Exploring South China Which Border with Vietnam | Nanning & Beihai, Guangxi 南寧北海，廣西

As y'all know I will never reject any chance to explore new place, and this is the time I will explore Southern China, Guang Xi 廣西. Yeay! Unlocked for Guang Xi. 

Guang Xi is one of the autonomous region in Mainland China, it's called 廣西壯族自治區 or shortened to 桂 (gui) which bordering Vietnam. Flight from Jakarta to Nan Ning which is capital of Guang Xi is around 4 to 5 hours and you'll arrived at Nanning Wuxu Int'l Airport 南寧吳圩國際機場. Make sure you have done your visa or any document before arrived as China immigration is very strict with foreigner. 

We stack at immigration office for more than 1 hour just because 1 of our member is not show and cancel in the morning so the total actual show person and document list is different and become chaos. Ohmy! 

Nanning city is a modern China city as Nanning is the host for Asean Expo. It's also the reason how Nanning raise their economy from before called as motorcycle city 摩托車城市 cause people in Nanning all have motorcycle but not car. If you have car you are the rich one then. But Nanning nowadays is totally different, mostly the citizens all have car and develop become modern city. 

Nanning is a big door for South China export import route. And also after Asean Expo held at Nanning every year, you can feel the Asean atmosphere here. You'll see Asean country flag show in the road. 

Based on local information you can find Asean goods in Nanning with same price in your local country price. Because Nanning is tax free for Asean goods. 

Another name for Nanning is Green City 綠城 cause Nanning have more than thousand kind of plant. So you'll found in Chinese traditional medicine is come from Nanning, as it's rich for their herbal plant. Also we can feel the fresh air here and greening is everywhere.

Anyway in traditional Nanning days, each family like to put coffin inside house. They said it's a lucky symbol 棺材 升官又發財 and old people which feel not good will sleep one night inside the coffin and feel better. Well....

I visit a national park called 青秀山 Qing Xiu Shan Scenic Area located in 邕江江畔 Yong Jiang Riverside. Its a huge hill area for refreshing with amazing fresh air and good heritage scenery. There are 18 point to visit and 1 day is not enough for all the point. So I take battery car and visit the famous 2 point, temple for Buddhist with huge Buddha inside and 龍象塔 pagoda. 

Main entrance 

First stop is the temple. If you are Buddhist and want to pray is welcome here. Also there is huge sleeping Buddha made by jade but prohibited to take picture anyway. 

And if you are not Buddhist like me, I believe you also can enjoy the view and heritage old temple like this. I love the feel. 

Nanning city view 

Next stop is 龍象塔 pagoda. Known as the tallest and oldest pagoda in Nanning and you can see Nanning city view from the top of pagoda. But it was under construction when we get there. It's okay cause the scenery here is so amazing. 

And here is the lake with lot of fish, you also can purchase fish food to feed them

Ah, I just love this view feels like living in imperial world

From Nanning we move to Bei Hai 北海, its around 3 hours by bus. Bei Hai is the China southwest coast, famous for local pearl industry. Beihai citizen mostly is fishery they have beautiful beach and sea, also they are floating people 水上人家. They spend their life in boat in whole life, only 2 condition to let them come to the land, baby delivery & died.

So before, Beihai is a wasteland and government develop real estate to drive the economy. But so many apartment is ready no one want to come to Beihai, the real estate price is getting lower and lower. Even 1 of seafood restaurant is advertise their product by writing : For any seafood purchase, FREE house.

But nowadays Beihai is a modern city with rich seafood and pearl industry. Beihai famous for its black pearl. Their symbol of the city is 南珠魂 South Pearl Soul.

I also explore the Silver Beach 北海銀灘 the famous travel attraction point. Again I take battery car, they will run through the garden and see the beach before stop in last terminal which is the calm beach view.

Sadly when we arrive is raining.

We're heading to Beihai Old Street and I'm so happy

Highly recommend to visit Beihai Old Street 北海老街. Its so one stop shopping. There are souvenir, seafood, snack, clothes, hat, accessories, and many more with affordable price. 

The famous 蝦餅 for RMB 5 and it's so delicious

can't resist, gillssss ini enak banget cuman RMB 20 aja semuanya

And see what I found, the old church inside old street. Thanks God to bring me here. :) 

Then above is the picture where I stay in Beihai, Garden Hotel. Surprisingly very comfortable and wake up in the morning and get the 紅棗枸杞 Angco Red bean drink for my period. 

Well, the reason we stay at Beihai is because we are on our way to Dong Xing, the border between China and Vietnam. We are on our way to Vietnam, yeayyyy!!!!!! 

From Bei Hai to Dong Xing is around 3 hours by bus. 

So where I stand is Dong Xing 東興 and 5 minutes from here already Mongcai 芒街 which is northern Vietnam. 

Picture describe better. As we see in map above, so my journey start from Nanning then we move to Beihai in order closer to Vietnam border. From Beihai we cross Dongxing border which is connect to Mongcai in walking distance. Black line in Mongcai is Vietnam China border. 

For this cross country border make sure your visa and passport is ready. It's very crowded between the this 2 border and you need to go by walking, no any battery car inside. So make sure you can bring your belongings and be careful. 

And I'll share about my Vietnam journey in next post, stay tuned!