Quick update today. We left Chengdu mid day today (low key am) and flew to our last stop Guilin, driving to Yangshuo. Not having acquainted myself with the geography of this last stop, I didn’t realize how close we were to Vietnam. This area is an autonomous region of China and is culturally much closer to Vietnam (local dialect is nearly fully intelligible and similar appearance to Vietnamese).
Our Flight
We drove to Yangshuo and a small town area for a fan making class. S loved the cows in the street and the painter LOVED William – we’ll just leave that there 😉
And we are staying at an eco resort- the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat. It’s absolutely gorgeous and the setting is reminiscent of Halong bay.
We woke up to head to Chengdu this morning / another high speed rail, straightforward trip. Today was one of those days where we needed to take it easy and chill for more time than not, to recharge (the boys.. and maybe us too) for the rest of the trip. Highlights from chill (pamper) time 😉
First / yay for leaving THIS weather
They wanted to pose with S in the Chengdu train station.
They love nutcrackers as much as we (I) do:
Kids checkin
After an awesome lunch at a low key local spot (more duck, shrimp and sweet potato noodles), we experienced a city “play area” contingent to a small market (they look like rubber chickens, but they are not!).
We then visited the local “people’s park” where we all had lotttts of fun with bubbles and other kids.
This was funny phenomenon to witness / modern day matchmaking / only for the parents, apparently they are courting other parents to meet and ultimately hope their kids are willing to meet:
These men gave shepherd sunflower seeds and asked for ppl to be kind to the Chinese ppl / esp Mr. Trump 😉
We are (not) roughing it – ha! (and yes, sometimes need some home comforts — after lots of unfamiliar foods eaten, this felt deserved.
Starting to write this and not sure if it’s going to be a quick one (bit tired) or longer (lots to share ;). Figured at this point you all might wonder if we didn’t have an evening update so here goes. We woke up very early to catch a 6:30 am high speed train to Xian. Great way to travel and easy to cover a lot of distance (300km/hr).
Boys cuddling in their train seats
Getting off the train, we were heading in an elevator with a gentleman who appeared to be a conductor. Shepherd joyfully says “Hello”. And he isn’t quite sure how to respond, pats S’s head and says “you are beautiful”. We all got a few laughs out of that.
We visited a local mall for a quick lunch / new meaning to “make your own bowl” style place (mao tai)
The veggie section. The meat section was… “ripe”
Visited an interesting seafood market with massive crabs and sea worms:
We then visited the Tanbo art museum and practiced calligraphy. On our way out, Shepherd said he needed to “go tell the man something.” He runs back out a minute later and we ask what he said. He apparently told him “you really need to dust that piece of art”
Then, the highlight of the trip so far/ a food tour of the Muslim night market! We first walked down the main strip with our new tour guide, “Olivia.”
And then met our guide for the night, Jessie. She was so great and runs the Xi’an lost plate food tour via tuktuk.
We started on little Leather road and the famous but teensy tiny bian bian noodle place. The noodles are named for this loud sound made when they are being prepared:
We then headed to Little study alley named for 1400 yrs as a local education hub. The boys tried plum juice (🤷♀️) but all loved the cumin grilled tenderloin. The place is only open four hours a day and only if fresh meat is available from the butcher. According to the boys “this is better than longhorn (phew!)”
Last two spots:
Tomato and egg drop soup – very sour!
Soup dumplings with beef, anise + cinnamon
Congee with Nuts, sunflower seeds, lily flower root
Sesame noodles (one plate with chile paste and the other without)
And a traditional Han restaurant – loved the grated carrot and ginger salad.
Colledge Adventures 