A Quick Smile

Those Pretty Mountains - Part Two : Yangshuo

January 1st, to start the year, we left Guilin by car to Yangshuo, a little locality upstream of the Li. It is set in a little piece of flat land nested between numerous karst peaks. This image found on Wikipedia really shows it best how Yangshuo is  physical setting.

So far Yanshuo is probably the smallest locality I have been since in China - only 300,000 inhabitants! It is mainly a backpacker town, with tourists coming to bike, hike or climb the karsts, or to drift on the small bamboo rafts.
Of course going in the middle of the winter is not the best. The temperature, even if about 15 degrees warmer than Beijing, remains cold and the humidity (and lack of heating in most buildings) makes it a bit uncomfortable. And the rain is intermittent, not preventing us from going around, but certainly a deterrent to any kind of physical activity, specially with the kids.
We checked in our little inn, basic comfort but cool. After discovered the Wii in the lounge, we headed down on the river for a little ride on a bamboo raft.
Despite the cold and the drizzling rain, there was something very peaceful about riding on the water, with the scenery changing fluidly between small peaks, as they appeared out of the mist in front of us, reflected in the moving waters.

An inspired 20 Yuan note...
We landed on the city dock, and started the exploration of Yangshuo.


an old man and his cormoran trained for fishing















In the evening, we went to see a show called "Impression on Sanjie Liu". It is an huge event taking place near Yangshuo, in natural stage with the river as stage and several peeks as backdrop. Directed by Zhang Yimou (who did Hero, Raise the red lantern, Olympics 2008), about 600 actors play on and along the Li river. Despite the rain and the cold, the show really was magic, the beautiful music, dresses and lightshow gave us the feeling of being in the middle of a fairytale.

Those Pretty Mountains - Part One : Guilin

Since we talked about moving in Beijing, there has been a place in China that I really wanted to see.  It is one of those places that are part of this unconscious vague image of China: a few steep but small mountains, with their tops obstructed by the clouds, their still image reflecting in the water of a calm river, cut by the passage of a old man fishing on a bamboo raft.

Guangxi-Guilin-Yanshou

And so for Christmas Paul offered me a trip to go see these places.  What a wonderful wonderful surprise!

So family-style we pack everyone and went onto our plane (Without the diaper bag, forgotten at home. But I am digressing, this is a totally different story).

Here is a glance at my first sight of the Guangxi region, from the plane:

First destination: 桂林 Guilin.

Known for its scenery, the city is sparkled by these steep rock formation, the karst peaks. These little pointy mountains are covering the whole region. In fact its landscape is so special that the city was used as a setting for decor of the planet Kashyyk in Star Wars Episode III.  Here is the view from our hotel room:

The next day, we took the morning to find the zoo, and say hi to the pandas. As usual, their sight that makes Noam quite happy. But with their stained yellowed fur, I really can't help finding the poor guys a bit dirty. And lazy, as they eat bamboo shoots and scratch themselves snail-paced. The little red pandas look much more playful, like furry little bears with long tails.

The Li River serpentine through the city. Its scenery is also found on the back of the 20 Yuan bills. Its  urban shores have been landscaped in a lovely way. At night boats take passengers around the city for a lovely tour, leaving from Fir Lake. It was a real surprise for me to see such beautiful manmade scenery in  an urban setting. Too many times, the Chinese way landscaping and decorating verges on the kitsch. But there, with the meandering of the river, the pretty white bridges, the carved pagodas, with the karst mountains as a background,

Back to the hotel, once the boys in bed, we celebrated the beginning of the new year with the soft sound of the champagne bubbles for only popping noises, since fireworks here are kept for the "real" new year in a couple months.

Welcome 2010!

Happy New Year!