http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , China , Guangxi , Yangshuo en-us Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:08:29 UTC Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:08:29 UTC My recollection of a typical day as a volunteer teacherOur apartment for a couple of weeks had a living room 3 ensuite bedrooms and a kitchen.The modern kitchen featured a two burner gas hob a table top grilloven and a microwave that didn't work.There was a sink and work surface and this was all set on open fronted brick built units with tiled surfaces. We shared the kitchen with a mouse we nam http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-346542.html My Birthday 55 today.It feels like Saturday. sometimes you forget what day it is but today feels like a Saturday. Its warm. We shop buying trinkets and fun things bump into friends from college let the day drift bySitting outside a corner cafe sipping coffee watching the tourists go by still in coach groups listening to conversations in alien but familiar language. Someone unseen is playing a http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-345773.html Last week in YangshuoI thought i would write about my most memorable experiences Mixed emotions this week sad to say goodbye to the students well most of them but also ready for the next adventure. Monday at Mu San and Tuesday Double bridge were fairly uneventful. Wednesday at Fung Lo is our favourite school including its position across a narrow concrete bridge with no sides and a very full r http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-345529.html Le meilleur moyen de visiter la campagne de Yangshuo est bicyclette ou simplement en se laissant aller sur un radeau en bamboo le long de la rivire Li. Pour une vue panoramique on peut galement escalader les 800 marches qui monte sur Moon Hill colline Lune et admirer les rizires dont la majorit a dj t rcolte laissant uniquement des bouquets de paille qui schent au soleil.Un spectal http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-344933.html YangshuoAs I have mentioned before I have been getting some time off. There has been a major holiday and my students had military training one week. Well last week my students had exams. Since my class is not for a grade there is no exam so there is no class Vacation time I know I should go somewhere but where Luckily my friend Katewho I went to Macau with asked if anyone was off http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-344399.html WHAT is this life if full of careWe have no time to stand and staremdash W H DaviesI don't think I mentioned Miss Moon a fellow traveller we met during our adventure with the infamous Pink Lady. It was a brief encounter we discovered she was from Philadelphia and was working in Japan. When we met she had ldquodonerdquo Cambodia Laos Vietnam and was passing through Yangshuou for 24 hour http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-342504.html Yangshuo was a beautiful part of the world even if the river was a bit manky Impressive limestone peaks are dotted along the landscape surrounded by lush countryside. Our tour group were led along the Li River first by boat where we got a view of the imposing karst peaks that flanked the river then by kayak where we got to get up close and personal with some of the weird and wonderful insects http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-342462.html Sataa sataa ropisee....Nyt ovat matkalaiset paasseet vahan landemmaksi pois suurien kaupunkien saasteista ja vaen tolkuttomastatungoksesta. Hong Kongin ja Yangshuon valissa pistaydyttiin myos Guangzhoussa eli Kantonissa saatamassadosamatka eteenpain. Hong Kongin selkeyden ja siisteyden jalkeen Kantonissa saatiin saataa ja seikkaillaihan tosissaan. Juna oli perilla kolmen aikoihin. Molemmilla puol http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-341468.html Just a lazy day today. It was still raining so I shelved the idea of a trip on a bike round the paddy fileds near by as with my luck I'd come off the bike end up IN one of the paddy fileds and injure my good leg. Best not to take any chances So I went for lunch and a sneeky look at the shops.The village is very touristy but despite that you can't deny it has the most amazing natural backdro http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-341147.html Up early for the boat pick up at 7.30 still raining outside. The bus didn't arrive at the quay until after nine where we were herded into a gift shop for half an hour. At half nine we were given tickets and I followed the group down to the boats. Two Japanese tourists made sure I got the right boat and turned out to be delightful company on the boat.It was a really grey day drizzle then hea http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-340842.html Tyler is off to Guam for a cross country race. Jessica to Japan to compete in a tennis tournament. Hmmm that leaves Matt and I with 3 days all by our lonesome. What better opportunity than this to travel to a region Jessie has already been and Tyler certainly doesn't want to venture into. Guilin and Yangshuo are famous in China for their unique limestone mountain formations and ethnic tribal http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-338446.html I'm listening to a bit of the doors as I write this entry and I'm beginning to realise I should have listened to my doors discography sitting on my hard drive at home a long long time ago... Oh well better late than never.When I wrote my last entry I was supposed to be teaching 11 hours that week but unfortunately the teacher I was filling in for arrived earlier than expected and I only ended u http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-334221.html Eventually we arrived in Yuangshou the scenery the minute you get to the town is amazing. We spotted loads of whities on the way into the town and I never felt so happy to see other white people no matter where they are from The town is brilliant a real tourist destinantion with loads of deadly cafes bars and shops. We went shopping drunk last night and bought loads of crap for 10 euros. Bre http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-328911.html SUPSo i'm here in China finally and finally got a travel blog so lets get started with this crap. I arrived in Beijing at like 5am on the 29th eager to start my 12 hour layover after which I can get on my final flight to Guilin. Upon being lost in the airport for about an hour with some random other foreigners just FYI I am a foreigner and everyone calls me a foreigner so I refer to myself an http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-323061.html On a typical summer's night I usually manage to become the victim of over a dozen misquito bits in under an hour while the companion next to me can walk away unharmed.Such is luck sometimes. Many travelers to China might tell you that they ate suspicious food drank the local water or accepted invitations from questionable characters. And they never had any problems. But for those like me wh http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-321958.html Hello and thank you for all the wonderful support I've been recieving about my blog. It is quite interesting to me that for the duration of the year that I kept a blog in Japan I only once recieved a comment from a Japanese who happened to have read my blog. Yet in less than a month of traveling in China and only 3 blogs into it I have recieved numerous emails and comments from Chinese writin http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-318764.html It was a long journey to reach Yangshuo involving an overnight train ride that stretched from the far northern reaches of China down to the tropical south and then a 2 hour bus ride until I arrived in the beautifully bizarre landscape of Guangxi. Guangxi is not typical to the rest of China. It has a tropical feel more like Vietnam or Cambodia. And being very close to the border it is home to http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-317030.html Road to Beijing Day 9 James clearly can't be trusted to write this as yesterday last entry was actually day 8. Raining so like home from home although still late 20'sLi River cruise was amazing 4hrs on the river through very similar landscapes yet neither one of us was bored it was probably the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. You do need to have an imagination though as every few http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-307345.html The Karst hotel was strangely empty. I asked for a dorm room. The whole time I was in Yangshou in the Karst hotel I had this dorm room to myself. When I arrived the lady Lilly who rang the guesthouse asked if I came by myself. I said of course I did. She looked at me strangely. She said that Yangshou had just experienced mass flooding and didnrsquot I know Just the day before the city had bee http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-305891.html I came out with 7 JiaoTong University kids to YangShuo 3845126388. A reflection on my time in what is reportedly the most beautiful area in China...I arrived in YangShuo via a Li River cruise from Guilin where I took more pictures than seems reasonable. This area had me longing to buy an SLR camera. When I come back a big fancy camera will be accompanying me The area is packed with hund http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-304620.html As dark rain clouds gathered Alex ascended the first route up the steep cliff. His muscular manly fingers gripped the sharp edge of the limestone karst cliff as he gazed up up up......Only 22 meters high Ha I could do that in my sleep he thought to himself. Down below Julie looked up lovingly full of the kind of confidence that only comes from experience. Only 22 meters high Ha He c http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-300065.html Sign standing outside a restaurant in Yangshuo. Mmmmmm...tasty. http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-293398.html Caught a cruiseboat down the Li River as a way to get to the next place. Extraordinary landscape of Karst formations like a crowd of sentinels standing guard over forbidden territory. They were so densely covered in vegetation it looked like green fur. One poet describes this as a river ribbon winding through jade hairpins. Peak behind valley peak after peak all several hundred metres high. Stee http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-293374.html Yangshou We disembarked at Yangshou and settled into another hotel. A small community on the Yi River nestled in the karst hills Yangshou has become a destination for many world backpackers lending a slightly international feeling to the people. In Yangshou we rented some bicycles and rode through the city into the countryside to a hill known as Half Moon Hill. As we approached Half Moon Hill http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-290541.html Yangshuo is a really great place to go in the middle of the countryside. There was no phone or internet and we spent a few days cycling around the rice fields walking around and reading our books. We also took a chinese cookery class which was really good fun We got to eat the results We also mananged to avoid the dog section of the market they eat dogs in this part of china they are all http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-290002.html The weather in Yangshou was finally clear this morning so we set off on a four hour bike ride with a local guide. We were thrilled to have a guide as we got to go offroad and explore the back lanes. We met other travellers along the way who'd decided to do it independently and they were hopelessly lost even on the main roads. When I say offroad I mean that we pedalled through rice fields thro http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-289525.html We left our Shanghai backpacker's in a taxi that had a sign in the back saying 'psychos or drunkards without guardians are prohibited from taking taxis' Yet another great ChineseEnglish translationWe flew from Shanghai to Guilin in Guangxi province in southeast China. The region is famed for its karst scenery and the peaks rising from the fields are magnificent. We caught a bus from the airp http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-288852.html