Winding down in Yangshuo

After disembarking our cruise ship, we traveled 3.5 hours via bus to Yangshuo.  Our guide assured us that we would love the small town atmosphere with many bars and restaurants in which to spend our time.  This area of China is in the Guanxi province of China and is much less densely populated than most other cities with a total population of just over 300,000.  The area is made famous for the stunning limestone karsts.  In fact, the landscape below is featured on the back of the Yuan bill that I am holding up.  

The local culture thrives on the tourists, both foreign and national.  We took a nice cruise up the river to get a closer look at the karsts.

When we started our adventure, there weren't many boats on the river.  They quickly joined us and by the end, all we could see were boats zooming up and down the water.

Of course, as with anything, in the beginning they were beautiful and we stopped to take tons of pictures.  The scene was surreal...so peaceful and majestic.  After about 30 minutes though, while still beautiful, the enchantment was over.

Just one of the scenes along the river.

Here are Hanna and I enjoying the scenery.

The karst in the back is said to be horse mountain.  It is a large head with the pointed peaks as the horse's ears.  Can you see it?

A big attraction in the area was cormorant fishing birds.  These birds have rings around their necks and dive under the water to catch fish.  Because of the rings, they can't swallow them but instead bring them up for their owners.

This is how packed the river became after a bit.

Limestone karsts as far as the eyes could see.

The water was really refreshing since it was over 100 degrees every day.

Even the water buffalos thought that it was too hot to keep out of the water.

I love the water too.  Anytime I am near it, I just feel at peace.

Lotus flowers and karsts...I love it!

The next day in Yangshuo we went on a biking excursion.  It was very peaceful to bike through the countryside and check out the more rural side of China.  

We stopped at a house along the way that has been maintained since the early 16th century.  The property has been a part of this man's family for many, many years.  Here he is showing us how he has taught his bird to count (in English) by doing back flips. 

A beautiful rice paddy with limestone karsts along the bike route. 

This woman lives at the house too.  It was like a museum with all their family's antiques and traditional decor throughout.  

It was so stinking hot on the bike ride, especially wearing my backpack, that once they turned on the water, I needed to cool down.  

This was a home made kettle bell.  This man is in his 80's and works out by lifting this each day.  Some of the guys in our groups tried to lift it as well, but were unsuccessful.  That is one thing that amazes me about the more mature folks in Asia...they sure do take good care of themselves!

The doors were so short that I couldn't walk through without bending over...now that's short!

A water break along the way!

We were nearing the halfway point and came upon the small port on this river.  Many people hire locals to take them down the river.  They let them out, then turn the bend and load the rafts up about 10 high on these itty bitty trucks.  The trucks haul ass and take all the rafts back to the top and down they come again.  Let me tell you, meeting those loaded trucks while biking on a narrow, winding road is pretty scary.  

Here's a closer view.  

This is Moon Hill, which is rumored to look like different moons during different times of the year.  It's a really popular spot for rock climbing.  Our group, just enjoyed the view, hydrated, and headed back to Yangshuo.  

On our way, we stopped in a mud cave.  It was super crazy.  We jumped in this mud pit and were totally surprised at how buoyant we all were.  It was like we laid down and floated on top of the mud.  It was super disgusting and crazy fun!

The next day, three of us went kayaking down the Li River.  It was pretty cold and rainy, so it wasn't the most relaxing day, but the scenery and the break from people was nice.  Plus, I was done punishing my backside (from the biking) and decided that my arms needed some work too.  There weren't huge boatloads of tourists and we were pretty much alone for 5 hours on the river.  There were some points where I just wanted to finish, but overall, it was fantastic!

Here I am just taking a break.

It was neat to see the locals out on the river on their shanty boats.  I don't know how they stayed afloat. 

After my arm and shoulder workout, I decided to stop by Miss Lily's for some acupuncture.  Don't be fooled, I watched her put the needles in Mark, and they are huge!  She put them in me and while it didn't hurt as much as it was uncomfortable, I think she was a quack.  I might try it again, but not in China!

Floating in Style Down the Yangtze

Following the relaxing time in Emei shan, we headed to Chongqing, the largest city in China.  I thought it was interesting that I had never heard of this city before and including its suburbs it is home to over 34 million people.  Driving into it and looking at it from the banks of the Jialing River, it seems to never end.  

We had a bit of time to explore the city, but it was much like any other big city.  

That night, after boarding our Yangtze River cruise ship, the city lit up.  The buildings were fantastic and city was gorgeous!  These sailboats lit up and then moved along the building in sync.  It was really cool.  

Here's a view of the city as we pulled out.  

What a cool building!!

On our way...4 nights on the river aboard a 5 star ship...yes, please!!!  After all the 3 star hotels, hot and humid conditions, and fast pace of the trip, this part was much needed.

Our excursion on the first day of the cruise was to Ghost City.  This was one of the seven areas which were submerged in the 3 Gorges Project.  Now the surrounding city is newly rebuilt to house over 100,000 residents of the area.  

This was one of the funnier signs on the hike up the mountain.  

Here we are at the top.  Many of the ship's passengers went over the "Bridge over Troubled Water" in order to wish for luck in their lives.  We didn't have time for that...we just went to get some pictures before the entire crowd finished crossing the bridge.  

Here is a Buddha in the temple.

Here's another really cool statue.  

The view from up here was awe inspiring!

Look at the detail of this roof!  Amazing!

Then, we headed to the Gates of Hell.  All along the pathway to the top were these really weird statues of people being naughty.  

Just another weird statue on the way to the Gates of Hell.

This was the judgement box.  When a person died and was sent to be judged worthy, they had to stand for a certain amount of time (depending on your age, sex, and social status) on one foot all while maintaining eye contact with the judge; Yama, the king of hell.  If you could do it, then you were one step closer to being worthy.  

These were some of the guardians (or torturers) from hell.  We had to pass between two rows of them on our way to the back of the hall.  

Here's a closeup.  

All of the artwork here depicted death and dying.  There was even an entire display of things that would happen in hell...and let me tell you, none of it was pretty. 

Here I am playing tour guide...probably not funny to you, but spend some time in Japan and you'll see the humor.

A beautiful pagoda at the top of the mountain.  

A closeup of the Buddha.  We didn't hike over there due to time, but it was neat that he was looking out on the river.  

Here's a view from afar.

Once we disembarked from the ship, there were vendors lined up to do some business.  I think that the river communities have adapted to having all the tourists head their way.  

They even had these "taxis" available for those who didn't feel capable of walking to the sites.  Really?!

And, here's a view of our cruise ship.  The day before boarding, our tour guide got a message that we had been up graded.  Thank goodness, because we saw the ship we were supposed to be on and it wasn't pretty folks!!!  This one was top notch!

The kids in the streets were super cute playing in the rock piles.  Nearly every place that we was under construction so this was a common sight.  

We had to cross this huge bridge to get to the 9-story pagoda on the other side.  

Just another pretty view of the bridge.  

A coffer dam was built around the base of the mountain to preserve the pagoda after the area was flooded due to the Three Gorges Dam Project.  

This 9-story pagoda is a marvel because it's built entirely without nails.  The higher you climb, the more likely your dreams will come true...but even that's difficult, because the entire thing has to be scaled on rickety wooden ladders.  I made it up to the level right below the top.  We had some other adventures along the way!

It was built into the side of this mountain which is over 200 meters tall...it looks less now, but that's because the river has risen so much.  

Here's the entrance to the pagoda.  

I had to place my hand on the wall and make a wish.  

The guide seriously thought that Mark and I were married.  She kept talking about it, almost obsessively.  Then, she had us place our hands here for eternal love.  After basically conducting a marriage ceremony, she wanted us to kiss.  We kept saying that we were shy, but she wanted us to make out.  Seriously, she almost forced the issue.  No worries folks...we're still just good FRIENDS.  

Some more statues.  

The level of detail in everything here is just astounding.  From the floors, to the columns, the ceilings, and the decor...I love that people take the time to make things beautiful.

Here's another one.

This was a door to the temple next to the pagoda.  

This was the view from the top of the pagoda.  The river looked super muddy from here, but didn't appear so from the boat.  It's interesting to think that entire cities are just below the surface of the water. When China flooded the area, they didn't give the residents much notice, so many just took what they could carry.  Entire families were displaced and they still aren't sure how they feel about it. 

The relocation of the cities and residents has created an interesting culture.  Since many were paid off, they spend their days gambling and doing nothing.  It's changed the culture and who knows what will happen when their pay-off money runs out.  

Back on the river, we traveled through the 3 Gorges.  I was super pumped, but once we were there, I honestly couldn't tell the difference between the gorges and the natural scenery.  It all looked the same to me.  I think that they must have been spectacular before the dam project.  

So, I included some pictures from along the way.  

This is where we began our excursion on the Wu River.  It was surprisingly clear, unlike the Yangtze.  

The pictures couldn't capture the beauty this short trip.  

On our little river craft...we had to switch to a smaller boat in order to make it upstream because it got quite shallow in some areas.

Here I am in front of one of the famous three gorges.  

Tea is the drink of choice in China, with hundreds of different types.  These are some tea fields on mountain faces along our the river.  

Some local boats to travel the river.  I think it would have been scary to ride in those next to all the huge barges and cruise ships, but there were tons of them...many in worse shape than these.  

Here I am pretending to guide our vessel in local attire.  Apparently it keeps the sun away...who cares about the fact that it's super freaking itchy!

It was so peaceful!

Oh yeah...this is a great one.  All throughout China, small babies and children run around in these pants that are crotchless.  They are split up the middle to allow for them to relieve themselves whenever needed...no joke.  On our first day in Beijing there was a child pooping in the corner of the Forbidden Palace.  In a supermarket in Chongqing, a mother held her baby over a trashcan so he could poop.  The scene was repeated time and time again throughout our trip.  Despite the multiple opportunities to view this phenomenon, it was very difficult to capture with the camera.  On our cruise, I was finally able to do so.  Can you imagine this in the United States?!  Kids walked around like this everywhere!

Now, back to the beauty.  

That night, we headed into the lock to enter a different part of the river.  This was the first time that I had experienced it.  

First, we approached really slowly since many ships had to fit in one lock together.  Then, the gates closed...talk about scary.  That freaked me out...being locked in there with the walls closing in around us!  Then, the water levels started to rise and suddenly (over 5 hours) we were at the top.  It was really neat despite causing me to panic.  

Our last stop on the cruise was the Yangtze River Dam.  Mark thought it would be great to wear his Chairman Mao (Chinese Communist revolutionary and founder of the People's Republic of China) shirt along with his new hat for the tour.  His strong look attracted many new friends who wanted to take hundreds of photos of him and with him.  Here's how it started.  

Then we all got roped into group shots!

Here I am reading the history of the dam project.  

Chinese tourists in China crack me up.  This is a menagerie of folks with these crazy hats and outfits that don't match...I love that they just don't care.  Now that's how true travelers roll.