Day 6 -- Yangshuo, Guangxi
When we were here in 1988, we took a river cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo. It was quite impressive and lasted about three to four hours. We even had lunch on the boat at that time. It was quite a scenic cruise and we enjoyed every moment of it. This time around we rode the bus from Guilin to Yangshuo for a much shorter cruise. I remember Yangshou was just a tiny village then but now it is a very busy and touristy town. Just like Lijiang in Yunnan Province, there are many back-packers from different countries visiting here.
On one of the main streets of Yangshuo.
After we parked at the restaurant where we would have lunch that day, our guide lead us through the town to the main shopping street--West Street. I thought this covered bridge between two buildings was quite interesting.
West Street (Xijie Pedestrian Street) down the road.
Lots of shopping opportunities here with good prices. We spent about an hour here. I bought an embroidered apron for 10 yuan that says "Guilin" in the front, a couple of 'pashiminas' for 30 yuan each, a big bag of fresh peanut candies to take home, and MOR bought a nice picture book of Guangxi with a DVD included for 20 yuan. We thought they were pretty good buys.
We bought some freshly baked "Shorty Pastries" to try and they were delicious! We wanted to try the ones with osmanthus flowers filling, but were told that they were still making them and won't be ready until that afternoon. We could have gone back there that afternoon because the hotel had shuttles going there regularly. A few in our group did just that and spent more time there that afternoon.
The very friendly owner. This place looked very clean.
A temple on the top of the hill right in town.
Lunch. We figured that the bamboo rice was just fried rice placed inside the bamboo for decoration. Check out that lemon chicken dish and the egg rolls.
Next up was the river cruise on Lijiang. The scenery of karst topography is the main attraction in this area.
As we were walking to the boat dock, we were taken into this workshop where they demonstrated how they make fan paintings. They made the fan in just a few minutes time. We were told that this is a family-run business passed down through many generations. They did everything themselves including the paintings.
The living quarters right next to the workshop.
One of the boats on the river.
We stayed on the top deck of the boat for better views.
Beautiful!
We were fortunate that it did not rain during the cruise.
With Summer, our local guide.
The private boat for bus #1.
Back to the dock after a little over an hour on the river.
Arrived at our hotel-- Yangshuo Jasper International Hotel. Our guide had warned us that the hotels for the next three nights may not be as nice as those in the big cities but they are the best in the area. Were we disappointed? No, they turned out to be just fine.
Actually we got into this room by mistake. After I took these pictures, we were switched back to a room with a king bed instead. They looked the same though except our room was on the front side of the building three floors up.
This room is on the back side of the hotel where we could see apartments outside the window.
"Impression Liu San Jie"
After having our dinner at the hotel restaurant, we were taken to the "Impression Liu San Jie" show. This was an optional show that we had to pay extra for ($45). Our travel agent actually paid for our tickets as an early Christmas gift when she booked the tour for us.
They had checked beforehand that the show would go on that night because of the unpredictable rain. They told us that shows on the three previous nights were canceled so they had to take care of those people first on the first show. We were scheduled for the second show which started at 9PM.
I must say that it was an impressive show with many performers. The backdrops of the karst mountains and the water made it even more dramatic. The problem was that there was no English explanation or description at all throughout the show, not even a flyer to tell about the story. Not knowing the story line it was quite difficult to understand what was going on. It was more like a guessing game for us as we watched these people moving about in their shiny costumes on stage or in the water. It was certainly a beautiful show though.
It was really late as we came out from the show and it was nice going back to our comfortable hotel room for the night.
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