Found it

And just after that little rant, we finally found exactly the China we were looing for.

As I am typing this we are sitting having breakfast in a lovely little hostel in a countryside village (yes a village - with almost no people - the first place we've been with less than 1'000'000 inhabitants). There are chickens, roosters and dogs running around my feet fighting for scraps, we can hear crickets and birds in the woods just outside and there is one of the trademark karst mountains that the Guilin region are famous for withing arms reach...

We are feeling the energy returning. This is exactly what we came here for, and the next few days we'll be doing a day trip or two into the countryside, look out for loads of pictures :).

And there are some more coming as well - yesterday we went to the Lijiang rice fields which is a huge area of terraced rice fields on the tops of hills/mountains a few hours north of Guilin.

The day started with a visit to a visit to a tiny village inhabited by a minority group, Yao Chinese, who take pride in their long hair. They are apparently only allowed to cut it once, when they are 18, and even then they are not allowed to throw that away. They put on huge shows for the tourists wher they wash their hair and comb it while dressed up in traditioal clothes. We opted to not go to the show, but sat down by the tiny little stream in the sunshine, dipping our feet in the water and watching the normal day-to-day ambling of the villagers and some of the Chinese tourists frolicking in the water Turns out that was a good decision, not only were we spared the touristy show but we saw a few of the girls that had the day off wash their hair in the stream and prepare the vegetables for lunch. So we got to relax, play in the water and see an informal 'show' and we were spared the majority of the shopkepers trying to sell us stuff, not bad at all...

After that we headed up to the summits, it was a 35 minute walk up a lot of steps (we love those by now, we really really do) winding through a village, touristy but I believe there is still a big part of it that are working the fields. Nevertheless, the views along the paths and from the top was quite stunning. In almost every direction there were terraces nestled around every small peak or hilltop and tiny paths winding through between them, and people out farming them. And fortunately the weather was defying the forecasts of rain and provided some sunsine through the cloudcover, but most importantly it did not rain.

After a few hours of snapping away with my camera we were heading back to Guilin and on towards Yanhshuo and the hostel for the night. We met this lovely Dutch couple on the bus who told us they were staing at this lovely hostel out in the countryside, which we had been eying up, but decided to not stay at, since the weather was going to be so bad and it is an outdoors kind of place. But with their assurance that we'd still like it better than the city if it rains and our doubt of the accuracy of the weather forecasts we changed our plans, arranged accomodation and made tracks for the countryside. We checked in to a massive room with two big beds, a table and some chairs, a huge ceiling fan and massive mosquito nets covering the beds and, most importantly, a truly great chef.... If you are ever in China, do not miss the outside-inn.

Today the plan is to take a walk by the river, or a bamboo raft down it or just sit here in the hammock and sway in the gentle breeze until it turns dark. Either way, we have found some peace.