Overland trip to China--Guilin, China

We flew from Hong Kong to Guilin, a small city of 800,000.  We met our national guide for China, Martin.

 

As we landed in Guilin we saw a rural area with a patchwork of farms.  Off in the distance were the thousands of tall limestone pinnacles surrounding the city.   The city itself is beautiful with pathways lining the main roads.  We walked the city that night thinking it resembled a small upscale City Creek atmosphere with beautiful pagodas nearby.

 

The Lijiang (Li) River is the essence of Guilin’s beautiful scenery. It is depicted on the back of the 20 yuan bill.

We were able to take a boat approximately 50 miles along the river.  Along the river banks are the spectacular landscape and elegant hills, the towering limestone peaks, the variegated cliffs reflected in the mirror of its crystal-clear pools, running springs, and waterfalls.  The overhead clouds and mist made the scene enchanting like we were stepping into a Chinese painting.

 

 

We saw aged Chinese fisherman fishing with Cormant birds.  They would raise the birds as hatchlings so that they would “imprint” to the fisherman as their parent.  The birds would catch fish off the surface of the water and return them to the master on the small boats.

 

Martin warned us that there would be very few westerners here, because it is not the tourist season, and it was likely we would become attractions for the Chinese tourists from rural areas, who might have seen very few “big noses,” their term for westerners.  Sure enough, Ann had her pictures taken with a number of tourists, and here is Don’s new best friend.

Han Yu, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty, had written a popular poem to praise the beautiful scenery of the Li River:

            The river winds like a blue silk ribbon,

            While the hills erect like green jade hairpins.

This was a real treat.