Our week in China

Where to start??  Amanda, Jane, Grant and I had a few days in China - Guilin and Yangshuo - and it was fabulous!!

We left on Sunday and had a night in Guilin.  We had a little time on the Monday for exploring, then caught a bamboo boat down the Li River to a town called Yangshuo.  The amazing landscape there is different from anything I've seen and it was a beautiful place to spend a few days.

These photos are from our night in Guilin.  We found a restaurant that had a (huge) menu in English - with many unusual dishes on offer!  (can you read  'bamboo rice in fried frog'?)  The other menu was from the massage place in our hotel. None of us were game to have the kidney, ovary or bosum treatment!



There was a park called Elephant Hill Park near our hotel, so we spent a bit of time wandering the gardens there, before heading to Yangshuo.

On the way we stopped at the Tea Institute and had a tour of the tea plantations, and also had a lesson on formal tea ceremonies from the Tea Master.  It was really interesting.

These boats were fun!  It took us 2 hours to get down the river, sitting on little wicker seats with our luggage around us.  It was beautiful weather and very peaceful.  One of us (I won't say who, but it wasn't one of the girls) not only broke the wicker seat, but also sat on a small stool and it broke through the bottom of the boat!

Once in Yangshuo we saw the most amazing light show on the river, shopped till we dropped in the gorgeous old market streets (poor Grant never wants to see another handbag shop in his life...), we did a Chinese calligraphy course with a lovely lady called Lily, had massages, ate Chinese junk food, ate plenty of meals at our favourite restaurant (voted by us to have the best toilets in China), drank cocktails etc etc.

And we hired bikes and a tour guide, Moi, and did a 4 hour tour around the farming areas of Yangshuo.  It was a fantastic way to see China and we were so glad we did it.

I could add plenty more photos of our time in Yangshuo, but this post is far too long as is.