桂林行之一

So, where in China is Guilin? Guilin is located in the province of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (广西壮族自治区 ), south-west of China. Guilin is famous for its natural sceneries of rivers, hills and mountains. There’s a saying in Chinese: 桂林山水甲天下 (the scenery of Guilin is ranked top in the whole China). Guilin has its name from the tree of the Gui flower (桂华树). Apparently, Guilin is full of this kind of trees. When the trees are fully blossomed, it creates a magnificent view similar to a sea full of the Gui flowers, therefore the name 桂林，meaning forest of Gui flowers （桂花成林）. But during my visit, the flowers were a little bit behind the blossoming schedule (according to our Chinese tour guide, it’s the weather), so unfortunately I didn’t have the chance to experience the flowery city view.

Well, to minimize the disappointment, we were treated to other kinds of Gui flower products. You have:

Roasted duck meat with Gui flower (my favourite!)

Stewed pork with Gui flower

Tea with Gui flower

Apart from that, you even have Gui flower brand toilet paper…

The first question I got asked after I came back from Guilin was “Is it fun?” There is no definite answer to this question so I am going to write a few entries on my experience visiting Guilin. To cut the story short, a walk in the streets of Guilin while observing the local people and their lifestyles give me a fresh perspective on how China really is.

I visited Beijing last year. Even though Guilin and Beijing are Chinese cities, the people, language, weather, food and culture varies. Guilin people (those I’ve met) are friendlier, and politer than people of Beijing. And it’s easier for me (as a Malaysian Chinese) to understand their Mandarin. At some points, walking in Guilin streets reminds me of Taipei.

Personally I think two important factors decide if the trip is going to be an enjoying one: the local Chinese tour guide and the weather. The weather was not my side during my trip; it rained heavily during my first two days at Guilin and the temperature dropped to a low 15 Celsius degree. Photo taking was hard (no sunlight and with an umbrella on one of my hands), everywhere we went it was crowded with tourists (and umbrellas), making the already crowded places more crowded.

Ok, so how about the local tour guide? Our local tour guide was a woman in her 30s (I think). She is from Guilin and I always imagined that the whole tour group was like a flock of sheep. Everywhere we go we were ushered and constantly reminded to keep up the with the pace; I still feel like it would be better if she could give us a little bit more freedom to walk around the places for photo taking.

One good thing about joining a tour group is you won’t have to trouble yourself with the arrangements of accommodation and transportation. But, you’ll need to bear with the boringness of visiting the local “sponsoring shops”. According to the tour guide, these shops sponsored part of the tour costs so every tour group must visit these shops for at least 40 minutes (in other words, you are being locked up in it for 40 minutes). So what are these shops? Well you have:


Shop that sells silk blankets (they demostrate the production process)…

Shop that sells Chinese tea (they provide free PuEr tea sips)…

Even knives and kitchen utensils (the manufacturer was actually producing weapons for the Chinese armies before this, so it’s like using a Rambo knife to cut vegetables and steaks)

Young salesman: "Let's buy a knife and cut paper with it, scissors are for sissys!!"

Chinese medicines (the woman is a professor)...

And of course, pearls!

So it’s fun if you have some extra money with you and are visiting these shops for the first time, you could even learn a few things and get to talk to the locals.

to be continued…

Coffee or Tea?

I don’t know about other boys and girls who are in their 20s, but I’ve developed an interest and liking to Chinese Tea (中国茶).

There are several explanations on how tea was introduced to the Chinese. According to one of the more interesting belief, tea was discovered by Shennong (神农氏). Before I tell you how he discovered tea, let me tell you a little bit more about Shennong.

Shennong was a tribal leader back in China 5,000 years ago. According to legend, one of his greatest contributions was teaching mankind how to use herbs as medicine. Before he understand the herbs, Shennong needs to identify the herbs properties (e.g. healing properties, poisonous or not… etc). It is said that Shennong has a transparent stomach and used himself as the experiment subject. He would take a sample of the herbs and consume it, and observe through his transparent stomach on how his body would react. He tried so many herbs, including poisonous ones and survived.

One day, Shennong tried another herb under a tree and this time, he’s not so lucky. The poison took effect and looked like Shennong is losing his life slowly; he leaned against the tree and sat down slowly. Suddenly a leaf fall from the tree and dropped into his bottle (or maybe tea cup), he drank the water with the leaf inside and a miracle happened, he was cured! From that day on, Shennong will bring some tea leafs as antidotes with him during his “field trip”. He also gave a meaningful name to the leaf, he called it “茶”. In Chinese, “茶” is pronounced the same as “查”; meaning “check” or “investigate” in English. Apparently, Shennong is using tea as a drink to clear out the poison in his body after consuming poisonous herbs; thus as a helpful tool to check the properties of the herbs.

This is an artist impression of the great Shennong. By 吴承砚, Ching dynasty.

After spending a couple of years in Buffalo, New York, coffee has always been my preferred drink (Ohh good old Folgers! My record was having 7 cups of coffee at International House of Pancakes at 2a.m. with my buddy).

Maybe I’ve grown old and started to worry about things that I put into my mouth. My personal view is that coffee is good, but tea is just better (for the fun of it or the healthy properties).

Take a visit to your nearest Chinese Tea store and ask for some free sips, you might be surprised by what you experience.


茶者南方之嘉木也 -- 《茶经》 陆羽