Bike ride with friends, Beijing – Imogen Nov14
北京2014主办了APEC峰会，这个消息一发表就突然点燃了首都人民的热情。据报道，这届峰会是中国自2008年奥运会以来最大的国际盛事。因此，预备阶段忙忙碌碌，首都都要准备外国宾客的到来。其中最重大的措施是安排一周的公众假期，暂停所有的工业、车辆并其他污染性的物质。假期之间不赔钱的人觉得幸运的是APEC是没想到的旅游机会。那一周目的地是减少北京雾霾，为了峰会创造一片蓝天。因此，新的网络词汇以出现了，就叫“APEC蓝”，引申义为形容事物短暂易逝，不真实的美好，中国年轻人常用。“他对你没有感兴趣，这就是APEC蓝”这个词汇几周前在微信（中国最流行即时通信的APP）上出现了。
桂林与阳朔都坐落于中国南方广西省的漓江地区。桂林这个市名意思由于桂林一直都有很多桂花树，所以桂林市的市名是因为这里种植了很多的桂花树。这个地区可算是顶级的旅游景点之一，以喀斯特地貌的山地、壮丽的美景、水稻栽培而闻名。俗话说：“桂林山水甲于天下”。我们乘船游览漓江，过去乘客乘竹筏，现在乘电动的小艇。绕过一个拐弯处时，二十元背面的桂林山水在我们的眼前出现，漓江水里映出了背面的森林覆盖的山。
此天我们骑自行车进入了乡村，陪我们是刚认识的新朋友，昨天晚上我们一起吃过了阳朔著名的啤酒鱼。我们骑了12公里的乡村小路，穿过水牛、稻田、农村里玩耍的孩子，多雾的山顶。相比之下，农村的生活很缓慢，偶尔能听到女人带水牛去河边喝水的声音，或者骑车的游客互相叫喊。
Imogen Page-Jarrett – river cruise Guangxi Province (Nov 2014)
我们下一站是国家公园龙脊梯田。一层层从山脚盘绕到山顶，层层叠叠，高低错落。其线条行云流水。春来，水满田畴；夏至，佳禾吐翠；金秋，稻穗沉甸；隆冬，雪兆丰年。梯田自650年就存在。据说是因为山脉恰似神龙之脊背而得名。穿过梯田爬到我们要住的农村很累人。住宅都是用木做的、像别墅似的楼，住民包括瑶族和其他种地的小民族。太阳金光照亮了风景。
在我们20个小时回到北京火车的小上铺躺着，我们想念我们遇到的当地小吃、著名的景点，本地小民族‘新朋友。在中国旅游一周，肯定会游得远。
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
When Beijing was granted the 2014 APEC meeting, there was a sudden fervour in the capital. The event has been named China’s most prestigious international event since the Beijing Olympics. Accordingly, in the run up the whole city was made busy preparing for the arrival of foreign guests. One of the most drastic of these was granting the entire capital a public holiday, calling all industry, business, traffic and other polluting elements to a sudden halt. Happily for those of us not losing money during this period however, APEC granted us an unexpected opportunity to travel. The one week November holiday was in aid of reducing the Beijing smog and creating blue skies for the meeting. Thus a new internet term has appeared called “APEC blue”, used by China’s young teens to describe a beautiful thing, which is really only temporary and not genuine. “He’s not really into you, it’s just an APEC blue” appeared on Wechat (China’s most popular instant messaging app) a few weeks ago.
Guilin and Yangshuo are situated on the Li River in Guangxi Province, South China. The name Guilin means “Forest of Sweet Osmanthus”, due to the large number of the fragrant trees growing in the city. The area is one of China’s top tourist destinations, famed for its karst topography of breathtaking mountains and rice growing culture. There is a saying which goes: “East or West, Guilin’s scenery is best”. We took the river cruise, which used to be on bamboo rafts, now powered by electric dingies in their form; as we turned a bend, the tableau which features on the twenty Yuan note appeared before our eyes; the breath of the Li river reflecting the sharp forested peaks backing it.
The next day we set off into the countryside with our new Chinese friends who we had eaten famous Yangshuo beer-fish with the previous night. We traversed 12 kilometres of country roads, passing by water buffalo, rice paddies filled with ducks, rural villages with children playing in the streets and mist enveloped mountains. Village life compared with Beijing was lazy, interspersed with the sound of women taking the buffalo down to the river for water, or groups of bikers calling out to one another.
Our next stop on from Yangshuo was the National Park of Longji, home of China’s rice terraces. The terraced fields are built up the mountain slopes winding upwards from the foot to the peak of the mountains. In spring the terraces are covered in water, summer green rice shoots, rice in fall and ice in winter. They have been in existence for about 650 years. Longji means dragon’s backbone, owing to the back the terraces look like a dragon’s scales, and the mountain range looks like a dragon’s backbone. It was a tiring trek through up terraces up to the village we were staying in. The residences were all wooden chalet looking buildings, inhabited by large numbers of Yao and other minorities who farmed the land. The sun on the autumn terraces covered the landscape in a golden glow.
Lying on the small top bunk of our 20 hour sleeper train home, we reminisced about the local delicacies, the renowned scenery, the local people and new friends we had found. A weeks travel in China can certainly get you far.
Terraced fields Yangshuo, National Park of Longji – Imogen, November 2014