Syd's birthday on the Li River

    July 3rd was basically a travel day.  We loaded our bags and carried them back down the hill at Longji.  Actually I lied, when we went to leave the hotel we found 4 women waiting to carry our bags back down the hill. Word of our departure must have been leaked. We paid them each 50 yuan to carry our bags back down the hill. I suppose we could have argued that carrying them down hill was easier and should come with a discount but we didn't. It was totally worth it to be able to relax and enjoy the walk down the hill and through the village back to the car park. From there it was a couple hours drive back to Guilin.
   Our hotel in Guilin was still in the center of the city but about a mile from the old one. This one was in a neighborhood full of restaurants. There was also a night market right in front of the hotel. Truth is Taiwan does night markets probably as well or better than anyone so this one seemed pretty weak in comparison. Still it was nice to walk around. We ate dinner in a local restaurant which supposedly specialized in Guilin cuisine. Interestingly it had an English name on the menu, "Forrest Gump Restaurant" That was not the name on the outside sign. I'm betting neither the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company nor Paramount are receiving any royalties but the food was good. As we were walking the neighborhood we walked by two bakeries that had birthday cakes. Sydney was hitting us up hard to buy her a cake for her 16th birthday. We pretended we were terrible thoughtless parents and told her that it was a waste of money to buy a whole cake when we were hitting the road in the morning. In the end we consented to buy her a single slice of cake and told her there would be no presents on the 4th because we had no room in our luggage.
    The next morning we met our guide and headed off for our cruise down the Li river to Yangshuo. This is one of the most scenic areas of China. The unique mountains around the river have been the subject of Chinese paintings for centuries. They have also been immortalized on the back of the 20 yuan bill. On a more modern note, still photos of the mountains were used as backdrops for the wookie planet Kashyyyk in Star Wars III.  The cruise down the river really was beautiful. Perhaps only marred by the shear number of people on the river. Our boat was one of many double and triple decker boats proceeding single file down the river. These are the 4 star boats which serve tea and snacks early on and lunch later. Most of these do the full 4-5 hour cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo. Intermixed amongst these are the smaller single deck enclosed boats that generally do one or two hours cruises on various parts of the river. Then scattered amongst those are the small open air rafts made out of PVC pipe and designed to look like the old bamboo rafts that used to ply the river. We spend most of our time on the roof top deck marveling at the scenery with short trips down below for food, air conditioning, or for Syd's birthday.  I had actually arranged weeks ago for our guide to pick up a birthday cake and candles for Syd. Margaret had put together a gift pack composed of a collapsible backpack full of gifts. These included a journal, stickers, hair curlers, and a gift certificate for the Adidas design your own shoes web site. Turns out we weren't such bad parents after all.

The 20 yuan bill

Happy Birthday Syd!

Nine Horses Fresco Hill. You are supposed to see 9 horses in the white patches. I maybe see one in the top center.

When we landed in Yangshuo we went on a brief tour. This consisted of a short walking tour of Yangshuo itself. I'm sure its a very nice town and certainly the surroundings are truly beautiful but Yangshuo itself has been a tourist destination for 30 years, initially backpackers, later other western tourists, and now thousands of Chinese tourists. So its full of souvenir shops, bars, nightclubs, weird museums, and all things designed to separate tourists from their money. It reminded me of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Perhaps the best example of this are the cormorant fisherman. These fisherman traditionally used cormorants to catch small fish. Now there almost none of them left as the fish have disappeared and the fishermen aged without new ones learning the trade. What is left are men with pet cormorants who dress like fishermen and pose with tourists as they get off the boats in Yangshuo. As our guide said, "They used to use the birds to catch fish, now they use them to catch tourists."  After we left Yangshuo we got a short tour of the country side. We walked down a farm lane looking at all the crops being grown by the local farmers. The scenery here was every bit as amazing as the scenery in the tourist areas of Yangshuo. We stopped at a local couples home. They gave us a brief tour of their home and gave us some peanuts they had grown.

That night after checking into our hotel we went to see a show recommended by our guide. It was called "Impression Sanjie Liu" and was based loosely on a Zhuang myth about a fairy named Sanjie Liu. The show was conceived by Zhang Yimou who is perhaps one of the best known modern film directors in China. He has gone in and out of favor at times with the government depending on the political perception of his films but right now at least he seems to be in favor. The show itself is sort of a bit like a Cirque du Soleil show but with acres of water as the stage, mountains as the backdrop, and 600 local performers. Audience was pretty typical of what we have seen. Recording the show on their cellphones even when explicitly asked not to. Also talking on their phones during the show. We shushed the rude ladies next to us when they got too loud but they weren't the only one. Still a unique theater experience