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Published: March 12th 2007
Li River Cruise
The weather wasn't the greatest, but the scenery was amazing!We arrived in the small town of Young Shuo after spending one night in Guilin with our newly-made Italian friend Francesco. Earlier that day, we boarded a cruise boat for what was to be about a 5 hour cruise down the picturesque Li River. The weather hasn't been the greatest since arriving in China and this morning was no exception. Gray clouds covered the sky as far as our eyes could see. Despite this, the natural beauty of this place shone through. On both sides of the Li River, steep karst hills rose up from the green valleys and we took a great amount of photos from the boat's deck. Of course this cruise was a tourist trap and vendors actually paddled up to the boat on bamboo rafts and tried to sell us tacky merchandise by pressing their faces and articles against the boat's large windows! Eeeshh! Who really wants to buy a green, glass cabbage anyways?!?!? Koreans perhaps?
With a population of 40,000, Yang Shuo is considered very small by Chinese standards. The town of Yang Shuo is set between the towering karst hills and I'm sure once upon a time it was serene. The place is still
beautiful but I found the town to be very commerciallized, complete with loud discos pumping old-fashioned tracks late into the night, a KFC, massage parlors, shops selling way too much of everything and a ton of restaurants specializing in both western and Chinese dishes...breakfast was our favourite. Finally! Natural yogourt that's not sweetened!!! Korea take note! There also seems to be a lack of indoor heating in China thus far including restaurants and hotels. In restaurants, pans filled with coals are used but that does not do much as doors are always kept open. Brrrrr!
On our third day in Yang Shuo we rented bikes and ventured out into the countryside. Despite the fact that we had a map, we got lost and didn't see any of the landmarks we had planned to. Still, it was a great day of riding through sleepy villages and green fields beside the river. Of course we were never alone for too long. In this country there's always someone around. We rode for about 6 hours and were covered in mud from head to toe. After we decided that we had had enough and had no idea how to get out of the
Pesky Hawkers
These guys paddled up to our boat and stuck to the windows like leeches to hawk their crap. fields, a local farmer took us across the river in his bamboo raft (for a small price of course), mountain bikes and all! The timing was perfect since shortly after it started to rain. It was great to spend the day in the countryside away from the vendors and noise, even in a small town as this.
Next, we'll head back to Guilin for a few days, then head north towards Xi'an and Beijing. The food is still great and we're far from starving 😊 We've seen some great signs with hilarious "Chinglish" and will try to upload some soon....
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Natalie
non-member comment
Fried Rat and Dong...mmmm-MMM
Hahaha! You couldn't resist the poop-shot could you? You sick little puppies. Missing Korea I see. I love to hear about the food and culture. Looks like you are having a wonderful time. Great pictures and great smiles! We miss in Paju.