Li River - Guilin to Yangshuo

On the tourist route and loving it!

If you squint you can see a row of cormorants on a raft
(in the centre of the photo) waiting to work.

We were allocated a boat up the Li River with a large group of Italian tourists so being the only native English speakers on the boat, our guide seemed to spend the four hour trip scampering up and down decks to find us and point out particular notable scenic spots. Bless him, he also sped off with my camera during lunch to snap a particularly stunning curve in the river. For the Italians, it was their second to last destination on a two week package tour, and many were showing the exhausted signs of an intensely jam packed itinerary.

Impossible seeming shapes.

Soaking up the sublime scenery, many flopped in the seats, making the most of the opportunity to relax and chat. What a great opportunity to strike up a conversation! Thank goodness other countries acknowledge that it's important to learn more than one language. My sign language and pantomime sketches are adequate to communicate basically; but one of the many joys of travelling is having the opportunity to rub shoulders with people from around the world and  discuss world events, politics and compare outlooks.

Extraordinary mountains, seem to stretch forever.

How did such and such an event affect them? How was it reported there? What was the particular bias of their politicians? Did what we read in the papers and see on TV accurately reflect the event?  What a privilege we have being able to do this. I love the amazing conversations you have when bumping into someone from Brussels at breakfast,  Cologne at lunch and maybe London at dinner. Not to mention all the wonderful local Chinese people I met and conversed with.

The Li River is a very popular holiday destination.

 Not entirely surprisingly on the Li River, money was one topic that was raised. Not the cost of the boat ride, but the fact that this is where the sketch for the 20 Yuan note was done. A simple conversation starter could lead to show and tell about your own country's currency, how notes are impregnated with all sorts of metals and embossing to attempt to prevent forgeries, with a watermark here, a fine strip of metal there, a raised portion here for sight impaired people, and a particular compound placed just so, so that when the note is at just this exact angle it shimmers like a rainbow.

People power for washing dishes.
Best not to think that cold river water is used for the dishes.

The amazing topography is called Karst - a detailed description is here. Karst features are formed over hundreds of thousands of years from what was originally the seabed; but as the lands have changed the limestone has eroded and been uplifted producing extraordinary hills and mountains, underground rivers, caves of all shapes and sizes with awe-inspiring stalactites and stalagmites. Similar mountains are found in other regions of the world, but I am assured that China's Guilin area's claim to fame, is that the mountains cover the single largest region and extend south through to the Philippines and Indonesia. 

A fan souvenir and welcome refreshment at a local cafe.

The haze in the photos is a result of the extremely high humidity; fans are regularly used by men, women and children. Many are much larger than the souvenir 'gift' from the boat trip, and produce a welcome cooling breeze. I discovered (unintentionally) that sitting next to a vigorously fanning man and making "ahh" noises produced much hilarity and coy directing of the breeze on to my dripping face. Bless everyone who takes pity on a sweltering western woman!

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