We just added a video...Hope you enjoy it!   Yesterday we booked a tour that was a private tour with Julie: ( two Swedish girls joined us) and spent 10 hours riding bicycles arround the area.  We went out a long country road and took a fork that was just a dirt road (except it's been raining so it was really a muddy sludge road)  we rode until we saw things we wanted to photograph...stopped, snapped, ... and then rode on.   This ability to stop and go when we wanted is really the beauty of hiring a private person.  We stopped at a little place and took pictures of a man and his wife planting rice.  We decided to give them money and we put it on the ground but Julie got concerned and took it to the man ....   we only gave him a few yuan but he gave us a million dollar smile.   When we went back to the bikes three darling children were crowded around them looking ....  I got three boxes of raisins out and gave them to them..... the little boy ran inside and brought out another little girl.  Luckily David was carrying raisins too.   In the meantime I had dug out a power bar and they went wild when they saw it.... (yes, Kathy Anderson, you fed kids with your powerbar.... thank you)  so we gave it to them but told them to cut it.   One of the Swedish girls gave the boldest girl (around 6) her flowered hat.  I asked to take her picture. she consented and posed (not smiling but looking down and very composed) while the others ran back into the house.  Then after I took the first picture and showed her in the digital camera screen.... EVERYONE wanted to pose. so I got a bunch of pictures of these darling kids.

Moving on.    We rode to a place where we were going to ride bamboo rafts.  I got distracted with the items carried by the venders when we got there and took a dive into the mud.  What a fuss everyone made.  it was like I landed in alligators.......  about 20 people tried to help me up.   I was laughing and not hurt so it wasn't the drama they imagined.  I waved them away as elegantly as I could laying on my belly....lol ....) it didn't help that I was laughing... My white pants looked horrible though....   oh well.  On the bamboo rafts,  I rode with one of the girls, Nathalie, and David rode with Leslie. 

It was a memorable ride.  Nathalie and I fell behind the armada heading out as we caught a vender in a bamboo raft and tried to negotiate a couple of beers.  The lady wanted 20 for one.  I said 15 for two.   Then she brought out the first one and it was huge.   So after she gave us the second one I gave her an additional 5.  Then.... she grabbed a five I had on my lap....Nathalie and I both lunged and grabbed it back.... so she gave us because we double teamed her....      Then.....  get this...... she wanted me to buy the man who was poling us one of the huge beers......   I told her no.....  and he was unhappy.    what can I say... I just wasn't sure I could pole the raft after he was drunk.....      Then Natalie calmed it by standing up and offering him a cigarette.....   Everyone was happy and we started out about 1 block behind everyone else.....   which was EXCELLENT for pictures.      I got so many good shots.   David did not have that luck as he was thick in the middle of about 50 bamboo rafts with beach umbrellas.   Natalie and I are pretty serious photographers so we were the perfect pair.

...    The hills were so green and shaped like gumdrops.  Bamboo grew 50 feet high in some places: it was so feathery and green.... the river winds and turns so even though there were tons of rafts ahead of us the bends hid them from time to time.  GET THIS!... They actually had a place where  you could buy your photo and  they printed it right then on the river on the computer  ....  it was on a bamboo large square raft in the river.....   and snack rafts with barbeques....   amazing.  but still very Chinese and really neat ...... 

I will continue this tonight after David and I have dinner......  it is 7:30 at night here....  we leave tomorrow at 10:  then to beijing for one day then home on the night of the 24:

David and I are still wandering around Yangshou.  We like it so much we are canceling our flight and catching a later plane to Beijing.  We were going to Changde but we just feel so happy here we are staying.  Our original plan was to stay a couple of days then take a plane to a city, Changde, above beijing to follow the great wall to the sea.  There is a town near where it goes into the sea....  but we have changed our minds.

Yesterday and today we have just wandered and talked to people.   We met a young lady named Julie and we are engaging her tomorrow to tour the area.   She is very sweet and comes from the village  by Moon Mountain.  We are going to do tour on bikes and will be riding from 9am to 6:30.

Julie is 20 years old:  She is an amazing person.  She works all month and has 2 days off total.  She gets her meals at the restaurant and lives in a dorm provided by her boss.  it is part of the wages. apparently that arrangement is very common.  Her dream is to be a tour guide and eventually build a wood house restaurant near her village.  She is starting working part time beginning in July to give tours then she will work from 6:30 to twelve every night free to pay for the dorms and she will be able to eat still.  this arrangment will definately work for her and she is very excited.  She was  going to give us the tour for free but we insisted on paying the going rate  which is apparently 50 yuen per pay per person (about $6.50).  We will definately give her over the going rate.   It is so funny she was hesitant  to say the amount...... but we insisted it had to be money or nothing.

We'll let you know how it goes.

Our room here is about 250 yuen ($32?)   it has a king bed, western bathroom, huge 14 x 10 balcony .... (the one with the kissing mosquitos)  and has marble floors through out.   It is very clean.  Several people we have met are paying far less:  20 to 40 yuen per day.... College kids.

The meals have  been affordable at about $6.50 or so for both full entrees, a huge fruit dish, beer ...   and usually tea.   The food is excellent.   We haven't found anything we didn't like. Last night I had orange glazed duck an David had green vegetables and a large plate of pineapple, pear, watermelon, tomatoes, and apples ....   and beer.  all for $6.50......  Isn't that amazing?

We got david a shirt that says "life is good" in chinese.  it was 120 yuen.....   I think that's about $15.    It will look great.   We bought a few souveniers.   everything has to be bargained for..... I find it really exhausting.... and we pay too much every time.  but it's ok.....  it makes up for the cheap meals.    good balance.

The shingles are ouchy.   David has to put the medicine on every morning and night: yikes: it is very impressive how well I can feel that area.   Someone told me I needed to get shark fin pills as it makes shingles cure faster.... we went into a drugstore that was traditional medicine on one side and modern medicine on the other....  I asked for shark fin pills .... but no one understood me.  I then decided to draw a picture.... I drew a fish with mean teeth and fins.... but when I stood back and looked I had placed the fins in the wrong place and I had drawn a fish wearing a pointy party hat....Of course I got the giggles... then the laughs.... David did his best to continue the inquiry...  the sales girl then drew a perfect coy fish and circled a fin....  that really set me off laughing...  duhhh.... I am soooo not an artist!  an English speaking couple came up and translated my question.... and they did not have shark extract ....  I kept the pictures.... very funny!   I continue taking the RX medicine and will for several more days.   I am hoping it calms down.    If not.....  well,.......    we are in chinese paradise so it could be worse.  I just make sure I get the Aleve every 12 hours:  (thanks Linda Shipley for the suggestion of taking it:  I'll never travel without it again.....)
 

The little store next to our motel had a cute cat and I decided to buy some cat food for it as it appeared to be living off of scraps...  I went into a little store and asked for cat food... nope... no one understood... so I drew a cat's face and a little can.... The sales girl stared at me like I was crazy..... hmmmm.... so they don't have cat food.....   Later I realized she thought I was asking for canned cat!  Oh! the ugly American wanting to buy a can of cat meat!  That also made me really laugh!  It's great to be blond!

Everyone is so impressed by our three daughter's pictures: they are 22, 24 and 27 years old now:   it's fun to show pictures and find out how many kids everyone else has.   In the country they can have more than one child as they need them to work the farms.   everyone wants boys but ....  personally i think girls are the best.  It is surprising to them that our oldest daughters have careers in jobs that are primarily men's jobs in China.   (one Policeman and one working at a juvenile treatment facility)

Here are a few shots of that jaw-dropping scenery I just mentioned:

These are my last days in China - and they happen to be the best! Yesterday was everything I had hoped to experience from China. Perfect!

Traveling with my friend, Shawn from Shanghai, we rented bicycles and set out on our own adventure to experience the countryside. We had no guide, just a vague sense of direction - and a healthy tolerance for making wrong turns.

I hope you can see these photos (I will share more with you when I return to the USA). The scenery around the Li River is spectacular! Everywhere we traveled, we marveled at just how stunning the views were.

But even more interesting to me, were the people we met along the way. For example, at one farm house we stopped to say hi to an older man and woman, and inquired about the fruit they were eating. (Translated as "Yellow Skin Fruit" in Chinese, and tasting both sweet and sour. Yummy!) But instead of just eating from the tree, the woman insisted that we take the already-prepared fruit from inside her own house! Delightful.

At another stop, we met a young mother and her kids. The children were a bit frightened of me, but I tried to lighten the mood by pretending to play mahjong with them. I was doing my best to get them to see foreigners as friendly and not so scary. But sadly, there was a "part 2" to that story, and it was negative. I had paid 1 yuan (12 cents) to buy the children some frozen treats from their mother's roadside store. After that, however, I noticed that more and more children were appearing from the village. Several started to grab at me and then gesture to their mouth, as if they wanted something to eat. Shawn tells me that the mother had told the kids "If you say hello to this foreigner he will buy you some candy." We really wanted to yell at her for setting such a bad example. Instead of having fun simply interacting with someone from a different land, the mother had taught the kids that foreigners are a target to harass for money. Very disappointing.

But by far, the overwhelming feeling today was one of awe over the stunning beauty of the region. We got lost a few times, and our trek stretched out for well over 7 hours! But didn't really care. We saw things that most tourists would never stumble across - while carrying our bikes up rocky cliffs, or trying to keep our balance while riding along the narrow walls of rice paddies. I took literally hundreds of photos!

Later though, I discovered the danger of that beauty. I was walking backward while attempting to take a photo, and boom! I fell right into a hole in the road! Nearly broke my freaking leg! Hilarious!


That evening, after scrubbing away layers of dirt and grime, we were treated to a different type of entertainment. It was a theatrical extravaganza that has all of China flocking to attend. What's so unique about "Impression: Liu Sanjie?" Well, first of all, it is directed by Zhang Yimou, the man who directed such films as "Raise the Red Lantern;" "Hero;" and "House of Flying Daggers." (Note: If you haven't seen those films yet, rush right out and rent the DVD tonight - especially "Hero." They are great!)

The other unique aspect of the show is that it features 600 performers. Yup... SIX HUNDRED dancers and singers! When was the last time you saw 600 people choreographed in anything? But what makes this most impressive, is that the "stage" is the Li River! Every one of the performers is actually floating on the river - usually just on small bamboo rafts. Incredible. A perfect ending to a perfect day.

After the trip down the river we are now in Yangshou.  The trip was a lot of fun  We were on an American boat and the food was great.  There were little buckets of fish / alive/ that we had for lunch.  It was so rainy on the trip:  I refused to come in because i knew this was my chance.   I stood through it and took pictures:  it was actually too foggy to look perfect but it was still fine.  They were selling 9 snake liquor: I got some but it was not as good of quality as some I had had earlier.... (how very snooty to be a 9 snake liquor expert...LOL)   David was in and out talking to me but it was just soaking on the top deck where I was standing.   The trip was about 4 hours:  it was so funny..... there was a huge long line of boats full of tourists just like us....  from the top deck I could see twenty in front of us and 20 behind us....  so it was wonderful and interesting but not off from other people.   There are so many people in China everything is pretty crowded.  When we got off the boat they gave us all wooden combs in a little package. very cool.  

We walked off the boat and immediately went through a line of booths and stands.... all of them yelling and showing you things they had...  very intense.   I wanted to look at everything and shop and David was determined to find the motel....  

We got to the motel and got a room on the third floor: no elevators: and have a huge balcony (complete with an army of mosquitoes that could kiss a chicken flat footed.) The balcony looks over the river and down at the street vendors.   The motel is called The Riverview.  It is really quite nice not ritzy but met our needs.  bikes for rent at the front.  They have a breakfast patio where the breakfast is about 2 to 3 dollars with tea.  A lovely place to sit and watch the world go by for an hour or so.... Also: there is a free internet that is available.  I used it quite a bit.

We rented bikes and took off through the town. It was much much less scarey than Beijing.We went to one edge of town after a while we stopped at a really cute and quaint place: it had picnic tables and umbrellas and neat fish ponds. but no one around. we sat for a while then i wandered to the back where some ladies were talking and asked for a couple of beers. they brought them with glasses. great beer. Qie brand. 

we sat for about 45 minutes .... one other person there. wayyyy on the other side. she broke her beer bottle when she stood up and almost made their dog lift his head but he realized at the last minute that it didn't involve him as one of the owners hurried over with a dustpan and broom .....   the girl walked past us and we chatted a while. She is a college graduate who is touring Asia with 4 friends. She has been to India, Thailand and now china. Her name is Kelly: she said she is posting her travels on I'm jealous.com so her mom can keep up with her. Later when we were stopped for a cup of tea in town we saw her again. very sweet gal.   It seems the town is full of college students having a nice time.

We rode through the rain to an area several hours out of town. We saw people planting rice in the fields and water buffalo grazing. there is always someone out with the buffalo in the field even though they are just grazing.... so we think they are very valuable here. We were soaked. All of the people going by us with rain clothes on ..... but we didn't have anything so we really looked the tourist part.

We stopped at a tiny hole in the wall restaurant and found the menu was only in Chinese.  The restaurant was at the crossroads of the street towards moon hill. up 10 steps: we knew it was a restaurant by the red globes and the picnic table.  The menu was of course unreadable: the girl in charge did not speak English....  She took me in the back where her ingredients were all cut and in bowls on the table..  baskets and bowls of vegetables, meat, seasonings...I pointed to a tomato and an eggplant. (on the porch was several tubs of live eel, and a couple of bags of frogs.... I passed on them...) after I chose... then she brought out the most delicious meal out  of it with rice.  She brought out a holder that had toilet paper... to use as napkins.  that was very humorous  (and two beers of course..... WE KNOW HOW TO ORDER BEER! (i am on vacation...... )

The lady in the next store brought her baby over for us to admire and the man in the other side brought his baby over. there is nothing cuter than the babies here. always carried and always happy. they don't have diapers. instead the inside of the crotch is not sewn. so when they have to go to the bathroom the parent just holds them out from them then they
wipe them. it's so logical.

We got a little lost coming back. we stopped at a really interesting grocery store. it had shoes, fans, food, hardware...... we bought some liquor to try the different types. the sales girl who was probably 16 talked David into a biggish bottle of something that was on sale. for about  70 cents. it was perfectly vile.

Later in the room, I smelled it and David told me it actually tasted better then it smelled. He was wrong..... I can't believe I tasted it.....   it smelled like dirty socks and tasted worse. So we are going to leave it in the cabinet when we leave here......
We could live here .... it is so beautiful. I have a million pictures.

We went walking in Yangshou everyday...     we finally braved the vendors to walk towards the boat docking area and were surprised to find there is a cute little park there. It is easy to miss things like this when so many people are yelling for you to look at their wares....  I tend to walk and look and that is taken as a sign that I want to buy.....  so we tend to have more than our share to vendor excitement.  so back to the park......  The gates are almost hidden by the vender booths.... So glad we ventured back that direction....   

We paid at the gate then went in to explore.  It had stairs and mountains to climb and amazing views from different places.  There was a sort of a museum where they showed how to make fans from pictures.  They had the unfolded pictures displayed then some folded and made into fans....  really interesting although there was not a soul aroundn to give us any details...  it may be that the people were there and didn't speak english and decided not to try to mime it out for us...  Can't blame them for that! 

There was also a nice area of bonsai plants....  they were very unusual as they had little scenes in them with stairs and houses....  David especially liked that area.... we accidently got separated for a while while he lingered looking at them and I walked on: sadly with my lack of sense of direction I couldn't find my way back with the different trails and stairs... but we had phones and reconnected.

The only people we saw were some teens dressed in traditional clothes embroidering in a pagoda.  They took a moment to shoosh some cows off the steps .. I loved seeing the cows but apparently they didn't belong there.... the girls seemed sweet but we didn't talk to them...

 We took a lot of pictures.  The paths of the park was well marked and really interesting.  I love that a lot of the flowers and plants that grow are in the stores for sale at home.....  and here they are just growing like weeds..... heck .... they may even be weeds.... but it was beautiful seeing them.. I tried to get pictures of them in their natural settings....

For once the signs were at a minimum....  and that helped with the natural feel of the park....  We saw a man down on the river working with his comorants...... it was not close but it was still very interesting to see.        

The dinner  on our last night in yangshou was at a very ritzy french
restaurant. 

We ate outside in the open at the top of the restaurant so
we had a view.....  it was up about 15 long steps and about 75 feet from
the street.  nice table clothes and great decor)  

David and I  both chose to have the dinner that had all of the entrees.   

it was a vegetable salad, wonderful perfect and delicious french onion soup,

then on a plate that was probably 18 inches across

  new zealand steak cut in scallops in a sauce, chopped  &
sauteed vegetables,and couple of squares of savory seasoned butter, and french
fries   (so they had a sense of humor too...)  plus a fruit plate, bagettes,
and dessert plus hot tea and two beers... (gotta had beer) 

 It was about $32 total....   (american...)   What a great meal.

We ate really late:  got there at 11:30 and finished about 12:30 or
so.....    We were sitting looking down at the street ... which was full of
people dispite the hour ..... and a huge rat ran across the top of the stairs
.,....  this guy was huge... he could have wrestled a dog....   I stood
up and pointed and said excitedly "a rat!"  Davie just sat and said "yes?"

.......  I asked why it was there because it was a french restaurant not
a cantonese one....    Dave said....  "that's why".... and we busted
up.....     great dinner and great finish....       

 yangshou.....  what a blast......    

so:   Nathalie and I were quite a way behind everyone but we had a great time.....  about 6 Chinese boats (vacationing Chinese are fun fun fun)were around us.... and they were having an incredible water fight with some water  flingers they bought.... they look like bike tire pumps ....  (actually
I was trying to figure out this item,...  the venders were selling when I Fell into the mud….lol....)   some of them had brought bowls, some had the water flingers and some were just using their hands.   They saw our cameras so they didn't get  us but wow what a lot of action.  they were laughing so hard and soaking
each other.   at one point their polers got into the act and everyone fell off the raft on one.....  it was so fun to watch.... 
 
We were also laughing watching them....  and... as boys do (sorry guys..)  it egged them on....  (Nathalie is a beautiful 25 year old and she had a circle of flowers in
her  hair so she was very striking.....  so I guess the whole thing was performing for her.... but I really enjoyed it too..........)  
 
Every 20 minutes or so there was a dam that the raft had to slide down.... and it made the front of the raft go under water when we hit the other side.
very  fun.  but we had keep a good hold of our beers in the excitement.....   (gotta have beer)  also, we both had backpacks and cameras.   We just
shoved them behind us with the life jackets.   (Tara, Morgan, and Erin,   just kidding ..... mommy had hers on......and ...... I warned Natalie to put hers on
too just like I do with you three.)
 
When we finished the ride they put us ashore and unloaded our bikes from the back of the rafts.  Mine was still coated with mud clots in the basket
where it fell.    We rode up the main road again and bought strawberries from one of the 30 venders by the side.   We washed and ate them in a little
roadside cafe and gave them the leftovers to thank them for the use of the table.... they were really happy with them and completely fine with us using the 
table....
 
Next we rode to a banyan tree that was 1500 years old.  I got my picture taken with two monkeys.  They had on little hats and vests: they sorta made 
me look very underdressed ....  We walked past the many venders then had a quick ride across a little stream on a bamboo raft.... and I dropped 
Natalie’s sunglasses into the water.... it was only about a foot and a half deep and it took a little bit of maneuvering but I finally fished them
out by laying flat.... and.... finally, when I couldn’t reach….the poler had to move the raft for me.....and.....when I got up and held them up  a little crowd
cheered....  It was funny that so many had gathered.....  LOL.   happy I could provide  the entertainment.
 
We went to the moon village restaurant and parked our bikes next to the trail head.  Julie's mom was there selling postcards so we got to meet her and tell her how much we liked her daughter.   We had a great meal....  we all ordered then ate it from the middle of the table so we got to try everything.  As we were 
sitting we could look up and see moon mountain.  It was really beautiful.  It is a mountain that is eroded in a moon shape.....   David said he didn't know about the rest of us but he wanted to climb it....   yikes.
 
so.....   we all decided that we needed to do it too.   ....  and we went into the parking  lot where our bikes were and began the walk.   It was over 800 steps and was very steep in some sections......  It took about an hour to climb it....   
I carried all of my own things until I was about 2/3 of the way then I was too pooped.... but I was very determined....  Julie, who was completely unwinded (when she was in middle school she went to school very close to the mountain and her teacher used to have them run up it 2 times a day.....for physical education.... )   Julie took my backpack and carried it the last 1/3.   I was so winded and tired.  my hair was plastered to my neck and forehead and I had sweat dripping off my chin and nose.....  but …. I kept going........  and the top was totally worth it.  the view was Breathtaking.   And we could take pictures of ourselves with Moon Mountain right behind us.  what a high......   Oh, …did I mention that we each had a vender lady walking with us..... and they were carrying a box full of coke and water on shoulder straps and they each had a fan and they walked fanning us all the way..... and they didn't break a sweat or get out of breath????   
I gave mine 20 Yuen and David bought me a 15 Yuen water at the top from my lady...... We walked down.... (it was actually hard to walk down too....  but I had the comfort of knowing if I fell I would be going the right direction....)
 
We rode out into the country side and took pictures of people planting and working in the fields.  A lady chased us about a block whipping her water buffalo with a twig yelling that she would let us take a photo for money.....   everyone
else said no.... I was behind everyone  ... taking other photos and she kept catching up to me and I finally gave her money and David got a picture
of me with my head right next to this huge animal.  It was cool.... then ...... the mistake happened....... David didn't realize I had paid her and reached into his pocket and brought out some bills and asked what I owed her....  she
really wanted more pictures then....  so we thanked her and left her but she wasn't very pleased.
The villages were really fun....  we love seeing the kids    ...   other than my own little darlings I don't think any children are cuter than the Chinese babies.

I read about the motel in a travel page quite a few months ago: It is located just up the street from where the boat drops off people: (about 2 blocks....) 11 Ben Jiang Road Yangshuo: telephone #:86- 0773-8822688 or fax #: 0773-8810855 hostel phone is: 86-773-8829676 (we didn't see the rooms of the hostels: but they had wooden floors, private bath, hot water, internet, and A/C) We liked this hotel. We paid about $32: May 2007. It was next to the river and just a 1/2 block from the main street. the people were very accomodating: it had a free computer available. there were bicycles for rent: nice lobby: cute and small. the motel itself has 19 rooms: it had a patio area and an indoor dining area: We ate quite a few meals there with the resident cats. rain or shine we ate on the patio. the menu prices were very competive with other places. Our room was 409: marble floors: private bath: 3rd floor no elevator: huge balcony. We would not hesitate to recommend it. We liked the clerks ..very hard working kids. We had them take our laundry to be done after I fell into the mud... they had it back hours before we expected it. Cute little store next to it to buy water...good price on the water... http://www.riverview.com.cn/

I had to take the train to Guilin and from there a minibus that will take me to Yangshou. In the bus ticket office in Guilin I ask for a ticket to Yangshou but I am told that I should hop in a minibus as they didn't sell the tickets but they should cost Y12. A man posing himself as the ticket controller of the minibus told me I could get to Yangshou for Y15 and I told him I wanted it for Y12, this kept on for a while but he settled for Y12 as more tourist were coming.