BigWorldAndSmallWorld Blog

Guizhou province located in southwest China is known for its traditional rural villages such as the 14th century Qingyan ancient town and the 74m-high Huangguoshu waterfall one of the largest waterfalls in China and East Asia. Its capital city Guiyang is a vibrant city. If you ask me ten years ago what do I think about Guizhou? I would not hesitate to say it’s poor. But after I visited Guiyang and Huangguoshu waterfall last year, my impression of this place has changed. Because I like nature, I really like the natural resources this province has.

There are two well-known Guizhou food I tried and liked: Si Wa Wa 丝娃娃and Suan Tang Yu酸汤鱼。Si Wa Wa, I take it gets its name from many dishes of thinly julienned vegetables and you wrap them in a thin pancake like a doll, then you put any sauce you like on top and eat it. Suan Tang Yu, you pick a live fish, several complements and a broth. The restaurant cleans the fish for you and brings the broth in front of you so you can cook the fish and the complements on your table in a big pot by yourself. Besides tasting good, I like the way you wrap or cook food by yourself, it makes you feel involved in the process and it’s very interesting.


Suantangyu picture credit to http://xian.51xiancheng.com/article/16541

Huangguoshu waterfall is huge and truly amazing. Nowadays you can get to Huangguoshu waterfall rather easily by train and then after you get to the nearest town you can take a taxi. Plan to stay 1-night is a good way to see all three parts of Huangguoshu National Park. There are a couple of decent and cheap hotels near Huangguoshu. The three parts of Huangguoshu are Dou Po Tang 陡坡塘，Da Pu Bu 大瀑布，and Tian Xing Qiao 天星桥。If you arrive Huangguoshu after noon on day 1, I recommend visiting Dou Po Tang in the afternoon. Day 2 I recommend visit Da Pu Bu first because this is the largest scene in the park and normally it gets a lot of people in the afternoon. After visiting Da Pu Bu, then you can visit Tian Xing Qiao. You will be able to finish these two parts by the afternoon and it’s time to head back. If you plan to follow my recommendation, then you will need to buy 2-day tickets. All three parts are beautiful and easy to walk around. Inside the park, you will feel close to the nature and the air is fresh. It’s definitely a relax vacation place.

The day I went to Qingyan ancient town was a rainy day. From Guiyang city, I took a bus to get there. Strolling around the town, I like the small village feeling. There are many interesting small shops along the streets where you can look around or buy all kinds of merchants and art-work. I like the street-food the most; there are many options you can choose from. I felt like wherever I went, I could find something to eat, it’s so hard to resist the food temptation. The town has several gates, there is even a small wall like the Great Wall of China where you can climb up and have a good view of the town and surrounding areas.

Today Guizhou Huangguoshu is becoming a very attractive tourist place even for Chinese people.