"Guilin's scenery is the most beautiful under heaven," goes a Chinese saying. So beautiful, in fact, that the back of the 20 RMB note has a mountain and lake view from this very location. 

Here I tasted the local Guilin rice noodles (looks like wheat pasta, tastes like rice), and the by-now-all-too-familiar hot pot (boiling soup on the table, every ordered ingredient placed in and eaten directly from the bowl after cooked).

I climbed a mountain to take pictures of the city from above, and went into a cave to see million-year-history in the making. As beautiful as Guilin is, even here you can feel the West creeping in. A McDonalds on the street corner, cars beginning to flood the streets in an almost grotesque "these shouldn't be here" way.

See photos from Guilin here.