A Trip to Liuzhou With My Sister

In August, I had a long summer break from New Oriental Cooking School. I decided to spend this holiday with my family. I returned to Guangxi with my sister to see her children. We celebrated my sister’s thirtieth birthday together. Although there is no grand party, just a family get-together, I am very content: I thoroughly enjoyed the time with my family! At the end of our short vacation, I took a trip to Liuzhou with my sister.

After a few days with my sister’s children our vacation was coming to an end. We have to leave Guangxi: my sister will return to Fujian to work, and I will return to Anhui to continue my culinary studies. Before that, my sister and I decided to choose a city to visit together. It is difficult for us to have free time to travel, and every vacation is short or busy. We decided to enjoy this last holiday time. In the end, we chose a famous tourist city not far from our home in Guangxi – Liuzhou. Although we are from Guangxi, this is our first visit to Liuzhou. We only have a day and a half to spend together in Liuzhou, and we want to enjoy this sister trip. 

Luosifen (snail noodle soup)

In China, most people know the name of Liuzhou for its famous delicacy: Luosifen. Some Chinese don’t like it, but some Chinese like it very much. Just like durian and coriander, there are always people who like and dislike. My sister and I love Luosifen very much, which is one of the reasons why we chose to visit Liuzhou.

In Liuzhou we ate authentic Luosifen. In its place of origin, Luosifen tastes better and is full of aroma! Authentic Luosifen is completely different from Luosifen from other places, or the Luosifen packaged as fast food in stores. I finally got the best Luosifen: sour shoots, capers, hollow vegetables, fried bean curd skin, rice noodles, and an exclusive soup base all add up to a delicious Luosifen. As soon as we arrived in Liuzhou, we immediately ordered Luosifen from a takeout restaurant. After tasting authentic Liuzhou Luosifen for the first time, my sister and I were amazed at its deliciousness. 

Qingyun Vegetable Market

The next morning, we got up early and went to a wet market called Qingyun Vegetable Market. Why do we go to the wet market? Nowadays, when traveling, people like to look up the local food and beauty online to see what is worth visiting. Devising a good strategy in advance can make travel richer, allowing you to see more, eat more, and reap more of the benefits of travel. One of my sister’s guides is this wet market.

For a Chinese city, the wet market is a place where you can feel the temperature of the city. Here you can buy local specialties and taste local cuisine. Qingyun Vegetable Market is a famous vegetable market in Liuzhou, and almost every tourist who visits Liuzhou will go to Qingyun at least once. Some tourists even come with suitcases as soon as they get off the bus, and every tourist who arrives here will not leave empty-handed. They often carry snacks bought from here, local specialties. Because this market has many food stalls, you can buy a lot of delicious and cheap snacks here. On this trip to Liuzhou, my sister and I also bought a lot of snacks from here. 

A trip to Liuzhou must include Longtan Park

After returning to the hotel from Qingyun Market, we rested for half an hour before we set off for another place. Liuzhou’s famous scenery is not far away, within ten kilometers of the city center. So we soon arrived at the second destination on this trip to Liuzhou – Longtan Park. Every city has a park, so why do we have to go to a park when we get to Liuzhou? Liuzhou is not only known for Luosifen, the city is surrounded by Guangxi’s iconic mountains, a land form known as a karst.

The mountains in Liuzhou are green and so is the water. When we entered this park, my first impression was that the air here is really fresh, that’s what nature tastes like. Some of China’s most popular tourist parks are full of commercial atmosphere, selling all kinds of small goods or expensive food, or vegetables ten times the original price, to feed the animals in the park. 

In Longtan Park, these do not exist. Longtan Park covers an area of 544 hectares, most of it mountains and hills. Vending machines are only occasionally seen on the side of the road in the park, selling only drinks and mineral water. Next to the river, there are signs prohibiting feeding schools of fish. Liuzhou is protecting their natural environment. That’s why this park is so attractive to out-of-town tourists. 

Yaobu Ancient Town

In the evening, we went to a new place, Yaobu Ancient Town. It is a combination of cultural attractions and commercial streets. Most of the shops sell special national costumes. During the day, there are very few people here, and you would think that this is a very ordinary place. But at eight o’clock in the evening, when the lights of the buildings here turn on punctually, most of the tourists gather here. It will get very lively here. I don’t know why, Chinese always love lights, light shows, fountains with lights, buildings that glow. Near these things, you can always see a lot of Chinese. 

In this place, many girls rent a set of national costumes in the store, and then they are made up by professional makeup artists in the store, and then they shoot when the lights are on, some shoot themselves with mobile phones, and some are professional photographers in the store with professional shooting equipment to shoot for them. Those beautiful girls are the “new landscape” of this place. 

On my trip to Liuzhou with my sister, we enjoyed the beautiful lights and national costumes of Yaobu Ancient Town.

View by the Willow River

On this tour, my sister was in charge of the various attractions and food guides, and I was responsible for booking the hotel. I am glad that I booked a nice hotel. We had a room on the 29th floor, located opposite the center of Liuzhou, only separated by a river, Liujiang. From the window of the hotel, we could see the whole center of Liuzhou and the Liujiang River.

In the photo, this is somewhat similar to the Bund in Shanghai, which is opposite the Oriental Pearl, separated by the Huangpu River. At night, the lights come on, revealing a different Liuzhou than during the day. There is a 30-minute musical fountain show next to the Liujiang Bridge, and we can see the whole process at the hotel.

My sister was very happy with the hotel I booked, the view made us feel relaxed. On the afternoon of our stay, we also saw the rainbow, a symbol of good luck! 

Looking forward to the next trip with my sister

Although the trip was short, I was very happy, and so was my sister. We haven’t had sister time for a long time: she’s busy with work, kids, and family. I also have my own life and purpose. I’m also busy with that. There are few relaxing trips between sisters. So I cherish every time we get together.

This article is just to record my trip with my sister to Liuzhou. Some places I may not introduce specific enough, but Liuzhou has really received a lot of praise from foreign tourists. Everyone says that Liuzhou is a delicious city, because Liuzhou has a lot of delicious food, Liuzhou is a city you don’t want to leave when you come. Indeed, because when we finally left, my sister and I were a little reluctant, although we only stayed in Liuzhou for less than two days, we both wished our home was in Liuzhou. Ha ha!

If you are interested in this city, then please come and experience this city. It will bring you delicious food, relaxation, pleasure. Welcome to Liuzhou!! 

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