In the morning I went to the desk in the hotel lobby which organises tour and booked a trip down the River Li for the 14th. A bus will pick us up from the hotel at 8.30, arrive at Yangshuo town at 9.30 and then enjoy a 4-hour journey down the river. We also booked a 90-minute trip on 2 rivers and 4 lakes in the evening to see the lights. It was due to start at 7.30 pm so we had an early dinner in the hotel’s Chinese restaurant. I ordered pork balls sweet and sour while Jennifer ordered a plate of shrimps from the River Li. They were about 1 inch long and had been fried with their shells on. She didn’t like the shells (and wanted to take them off!!!) so I ate them (shells included) while she had my sweet and sour. The cruise was good, although touristic to the point of being naff. We passed under a limestone bridge with stalactites (mites go up and tights come down) which looked realistic from a distance but were actually made of concrete! We also passed some strategically placed junks and some “fishermen” on canoes “fishing” with cormorants. However the cruise was a most enjoyable experience.
Board describing the Metasequoia tree, said to be the world’s oldest variety of tree, thought to be extinct until it was re-discovered in 1947. Note how the author has joined all the words together.
The tree
The Sun and Moon Pagodas
Statue on the Shan Lake path
Boat for the Two Rivers and Four Lakes cruise
Island in the Li River with a hole through it.
Girls singing as boat went past. A tourism gimmick
Better view of the pagoda
A junk. Another tourism gimmick
A man fishing with a cormorant. Another tourism gimmick
Cruise ship terminal
