just like the paintings

a month ago, we joined a tour on a weekend trip up to Guilin, one of the most scenic areas in all of China.

first we took a 4-hour river boat ride up the Li River from Guilin to a little town called Yangshuo. you know those traditional Chinese paintings that you see hanging in many Chinese people's homes, the ones of mountains shrouded in fog along a river with little bamboo rafts floating by? the scenery along the Li River is supposedly where all those artists got their inspiration from. we just sat back and enjoyed the scenery of foggy limestone mountains to our left and right.

during our brief stop in Yangshuo, we walked along West Street, their busiest (and tourist-filled) street filled with restaurants and souvenier shops. we then rode on a small, narrow bamboo raft (about 6 people per raft) where one man was manually propelling our raft along the river using a long bamboo reed. talk about manpower!

we went to a village called Longsheng to see their famous terraced rice fields... incredible terraces of rice paddies created along the mountains to resemble a staircase. goes to show how resourceful the people there are, not letting steep mountains get in the way of farming and being productive. what an amazing sight!

on our last day, we visited Elephant Trunk Hill to see a hole in a mountain shaped like an elephant drink water from the river. let me tell you that the Chinese just love to use their imagination and visualize animals or objects out of mountains and caves and other areas of nature, and then proceed to name them just that. another example is Crescent Moon Hill, where a hole in a different mountain is shaped like... you guessed it, a crescent moon. in a cave, we saw natural formations with names such as "Praying Buddha", "Key", "Empress Taking a Bath", and "The Great Wall". it can be a stretch, but at times if you look hard enough, you'll see what they're talking about. use your imagination! ;P

Guilin and its neighboring villages are certainly scenic and quaint, worth checking out in your lifetime (even the Clintons visited here years ago!). hopefully i can take my parents there someday, as i'm sure they'll appreciate the scenery.