English Teacher in China
Liuzhou Cycling club
January – April 2006
The story…
In 2006, I taught ESL (English as a Second language) at a college in Liuzhou, Guangxi province, China for a 4 month period.
I originally left South Africa in June of 2003 to go and teach ESL in Taiwan. I stayed for 18 months in Taiwan and then decided to experience mainland China too.
I stayed a period of 19 months in China, mainly working for one company called Delter-Telford International Business Institute. I was fortunate to move around China with them, staying and teaching in 4 different provinces: Nanjing, Wuhu (Anhui), Liuzhou (Guangxi) and lastly Shanghai.
In Liuzhou, Delter-Telford arranged for the teachers to stay on the Railway college campus in apartments, literally right next to the teaching block.
I had wonderful colleagues and fellow adventurers. We bought bicycles and cycled in and around Liuzhou to explore rural China.
I also used this as a base to travel to other scenic spots in Guangxi province, such as Nanning, Guilin, Yangshuo, and the Longji rice terraces.
In this post, I will focus on my experiences cycling with Liuzhou cycling club in rural Guangxi, very much off the beaten track.
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| Workers working in a rice paddy - Rural Guangxi |
About China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia. It’s the world's most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing.
It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing) and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). It also claims sovereignty over Taiwan.
It covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometers. China is the world's second-largest state by land area and either the third - or fourth-largest by total area, depending on the method of measurement.
China has a vast and diverse landscape, ranging from the Gobi and Taklimakan Deserts in the arid north to subtropical forests in the wetter south. The Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir, and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia.
The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third- and sixth-longest in the world, respectively, run from the Tibetan Plateau to the densely populated eastern seaboard. China's coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long (Wikipedia).
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| Rice paddy scenery |
About Guangxi
Guangxi, officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in south China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang, Cao Bằng, Lạng Sơn, and Quảng Ninh Provinces). Formerly a province, Guangxi became an autonomous region in 1958.
Guangxi's location, in mountainous terrain in the far south of China, has placed it on the frontier of Chinese civilization throughout much of China's history. The current name "Guang" means "expanse" and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in 226 AD.
It was given provincial level status during the Yuan dynasty, but even into the 20th century, it was considered an open, wild territory. The current capital is Nanning.
On the Road
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| At a resting spot |
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| With members of the Liuzhou Cycling Club |
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Posing with locals - Liuzhou
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| Conchi in the streets of Liuzhou |
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| With fellow cycling club members taking a breather |
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| In a dry river bed - At one of our stops |
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| Definitely enjoying the adventure |
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| On one of our stops |
Stopping for lunch
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| Well-deserved hot lunch on a cold rainy day |
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| Meals are always shared and communal |
To view Liuzhou parks and tourist attractions, click here!
To view Liuzhou cuisine and street food restaurants, click here!
To view my experiences of exploring Liuzhou by bicycle, click here!
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