Our trip to Guilin part 1

In front of Camel Mountain

Reed Flute Cave

We returned from Guilin late last night after a terrific 4-day trip. Everyone had a great time in spite of the heat and humidity there. This morning the kids don't have to be to school until 10:00 so hopefully they got some sleep.

We all met at school at noon on Monday for the trip to the airport. Once we walked to the correct terminal we easily checked-in for our flight. We had a smooth - and on time - flight to Guilin. (Maybe I am speaking too soon, but all of our flights on Chinese airlines have left on time!) Once there we were met by our guide "Alice" for the beginning of our adventure. We drove about 45 minutes from the airport to the city of Guilin. It is located in an area surrounded by small mountains framing most pictures of the city. We checked in to our hotel, the "Business Hotel" which was adequate though not everything worked perfectly. Shortly after our arrival we met downstairs for a short walk to a nearby restaurant on a back street. There we were the subject of frank and obvious stares by the other customers. We were in a small private room and people stopped at the door to stare. :) This was the only meal (except breakfast) that was just average. For all other meals we went to restaurants that featured local dishes and the food was great! (In all of them we were the only western people but we didn't get the same attention as the first night.)

After dinner there was nothing on the schedule so we walked up and down the main street of town. It was very hot and humid so some of the girls bought fans. The other "big" purchase was ice cream - something that the kids did frequently over our 4 days. Guilin is surrounded by rivers, so we walked to the closest bridge and then went back to our hotel for the night. The only bad part of the evening was Kimi once again dislocating her shoulder. So the next day we bought her some gauze to make a sling.

On Tuesday we had "breakfast" in the hotel and then got on our bus for our first stop - a Folded Brocade Hill - in a park in town. Someone estimated that there were about 500 steps though some of us thought more... On the way up we passed through a small cave filled with Buddha statues - where we wanted to linger since it was cooler. It rained a bit on the way up, but since it was so humid anyway it didn't make much of a difference. From the top we had a nice view of the city and the Li River. We were told that just after the earthquake the river rose more than 4 feet for a short time before receding. This caused a fair amount of flooding since so many houses are located at river level.

After our descent we headed to 7-Star Park where we saw many interesting sites. There was a very small zoo with three red pandas (resembling raccoons), some monkeys and a bear. Throughout the park there are also numerous "statues", not only of the Olympic symbols which are everywhere but also pokemon creatures and teletubbies. All along the walk there were also places where one can sit to have his/her picture taken with costumed girls or peacocks. It was clear that this is a popular place for the Chinese although it was not crowded during our visit. (In fact we faced no crowds during the whole trip even though we visited very touristy cities. It appears that many Chinese have cancelled plans to travel this year, plus the school year will not end until next week.) At once point there is a rock commemorating Bill Clinton's visit there to speak about the need to care for the environment. It is located in front of Camel Hill which is (naturally) in the shape of a camel. We also visited a museum of rocks from China and a few from around the world. Some are incredibly beautiful with all kinds of shapes, colors and sizes. In the last room we were shown a kind of rock which glows when it is warm or in the sun. We also got to sit in an air-conditioned room and drank some tea. (Air-conditioning was always welcome!)

After this we went to lunch where we once again tried new dishes. Our group went though two dishes of noodles, with the second one disappearing in seconds! The chopsticks looked like baby birds reaching for a worm!

After lunch we went to another small park which had another small cave with many different statues of Buddha. In two places there were “lucky spots” where if a student reaches a certain place with his/her hand they will have good results on all tests. Most of the kids tried!

Our next stop was a pearl factory where we learned how to tell real from fake pearls and where we also saw a short “fashion show” with models who appeared in evening gowns – with pearl necklaces of course. The factory store was cool so we all spent time looking around. Then we headed to 3-flute cave a few miles from town. It is an old cave that has been lit with colored lights making the views magnificent. At each stop on our tour we were told about the shapes of the formations which resembled something. The best was a small lake that appears to be surreal image which could be New York City or lots of people. Of course it was cool in the cave, so we were in no hurry to get out. (It was interesting that on the way up the stairs to the cave there was a sign pointing foreign visitors one way and Chinese the other. Our path included a walk through a gift shop…but I was also told that Chinese tours are so big that they often have to wait to enter the cave after the previous tour has passed. Foreigners who all have guides get special priority. Of course after we came down the hill we were bombarded with vendors trying to sell books, postcards etc. There were certainly persistant!

On our way back to town we stopped at a silk factory where the students learned about how silk is produced – with single cocoons being used for fabric and double cocoons for bedding. We wandered through the salesroom before heading to dinner.

That was (I think) the favorite meal of the trip with all kinds of new and interesting dishes. We were also seated next to a window overlooking the street so we had a nice view. That was also the night of the watermelon. Our guide had noticed that our group liked watermelon so she bought two on the street. That restaurant didn’t serve watermelon but cut up one for us. Amanda and Aurelien managed to eat multiple pieces at one time! We also took a bag home which I heard that Aurelien ate later that night.

We have class in a few moments, so I'll post this now and continue this afternoon.