Hello, and welcome back to that daily blog you read to be sure that your kids are actually still in China. Today is Day 13 and we began our trip to Yangshuo with a nice breakfast and a beautiful view of the Guilin Mountains. This was probably one of the best views so far… or so we thought. After departing the Guilin hotel we embarked on an adventure towards the docks. This started with a brief from Joe, the best tour guide ever, and a 45 minute bus trip in which we had a great time to relax.
After having been in the altitude of Longsheng being back at only 1800m of altitude was a real change. When we arrived at the docks we were greeted by a 3-storey boat which was perfect for viewing the landscape. As Joe explained we went past the 4 highlights of the Li River. This 4 hour boat cruise involved lots of switching from deck to deck, going from sitting down and playing cards with our fellow tour mates, to taking photos on the top level of the beautiful mountain ranges. We even happened to see the mountain which appears on the back of the 20 Yuan note along with the most important Chinese figure, Chairman Mao, who during the trip we have learnt played an important role in Chinese history.
After the cruise we encountered a wild bird man who charged to take photos of his cormorant. After swiftly dodging this man we encountered a lady who tames hornets for a living. Luckily no one got stung or remotely harmed by these impeccable beasts.
After this we travelled through the streets of Yangshuo, after a short rest at the new found hotel, we then went off to make fans, traditional fans, we had enough of the other kind already. Along the way we passed under an extremely narrow bridge but the bus driver was not worried one bit. The fan display started with a demonstration from a local who has been in the family for 4 generations. After practicing our own paintings, we started to draw the designs onto the fans. Some turned out better than others and some could have been sold for 100 Yuan (shoutout to Chloe and Rebecca).
After this we went back to the hotel and then after a rest we went out for dinner which turned out to be more exciting than we bargained for. It started with a walk through the DOWNTOWN (Macklemore reference) and then we came to a restaurant in which the food was divine. Halfway through we were interrupted by a group of people from various parts of the UK who wanted to know how many calligraphy strokes there were in Chinese writing. For those wondering the answer is 8. After this they decided to have a song and dance and the whole restaurant joined in. This made us all feel very close to home again after seeing other English speaking people even if we struggled to understand their thick accents.
After this we went for a walk around the markets and then back to the hotel. Currently we are sitting in the lobby as the others are playing card games such as UNO and Spit (a game which has really caught on).
– Nikolas Asimoudis and Zac Gordon
