Guilin and Yangshuo
Posted by Kelly I on Friday, August 5, 2011
Under: China Heritage Tour
We were out of touch for a few days but will try to catch you up a little. We have been SO busy and seen So much in the last 3-4 days.
Our time in Xi'an was wonderful and our trip to Anya's orphanage couldn't have gone any better. I did add a few pictures into the post that Mark did for me about our time there. We headed straight to the airport after our time at Anya's orphanage and made it to Guilin around 10pm. That put us at the hotel around 11 and ready for sleep, especially because we had a full day and early morning scheduled for the next day.
We started the next day with a visit to an art school. We learned a bit about Chinese art and they had a quick demonstration by one of the instructors painting a bamboo scene for us. Then it was our turn to paint a bit...by the end we actually made a picture that looked like a plum blossom and bamboo .(well at least we could tell what it was) Next it was off to Elephant trunk park...For those of you who have seen Big Bird in China you will remember the rock formation that looks like an elephant drinking the river dry. We also saw some of the cormorant birds that fish for the local fisherman (or get whacked with the bamboo stick) and Anya and Mei got a photo with them.
Art school
Can you see the elephant?
If the birds sit on the bamboo stick they can't get whacked with it.
Group lunch (yummy), visit to a pearl factory, a little free time for swimming at the hotel, group dinner at hotel, night time fishing show on a boat ride. Did I mention that we have been busy?
Fisherman holds the bird over the basket and pulls the fish out of his mouth..yuck.
The next day was August 3rd...Anya's 11th birthday! We spent the first half of the day on a river cruise down the Li River to Yangshuo. It was beautiful and so unique, unlike anything else I have seen in China. The mountains and hills were amazing, water buffalo and farmers, little towns we passed...so much to see.
A man selling fruit pulled up on his little bamboo raft and sold fruit through the window of our boat.
As soon as we arrived in Yangshuo we made a quick 20 minute check in stop at our new hotel and then were rushed off to cooking school. This was a very cool experience that we all really enjoyed! The girls learned how to cook 6 Chinese dishes and they each had their own wok and station. After cooking everything we got to eat it plus a huge spread of food that the cooks had prepared.
Meila+big meat cleaver= huge smile
Duck egg dumplings are super yummy.
Enjoying the food.
Anya's birthday cake.
On the way out of the cooking school, we passed this lady bringing in her newly harvested peanuts. A cow started following her, trying to eat the leaves off. Something that you just don't see everyday at home.
We were rushed off to our last activity of the day..a night time performance of Impressions of Liu Sanjie. It was directed by the same man that directed the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics and it was really impressive(but hard to capture in a picture)
We fell into bed, not enough hours in the day to see everything!
Our time in Xi'an was wonderful and our trip to Anya's orphanage couldn't have gone any better. I did add a few pictures into the post that Mark did for me about our time there. We headed straight to the airport after our time at Anya's orphanage and made it to Guilin around 10pm. That put us at the hotel around 11 and ready for sleep, especially because we had a full day and early morning scheduled for the next day.
We started the next day with a visit to an art school. We learned a bit about Chinese art and they had a quick demonstration by one of the instructors painting a bamboo scene for us. Then it was our turn to paint a bit...by the end we actually made a picture that looked like a plum blossom and bamboo .(well at least we could tell what it was) Next it was off to Elephant trunk park...For those of you who have seen Big Bird in China you will remember the rock formation that looks like an elephant drinking the river dry. We also saw some of the cormorant birds that fish for the local fisherman (or get whacked with the bamboo stick) and Anya and Mei got a photo with them.
Art school
Can you see the elephant?
If the birds sit on the bamboo stick they can't get whacked with it.
Group lunch (yummy), visit to a pearl factory, a little free time for swimming at the hotel, group dinner at hotel, night time fishing show on a boat ride. Did I mention that we have been busy?
Fisherman holds the bird over the basket and pulls the fish out of his mouth..yuck.
The next day was August 3rd...Anya's 11th birthday! We spent the first half of the day on a river cruise down the Li River to Yangshuo. It was beautiful and so unique, unlike anything else I have seen in China. The mountains and hills were amazing, water buffalo and farmers, little towns we passed...so much to see.
A man selling fruit pulled up on his little bamboo raft and sold fruit through the window of our boat.
As soon as we arrived in Yangshuo we made a quick 20 minute check in stop at our new hotel and then were rushed off to cooking school. This was a very cool experience that we all really enjoyed! The girls learned how to cook 6 Chinese dishes and they each had their own wok and station. After cooking everything we got to eat it plus a huge spread of food that the cooks had prepared.
Meila+big meat cleaver= huge smile
Duck egg dumplings are super yummy.
Enjoying the food.
Anya's birthday cake.
On the way out of the cooking school, we passed this lady bringing in her newly harvested peanuts. A cow started following her, trying to eat the leaves off. Something that you just don't see everyday at home.
We were rushed off to our last activity of the day..a night time performance of Impressions of Liu Sanjie. It was directed by the same man that directed the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics and it was really impressive(but hard to capture in a picture)
We fell into bed, not enough hours in the day to see everything!
In : China Heritage Tour