China Day 4: Guilin, Caves, Drunk Panda

1) Guilin is extremely pretty. Lot of Crouching Tiger-type scenery on hand here. Oddly-shaped limestone mountains popping up in unexpected locations.

2) Seven Star Park has exquisite landscaping and a large collection of caves. Walked through Seven Star Cave, expecting to walk through a short, narrow tunnel. Um, no. The cave is a series of increasingly enormous chambers, with anthropomorphic stalagtites and stalagmites everywhere. The Chinese have insisted on lighting the caves like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which only adds to the creepy atmosphere.

3) While wandering around Seven Star Park, we came across a residential area(!) and a woman washing her puppy in a bucket with a hose. Considering that the temperature was a humid ninety degrees, the dog looked perfectly happy.

4) Afterwards, we found the zoo, which was depressing. Lots of prison-cell cages and poorly maintained facilities. The lone panda was kept in holding cell, as if he had been arrested for DUI and had been thrown in the slammer to sleep it off. The red pandas were perhaps the only animals in the place that looked content; happy to be eating bamboo and drinking milk.

5) Speaking of animals in cages, you often find them outside the restaurants on Nanhuan Lu. Someone asked the purpose of this unusual form of decoration, and I informed them, "It's so you can pick the animal you want the restaurant to kill and prepare." Most of the creatures were seafood, but one restaurant had cages filled with some sort of rabbit/guinea pig combination that to my eye, did not look particularly tasty.

6) We ended up eating at a Sichuan restrauant named Yiyuan Fandian on Nanhuan. Sichuan cuisine is known for being spicy, but I was still floored by the sight of a gigantic bowl of chili pepppers (with bits of chicken buried deep beneath) arriving at our table. Then came the shuizhu niurou (tender beef slices and vegetables in a chili sauce), and the dandan mian (noodles in spicy peanut sauce) - neither was more merciful. Thank goodness for the tangcu cuipi yu (crispy sweet-and-sour fish), which had a delicate texture and perfectly balanced sweetness.