Experiencing the Beauty of an Industrial City: A Couple's Trip to Liuzhou

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My husband and I both had time off for the Dragon Boat Festival. As travel enthusiasts, we had to go somewhere this holiday. Originally, we planned to go to Guilin, but time was a bit short, and we felt we wouldn't fully enjoy it there. So we arranged to visit its neighbor—Liuzhou. In just three days, across the land of Liuzhou, we truly felt the beauty of this industrial city.

In my imagination, Liuzhou was full of luosifen shops and factory areas everywhere. But I never expected the natural scenery here to be so stunning. During these three days, my husband and I both agreed: we made the right choice! Before departure, we rented a car from a certain company (Chenghai), and the pick-up point was right next to the high-speed railway station, making it very convenient.

Once we arrived in Liuzhou, we picked up the car and started exploring. Since it was a self-driving trip, we weren't in a rush to book a hotel. Only after arriving in Liuzhou did I realize that it is the headquarters of Wuling. 'People need what, Wuling builds what'—a great national enterprise. Moreover, Wuling's new energy mini cars are everywhere on the roads; they look so fun and compact.

After two skipped meals, we shook off our fatigue and immediately went to eat. Liuzhou's culinary journey begins with a bowl of luosifen... The luosifen shop near Five-Star Street is a must-visit spot for food bloggers, crowded with people. The taste was great, thumbs up. It's said that every luosifen shop has a different broth base, so you can try several places. After eating, you can stroll around Five-Star Street—it's quite lively.

Actually, besides luosifen, there are many other things to eat. We also visited various skewer shops and pancake shops. Of course, over three days, you must absolutely schedule at least one meal at a proper restaurant to try local home-style dishes.

The city's attractions are not far apart. The Liuzhou Museum—let's skip the nonsense and show you around. The Industrial Museum is free but requires reservations. Visiting this kind of museum for the first time overturned my understanding. So many people? It felt like wandering through a vegetable market. In my memory, museums are like libraries where everyone visits quietly. My CPU burned out; I couldn't react quickly enough.

After about an hour and a half, we had roughly covered the museum. It was really bustling, different from the feeling of visiting provincial museums.

We saw an incredible number of products—truly amazed... Looking at pictures alone doesn't compare to the surprises of seeing them in person. Overall, this museum will astonish you. The process of viewing is also a journey to witness the development of Liuzhou's industry.

In the few hours before watching the lights come on, we went to a local hair-washing shop. Truly nice—worth a try. It seems locals really know how to enjoy life; even kids participate. Lying down to have your hair washed feels fantastic. Then we went to wait for the fountain show. Everyone was there to check out the silent musical fountain. By the Liujiang River, there are two fountain shows at 20:00 and 21:10, each lasting 15 minutes.

When we drove there, it was about to start, but strangely, there was no music! A musical fountain without music—awesome! You can just make up your own music. After the fountain show, the Fengqinggang Night Market is right next door. There are many stalls, offering food, fun, and cultural creative goods, crowded with people. Let me show you.

Mango flowers are green mango cut into flowers, sprinkled with chili powder. Even the mild spiciness scared me off. Thunderbolt root and sugarcane juice—you need mental preparation before drinking; it has a grassy taste, not for everyone. Interestingly, even figurines are sold here. Also, I bought sophora flower powder here, which I'd never tried before, and it was surprisingly good. There was also pandan powder, green in color, but I was too full to try it.

What saddened me most was that this night market even had a pet area where cats and dogs were for sale. I hope there will be fewer and fewer animal trade markets.

Well, I've never even visited a local market in my own city, but when I came to Liuzhou, I was so excited and eager to explore the market. We went to the busiest market—without a doubt, the famous Minsheng Qingyun Market... the market with the most young people. There are also plenty of snacks.

In fact, Qingyun Minsheng Market is a morning market. Both sides of the street are food stalls, interspersed with vendors selling pork, chicken, and duck. It's a food lover's paradise! If you're afraid of crowds, dirt, or food stalls next to chicken stalls, then you absolutely shouldn't come! But I'm a tourist—I want this kind of lively atmosphere, so of course I had to check it out!

Five-color sticky rice—tasteless on its own, you can add meat or salted egg yolk. I think you could add some raisins or other nuts to improve the flavor. Rice lees jasmine soy milk—6 yuan per cup, with a faint jasmine scent and a hint of rice lees, not too sweet, delicious. The best part was that buying soy milk came with free jasmine flowers!

Cottony cake—tastes like the rice puffs from childhood, full of rice fragrance, but soft and not too sweet, good. The white one next to it is osmanthus cake, somewhat similar in taste to London cake, but more glutinous and soft, with a faint osmanthus fragrance, 5 yuan per box. My favorite was the yellow corn flavor. There are many roast pork stalls and whole roasted pigs. In short, this place is a paradise for food lovers.

Bean flour cake—texture like glutinous rice cake, available in several flavors, such as meat floss and peanut sesame, both delicious. Guangxi briefcase—actually alcohol. We just passed by and didn't drink. There were various pastries too, but we didn't try them, so no comments. Special recommendation: small river fish and shrimp, 8 yuan per 100g, fragrant and crispy, excellent! There was so much, but our stomachs were limited, so I won't list them all.

We wandered around the area for a long time, then went to Sister Liu's Fresh Meat Luosifen. A popular shop recommended by netizens, just a few minutes from the hotel, full of tourists. Between luosifen and stir-fried luosifen, I chose the latter, mild spice. But I regretted it—even mild spice was too spicy for me, a Cantonese!

From Sister Liu's to Xilai Ancient Temple, just a few minutes on foot. When we arrived, the temple was already closed, so we just took photos at the gate. After visiting Xilai Ancient Temple, we strolled along the Liujiang River. Many people were fishing by the river, each with ten or eight rods—high density, but they actually caught some big fish, impressive! Continuing along the Liujiang River, there were popular photo spots with many young women taking pictures.

Originally planned to go to Yaobu Ancient Town, but it was still early, and locals recommended Maaan Mountain. So we changed direction to Maaan Mountain to see the night view of Liujiang. But when we reached the foot of the mountain, I was stunned: a sea of people. I thought we were queuing for the elevator, but when we asked a staff member, it turned out the mountain was crowded, and access was restricted; we had to wait another hour!

Calculating quickly, the lights would be on by 7:40, so it wasn't worth it; we gave up! In the end, we still went to the ancient town.

Travelogue Directory:

1. Day 1: Starting with Luosifen

2. Day 2: Experiencing the Bustle of the Vegetable Market

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