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December 23rd 2011
Published: December 23rd 2011
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Sorry for the long blog silence。 We've been travelling quite a bit and continue to run into awful computers when we do find them.

Since the last post we made a visit to the village of Tiantouzhai at the 'Dragon's Backbone' rice terraces. It was a wild and bumpy 2.5 hour bus ride from Guilin and a 45 minute walk through the terraces and the village of Dazhai to get to Tiantouzhai. The view was pretty breathtaking. The mountains all around us were entirely formed into puzzle-like terraces. They've been farmed like this for thousands of years. Small footpaths are used to get from village to village and ponies are saddled with farm and construction supplies to move things around.

Tourism must boom there in summer months but we were two of only four visitors to the village that day. The other two were a friendly young couple from Beijing that rode the bus with us. There are Bavarian like 'chalets' throughout the village but even though they look nice they are little more than boards hobbled together... they're probably about as sturdy as a prop town in an old spaghetti western. The family we stayed with was very friendly and they had an adorable puppy who we had the privilege of playing with pretty much the whole time we were there. All in all going to the rice terraces was unforgettable, I would put it up there with seeing Chichen Itza in Mexico or Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

After travelling South back to Guilin we took another hour long bus ride further South to Yangshuo.  It's stunningly beautiful here with limestone peaks jutting all over the landscape like islands.  We got a hostel for less than $12/night with a great view of the famous Li River.

The downside to this town is that it's very touristy and doesn't have the same flavor as authentic Chinese towns.  That's ok though because we're only using it as a base for our activities outside of town and it's nice that we can get a WESTERN meal here! Also, we have a regular toilet in our room!

Today we're biking outside of town alongside the Li River to a 600 year old cobble stone bridge.  

The link I previously posted to photos was incorrect. The correct link is

http://www.flickr.com/photos/norajhess   

They're the only photos we're able to upload and we do it via our cell phones and the Instagram app. We have lots more photos and video to share when we get home.

Zai jian for now! 

(if when you read this the font changes suddenly mid-blog, I apologize.  Idon't know how to fix it, everything here is in Chinese!!!)

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