CHINA. Ethnic Region

YUNNAN. "South of the clouds."

Hallucinate seeing colorful costumes, dances, hairstyles, beautiful wooden houses. This region contains such a variety of ethnicities and customs that make learning more and more of China and you.

We trek the Tiger Leaping Gorge , tired but very rewarding. 3 days of walking to see high mountains (over5000 meters), Terraced fields, vertical drops to the river, and some tourist assemblies. Foreigners are the Paton, the Chinese only go to certain sites and rent donkeys or porters hired to not walk.

Another area that we liked, despite the rain did not let us enjoy the most, it was Red Land. It is very isolated and transport is limited (we had a hard time understanding us to catch the bus), but there are good hotels because is visited by Asian photographers. We were recommended by a Chinese girl. It is a land of colorful cultures of various colors, a landscape of rolling hills, beautiful.

 

GUIZHOU AND GUANGXI REGIONS

This is another China, the rural poor. However, they are good living conditions for farmers, decent housing, schools for children, and now tourism receipts do not know if tomorrow will be better. We would not miss the essence ethnic customs, costumes, but you never know tourism.

Despite being one of the 5 poorest regions of China, it shows a lot of movement and investment, all cities growing at breakneck speed.

The exception we saw yesterday, in a village just 40 kmthe tourist city, and the gap was of many years, especially at the level of sanitation (smelled really bad), the poorly maintained road, we had to wait half an hour to catch the bus (first time in China) and another bus time, with benches. That if people just behind the advance work on the train viaducts and tunnels. It seems that the people have some debt to Beijing or the PC.

We were touring the spine of the dragon (Longji) in the northern province of Guanxi. Here all names are poetic, but little poetry, and if a lot of water.

We toured the rice terraces in China's most famous, a true work of art and agricultural engineering and hydraulics, the result of centuries of work by farmers. That if, with a ubiquitous fog in the hills.

Now we are in Yangshuo , Li River with wooded hills and sugar or bread (type Mekong). It hiperturístico. Some foreigners and even speak some Spanish in the stores (the first time in China). But above all there are thousands of Chinese who come to take pictures and spend. Hundreds of hotels, restaurants, shops and more shops. And dozens of attractions to be entertained and spend: c ew with water and mud bath, bamboo raft rides to throw water, cruise, show dance, temples rebuilt and what it takes. At night, a crowd filled the main shopping street and bustling nightclubs will not let us sleep late.

We went 2 days to go and rice crops (daily rental of the bike cost us 1 euro for the two, something old but good), with hundreds of Chinese tourists (although they are not run through the narrow roads like us) . 

 

Lijiang has an old historic town with curved streets and canals. That if, full of Chinese tourists. The village as they like: every little job, clean, like many stores, restaurants.