May 1 was Labor Day in China, as it apparently is in most of the world. Most schools in China closed for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. However they had school on Sunday to make up for the missed Friday. But not the primary school in DuTou. The teachers of DuTou took an extended holiday to travel. We left Wednesday after classes and did not return to school until Tuesday. For five days we, fourteen teachers, traveled south. Only one or two had ever been as far south as Nanning, the capital of Guangxi. None had been to the Vietnam border.

I had forgotten how crazy train stations are in China. Here we are in the Guilin station waiting for the train to Nanning. There are no trains through our part of Guangxi, so Wednesday after school we took the bus to Guilin where we spent the night. Bright and early we left the hotel, stopped for a bowl of Guilin mi fen (noodles) and were in this packed room at the station by 8:00.

For most of the teachers, the train ride to Nanning was four and a half hours of card playing. I occupied myself with reading and looking out the window.

As soon as we arrived in Nanning, two of the teachers went to find a hotel. Miss Huang was my roommate throughout the trip. She knows a bit of English and is encouraging of my feeble attempts in Chinese. Our hotel room always included a bathroom with a shower, towels, soaps, toothbrushes and toothpaste, an electric pot to heat water and tea and cups. I was impressed and perhaps a bit surprised. I hadn't known what to expect.

We spent the afternoon in Nanning at the People’s Park. Here three of the teachers pose in front of a clipped hedge with an English message. I took nearly100 photos on this trip. Most of them of teachers in front of something! I was considered the official photographer even though there were two or three other cameras and a cell phone taking pictures too.

That evening we walked along the river enjoying the Nanning skyline and the riverfront park. I was impressed by the amount of construction in the city. And the riverfront was beautifully developed. It reminded me in a grander way of Ankang’s riverfront walk.

Friday morning we caught a train to Pingxiang, a town near the border of Vietnam. A quick taxi ride had us at the border where we then spent several hours.

There were pictures to take.

And there was a climb to make. I have to admit I didn’t complete the climb. My backpack was too heavy. The steps were too steep. They were going too fast. It was too hot. I had a million excuses. The simple truth is I made it about half way, looked at the next set of steep steps in the hot sun, turned around and joined those who were enjoying the scenery at the Immigration check point.


Next it was into a van and on to the next border town where we again peered across into Vietnam but were not allowed to take pictures.

Later we caught a bus and traveled through some gorgeous countryside. We were into the hills and traveling steep windy roads. We gawked out the windows at the valleys below as we held our breath. It was spectacular. We were on the road to Detian where we visited a river that is half in China(left) and half in Vietnam(right).

The river led us to this waterfall which is also half in Vietnam and half in China. I was never sure how it happened but four of our teachers ended up across the river in Vietnam riding along on motorcycles and then crossing back into China on a boat like you see in this picture. It was all very clandestine. I know none of us had visas for Vietnam. I also know I was the only one with a passport.

Sunday we were back in Nanning. Some of us visited a park, some went shopping. Two separated from the group to go directly on home. Later that afternoon I was back at the hotel when it started to rain. It was a tremendous downpour that lasted about an hour. Water backed up on the street. But by dinner time it was dry again.


Our five days of travel included three meals a day; five nights in hotels; transportation by train, bus, van and taxi; entrance fees at several parks and various other small fees. When we totaled up the expenses we had spent 640Y a person…less than $100 for the five days. I’ll toast to that!