Guilin - River Li

Sue Tsai is our terrific guide here in Guilin and she took us firmly in hand from the moment we stepped off the
plane into incredible humidity. Even before we were allowed to check into our hotel, she took us to a park with large lake that the Chinese who can see animal forms in anything, call Elephant Trunk Hill. It's supposed to look like an elephant's trunk of course but in spite of my lack of imagination it was a great place to really breathe some fresh air and detox from the plane. But at Elephant Trunk Hill I also saw some Cormorants and I was delighted. I remember these birds from reading Ping the Duck as a kid and then it was all reinforced when I read to Kate about the fisherman on the Yangtzee River. The cormorants wear tight rings around their necks so that they can dive for fish but the rings prevent them from actually swallowing.

Yesterday we took a half-day boat trip down the River Li which gently floats you through some incredibly beautiful country with amazing limestone hills which are called Karsts after the explorer who discovered them. We continue to look for the China that we imagined at home but the reality is often very different. Here we did see something of that older China house There is alot of life lived on the river with people bathing, washing clothes and just watching the flotilla of tourist boats. At one point I felt vaguely like Captain Cook putting into shore when two persistent hawkers hooked up their very thin bamboo rafts to the boats offering up buddahs and other souvenir stuff.

After the boat ride we took what they call an electric car with another family we met on the boat into the country and again this was the China that we thought we would see. Very slow pace of life, very hot of course and people squatting in shade. We were all glad to get back into Guilin and head for the swimming pool.

For dinner we negotiated our way through rush hour traffic of green taxis, bikes, motor bikes, private cars, vans, trucks and motorcycles with and without a side car to get to a Szechuan restaurant. Luckily we were dfriven because I would not live long here as a pedestrian.