The Blithe Traveler

Li River Weddings

Wedding photos are a huge industry around here; people spend crazy amounts of money on fancy schmancy professionally art directed Wedding Books and Life Size Murals. The brides (and grooms!) rent just the right outfits (multiple!), accessories, backdrops and, if you require them, supporting players.

We came across three, count 'em, three wedding photo shoots while were were lazing along the river. This one was fairly average. Lovely couple, Classic Li River Karst Photographic Backdrops.


This couple was looking for the rustic background provided by a bucolic mud brick home; very tricky for the parties in question with all that white! The weather was fantastic; I'm guessing all three couples we encountered were pretty happy with the results of their photos shoots.
These folks, however, totally took the wedding cake for fab-o photo drama. You cannot help but to chortle at the violin (look closely at the photo - the groom is serenading his beloved). And as if having some of the most famous landscape in all of China in the background isn't enough ...
Here's the supporting cast. Nothing like having an entire minority village in full regalia as a backdrop in your wedding album.

No kidding, Jeff and I have talked about having a "Wedding Album" done here. I think it would be a total hoot, and one of the benefits of having it done in China is that I promise you the photographer would erase every single wrinkle and wory line the 8 years between wedding and now have produced. Odds are, we'd end up looking fresher and younger than we did in our real wedding photos.  

Tomorrow: More biking and bamboo rafting! Karsts, karsts, and more karsts! Plus some mud and water buffalos for diversity.

The Li River

Pretty, isn't it?
 

The scenery is why people come to Yangshuo. And scenery you shall see. The typical traveler hops on a ferry boat in Guilin and spends five or six hours on the Li River meandering through unbelievable karst topography. Given that it was raining on our travel day, we decided discretion was the better part of keeping warm and dry and took the bus. This did mean, however, that we needed to take a boat tour at some point in order to not miss the reason people come here. The karsts outside our Retreat window were lovely, of course, but the stuff we hadn't seen yet was calling our name.

The day dawned bright. Or maybe it dawned foggy and became bright; hey, who can remember that long ago?? But the point is, our day had come. We made our way into Yangshuo proper for a leisurely morning on a bamboo raft, and some lunch, and then, with the afternoon dwindling, we made the decision to head north to Xingping and spend a couple of hours around sunset on the river.

This sort of thing is easily arranged in Touristville, so we negotiated an acceptable rate for the following itinerary:
(a) Hop the public bus from Yangshuo to Xingping (about a 30 minute ride, 9 kuai for adults, kids are free).

(b) Be met by our own Personal Tuk-Tuk driver who would drive us to the port of disembarkation (2 kuai for all riders, stop at the public restroom no extra charge)
(c) Whereupon our very own Personal Bamboo Raft guide would then putt-putt along the river for a couple of hours landing back where we started. I would like to point out for those who are interested in verisimilitude, that the "bamboo" on this "bamboo raft," was actually PVC - painted to look like bamboo. No kidding. We did ride actual bamboo bamboo rafts later in the week, but our ride today was straight from the Xingping equivalent of Home Depot.

(d) Stalwart Tuk-tuk driver would then ferry us back to the public bus (another 2 kuai!)
(e) Public bus back to Yangshuo in time for Fine Dining. For those of you who think we are off in God's Country, please note that Jeff is checking his email while Tom snoozes on the way back to Yangshuo. Kudos to the public bus driver, by the way, who held the bus waiting for us to come back before he left for Yangshuo. We were busy snapping sunset photos while our poor Tuk-Tuk driver tried to herd us back.

So, it was fabulous and I highly recommend this sort of trip. Assuming one has taken the bus to Yangshuo, of course, and missed this bit on the way down.

 

Tom learned a basic knit stitch while we were traveling, so we worked a bit on our respective projects. Tom's is a scarf that should be done some time before the next millennium. Mine is a project that I have entitled "Monkey On My Back." I may discuss it at some point, when the travelogue dries up.

Breathtaking scenery, beautiful weather, yada yada.

 

This would be the reason our stalwart Tuk Tuk driver stopped at the public restrooms in Xingping: they are free. These beauties require 1 RMB if you wish to use them. I totally love that there are two: mens and ladies. Also note the local shops. Food and beverages were abundently available on the river. 

These water buffalo were not just bathing, they were dining! I did not know this, but the water buffalo are quite fond of the sort of plant that grows at the bottom of a body of water.

 
And now, if you have made it this far, a really interesting bit.

Below is a representation of a 20 RMB bill. Note the artwork?

Notice the resemblence?

We are leaving tomorrow for a Yangtze River cruise, so its seems the travelogue will go on forever. The ship has internet access (!!), so I am hoping to catch up at night when the children are sleeping. Until tomorrow!

Impression Liusanjie Show

So, remember the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony?

How fabulous, and gaudy, and over the top it was and the absolute smiling un-fierceness of the 13,256 drummers all banging on their drums and grinning like this was the best day of their lives?

As a matter of course, we don't watch television, but the Olympics are, IMHO, a big honking deal. And as such, deserve some attention. I think it is important, if your children are not exposed to "media" on a regular basis to make sure that they have some context in the Fabric of Life, and thus, we watched Googleplex hours of Televised Olympic Coverage, starting with the Opening Ceremony. I do think, in our defense, that it was a bit of an overload for our Media Un-enhanced brains, as we gave up and went to bed at some point far short of the actual Opening Ceremony ending.

Whatever, the children still talk about the Olympics, and Tom is determined to be the Next Michael Phillips [sic], focusing on Track and Field, Swimming, and Gymnastics, so, it's all good.

I mention all of this as a buildup to one of the most interesting spectacles I have had the privileged of witnessing live: the Impression Luisanjie Show. Directed by Zhang Yimous, the fellow responsible for the Beijing Opening Ceremony, the show is performed on what is described in the tourist literature as the world's largest natural stage. Here's a daylight photo:

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The green bits in the background are the seats. The show itself is performed on the water. The theater seats 2200 people; the show runs every single night of the year, with a three week break in January for the 500 dancers who make up the show. The theater was packed the night we saw it, and I can easily imagine it is booked solid most nights. I'm going to steal the following from the internet, because their hyperbole is so good.

This is a performance like you have never seen or experienced before.An area of 2 kms along Lijiang River and 12 peaks as stage setting, tighter with boundless sky, compose the Shanshui Theatre with mountains and rivers the largest natural theatre in the world. In this masterpiece of the creator, a brand-new performance on the natural stage setting of Guilin scenery is produced.

Unlike the traditional artificial stage performance, the performance on the natural stage is a great work of man and god. No one knows how long this picturesque scenery has been waiting in rain and mists. Is its graceful image made for us? Peaks appearing indistinctly, the reflection of mountains in the water, misty rain and the sound of charming in the bamboo forest, are all ready to join in the performance as interludes. Suddenly this makes us learn the miraculous charm of this performance: we only do half of the work while the other half is done by the creator whose improvisation makes each scene fresh to us.

And yet, it isn't really hyperbole. This was some serious performance s^&%. Here's a sample (photo stolen from the interwebz).

The director uses the karsts as background for his show. There is something unbelievably majestic about karsts lit up as the show's background. Really. It is astonishing to be sitting in complete dark and stillness, and then the show begins. The singers, sing and you hear every word as though they are sitting next to you (although you understand none of it, of course, because it is in Chinese), and suddenly, the karsts light up. Heady stuff.

The story is pretty simple (and take this with a grain of salt, 'cause lets face it, I am not exactly the expert on Chinese theatre); lovely girl who sings well gets into an argument with her landlord and leaves town (via bamboo raft). She sings her way downriver, where she finds Yangshuo and discovers an entire people who are also battling with their landlords. They peasants rise against the landlords, and they begin dueling in song. The peasants are better singers than the landlords, and so win. The lovely singing lady falls in love, and every one lives happily ever after.

The sound and lighting systems are amazing, as are the costumes, and the performers. Here is a photo Jeff took of the peasants uprising.

You are looking at something like 50 guys on bamboo boats dragged large sheets of fabric through the water and then lifting and dropping them in rhythm, while singing. It was also so beautifully and perfectly done, although I suppose if you are performing the same thing 340-odd nights in a row, you might get quite good at it.

The last bit of the show has literally hundreds of ladies all dressed in costumes that light up drifting across the watery stage on small boats. They sing, hold hands, dance, and their lights flash on and off. It is amazing, particularly when the lights go out.  Anyway, however you slice it, we were blown away. The whole show was totally over the top in an astonishing, awe inspiring kind of way. At least, Tom, Hope and I were. Jeff tends to be a little more blase about this sort of thing. I think he kind of likes the karsts to just be, you know, karsts. And maybe not back drops for someone's possibly-hooka-inspired fantastical light fantasy.

But, if you get to Guilin or Yangshuo, the Light Show is a must, must, must. Totally, totally worth it (188 RMB for adults, half price for Tom, Hope was free, if you were curious; that's something south of $30US per for grown ups). And with that, we headed home for a good night sleep. The plan for the next day was, weather permitting, boating on the Li River. I'll clue you in: the sun brightened our lives for another day - the photos are amazing. More tomorrow!

And The Sun Shone Upon Us Part 2

Whew! We haven't even gotten to lunch yet on Yangshuo Day 1. Unfortunately, this post is going to turn into a three part-er, as we attended a show in the evening that truly deserves its own post. Onward!

We left the Old Town, heading for an Old Bridge. The Dragon Bridge is reported to be 800 years old. I suspect this report is false, as our guide indicated that while the original bridge was built 800 years ago, the present bridge is of a more recent vintage. It was a beautiful old bridge, whether 8 or 800 years old, so let's take a look, shall we?

And look, here's a photo of us on the bridge! A friendly person snapped this shot for us. Xie, xie, whoever you were! The hats, while a tad on the tragic side, were necessary. Tom left the hotel without his sun hat (I put it on his head, I turned my back, he took it off; these things happen), and started to fry shortly into our ride. While I would generaly eschew this sort of thing, the hats really are prefect for travel - they were cheap, fold flat, covered the backs of their tender white necks, and the wee children enjoyed wearing them.
The river Li (Dragon River, hence, Dragon Bridge) was peaceful and quiet this far north of Yangshuo
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There were bamboo boats available if you wanted to take the slow route back down, but our guide indicated we were about a four hour boat, or about 20km from the hotel. Sounded boring, and as we were quite famished at this point, so we headed over to the local restaurant for lunch.
And there it is! That bit floating out on the water with people sitting in it. This is a tourist area, remember, so even this far away from Tourist Central, the niceties of life are available for the foreigner. Yes, the menu was in English. The food was simple, but quite good, possibly the best meal I had in the area.
 
And the children (all of them) really enjoyed dining alfresco. Wait, what's Italian for "on the water?"
The downside of life in the country, however, is that the conditions might not be exactly what your intenstinal tract is used to at home. Yes, this is where they wash the dishes. I forget who exactly got sick that night/next day, but given that everyone except Hope succumbed to some form of Gastro-Apocalypse, it is entirely possible that this restaurant had something to do with it. Whatever. The food was good while we ate it.
Happily stuffed, we hopped back on our bikes for the pedal home. Can you spot the satelight dish?

The road back was a little rougher than the road to the Dragon Bridge. Maybe "cow track" would be a better word than "road," but our simple, but reasonably sturdy bikes managed just fine. I would say that a montain hybrid would be a better choice for this sort of biking, but they didn't have any of those available with childseats.
The countryside was gorgeous and the farms beautifully taken care of.

 

Tomorrow: The Yangshuo Light Show

And The Sun Shone Upon Us

Our first full day in Yangshuo dawned foggy, but cleared to be a lovely sunshiny day.We had booked a guide for the day to take us biking. The plan as it had been communicated was that we were going to spend the day riding our bikes around the countryside, stop at a farmer restaurant in an old town for lunch, and head back to our Retreat, exhausted, sunburned and happy.

The good bit about going to Touristville for vaca is that they are set up for people like us. While biking with small children can be challenging, we didn't have any trouble getting equipment that made it possible.

The boy would engage Kid Power when required, but generally seemed content to coast along. Who can blame him?? I'm figuring in a few years when they have graduated to their own bikes and I can get a tandem with Jeff, the back seat might be a fine place to hide out.

The girlfriend got to take naps. Now if I can manage that one in a few years, we'll have a total win.

The biking trail takes you along the Yulong River (a tributary of the major river, the Li that runs through the area). The river winds its way between two huge karst formations; you get to see the gorgeous scenery without every having to bike up or down any hills.

We are probably ten kilometers outside of Yangshuo proper at this point. It is amazing how different the countryside is. The farming areas are beautifully cared for and we were fascinated watching the various farming techniques. Water buffalos were still in frequent use, although later on in the week we did come across a lucky fellow who had a ride on roto-tiller. Now that was a machine!

The week we were traveling was not only the week before Easter, but it was the weekend of Tomb Sweeping Day, a national holiday, so the area was packed with travelers. The majority of Chinese only had a long weekend for the holiday, so things cleared out later in the week, but the day of our bike ride was busy. We biked about 20 minutes or so, dodging people coming back from early morning rides, and our guide headed over to a bamboo raft "dock." The idea is that you can rent a raft to take you (and your bicycle) back downstream.

Or you can send your bike back via truck, if that more suits your fancy.

Since we (meaning "I", if you were the sort who is fond of verisimilitude) had planned on spending the entire day on our bikes, I was more than a little put out that our guide wanted to send us back into the tourist fray so early. There was some kind of communication problem, but in her defense, once we explained that we had no interest in visiting the sites closer to Yangshuo, but were looking to get as far away as possible, we headed off to bike further into the countryside.

Our next stop was Jiuxian, an ancient town. The town is still populated today by about 20 families, but some of the buildings are reputed to be 800 or more years old. Riding through the rice fields with passengers was a little challenging,



but we didn't lose either child along the way.
Forgive me as I lapse into posting a series of photos. The scenery was spectacular, the weather complimented the day perfectly and the few people we ran into at this point were friendly and for the most part not trying to sell us anything.
Although, ancient is as ancient does? Can you find the television in this picture?
So peaceful.
 
One of the nicest things about this trip were the smells. China can sometimes be a bit overwhelming olfactory-ily for the fussy westerner, but on this trip, we were flooded with spring farming smells. I, for one, loved smelling actual water buffalo manure, instead of stinky bean curd, and there was something just intoxicating about the oily, citrusy smell of the orange orchards we passed.



A quick rest break,
And then we were off again.
More tomorrow.

Karstville, China

Moving right along, we were planning on Day 2 to get our butts to Yangshou, but decided to visit the Seven Star Park first.
Some smaller scale karsts, up close and personal. And maybe sponsored by McDonald's?

The park was quite close to our hotel, and it seemed like a great option. See the pokey up bit on the karst farthest to the right that if you squint the right way looks like it might be a pagoda on the top of a karst? It is. That's where we're going. The photo was taken from our hotel window.
Poor Hope was quite intimidated by the idea of karst climbing. The things are rather large and looming in real life, with sheer faces, bushes sides and tops way, way over our little heads. So, she was not excited about the idea of climbing
The girl was quite relieved to discover that the karsts come with stairs. Okay, not all karsts come with stairs, but the one we were planning to climb certainly did. The view from up top, despite the less than ideal weather, was still spectacular.
The karsts in the far background line the Li river.

"Hi!" Obligatory family photo - many thanks to the individual who took the photo. His girlfriend got a photo with Hope in exchange. Hope's started charging 5 kuai for a photo, so he got a good deal.
 
Seven Star Park is filled to the brim with entertainments; the sort of thing we are pretty used to, but might just strike the average non-China dweller as being a bit off-kilter. When was the last time you had your photo taken with the peacocks?
We declined a photo. As I mentioned above, we are starting to charge for photos, so paying for them seems wrong somehow. 

And then it was time to head off for Yangshuo. The generally accepted route is to hop a ferry and spend five or six hours chugging upstream, viewing the incredible scenery. Given the weather, we decided an 80 minute bus ride was more to our liking, with the idea that we would chose a nicer weather day to tour the river. This worked out superbly well, and I am rather glad we took the bus.

Now, Yangshuo is billed as being a fairly bucolic place. A place where one can kick back, enjoy the beautiful scenery biking, rafting or hiking. However, I had failed to read the fine print. Yangshuo the town, is a tourist haven. And the travel guides clearly say that; I just missed that bit as I drooled over the landscape, the biking trails and the quiet solitude offered outside of town.

In truth, Yangshuo was a tiny bit depressing. There were huge numbers of vendors taking advantage of any westerner who wandered by; while there are lots of people like ourselves who come here who live in China, Yangshuo is also a destination for people coming to China on holiday from western environs. And it just seemed like the place was set up to cater more to that set. So, there were lots of western food options, most of which offered a choice between mediocre western style food and  tragically dumbed down Chinese dishes. The best analogy I can come up with is honky tonk Myrtle Beach crossed with Chinatown.

 

What is it with McDonald's sponsored karsts??

The good bit about all that touristy stuff was that it was quite easy to feed the children. Tom ate pizza just about every day, and Hope was happy to dig into Yangshuo version of Sweet and Sour chicken (which  probably tastes just like the Sweet and Sour Chicken you get at the Great Wall Chinese place down the block, as opposed to the more typical Chinese Chinese food.).

And we did browse amongst the many souvenir vendors, although with limited success. The price of knowing what the real price of things should be is that sometimes you end up leaving without! There were some porcelain beads that would have nicely complimented a project I am currently working on. 15 quai would have been more than fair for them, and is probably four times what they are worth, but the vendor started at 80! I got a bit terse with her when she refused to come down below 70! Talk about fleecing the tourists! I left without the beads.

But luckily for us, the hotel we booked was outside of town. Far outside of town. Far enough outside that we left the tourist bit behind. We hopped in a tuk-tuk, negotiated down to the rate the hotel told us was appropriate, and headed off to the Dragon River Retreat.


I loves me a tuk-tuk. It was a good 9km ride, with Mr. Tuk-tuk driver trying to set a tuk-tuk landspeed records.

Here's the Retreat. I swipped this photo from their web-site. It's a nice place and we really enjoyed our time there. I do have other reccos, though, if you are going to be in the area.
And here's the Dragon River in the backyard of the Retreat. Now this is more like it. Reasonably peaceful, if you don't include the bamboo rafts drifting down the river. Note the little blue tarp tent in the background. More on those later.

Here's the view out of our room the first morning; a  farmer plowing with his water buffalo (squint a bit, he's there, I promise):
Very peaceful indeed.

Guilin

Near as I can figure, the only real reason to go to Guilin is to take a boat to Yangshuo. Which is not to say that there aren't really interesting and fun things to do in Guilin, however, the real show is downstream. This knowledge is hindsight, though, so bear with me as I show you around Guilin a bit.

Guilin was correctly described by all of our pre-trip sources as being a bit of a tricky place for the foreign tourist. It is a Chinese Tourist Mecca, and as such, is set up to lure in the unwary traveler and trade large sums of money for a as little in return as possible. Forewarned is forearmed, as they say, although since we move through our nomadic life with wariness as a mantra, we are generally unmolested, or at least unperturbed by those who seek the unprepared.

I had to cackle when driving from the airport, our taxi driver, who spoke not a word of English dialed a number, chatted for a bit (of course while driving us! hello! have you been paying attention for the past eighteen months??), and then handed the phone to Jeff. I had made most of the travel arrangements, so Jeff listened puzzled for a second, then handed the phone to me. "Maybe she called our hotel?" he said.

Nope. She had contacted an English (excellent English, I might add) language travel guide to chat with us about our plans for the week. No kidding. You have got to love that kind of entrepreneurism.

The scenery is the thing in this part of China, with karsts and caves topping the list of must sees. Karsts, if you are unfamiliar with the term, are impossible to miss once you have arrived. They are enormous limestone formations that line the Li River, jutting up at gorgeous and impossible angles, providing a scenic backdrop that must be seen to be believed. Arriving at night as we did, I was amazed that even in the dark, I could see the karsts poking up through the otherwise completely flat landscape. If I were more of a wordsmith, I am sure I could dazzle you with some H.G.Wellian sort of description, but let's leave it at "they were really kewl." 

Here's a rainy sneak peak at the karst topography - more to come, I assure you. 

Unfortunately, our time in Guilin was a bit rainy. Fortunately, the second awesome thing to do in Guilin is visit caves. Reed Flute Cave is one of the key sites to see, so, packing our rain gear, off we went. The cave is a quite large limestone hollow inside of a karst. The cave is beautifully lit inside; with fascinating limestone formations.

Petrified Forest

Flower and Fruit Mountain. Hmmm. Looks more like Magic Melting Mushrooms to me.

The Stage Curtain

Lighting helps, of course, but in general I could easily see where the name of a formation came from. The "Crystal Palace" was all that and more. It's an enormous underground area, which apparently housed thousands of people during airraids during the Second World War. It is now a play area complete with light show and ...

This photo is a reflection of the stalactite in an underground pool of water. It was a stunning visual.

Bubbles!
 
The tour lasted less than an hour and three of our party found it fascinating and great fun. Alas, I think this was Hope's favorite Cave Formation.
This was a random, intriguing bit outside the cave. I'm not a structural engineer, but using a tree as building support seem kind of, um,  temporary?
So, I should write more, as I am so far behind, but the day is sunny, life is good, and the photos are just daunting! More tomorrow.

Speechless

There are about 14 spackagillion bytes of photos to go through, so please bear with me. We returned to Our Fair City this evening delighted to be home, quite layered with grime and a few pounds lighter. The trip was overall a great success, although there were moments that we would all love to put behind us; most involving that snail trail of sick that we seem to leave behind us wherever we travel.

But, hey, that's how it goes motoring around China. Some days your intestines can take it, some days, they can't.

I'll leave you with a few random images, while I go check the laundry and begin to go through the millions and millions of photos. I can't promise to do the the geography we covered during this trip justice, but I can promise to make you just the tiniest bit jealous.
I checked dictionary.com. It really does mean "to feign illness." This was a sign for the locker room to the hot spring we visited in Longsheng. Malingers indeed! The trip to Guilin, then Yangshuo and finally the Longsheng/Longjaing areas took us through some incredible scenery. And some rather intensely commercial tourist areas.
No kidding! But c'est le vie!, as we are wont to say. One can stop, browse and buy. Or not, as one would like. Confluence. Now there's a word you don't see every day.
 
I'll start tomorrow in Guilin at the Reed Flute Cave, and slowly wind our way down the Li River. Please be patient. Believe me, the photos are worth the wait.

Zhonghuamen

Zhonghuamen is the gate to the city Wall. It's a fun little place to explore and an easy bus ride from where we live. Here's a link if you want more info, and a few filler photos while I am hopefully off having a terrific time in Yangshuo: Zhonghuamen

The view from the top. The gate was originally built over a 1000 years ago, and has been destroyed many times during the history of Our Fair City. In its current incarnation, it does not guard the city from crazed bus drivers and errant taxi drivers, but there is a nice view on a clear-ish day.
If you were to come visit us, we would probably bring you here as part of a walking tour of the area. From here, you can wander through the hutangs (community housing), head over to Fuzi Maio for a little touristy bargain shopping, then cool your heels at Starbucks at the nearby Aquacity Mall, if you were so in the mood.
It is not a large scenic area, but even on a beautiful weekend afternoon, it was peaceful and quiet.
The bonsai garden.
Posing with a warrior. It's kind of interesting and maybe a little ironic that the place is seemingly sponsored by Kia, the Korean car manufacturer. I'm not sure what the sponsorship is all about, but when you got to the top, there was a huge 3-D fabric car on display. No photos of that, alas. Perhaps we are jaded??
 

Some Random Girlfriend Out and About Town Photos

We're in Guilin. And I don't have my computer with me. I would have liked to have had a few blog postings lined up to go while we were gone, but seems that was not meant to be. There will be a few scattered postings, but there will be a few days without much of anything new going on here. But, for your viewing pleasure, some of Hope's recent outfits:
In all fairness, she was at a birthday party while wearing this particular Princess Outfit. She made the necklace herself. Pink, pink pearls are a girl's best friend. She has quite a few of these cute little dresses. I made a run to Golden Bridge a few weeks ago and picked up four or five of them for about 25RMB each (a little more than $3US). She loves them, and truthfully, so do I. She can dress up to her heart's content, and if she gets it too dirty, off into the bin it goes!
The Native American Princess. This is in fact the outfit that she wore in the Halloween chapter in my last book! Good noticing, Ann. I bought them large a few years back. Good thing, since we now use them at International Day at school. Nothing like a bunch of seriously white people of European Decent dressing up like Native American's in China to celebrate our American-ness. It's a little wacky. This next one is tricky. We were off to spend the morning with friends. She was the only girl in attendance. Can you guess?
 
Yup. She's dressed like a boy.

Here, she's a girl again. This outfit was sent over by her cousin Emma. Hope quite loves it, so you may see a few more of these crop up in her spring and summer wardrobe.