Li River Retreat Yangshuo

... show at a venue along the river bank that was choreographed by the same person who did the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics. The show had 600 actors and was done on both land and on the water and the lighting effects were phenomenal. The strange thing we noticed is that the Chinese and other Asians at the show don’t applaud. We crashed at 11 PM since we are leaving for the airport at 8 AM tomorrow.

... Karst" peaks. There were so many activities that I wanted to do while I was there that I absolutely could have happily passed another week or so in Yangshou without getting even slightly bored. Unlike other cities that I've visited in China, Yanghou had a lot of really appealing restaurants and bars. As I've mentioned before the food I've had thus far in China has been AMAZING, but often it's served in restaurants that I'd be reluctant to even go ...

... some dumplings and a bottle of Guilin special product “Wine” standing at about 20% alcohol, sweet and tear-jerking and like a hammer it set the ball of conversation rolling, while Jon sat and started on his Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 with renewed inspiration and motivation. It was good to see, so Ania and I chatted until midnight, at which point, I invited her back to my room to sleep, and told her to wake me in the dark of the morning (if I find it difficult to wake by myself at ...

... br><br>Ben leading up the 5.12a<br><br>While at Moon Hill, and at other crags, we bumped into the Hot Rock group. Hot Rock is a group of 15-25, predominantly composed of Brits but has sprinkles of others like Aussies or Mexicans or even Americans sometimes, who cram themselves into an old beater truck for anywhere between two months ...

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... see if they were waiting for me. They had just got to the airport and by the time I checked through customs. Now as you leave the custom area they X-ray your bags. I was a little afraid because my one bag was full of food (all processed stuff) like good old Rice-a-Roni (the San Francisco treat) and Spam (the almost meat). It is traditional in China when I friend returns from a vacation that they bring a snack from where they had been. So that is ...

... so most people came back downstairs and took their seats in time for lunch to be served, We had paid a little extra for our boat tickets because the lunch was supposedly better, but it was pretty blah. Gabe paid 30 kuai for a cup of fermented snake wine. It's exactly what it sounds like and he said it was pretty horrific.<br><br>Once we arrived in Yangshuo, we tiptoed across gangplanks over the rushing river and walked up a ...

... Yale University and the University of Hawaii were producing it. The direct and a couple of people were Americans but all the crew was Chinese. I played the role of a foreign businessman and gallery owner who was interested in bring a new young art work to the USA. I even had a speaking part. About 6 lines. Had a great time, even was paid and given lunch. Director said I was a natural. It will be shown in about ...

... we waited for a few minutes to board our boat. There are hundreds of people doing the same. Once on board we met Esaskoon and John from Spain, Evan and Helen from Edmonton. Helen is visiting her son Evan who has been teaching in Beijing for the past eight years. We also met Don from Tennessee and his son Tim from Texas. They are spending 10 days or 2 weeks in Tokyo and China. We departed around 9:30 and our crew served us some tea and water. They would not allow us to go up ...

... more villages and some tombstones along of the mountains. Some townfolk were decorating a few, since it was Qingming festival weekend, a time to honor the dead and remember them. It was cool to see it celebrated in such a small area. We passed people on the road, with their bamboo baskets strapped on a pole across their shoulder, full of oranges and other produce. It was crazy to think that they had to walk along that road, all those miles and hours, everyday, when they took their ...