Yangshuo, China

Yangshuo was our favorite place of the entire trip. The area is famous for the karst landscape that you often see in Chinese paintings and is also found on the 20 Yuan bill.

Michelle found us a fantastic hotel called the Yangshuo Mountian retreat. I highly recommend it.

The hotel was next to one of the rivers they do bamboo boating on and it was fun to watch the boat traffic go by.

The next day we went for a kayak trip. The little town where we put in is famous for fans.

This was the town we took out at.

These little trucks are the work horses in this area. There were warnings that tourists should not get rides in them because they tend to tip over.

Back at the hotel for a break and a snack.

That evening we went into town to watch the show “Impression Liu Sanjie” that they put on, on the river, every night. It was produced by the same guy that did the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympic games. This is the crowd at the gate.

Amazingly the show uses the landscape as it’s backdrop and the river as it’s stage.

There are hundreds of actors in the show and they are drawn from all the nearby villages and ethnic communities.

This was one of may favorite scenes. All these performers have LED suites on and they dance around on platforms in the water.

Very scenic MacDonalds.

Back at the hotel.

The next day we went for a bike ride. We got lost so it turned into an epic voyage.

A 1,400 old Banyan tree.

People were practicing using the bamboo boats.

Moon hill.

Finally made it back to the hotel for a well deserved break and snack.

The next day Laurel and I took a cooking class with a market tour and Kieth and Michelle went for a bamboo boat ride.

After the class we checked out of the hotel and went to take a bamboo boat through theYangdi-Xingping scenic area of the Li river on the way back to Guilin. This was the little town we put in at.