May 12 - Guilin: The most beautiful city in the world? Not! But...

In one of the tourist brochures you get at the local CITS (China International Travel Service) in Guilin, there's a picture of Bill Clinton (or maybe it was Jimmy Carter) riding a bicycle through some villagey looking area and a quote calling Guilin "the most beautiful city in the world". Not "One of the most beautiful..." but "The most beautiful..." So obviously this was before a visit to Vancouver. But even without that north-of-the-border experience, it's hard to imagine Guilin as deserving such high praise. It's true it has a beautifully landscaped lake in its centre with really romantic walkways, taking more than an hour to cover at a leisurely pace. And, yes, it's true that there are some gorgeous parks in the immediate vicinity. But, other than that, you're still left with large, modern boulevards with some pretty ugly buildings and bizarrely decorated lamposts; a town "square" that is nothing but a huge concrete slab; and street after street of upscale, trendy stores where most backpackers can't even afford to windowshop.

That being said, Guilin definitely does not deserve some of the slagging it gets from people who still expect all of China to remain in the dark ages with dirt roads and tractors for transportation. I enjoyed Guilin by renting a bicycle and heading out on the park roads that border the city. At one point, a Chinese English teacher started a conversation with me and we toured together for most of the day, visiting natural caves just 15 minutes from the centre of town; taking in a cultural performance depicting the lifestyle of different ethnic groups in Guanxi province; and meandering along the colorfully lit walkways around the downtown lake.

And though Guilin has lost a lot of its old-world charm, with modernization comes advantages. It was in Guilin that I found the cheapest Internet shop in the world, just north of the main square, at one Yuan (12 cents) per hour. Now that's my kind of town.