Liuzhou Meet & Learn

The last week has been unseasonably cold and this, coupled with the incessant rain, has meant we've had to come up with new ideas for things to do indoors. This isn't the first games night I've been to in Liuzhou but it was the most fun... First, we had to come up with a suitable games list for the 11 attendees so, in order of simplest to most complex: Jenga, Heads Up and The Werewolves of Millers Hollow were on the menu. I'd never played The Werewolves of Millers Hollow before but it was a bit of a revelation, especially when I found out that you can play in a group of up to 47 people. I think the game is probably better as the number of players increases so hopefully we'll have more people in attendance next time to join in. We met at 窑埠古镇 Yaobu Old Town, a (somewhat counterintuitively) brand new development of bars, restaurants, shops and cafes along the riverfront. Our venue of choice was unexpectedly closed for the evening but, this being Liuzhou, there

Famous for being the busiest travel week of the year, when foreign residents who've spent any period of time in China will tell you to stay at home to avoid the crowds, 国庆节 National Day, or 黄金周 Golden Week, is a public holiday where seemingly the entire country leaves their villages and crowds into the cities and popular travel destinations. I experienced the holiday last year and, as such, decided to stay in Liuzhou this time, to avoid (not entirely successfully) being jostled and gawped at by tens of thousands of farmers. Besides, one of our members at Liuzhou Meet & Learn has some connections within the local tourism department and wanted some foreign volunteers to be taken around the city to attend the various events taking place. So, four members from our group set off to be photographed doing everything from walking around, to eating noodles, to being force fed tea by members of the local ethnic minority groups. One thing that is so seductive about living in a sm