Our new local guide, Rose, met us at the Guilin airport. She accompanied us on the cruise down the Li River to Yangshuo and back to Guilin, a beautiful city of parks, rivers and lakes. Rose was as charming as she was efficient.
Dramatic limestone pinnacles called karsts, sometimes rising as high as 980 feet above the shoreline, line the banks of the beautiful Li River from Guilin to Yangshuo. Outside the village of Yangshuo, they form a dramatic backdrop at the final destination of the scenic cruise.
Along the Li River, the landscape seems lifted out of some ancient Chinese scroll painting. Bamboo groves, banana trees, and karsts bent into imaginary shapes such as nine horses galloping, the head of a dragon with gaping jaws, or a traditional Chinese penholder, are all part of the intriguing beauty, myths and lore of the river.
Here a fisherman is selling his live fish to our boat's cook. After making the sale, he tosses the live bundle of fish aboard. They reappear as a delicacy on the lunchtime buffet table. (One interesting sidebar: As I watched the fishermen, I overheard a dapper English-speaking Chinese man beside me on the deck describe how fishermen used tame cormorant birds to catch fish for them by wrapping a collar around their neck to make them regurgitate caught fish. I asked the gentleman where he had learned his beautiful English. To my surprise he said he was born in Shanghai, moved to Taiwan at the age of six, and then emigrated to America at the age of 20 and earned a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering at Kansas State University. As we chatted, I learned that he and his party of five Chinese couples standing nearby all lived in Bethesda and Gaithersburg, MD---just a few minutes away from my house! Furthermore, in another coincidence, his regulatory post at the Dept.of Energy took him frequently to Los Alamos, NM and Rocky Flats, CO where my youngest son Doug had worked on nuclear issues for a long time. (It's a small world; you soon learn when you travel!)
Tame cormorants sit on their perches on the rafts, awaiting orders from their fishermen owners to dive for fish. The are trained to return to their masters after catching a fish.
The most extraordinary Light & Sound Spectacle I have ever seen occurred the night of our Li River cruise. The panoramic show featured over 600 dancers and singers, bamboo rafts and water buffalo, village workers on wooden carts, 200-foot silk banners, and the sun, moon and stars-- all seeming to float on the black waters of the Li River as part of the pageantry. The enormous limestone cliffs formed a spectacular nighttime backdrop to the entire display. The province had hired Ang Lee, the famed film producer of "Crouching Tiger" and more recently, "Lust, Caution" to write, direct and produce this mammoth production. He designed the extravaganza to attract spectators to a 3,000 seat stadium on the Li River in Yangshuo, and he succeeded brilliantly. Shimmering spotlights and beautiful surround-sound music backed up spectacular dancing and dramatic story telling as the 600 performers reenacted myths and ancient tales of the region. In the most spectacular pageant of the evening a mass of 200-foot-long magenta silk banners unfolded in consecutive waves across the black water, rippling like vivid ocean waves in the wind. The light and sound show presented an unforgettable display of creative talent.
Rose was acquainted with the proprietor of a small farm guesthouse a few miles outside of Yangshuo. She arranged for the family to serve a special dinner for just Jean and me. Again, more food than we could ever consume filled the table, but we tried to take a taste from every dish.
At the end of the Li River trip, everyone disembarks at Yangshuo and strolls along West Street, the big shopping street for tourists. A little boy in a stall waits there for his mother.
At the end of the Li River After the river cruise, we returned to Guilin to our hotel on the Peach Blossom River. We spent a lovely day exploring the flower-filled parks and limestone caves along the river. At Elephant Trunk Hill these ladies joined us for a picture.
We spent our last few days in China exploring Shanghai, China's largest city. Wandering along crowded streets, we came across this ancient back alley street. With giant cranes at work everywhere in the city, many of these ancient neighborhoods will disappear before long.
We celebrated our last full day in China in a flurry of activities. We enjoyed a final tea ceremony in an historic Shanghai tea house. We strolled along the historic Bund, the riverside promenade on the Huangpu River, where we saw grandiose classical buildings that were symbols of western commercial power in the past and across the river, towering metal and glass skyscrapers. We joined the mobs of tourists walking across the Old City's bizarre zigzag bridge, built that way "because evil spirits can't turn corners."
We finished the day at the "Shanghai Acrobats" show, an extravaganza of music, dance, and acrobatic feats, ending with a performance of on-stage motorcycle tricks that left us breathless.
