So after uploading all of these photos months ago, the thought occurred to me that maybe it'd be nicer if I made short more frequent posts... but I can't split this into multiple posts w/o having to re-upload all of the photos... so for now, this is uber-mega-post.
Basically I (and 100 other people, westerners and Chinese) took a boat down the Li river from Guilin to Yangshuo. I was a little annoyed at the weather (humid, hot, muggy, and terrible lighting for picture taking) and the fact that independent travel in China is about as foreign a concept as ... oh, white people. And so your options for exploring the Li river essentially consisted of when do you want leave on a giant boat - they all left between like 10am and 11am and finished between 2pm and 3pm.
Guilin has been like the number 1 place I've wanted to visit... since high school I believe. I'm pretty sure my desire to go was due in large part to having watched the movie The Painted Veil (which I highly recommend to everyone over the age of... 16, and fast forward through one scene). Anyways, Guilin is also the part of China people most typically associate with the country and so I was excited to see it. I think, however, that I got my hopes a little too high and my assumptions a little too picturesque.
While Guilin is indeed a wonderfully beautiful place, something about the fact that thousands, if not tens of thousands of tourists cruise down the Li River every day takes away from its natural beauty. If you were able to visit Guilin and Yangshuo back in the 1920's as is depicted in The Painted Veil, it would no doubt be one of the most spectacular places in the world... but it's just a little hard to enjoy all of the natural wonder with thousands of other people scurrying about.
That said, I managed to snap some cool pictures. Without further ado:
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| See all the boats! |
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| Cave! There are dozens of caves. Never got to go in one, but they looked cool |
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| The man in the middle is the main character of a substantially long and interesting story which I don't quite have the time to type up right now |
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| hahahaha The Chinese Po-Po speeding along |
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| Probs my favorite scene of the whole river... if it weren't for the boats. |
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| This boat catered to Chinese tourists only. They're making the lunch out on the back. What to do with leftovers and trash? Throw it off the back of course! |
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| This (mountain on the right) might be the infamous 9 Horse Hill, or was it the 8 Cow Mound? or the 7 Buffalo Mountain? Chinese people are experts at seeing things in otherwise mundane scenery, much like the ancient Greeks and their stars. |
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| See the 9 horses?! Apparently Bill Clinton only saw 4. |
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| Jk, THIS is my favorite scene... again, the boats. |
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| Who took a panorama on a moving boat and had it come out decent? I did. |
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| Favsies |
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much better.
check out Jack on the left. He was our handy tour guide who also doubled as a ticked salesman, dang was he good. You have him to thank for my activities during the rest of the day. |
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| Best. Look how dramatic I look with my windswept hair! |
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| Ooh look! a pagoda! |
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| You'd be amazed at what people still do in the rivers in China. Fishing is the least of your worries. |
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| Beautiful Yangshuo |
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| Escape! This many people get off a boat every 5 - 10 minutes here. |
Ok so Jack The Tour Guide conned me into buying a ticked to go on the Dragon River (I think) which I actually enjoyed and it wasn't too much of a rip off, so he didn't
really con me. Anyways, Dragon River runs under Dragon Bridge (which is supposedly 600 years old) which is next to Dragon Village (also 600 years old)... I find that somewhat hard to believe (the village part) ... but lets pretend together.
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| 600 year old bricks |
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| 600 year old wall |
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| 600 year old wooden door?! |
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| 600 year old clothes line. |
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| The Dragon River is brought to you by the letter D, and Red Bull! |
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| Dragon Bridge! ... and Red Bull. See the umbrellas? Free Market capitalism is alive and well in China |
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| Mr. Jack pushes along |
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| Jk, I forgot. Mr. Jack TTG was a passenger, this is just Mr. Rafter Pusher |
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| Water Buffalo! Also, it is raining |
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| Kinda nice. |
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| Water buffalos swim away! |
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| Oh Nihao! |
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| Grass island in the middle of the Dragon River... does that makes this the Dragon Island?! |
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Mr. Water Buffalo Herder
notice his traditional Chinese bag full of corn husks... |
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| noms |
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waterfall!
(its like 12 inches tall, bee-tee-dubs) |
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| See! Traditional Chinese Bag! |
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| the white man in the middle of the picture wayyyyyyy up there ^^^ that I said was part of a story... he's a semi-professional photographer (I think) and he was wayyy not into the whole not-authentic stuff, so I used my broken Chinese to borrow the bag from Mr. Buffalo Herder so we could get some nicer pictures :) |
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| Jack! Also my French friend and our Swiss/Irish/German (I forget) lady friends |
The End!!!
