A family trip to a cooler summer

Monkeys and a very long dinner queue

We don’t often travel together as a family. The previous time had been a trip to Shennongjia during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday in 2025. This time, we took the high-speed train from Zhuhai to Guiyang East, a journey of about five hours, then a taxi toward Qianling Mountain Park. Our hotel was roughly a ten-minute walk away.

We entered through the south gate and went up the hill to see the monkeys. They were not remotely afraid of people. Stealing someone’s Mixue drink was apparently no trouble at all.

What I liked immediately was the temperature. Even at three or four in the afternoon, walking in the shade felt comfortable. The hills reminded me a little of Chongqing, but I could happily keep walking in this weather.

Dinner took rather more effort. We wanted sour-soup hotpot, but there were around two hundred tables ahead of us. After two hours, it was already half past nine and the restaurant was approaching closing time. We still hadn’t got a table. We gave up and ate somewhere else; that hotpot tasted much like what I could get in Guangzhou.

I did try a couple of things worth remembering. Stir-fried zhe’ergen, or fish mint root, was more tender than the cold version I knew. Beef cooked with the skin on was new to me too, with a noticeably different texture.

August 9 · Huangguoshu

The drive took three or four hours. There were three areas to visit, and each felt a little different.

At Doupotang, I recognized the connection to the 1986 television adaptation of Journey to the West. The main Huangguoshu Waterfall was impressive in its own right. Even with return tickets for the escalator, there was still plenty of walking to do.

For Tianxingqiao, we chose only the latter half of the route. Reaching that entrance took about twenty minutes, followed by another forty minutes or more to the Yinlian waterfall. Water seemed to gather from every direction and pour into the same place. That was a sight worth the walk.

Xiaoqikong, with a presentation in between

On the 10th, we reached Libo. I was very pleased with our family room, though I spent part of the stay working on slides for an innovation project. While the others went out, I stayed behind. I joined them the following morning for the latter half of Xiaoqikong.

The shuttle stopped at many points along the route. Waterfalls connected one stretch of scenery to the next, and there were boats, bamboo rafts, and places to splash around. It was a little warmer here, but the shade still made it pleasant, and there was plenty to photograph.

Qingyan Ancient Town left less of an impression. It felt quite commercial. The pork knuckle didn’t particularly win me over either; I still preferred the softer, more fragrant version back in Shantou.

What I wanted to bring home

More than anything, I wanted the weather. Temperatures in the twenties Celsius, a T-shirt and trousers, perhaps a light jacket. I could have stayed much longer. For once, even Zhuhai seemed a less comfortable place to live.

The food generally suited me too. I could enjoy the spicy dipping sauces, and it seemed my tolerance for heat had improved. Waterfalls and monkeys made the photos, but that comfortable summer temperature was what I kept thinking about afterward.