Blog du Wren

First official BdW poll!

I've got myself a bit of a dilemma here. And rather than figure it out myself, I thought I have myself a little poll. I'm getting on a boat here in a few hours to cruise down the Yangtze. It drops me off in either Wuhan or Yichang. As you can tell, I don't really know what is going on. The dilemma part is what to do next. I've got to be in Hong Kong on the 10th to meet up with a friend. From there, I head back to Bangkok on the 13th. That leaves me with approximately 4.5 days to kill between, let's say, Wuhan and Hong Kong.

That is where you come in. I'm leaving it up to you, dear readers, as to what I should do. Being that I only have a dinky little book with hardly info besides history on the various possibilities, everyone of you is as qualified to lend a suggestion as I am. A brief look at a map reveals these possibilies:

A) HANGZHOU - Known for its famous West Lake
B) SHANGHAI - Modern City with a mix of cultures
C) GUILIN - Beautiful Scenery on the Li River
D) NANJING - Old capital built to rival Beijing
E) GUANGZHOU - Cultural city with some good eats

So hop to it. Do your research. Support your choice with helpful info for the would-be tourist. Place your vote in the comments or in an e-mail to me. Extra credit for any not listed suggestions. Remember, I don't have a ton of time, so ease of accesibilty should be considered.

Thanks for your help. I look forward to the results.

Friday November 3 2006

File under: poll, China

Toggle Comments (15)

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on Fri 03rd Nov, 2006 06:03 am UTC Mom said:
Wren, Hands down it's SHANGHAI that gets my vote (or is it hands up it's SHANGHAI?) Anyway, how many chances will you have in life to say that you were SHANGHAIED in SHANGHAI? eh?
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on Fri 03rd Nov, 2006 06:10 am UTC Mom said:
Wren, Hands down it's SHANGHAI that gets my vote (or is it hands up it's SHANGHAI?) Anyway, how many chances will you have in life to say that you were SHANGHAIED in SHANGHAI? eh?
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on Fri 03rd Nov, 2006 07:20 am UTC Saxtor said:
Since I have to go to bed RIGHT NOW, I only read the "Understand" paragraph of each mentioned city from this site:
http://wikitravel.org/en/China#Cities
Given only the information provided, I am going with Hangzhou. How can you not visit what Marco Polo described as "beyond dispute the finest and the noblest in the world". Although, possibly things have changed since his day....but go there.
Shanghai would be my last choice based on this: "Shanghai has recently been ranked as one of the most polluted cities in the world. Individuals with asthma or respiratory issues should be prepared when visiting the city" because I currently have a cough.
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on Fri 03rd Nov, 2006 08:52 am UTC Horge said:
My first instinct was to say Nanjing cause a former capital's gotta have good stuff, but I was a bit disappointed with wikipedia's pictures. I know nothing about Shanghai but suspect that it's just a big modern city with little culture, though your mom's right on the "shanghai'd" part - I'm not even bothering to look it up online. But Hangzhou, which I'd never heard of, looks quite picturesque. Plus it's the sister city of Boston, so it could be nice like that... My vote's Hangzhou.
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on Fri 03rd Nov, 2006 08:53 am UTC Horge said:
Oh and i forgot to mention the reason I say Ghangzhou. They had a very nice picture of a tea plantation. Reading how much you like tea, don't you think it'd be cool to go there and ask if you can pick a kilogram yourself. It'd be discounted I bet! Only a half-week's budget perhaps...
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on Fri 03rd Nov, 2006 08:56 am UTC Horge said:
Dagnabbit! sorry for the 3rd post. I meant HANGZHOU, the lake place. Without the g. That's confusing don't you think? Too cities spelled the same way, just throwing a G onto the front?
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on Fri 03rd Nov, 2006 04:22 pm UTC Sarah Fate said:
hi wren, i know i hardly know you, but your mom gave me the link to this while i was sitting on the couch with a broken ankle all summer and now i can't stop :-) I'd vote for GUILIN- It looks the most beautiful and the least like a huge city- you can do a lot of different bike rides and hikes. It is described as a "must" and has: "The stunning landscape in which the city is situated has a kind of magic that is all its own. The strangely shaped hills, or karsts, with the verdant vegetation ranging from bamboo to conifers together with wonderful caves make Guilin such an attraction for tourists." Also, i checked the weather in all those towns and it's going to be >80* there for the next 5 days :-) There's a geocache on Green Lotus Peak close by: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=d0867d50-d9b9-41d5-a253-c01babd72e05
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on Fri 03rd Nov, 2006 04:29 pm UTC Sarah Fate said:
I should have been a travel agent... This hostel in Guilin looks like a swanky nightclub: http://www.hostelz.com/hostel/33136-Guilin-Flowers-Youth-Hostel
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on Fri 03rd Nov, 2006 06:48 pm UTC Jule! said:
I think Sarah is right! My buddies own/owned? a bar there too. I hear the food is good (try the crosswords) there and there are these beautiful limestone outcroppings that are the stereotypical china scenery. I will get my buddy Kevin to post, cause he was a Guilin local.
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on Fri 03rd Nov, 2006 07:12 pm UTC Kevin Anderson said:
The answer is "C", Guilin. There is lots to do around Guilin. Yangshuo is a tourist town set up for foreign backpackers just forty minutes outside of Guilin. There are tons of activities centered out of that little town, hiking, caving, rock climbing, seeing the Chinese Minorities dance and sing. The whole region is incredibly scenic, like a Chinese scroll. In Guilin proper there is a couple of bars run by westerners, one by a kid your brother went to college with. And it has many possibilities for good eats, tacky Chinese scenerey and average hustle-bustle of a mid sized Chinese city. If you have time visit Longsheng to see the terraced fields or Sanjiang to see some authentic minorities. The whole province of Guangxi is pretty neat and only an overnight bus ride from Hong Kong. About that bus ride, make sure you get a express/deluxe bus. I once rode that route on a cheap ass sleeper bus that collided with a dump truck in the mountains and it made me miss my flight in HK. Do not go to Guangzhou! I lived there for a year and the only thngs worth remembering were the smog, sweltering heat and dim-sum. That city is about the size of NY and just as crowded. Shanghai would be nice if you have scads of money to spend, though the food is tasty and they have a mag-lev train. They also have an art museum that is worth a whole day and a sex museum that is worth the an hour or so. Nanjing is also pretty and not too fare from Shanghai, you could vidit them both in less than a week. In HK stay in the Chunking Mansions, you wouldn't be suprised to see a wokie walking down the street there, its that diverse. Yi lu shun an! KDA, your brother's buddy
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on Fri 03rd Nov, 2006 09:52 pm UTC julie Kondor said:
C- it looks easy to pronounce and it has water and scenery!
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on Sat 04th Nov, 2006 11:41 pm UTC Sara said:
C - Guilin, and probably Yangshuo too. The karst mountains and the river look beautiful. 80 degree weather would be nice too!
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on Sun 05th Nov, 2006 05:31 am UTC trista said:
You're right, i do like this post. I would have voted earlier but i've been busy preparing and hosting a bannana pancake party. Good times. So, my first thought was... of course, you must do a Suzhou, Hangzhou and Shanghai trio. Hangzhou and Suzhou might be as traditional modern Han Chinese as it gets and Shanghai is a must see metrocious capitol, with enough surrounding waters to keep it interesting (although rough on the pocketbook). Did i mention the back of the 1元 bill is West Lake? Also, Chinese all know the saying, "Above is heaven and below is Hangzhou" BUt luckily, there is a similar saying about Guilin, "桂林山水甲天下!" Therefore i say, Guilin. An Autonmous region, which means full of minority folk who can kick it better than rock stars. Limestone mountains, storybook lake scenery, what they say is crystal clear waters (but i would have to see it to believe it here in China), pagoda topped hills, caves... and you know how i LOVE caves! The sweet smelling aroma of the Gui Hua, which its so famously named after, might still be lingering in the air. And to top it all off, Jule's college buddy own's a bar there! Need i say more? Well, just one more thing... Former President Clinton went there in 1998 and said this, "No place in China is more evocative of the beauty of your country than Guilin." So, along with ole trustworthy Bill and what seems to be the popular opinion here on BdW, 桂林 is my vote.
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on Sun 05th Nov, 2006 12:03 pm UTC pigping said:
hey!This is pingping i want you to go to gui lin !because if you go there you will shock !it is so beautiful there!i did not go there !but i learned that book about it when i was a young girl!!go go go!!!!!
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on Sun 05th Nov, 2006 06:36 pm UTC Andrew said:
Go for Lansing! It is a beautiful place and home to Michigan State University! http://www.lansing.org/
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