Road Tripping in China

Pack a cooler, cue up the music player and buckle up. It's roadtrip time.

I have fond childhood memories of roadtripping across the U.S. with my family - picnicking on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and dreaming for hours as I watched the rural landscape fly by.  

As an expat, we have to forego sharing some of our cherished childhood experiences with our own kids. And I figured the roadtrip would be one of those. But it turns out China has ample opportunities for creating your own family roadtrip memories.

With the help of John McKenna of Travel the Real China, we put together a child-friendly weekend roadtrip itinerary in the southern province of Guizhou.

Guiyang to Huangguoshu Waterfall

Our trip started in Guiyang, the capital city of Guizhou province. Not a destination in itself, flights go in and out of Guiyang and the city's Regal Hotel offers a comfortable bed and hearty breakfast when you first arrive.

But the adventure started when we loaded into our rental van, turned up the music and headed out of town.

So much of a roadtrip is in experiencing the journey - but every good journey still has a destination. Our first goal was Huangguoshu Waterfall - two and a half hours from Guiyang and worlds away from urban China.

Along the way the girls may have been entranced by the view provided by their portable DVD player, but my husband and I spent the drive entranced by the pastoral landscape - small villages clinging to the sides of karst hills and farmers working plots of bright yellow rapeseed.

We arrived at the trailhead to Huangguoshu Waterfall ready to stretch our legs and explore the scenery on foot.  An easy trail leads up some steps and down some hills. The girls loved exploring the path and it took over an hour to reach the falls.  Once at the falls, the trail continues straight on through a water curtain cave and directly behind the waterfall. The cave dripped with water and stalactites, the path obstructed by low ceilings and bulging walls.

The girls became convinced that a monster lurked just around the corner and spent the entire walk in a combination of giddy excitement and tortured fear.

Huangguoshu Waterfall to Dragon Palace Caves

Back in the van, the girls immediately fell asleep. In true roadtrip fashion, they slept the distance from one destination to the next and arrived refreshed.  But my husband and I reveled further in the scenery as smaller roads took us away from the highway.

We arrived refreshed at the Dragon Palace Caves, a magnificent underground cave system with lakes, waterfalls and stalactities. Here, a short hike took us to the bottom of the Dragon's Mouth, a waterfall that pours out of the Dragon Palace from Tianchi Lake. Although less picturesque than Huangguoshu, the power of the water barreling through this small mouth still left us astounded.  

A breathless climb to the top of the waterfall brought us to a dock where we climbed aboard a small boat. The girls wrapped their adult-sized life jackets around their little bodies like warm blankets and we entered the Dragon Palace

Caves, so named because someone imagined these caves to look like the crystal palace where a dragon king lives. No longer did we fear the monster around the corner - now our girls worried that we would awaken the dragon in his own home!

The curators of the cave cleverly named many of the outcroppings of rocks with whimsical names like Monkeys Watching the Moon and Grove of Grapes.  But while the rocks had clever names, they were left untouched and the natural beauty ignited in the girls' imaginations a magical world of monkeys and dragons.

Overnight in Anshun and Tunbao Ancient Village

A typical roadtrip overnights in forgettable towns and simple hotels, their only selling point being proximity to the destination.  As such, the Grand Waterfall Hotel in Anshun fit our roadtrip travel style perfectly.

We left early the next morning and reached Tunbao Ancient Village by 8:30 a.m. Arriving so early afforded us an intimate view of the town. Grandparents bought grandchildren glutinous rice on their way to school, women combed out wet hair, men enjoyed their morning cigarette, and trinket hawkers offered simple smiles as they set up their wares.

Guizhou province is well known for its many small villages where people have maintained a unique lifestyle for generations. One of these villages, Tunbao's ancient stone houses and flagstone roofs rest against a stunning backdrop of karst hills and rapeseed fields. Descended from warriors sent to Guizhou from Nanjing at the emperor's behest centuries ago, the villagers here maintain their ancient buildings and continue lifestyle customs begun long ago. For instance, the matriarch of each family wears a simple black cap, while other women wear white caps or no hat to display their marital status. Women continue to wear shoes with curled toes, even though they no longer carry knives in the tip.

We drove the last leg of our roadtrip in the normal quiet accompanying the end of any trip remembering how we'd picnicked together on the side of the road and dreamed as the landscape flew past.

Lynne Moo is a freelance writer and photographer raising two young girls in Shanghai and itching for another roadtrip

PACK YOUR BAGS
When to Go:
Temperatures in Guizhou are moderate year round, but the waterfalls flow the strongest in July and August, making summer a particularly impressive time to visit.  In the winter the water flows weakly, but our spring visit was lovely.  

Where to Stay:
Regal Hotel Guiyang (Guiyang)
Lovely hotel with spacious rooms and a hearty breakfast buffet.
851 652 1888, www.gzregal.com.cn

Grand Waterfall Hotel (Anshun)
The only hotel in town, it offers a clean bed and a private shower.  A classic roadtrip overnight.
853-351-6888

Getting There:
Multiple flights run between Shanghai and Guiyang daily. Itinerary designed by John McKenna and Travel the Real China.
john@travel-the-real-china.com, www.travel-the-real-china.com