Guilin Tour-March 8, 2006

To day was a start of a better day for us. We ate breakfast in the hotel and they had a western buffet i.e. fresh fruit, banana bread, egg omelets made to our liking, oatmeal, bacon, sausage, doughnuts which was much better from yesterdays breakfast.


After breakfast we met our tour guide Lisa and started our tour amongst the rain and fog. The first stop was a 4 hour boat tour down the Li River. It was a beautiful site with large mountain ranges lining both sides of the river. We also saw rice fields, water buffalo, fishermen, and may villages along the way.


Michael really enjoyed watching the men on Bamboo rafts coming right up to the side of the boat we were on and trying to sell souvenirs. When timing was right, they would grab onto the boat while it was moving. The rafts were only about 2 feet wide with about four to five bamboo sticks tied together. They would hold onto to our boat with one hand and wave souvenirs in the other hand.






We also saw rice fields, water buffalo, fishermen, and may villages along the way.




The boat docked in a town called Yang Shuo, which was a market place where the towns people sold merchandise they had made. We were swarmed with people begging us to buy things one out bidding the other. We had fun bartering with local people for merchandise.



We then stopped at a museum called Peach Paradise. The museum started with a boat trip and took us around a village where the people known as the minority people depicted their lifestyle. There is only one group of people in China that can be the "majority people", everyone else is the minority. It was a good experiences for Michael to see how hard these people have to work and how they live.







At the begining of the boat ride we went through a small cave that was formed into the hill side.






Along the way there were several demonstrations of dancing and singing by the minority people which reflected their culture from many years ago.






We also went through a typical house for these people.





Since Michael was not fond of the Chinese food, we let him pick where we would have dinner. Amazingly we ended up at Kentucky Fried Chicken. After dinner we strolled through the shops in the market place before heading to an acrobatic show. It is amazing the number of people in the streets at all hours of the day and night.

This is a picture of the building were the acrobatic show took place. We were not permitted to take pictures during the show. The acrobatic show was entertaining and Michael enjoyed the show much to our surprise.


Tomorrow will be a busy day with touring most of the day and traveling to Beijing tomorrow night.