China Day 7

The skies were overcast but the rains held off all day, which made for a glorious trip down the Li River. We loaded onto a river boat, along with hundreds of other people on a dozen or so other boats, and headed off down the river. With all the rain that had fallen in the past few days the river was well above flood stage. That meant that a trip that often takes four hours only took us about three.

There were frequent waterfalls along the river banks and every now and then there were small fishing villages, but mostly it was one spectacular view after another.

After a mediocre lunch buffet and delicious but overpriced steamed fish, we arrived in the quaint tourist town of Yangshuo. While Leslie, Cady and our guide Mark went shopping, Lee and I rented bikes and rode out of town. We came upon this odd little park that was planted with fields of flowers and featured a colorful tree full of plastic blossoms.

It was nice to get on the bikes, my favorite mode of transportation, but it was also pretty terrifying. The road out of town was mostly dominated by large tour buses that would fight each other for parking space in the bike lane and disgorge their passengers, whose only goal was to snap a few pictures and walk in front of the bikes as we tried to get around the buses. It was beautiful countryside but still it was a relief to get back to town where the traffic was a bit more predictable.

A big section of the center of the town was pedestrian streets lined with shops and restaurants. We found little cups of fabulous espresso, mango smoothies, trinkets, tea and crystalized honey candy. This gentleman shooed the bees off his pile of honeycomb before scooping the pieces into bags.

After dark the streets were jam-packed with people. We walked around with the crowds for awhile until the crush got overwhelming to the claustrophobes in our group (me in particular), but Cady was in her element.

The next day we drove back to Guilin to the airport. We were heading back to Kaohsiung and work while Leslie and Cady continued on for another five days of touring China. As a final goodbye, we were treated to a herd of water buffalo blocking the road.

One week is not enough time to spend in China so Lee and I have planned a second trip in June as we head back to the US.