Qing Ming Festival-Last Day in Yangshuo

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This is why we got another long weekend in China.

The Qingming festival falls on the first day of the fifth solar term, named Qingming. Its name denotes a time for people to go outside and enjoy the greenery of springtime and tend to the graves of departed ones.

Qingming has been regularly observed as a statutory public holiday in Taiwan and in the Chinese jurisdictions of Hong Kong and Macau. Its observance was reinstated as a public holiday in mainland China in 2008, after having been previously suppressed by the ruling Communist Party in 1949. We did see many decorated tombs/grave sites along our travels from Yangshuo to Guilin. No big cemeteries just scattered tombs along the countryside.

By this point we had done pretty much everything we wanted except go to Moon Hill which we saw from our bus ride back from the water cave. Pete wanted to go and take pictures of it. We got in a van for 3 kuai each then arrived 15 minutes later at Moon Hill. The entrance fee was 15 kuai each and then we started a trail. I had no intention of going to the top but after being hassled by old Chinese women wanting us to buy water or cokes we made it to the top in about 20 minutes of steep, slippery stones.

The rest of our day was spent hanging out, eating dinner, bus ride back to Guilin, 13.5 hr train ride back to Shenzhen. The 1 hr plane ride there was a better choice after looking back at it. Train was much cheaper but time is money as my students have learned.

We hope you enjoy the pictures and we had another successful weekend trip. We really are taking advantage of our time here in China to see as much as we can as we have been on weekend trips the last 4 of 5 weekends.

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Comments

[Staci and Martin]

yay moon hill! beautiful pics. i love that pete got his shoes shined. :)

[Mom]

Qing
That transportation thing is crazy!!!! Glad you got to Moon Hill!!! Love that shot with the shoe shiner....bet he was so glad when he was done with Pete's shoes!!!! $2 ?? So if you went again...you would do the plane ride both ways???