China Day 5

We flew from Beijing to Guilin. Not much to say about that, just like you want when you fly. Our drive to the airport was interesting though. The roads were being closed as we drove along. Presumably some uppity-up in the government was going to be driving through soon. Our timing was perfect since we were just early enough to not get stuck behind the barricades and the roads were virtually empty. It took us about 20 minutes to drive what would normally have taken up to two hours with normal traffic. The wait at the airport was, therefore, abnormally long but we made friends with a young woman who teaches Chinese to non-native speakers and was thrilled to practice her English with us, especially with Cady.

When we arrived we were greeted by our guide who whisked us off to the obligatory stop at Elephant Rock along the Li River.

If you ever find yourself in Guilin, China feel free to skip this stop on the itinerary. We did have a nice walk through an odd little park along the river and I took pictures of the signs that I found amusing.

China Day 6

The day alternated between drizzly, torrential rain and simply overcast but it turned out to be perfectly fine weather to drive out to Longsheng and the beautiful terraced fields in the mountains. Our driver was both cautious and aggressive and managed to get us two hours up into the countryside without taking forever, as we got stuck behind overloaded delivery trucks, and without driving us over the edge of the cliffs that lined one side of the road.

It was worth the drive.

We walked uphill for a couple of hours and were rewarded with gorgeous views through the mist and clouds of endless terraces of rice. The terraces were dug into the hillsides hundreds of years ago and are still being used today.

At the highest point of our hike we stopped at a little shop and had ginger tea.

On our way back down we had lunch at a restaurant that was perched on the side of the mountainside. The fog had really moved in and it felt like we were floating in the clouds. I was pretty hungry and the food was great so all I got for a photo was the aftermath.