentation is carried out and it was all fun seeing how it was done and having such experience.
At The Guangxi Meteorological Bureau.
GUILIN CITY
SOME QUICK FACTS
Guilin means the forest of Osmenthus which is a kind of flower very popular in the town and has a lot of uses including medicines and perfumes.
The city has very beautiful landscapes around the city earning it the accolade, EAST OR WEST GUILIN’S LANDSCAPE IS THE BEST. The Zhuang ethnic people are the Majority of the four ethic groups in the city. It has lots of scenic spots with a booming tourism industry.
MIA ZI LAKE
At this lake we enjoyed a boat ride to the opposite end of the lake. During our ride the boat occasionally stops at a place where beautiful young ladies are made to sing to us some traditional songs.
We saw the machine used for an embroidery and also the chicken of good luck where you can drop some coins and if it falls into a bowl placed on the kitchen, then it’s a sign of good luck. We are tried but only two succeeded.
A display of machine used by some local minorities for embroidery.
I also learned about how they hang maize and other harvest in front of their buildings to indicate that they are praying for good harvest the following season.
At this place we also saw some women with very long hair and one of the broke the Guinness world record. Some of their usually are about 2.7m tall.
LOGJIA RICE TERRACE
This terrace is located in mountainous region of Guilin and the inhabitants have managed to convert the mountains into beautify rice terrace and now not only they benefited from what they sow and harvest but they are as well benefiting from tourism. We hiked on this mountain and I dare say only the fittest survived as some failed to make it to the summit.
LI RIVER CRUISING
We enjoyed cruising on a luxury boat for about three hours. During around cruise we had the opportunity of seeing the mountainous scene used on the 20 rmb currency among others.
We again enjoyed bamboo rafting Yulong River.
LESSON: the bamboo rafting is the real evidence of using very simple technology to generate income while sat the same time creating employment. It simple to construct and because its natural, most enjoy using it very much.
20 RMB note mountain image capture during River Li boat cruise.
Some of my friends enjoying Bamboo Rafting.
THE CAVE
It’s an impressive natural cave which has been well designed to help boost tourism with exciting lightning system as well. History has it that it was the settlement place of ancient Chinese prior to the discovery of building technology. It’s about 1500m long has a lot of interesting designs in it including the snow mountain among others.
Inside the 1500m Long Cave. Exquisit to say the least.
The food in the above picture wrapped in a green leave is called The Rice Cake. It's made from rice, sticky but very delicious.
Authors: Mustapha Adamu
Source Pictures: Mustapha Adamu
Reviewer: Isaac Kwesi Nooni
Editor: Ayu Kusumaningtyas
