In search of the elusive art museum

The supposed Guilin Art Museum

Dorothy's ruby slippers

The Guilin Art Museum. Reputed to be the biggest museum in southwest China. Or at least the most complete art collection in Guilin. Excitedly noted in the guestbook of our apartment as one of the few free places to go in Guilin.  Confirmed by several internet searches.  An address is found as well as hours of operation. 

10:50 a.m.  - Off we went to see some beautiful landscape paintings and then have lunch and wander the long way back home.   The day did not go as planned - except the wandering part. 

We found the address.  The doors were locked.  I peered inside.  Totally empty. Checked all of my bookmarked websites and noticed another site listed a different address.  Ok. It must have moved.   Stopped at the nearby Pizza Papa out of laziness I think.  It was right there and it was easy.  However, it was not good.  And it had a "C" rating from what may be some sort of restaurant cleanliness rater - a frowny face.  

After that we took the bus farther to the new location.  Tried to walk around the park (with mountains of course) to the south and came to several deadends. (There are a lot of walls and gates here....). At one point we tried just climbing up over the mountain.  We read about the not so secret back entries to parks at which points you could "sneak" in for free.   We were getting excited that this might work until we got to a gate with a guard at the top of the mountain.  Dang.

Back down a different way and discovered a little cave.  Back to the original plan of going around the park to the north.   This turned out to be a nice street to walk down.  Quiet afternoon, men playing checkers or cards, some women ripping stems off about a million peppers laid out over a big table, and finally an ice-cream bar that tasted like ice-cream. 

Finally rounded the corner to see it looking a bit more touristy.  At the end of the road a man directed us to the ticket office.   Wait!!  Don't buy tickets until we know what they are for.  They were for a boat ride.   We're not so dumb we'll fall for that trick again! (See previous post about accidentally going to a Buddhist temple.....)

After showing our map - with the art museum noted on it - to several people, we were misdirected and wandered a bit more before entering the building we originally tried to enter before the ticket guy approached us.  It was pretty quiet.  We saw the words Guilin Art Museum on some printed material. Yes!! We made it!!  3:10 p.m.

We managed to find someone who spoke some English to ask if there was an admission charge.   Actually, it turns out the museum is "sold out". There is no more art.  WHAT????? I cannot actually believe it. I think the museum is out there somewhere.....

We did find Dorothy's ruby slippers though.  If only we had put them on, maybe we could have clicked them 3 times and said "There is no place like the art museum" and arrived there. 

Finished the day out better with a rousing game of soccer/keep away with the many kids outside our building tonight.   Every night moms take their kids outside to play in the little open space between the buildings.   I managed to ask a few girls their names and how old they were and proceeded to tell them Andrew was 20. They giggled.  Shoot! Got er shi (20) and shi er (12) mixed up again.

Stay tuned for further adventures and mishaps.

Marnie