Transition Day

Today was mostly a travel day, so I'll talk a little bit about logistics.

After I landed at Guilin airport, I've traveled everywhere by bus, which seems to be the primary way to get around. Each city has a central bus stop (or two), and buses leave every 30 minutes or so to neighboring cities. Between bigger cities like Guilin and Longsheng, there are coach sized buses; mini-buses shuttle between smaller towns. The buses I've been on have been fairly clean (except this morning, when a few people got car sick as we were winding around mountain roads).

Today, I left Ping An and transited at Longsheng. I spent some time walking around a market close to the Longsheng bus station; they sold the usual meats and vegetables, plus some other interesting stuff like ... dried rat. (I took some pics of the vendors, including the pic above, who were not camera shy at all; at one point, a guy came up to me and asked if I was photographing and investigating the sale of protected animals -- he said that there are people hunting and selling wild boars but they're not supposed to.)

From Longsheng, I caught a mini-bus to Sanjiang -- this is the bus station (pic), the mini-bus (pic) and the driver (pic). And from Sanjiang I took another mini-bus to Chengyang, where I'm spending the night.

I've been staying at hotels that run between CNY80 to CNY140 (about US$10 to $20). They've all been basic but clean, with heat and hot water, and with seated (as opposed to squat) toilets. I like toileting while seated, and am willing to spend a few extra renminbi that! If you pay less, around CNY40 (US$6), you get a room with no heat and shared bathrooms.

Here in Chengyang, I'm staying with a village family -- they take in visitors that come to the village. For CNY40 (US$6), I get a room without heat, a shared bathroom (with the family), and a home cooked meal.

Ok, off to take a walk around Chengyang.