Guilin in June

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I am definitely late in getting this on the blog but I wanted to put some pictures from Guilin out for everyone to see. It is an amazing city in China with some beautiful natural wonders. I think it may have been one of our favorite places to visit. The travel agent we use is out of Guilin so we were able to meet Sunny and her co-workers who have set up all of our China adventures. That was a nice bonus for us and they even had Jason do a video for their website saying how much we like China Highlights. I know we have given their information to anyone who is looking to travel here in China.


Next we left for Elephant Hill with our guide, Jenny. She could not have been more perfect for our group. She loved to pick on Jason’s dad so she was a lot of fun for all of us. We climbed up the hill to see a marvelous view of the city and then came down to see a small temple the locals had set up. Then on to Reed Flute Cave. I think we may have all been a little hesitant to go into a cave but we did not expect what we were going to see. The cave was huge. Enough that they can have parties of 500 people for weddings and other functions. They have the lights set up in different colors so you can really see the various rock formations. These caves are very common in the mountains in Guilin and were once used for shelter but now I believe they are mostly for tourist.


We then drove out to the Jiangtou Village of Jiuwu Town. The village has a history of over 800 years and many of the building are from the Ming and Qing dynasties. According to history, the famous scholar and philosopher Zhou Dunyi came down from Hunan to live in Jiangtou village, as a result, many of the village’s current citizens have adopted the surname 'Zhou'. People here have shown the highest respect for education and had over 160 successful candidates in the imperial exam. The village with its stone bridges, wood carvings and ancient buildings was a window to how village life was many years ago. They are only a few residents left but we were able to talk to them through our guide.


The next day we took a cruise down the Li River from Guilin to Yangshuo. The dock was interesting with the fisherman and shopping street going into town. We did a little shopping but were soon off to our hotel. That night we saw a show on the river with the mountains in the background. It was very interesting with boats, lights and dancing. The director of this show had also worked on the show for the Beijing 2008 Olympics.


The following day we took a tour of another local village, Aishan. We saw how another minority group lived and saw the village that tourism built as all of the houses were either new or being rebuilt. It is nice to see some of the people out in the country doing so well. Here we also saw some Miao women with their long hair. They only cut it once when they are 18 years old and keep that hair along with any that is lost through brushing. They wrap the lose hair with their still attached hair to create a very unique and large bun on their heads. We saw some of the women washing their hair in the river. I thought I had a lot of hair to deal with.


Our final stop was the Longji Terraced Fields in Ping’an Zhuang Village. We didn’t realize how far of a hike it would be up the mountain but what a view when we got there. The fields are amazing and there are so many friendly faces and animals everywhere. Being spring we saw so many baby ducks. They would swim on the fields where the water had collected from recent rains. It was then off to the airport and the trip back to Shanghai.

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Photos

View of Guilin
from Elephant Trunk Hill

Pond Inside Cave
Looks like a city skyline

Stone Bridge
worn from many years of use

Dad & Jenny
She made the wreath for him and MADE him wear it!