Xingyi and Maling River Gorge
Day 108 of Asia 2019 trip / Day 10 in China
Huang Long (Yellow Dragon) waterfall at Maling river gorge
Xingyi (興義). It's a tier 4 city. I had asked a couple of Chinese people I knew back home about it and neither had heard of it. There was barely any information about the city online. Hop on to Wikipedia and there's about 4 lines of text about it. Guizhou province on the whole was completely unknown to us during our pre-holiday research and we had both thought we would simply breeze past it to get to Zhangjiajie. I was told that Guizhou was the home of Maotai, which seemed to be the only remarkable thing to note about the province, which was one of the poorest in the country. And now I know it's also the birthplace of Lao Gan Ma, the famous chilli oil.
We stepped out of our accomodation to get some food. As usual, we used Dianping to find food and found a noodle place within a cluster of restaurants (always a good thing, in case plan A turns out to be bad). During the day, the city looked fine, it was modern enough and it was clean. There were even some tallish 20 floor towers! What the heck was I so anxious about?!!! It was a county city after all.
Jushan 桔山 Avenue
Fruit seller in his little truck
海汤碗 (literally: Sea Soup Bowl)
The noodle place A found seemed alright and had people inside, so we ventured in. It was a very basic place and everything on the menu was very cheap. What the locals eat, I suppose.
海汤碗
A had a spicy sour soup:
spicy sour soup
I had a dry noodle which came with a very bland soup on the side.
Dry noodle
In total it cost us CNY 20.
After lunch, we walked back to the main road to the the bus to Maling River Gorge, which is located in between the centre of town and Xinyi train station.
Maling River Gorge 馬嶺河峽谷
According to the sign out the front, the Maling river Gorge extends for 75km and has a width of 150m at its widest and 50m at its narrowest. The deepest point drops 280m. The gorge is known for its numerous waterfalls and greenery all over the cliff faces of the gorge. It is said that the river used to run “underground”, but because of extensive erosion, the river became exposed and a gorge was created.
The scenic area provided a rough circuit of the gorge, with two bridges in the middle. The path took you down into the gorge, where you make your way north to the famous “Ten thousand horses galloping” waterfall, then you cross the river via a bridge and come back south.
Disgustingly, and unsurprisingly, they built a lift for those who did not want to attempt the numerous switchbacks to get you down into the gorge:
Lift
There were other paths that ran away from the main path but most of these were closed. I think this was because we came just before rainy season, hence it was not the main peak season. Some of the waterfalls were not at their best (i.e. the waterfalls were sort of down to a medium trickle) but overall, the gorge was still really pretty. It took us roughly 2.5 hours to explore the entire gorge.
Map of Maling River Gorge scenic area
Waterfall and bridge
Huang Long (Yellow Dragon) waterfall (76m height)
The southern part of the gorge near the entrance
The gorge near the sea lion cave
The Broken Bridge
I'm not quite sure what the “Ten thousand horses galloping” waterfall refers to. The sign was a bit vague but I suppose after the rainy season, when the waterfall is at its best and lots of water is coming down the cliff face, it sounds like ten thousand horses galloping? I imagine it would be quite a sight in that case. The waterfall is supposed to be 118m long.
Ten thousand horses galloping waterfall
Huang Long waterfall from a different viewpoint
After that, we went back into town to check it out. We came across a McDonalds, Dicos and a giant supermarket, where we bought a couple of snacks (mango cornetto and a blueberry yoghurt). It was raining and the area looked a bit too sterile so we went back to our accommodation. We came across this funky building under construction:
Funky building
Dinner at 安龍黃記蒸餃 (桔山店)
安龍黃記蒸餃 (桔山店)
For dinner we used Dianping to help. We found a dumpling and noodle place and A was happy to eat there, so off we went. It was a little late so we didn't have a lot of options. Like the lunch time place, it was a very simple establishment. There were very few people around.
I struggled to read the menu and in the end we gave up and I picked whatever I could read (yes, I can read “pork”, “dumpling” and “noodles”, thank you). There were three girls behind the counter. Two didn't want anything to do with us when I told them I couldn't speak Mandarin. One girl was very curious and interested in us, so much so that she asked us to take a selfie with her! I have never been asked that, and I never thought I would haha seeing as I am Han Chinese passing. I should've asked her to take a selfie with us on my phone but I forgot; I'll remember next time, if there is a next time.
The food was ok, nothing special. It was very cheap.
Dumplings and noodles
There was a DOG restaurant across the street. I was so shocked when I read the sign. Dog is just so unappealing to me and I am by no means a dog lover. I've even had Guinea pig in Peru (which was gross by the way) but dog… no way, never.
Dog restaurant
And here's the menu:
Dog restaurant menu
The photo is potato digital zoom because I didn't want to be seen obviously taking photos. But it's readable enough, the first row says dog noodles for CNY 8 or CNY 10 (small and large size). The next section says hot pot, with 4 different ways. Not entirely sure what the first two ways are but the last two is in some type of clear soup and a dry pot.
For dessert we walked back to the giant supermarket we went to earlier and bought some pocky. On the way, I noticed some crazy lit up buildings:
Ugh
The lights were flashing and hurt my eyes
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