We thought we would try to take the buses back to the airport so we went to the bus station around 8 in the morning and caught a bus to Guilin. This took longer than we thought about an hour and a half. Our flight left at 11 AM so we jumped out of the bus when it got to Guilin and caught a taxi to the airport. It took almost a half hour to get there from the bus stop. We had gotten in a taxi and it drove a little bit and then he pulled over behind another taxi and jumped out and started putting our bags in the other taxi's trunk. We were really confused. We got out and then into the other taxi. This was all really strange. Anyway we made it ... read more

We got up this morning had had breakfast at the same restaruant we had eaten dinner at the night before. I had the best yougurt with bananas there. I can't remember the name of the place. The guide, Mu Ying Mo, found us there and we rented bikes and went on our way. We rode out of town and stopped at an old farm house which is set up to show tourists how people used to live in the area. The road is lined with rice fields and we stopped a few times to take pictures. From there we went into a small village where she showed us around. You can go into the houses and look around to see how people live which I thought was quite strange because the people that lived there weren't ... read more

Because it was pitch dark out when we arrived to Yangshuo we didn't see the karst mountains in and around the city. We were really surprised when we woke up to see these gigantic masses everywhere. It happened to be raining today so we went and had a leisurely breakfast and saw a sign for a cooking class at Cloud 9 on our way back to the hotel. We stopped in and signed up since we didn't want to be outside in the rain touring. For around $17 each we had an afternoon class where we walked to the farmers market and picked up supplies to make the meals that the group had chosen. This was an experience in itself. There were all sorts of things for sale including dog, cat, chicken, rabbit, frogs, snails and ... read more

Today we got up and had our breakfast again in the hotel. We checked out but had the hotel hold our bags since we were going out for the day. We got a cab to the Longman Caves. It was a long hot walk from the cab drop off to the ticket booth. Vendors line the sidewalks to sell you things on the way in and out. You don't realize the size of the caves and statues until you see them for yourself. The time and energy it must have taken to carve all of these buddha's in the walls and create the statues was impressive. It was great to see the statues up close but the best view was from the other bank of the river. You can leave the side with the most caves, ... read more

We hired a car from the hotel concierge to take us to the Great Wall Mutianyu about an hour from the hotel. You can take a chair lift to the top of the wall but we decided to walk up the trail and stairs to the top of the wall. We hiked along the wall to the part of the wall where there was a warning sign to stop. We started off pretty early but it got really hot really fast. Luckily there were people selling water along the wall as we walked because we didn't bring enough with us. We took the slide down, which was like a little cart with a hand break. It was a longer ride than we thought and a lot of fun. We made it back to the bottom were ... read more