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Exploring Guangxi
I’ve been traveling around a bit these past few weeks and I’ve learned
some things. It’s kind of nice, getting up and out periodically. About
this blog, my latest trip to Hong Kong allowed me to view my blog
online, and I learned that when I post batches of photos all at one,
they appear smaller on the blog…as in the case of all the things
posted about Nanning, since the posts in May about Beijing and Hong
Kong. This means I’ll now try to post more individual photos, even
though it takes a lot longer.
This especially applies to the photo you see here, which I simply felt
deserved a good amount of space. This is Detian Waterfall, on the
border between Vietnam and China, about a four hour bus and shuttle
odyssey away from Nanning. The weekend after my latest trip to Beijing
— during which the vacation I was supposed to take to Gansu, the week
of July 18, got cancelled since there was work needing done back in
Nanning — I woke up each morning with a serious case of wanderlust,
for some strange reason. Following, you will see photos from the two
day trips that resulted from this wanderlust: I hopped buses and
traveled, first to a park 1-1/2 hours outside Nanning that’s known as
home to quite a large number of wild monkeys (if you discount that
fact that many of them have come to expect peanuts from the tourists
wandering through — all of whom are basically local and regional tour
groups). This was a great trip — the park is lovely, the monkeys were
interesting and it was wonderful and special for me, for the first
time, to see monkeys in a basically wild setting living and
interacting as a group.
Then Sunday I woke up still itchy to travel, and decided that since
it’s been raining a TON (enough that we launched a new short-term
flood-relief project in eastern Guangxi, of which you should have seen
photos just before this), it might be a good time to go see the
waterfall. My guidebook tells me this is the world’s second-largest
transnational waterfall (the first, of course, being Niagara). What’s
interesting here is that, unlike Niagara, there’s no border-crossing.
There are two border crossings between Guangxi and Vietnam, but both
are east of these falls. I’ll post a few more comments as we move
through the photos to come, but this is one of the nicest shots of the
falls: as you look at them, Vietnam is on the left, and China is on
the right, with that largest clump of cascades being all in China;
Vietnam has only the smaller clump of cascades, to the left.
Cross-Border Trade
As I mentioned earlier, this is not a formal border crossing; indeed,
on the Chinese side at least I noticed a few soldiers with binoculars,
who I assumed were watching for illegal border-crossing attempts. It
interested me that on the Chinese side, there’s quite a bit of
development: this is clearly a regional draw, with tour groups coming
from Guangzhou, Nanning and elsewhere in the region. There are TONS of
stalls selling useless trinkets, what looks like a rather nice hotel
with views right out over the waterfalls and a decent restaurant, and
so on. Though it wasn’t overrun with tourists the day I was there, it
was certainly a popular attraction.
On the Vietnamese side, there are very few people. In some of the
following shots, you’ll glimpse the small footbridge that allows
people to cross from the mainland over onto the little island in the
middle of the two different sets of cascades — the island is in
Vietnam, and the boats that operate from the Chinese side come right
up to it, but no one is allowed to step out. However, the enterprising
young man here has set up a small operation from which he sells
drinks, cigarettes and various little trinkets to folks on the boats.
I found myself contemplating the meanings of borders and of history a
bit as I wandered the trails around these lovely falls. Any American
of my generation grew up knowing there was this dreadful war with
which so many in my country disagreed — for me and many like-minded
Americans of my generation, Vietnam has been for a long time a symbol
of American foreign policy gone tragically astray. It felt nice,
thirty years after my country stopped trying to defoliate Vietnam and
crush their independence, to give a wee bit back by buying a bottle of
water from this guy. 🙂 And on a broader note, to think about the
fact that thirty years ago, no American would have been welcome
anywhere near this spot — whereas now, I can have nice talks with my
fellow tourists and even a bit of a chat with the young soldier who
encouraged me to take the boat tour…for which I thank him, since it
was indeed interesting.
Kid at Work? Play?
Don’t know where else to put this one so it falls here. This little
guy was sitting to the side of a very mini waterfall cascading down
close to where the bamboo boats put in and take out (next set of
shots). When I first saw him he was intently filling his bottle and
using it wash the other thing in his hand, which I could not identify
without being nosier than I am. He looked pretty intent on it, so I
don’t know whether to say he was working or playing!
Paul at the Falls
The shot of me with the waterfalls below and farther away was taken by
the friendly young soldier mentioned earlier. (Couldn’t get a picture
of him since it’s not permitted; indeed I hope in mentioning him here
I’m not breaking some rule…) The one with me and two young friends
was suggested by the taller of the two guys, in the blue athletic
gear: he came up with his camera and asked if he could have a picture
with us both, with the Vietnam side in the background. Then his
brother joined in, and I decided to ask his parents to take a shot of
me as well.
This kicked of a bidding war for shots with Paul: this family was part
of a bus tour from Guangzhou, and just about everyone on board lined
up to get a picture with me. In the background is Vietnam. And while
we’re at it, let’s not forget that during the US war against Vietnam,
China worked with the Vietnamese…but within ten years of the end of
our war, China and Vietnam themselves had engaged in some pretty
serious cross-border wars as well. I’m quite happy that these seem to
have calmed down — it’s nice that in at least some parts of the world
things may be getting more stable and peaceful.
After this you’ll see a few shots from on the boat, or close up to the falls.
(so much world, so little time....) 