The Xing'an(兴安Xīng’ān) is one of the counties in Guilin(桂林Guìlín), like the world famous city of Guilin, Xing'an is also a great place for tourists especially it enjoys good reputation among Japanese friends. Some of my friend and I have been to this place a couple weeks ago but we decided go back here again in national holiday, because it will be a perfect place for local visitors in our golden week in October, with less crowded people but even more beautiful landscape.

We started our tour in the early morning, it took us about 1.5 hours to take the bus from Guilin to Xing'an. The bus will depart from the station every 30 minutes, you can easily find the ticket seller outside the Guilin railway station. It cost us only RMB16 per person, the final destination for this bus is a theme park called Merry Land in Xing'an, if you are going to visit the Merry Land, the bus price will be at RMB18. The Merry Land is really good place for young families but as the visitors there will be highly increased during the national holidays, we did not go there this time. Usually I pay a visit to it every year and the equipments there is updating quickly, you will never feel bored!

After arriving Xing'an, the first but most important thing for me was to have a taste of the famous rice noodle there. The most well-known rice noodle in Xing’an is called Lao Guan rice noodle ( in Chineses it means 'always be the champion'. Compared with the rice noodles in Guilin, it is more perfect. With more quantity and better flavor, I could not control the desire of having it over and over again! The pity thing is that I only have one stomach:

Then we walked around the county and enjoy its most glorious centre market called the water market ( Shuijie ). Our friend drove us for a lunch in some rural area around the county; the place was called Wuli Gorge. The gorge is built to control the water level of the Ling Canal and to make sure the safety for the local people. It had been long time no raining in this area, most of the rivers were vanished but the landscape there was still excellent. We took many photos while waiting for the lunch preparation by the local restaurant and attach some here to share our joy with you. If you are looking for somewhere full of peace and want to taste the real Chinese farmer's food while seeing the extraordinary sights, just come to the Wuli Gorge. The lovely dogs, the comfortable wind, the sound of nature, is it so-called heaven?

We continue our day trip to visit the world famous Canal in Xing'an, the Ling Canal. The Canal was firstly built in Qin dynasty and the project was accomplished in B.C214. It is one of the oldest canals in the world; it was our great water project in the ancient China.

The canal is really beautiful, it is more natural, you can still see fish group in it, the fishes is much bigger than the ones living in lakes or rivers located in Guilin. Nobody hunt the fishes because the local people knows, the canal and the creatures around it are the gift given by the god. Green hills, crystal waters, traditional Chinese architectures, everything around the canal were full of harmony and peace.

We entered the Ling Canal Park for free with the help of our local friend. The park is the main scenic spot in Xing'an, it was used to be free but guests may need to pay for it now because the government intent to protect the spot as an eternal one for friends all over the world. I guess it is better to charge fees under this way. We chose to enter the park through the back park gate because if cars can only be driven into it by the back gate while the front one is only available for non-vehicle visitors.

The first place showed into our eyes was the stone bridge which lied through the Ling Canal, the bridge is only made of many natural stones and lied widely across the river, the water will rash to your feet when you walk through it, so the best way to feel the water and the nature is to wear sandals or put off your sport shoes and socks. The bridge is covered by some lichen so it is slithery(something that is slithery is wet or smooth, and so slides easily over things or is easy to slip on) in walking, the end of the bridge is the centre island, moving slowly from one side of the bridge and the other while enjoying the beauty of nature had become the most interesting for all the visitors. Try on your own, it worth it! If you are a lazy man and do not want to walk into the water, you can take the ships there to cross the river to the centre island, no matter what method you will choose, it is really wonderful to visit there.

There are also many other interesting place to see in the Ling Canal park, the temples, the Feilai Stone (Flying-over Stone), etc. As the time passed by so quickly and we did pay some visit to those places before so we did not go there as time was limited.

We took the evening bus back to Guilin and finished today's trip. It was tired but satisfied. Surely we will introduce Xing'an and the beautiful Ling Canal to more western friends in the near future.