64. CHINA III - Nanjing to Guilin

Visited provinces in this post

My third visit to China and I feel that the more often you come to China & the more you see, the more you wanna explore it in the future. China is just so unique, fun to explore, still kind of isolated and it was just so exciting to see new unknown things around the next corner. In some countries, you just need to go on a walk in a random middle-sized city (middle-sized is 3 Mios in China :D) and you will be entertained and confronted with interesting situations all day.

Before flying to China I had a very long travel break in Germany this time. I stayed for 2 months, celebrated my 30th birthday in Poland, enjoyed my time with family & friends so much and had time to manage a few things before heading back to Asia.

My first stop in China was Nanjing again, where I gave back a few things I borrowed and something had to be taken care of. I explored more of the beautiful city, this time in ice-cold winter at around 0 degrees, for 6 more days, extended my knowledge about Chinese cuisine and visited some art galleries & museums.

Afterward, I traveled to the autonomous region of Guangxi. During my time in China I spent nearly every day in big cities and urban areas. This time I had finally the chance to explore national parks, the countryside and tiny villages. I based myself in Guilin, a quite beautiful town surrounded by stunning karst terrain, limestone mountains and forests. It was really cold in January, but a sunny day with 13 degrees and no clouds in the sky was awesome for traveling around.

I rented myself an electric motorbike for a few days and did a lot of day trips in the province. Some of them planned to several tourist highlights (Longsheng, Yangshuo, rice terraces or national parks) and others randomly just cruised from village to village having breaks on the way in the beautiful scenery.

This was a completely different experience of China again: Calm small towns & villages, relaxing crystal clear rivers, fishermen doing their job on the river, farmers working in their fields, kids playing around at the central square of a village and a lot of interesting plants & birds. No ultra-modern infrastructure & subway systems, high-end shopping malls, skylines or people rushing to their office jobs.

15 days in China passed super fast and after an extended police interview in a negotiation room in the airport of Guilin, I was about to fly into a new modified chapter of my trip & life. New plans for China are already in the making too.

CHINA I - Beijing to Guangzhou

CHINA II - Shanghai to Xiamen

3 Highlights:

- Nanjing in cold winter and exploring its art galleries and coffee shops

- Guilin with beautiful scenic spots, interesting food and a nice town center

- The villages and countryside of Guangxi, very unique landscapes & beautiful river sceneries

Visited places in China

Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, 1st of Jan 2025

Quick working session before flying back to China

Flight to Nanjing with a transit in Guangzhou

A game for kids in Nanjing

Capybara hype all around Eastern Asia

China , one of the very few countries where I love food from shopping malls

First Panda I spotted

Luosiefen, a very smelly but super delicious dish famous in Guilin. Made from river snails and pork bones

Center of Guilin

Many Chinese people absolutely love this kind of kitsch

Streets of Guilin

On a night market

Listen, I experienced A LOT of heavy snorers during the last years. But this Korean uncle on the left who stayed in my dorm, was by faaar the loudest chainsaw I have ever heard in my life. After 2 nights they kicked him out of the hostel because people from the next building complained! :D Jerr from Shenzhen on the right had a sleepless night too