This past week has been a holiday for most people in China and it seems that 90% of the 1.4 billion population has crowded into Liuzhou!
With crowds drawn by Luosifen initially, the city has become a wider gastronomic destination. People are piling in everywhere with long lines and waits of up to two hours outside most of the hundreds of luosifen shops.
All over Chinese social media are videos of people lining up to sample the delights of rice noodles in snail broth. The snails are moving faster than the lines.
The line outside my favourite, near my home, is now one of the longest and the locals' gruntle is decidedly dissed. We can't get our own food anymore!
Above is about 1/16th of the line. The shop has seating for 8 people.
But it's worse than that.
青云 (qīng yún) means 'clear sky' but is also the name of the city's oldest and largest street market and one of my favourite haunts.
Over the last week it has turned into purgatory.
Thousands of tourist sheep are cramming themselves into the narrow streets in search of 'authentic' Guangxi street food.
No one can do their regular shopping there anymore.
Hopefully, they'll all go home this weekend, but perhaps not.
🔥🔥🔥