- Yangshuo and the Li River
Our home away from home in Yangshuo was the New Century Hotel, a very nice hotel. Mom quickly made friends with everyone she met, like this lady in the lobby with her baby. (We all know how Granny loves babies.)
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After settling in to our rooms, we took a walk through town to the river. The sun was beating down on us, it was very hot, humid and the walk much more rigorous than we had been lead to believe, especially for mom, at nearly 94 years young.
We boarded the boat and soon were sailing away from the city.
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The scenery was incredible. Everywhere you looked there were craggy little gum-drop like mountains. The air was quite hazy, I think it was partly due to the humidity but mostly due to the pollution.
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We saw riverside homes and pagodas tucked away in the bamboo.
It was just so amazing to be surrounded by such incredible natural beauty. God's handiwork is positively stunning.
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Some of us stayed below where it was air conditioned while the rest of us made our way to the upper deck and put our cameras to work. We went crazy snapping dozens and dozens of photos.
There were caves and peaceful stands of bamboo all along the banks of the river.
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We passed several small villages and scenes of local farmers and fishermen going about their daily routines.
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There were ducks and water buffalo making use of the cool water.
At long last, here we were floating down the beautiful Li River, witnessing the scenery that I had seen in countless, ancient, Chinese paintings...YEAH!
It had always been my assumption that the paintings were fanciful works of artistic license, stylized representations from the brushes and minds of artists but they were real. The even looked like the picture on the 20 Yuan bills.
At length we arrived at the turn around point.
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On the way back to Yangshuo we sailed by the amphitheater where we were scheduled to see the much acclaimed light show 'Impressions'. It all is performed on the river banks, barges, boats and on pontoons in the river. It employs over 600 local townspeople and farmers. It helps to augment their meager incomes. (More about the show in an upcoming post.)
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As the afternoon sun began to fade in the west we glided ever closer to the city.
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Finally we were back at the city.
This last photo is not one that any of us took. It was taken from the top of one of the peaks surrounding Yangshuo. It gives you an excellent view of just how extensive the mountains
in Guangxi province really are.
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Coming up next:
Night fishing with Cormorants on the Li River.
DSCF0433.0sm Yangshou, morning at the daily market
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