Gorgeous Guilin and a Faux-Celebrity Sighting!

In an effort to see more than just the big cities of China, we headed to Guilin for 3 days to get a little fresh air, and see some of the spectacular limestone karats that make this area of the Guangxi Province famous.  After our 20 hour overnight train journey from Shanghai to Guilin (honestly, it wasn't bad), we happily arrived at the Wada Youth Hostel, ready to soak up the sights.  However, as we walked the short distance from the train station to Wada, it started drizzling - and then proceeded to pour for the next day and a half.  This proved to be both a positive and a negative - there isn't much to do in Guilin in the rain, so we lost a day of sightseeing, but it also forced us to take a day to catch up with life - from our blogs, to homework, to some travel planning.  This was also the first Youth Hostel we have stayed in - and the kids were in heaven. From the pool table (note: my kids might be the WORST pool players known to man - this is not an exaggeration) to the mini climbing wall, to the movie/Wii room, the kids were in heaven.  We ended up not leaving Wada for a day and a half!  We even got to take part in their weekly dumpling making party!  The women who worked there were fantastic, and the food was also amazing - we didn't expect to like the hostel as much as we did! Here is the dumpling party and the kids with the "Wada Girls":

The rain finally cleared on Brian's birthday, so we headed out to explore the parks around Guilin.  The bus system was very easy to follow, and we used it to see the Moon and Sun Pagodas in the park center, and then found some beautiful caves outside of town.   Found the only other English-speaking people in the caves, only to find that they were friends of some of our best friends' parents. The kids were ecstatic about the small world connection!

 

On our last day in Guilin, we took a tour up the Li River - this is THE tourist attraction in the Guilin/Yanghsou area. I actually visited this area with my family in 1996, and my memory of the beauty of this area is what prompted us to put it on our itinerary.  The scenery didn't disappoint. I would say there are few places in the world that are more naturally stunning than the limestone karsts of the Li River.  It really did take our breath away. Unfortunately, the tourism has become so overwhelming there, it was hard to really appreciate the beauty at times (or get a great picture - all these boats kept getting in our way!).  Due to new Chinese regulations, our "bamboo raft" was actually made of PVC pipes (safer), and our driver wasn't what I would call the friendliest guy (we think he may have been in trouble with the police, as they spent a few minutes pulled up to our boat speaking to him in harsh tones in the middle of the river).  But as we spent about 90 minutes making our way from one pier to the next, I could see a great look of amazement in the kids' eyes, so I hope that they remember the beauty in the same way I did.

This last pic is the spot painted on the 20Yuan bill.

Our last stop that day was in Yangshuo, another town surrounded by karsts that is quite charming, if not a bit touristy.  Easily, the highlight of our afternoon there was our accidental crashing of an English presentation performed by college students from the Wuhan Province studying to be English teachers. We happened upon the performance in the local park, and snuck around to the back, hoping the performance would be fun for the kids. Within seconds, over 25 screaming and giggling 19 and 20-year  olds descended on us, asking (incredibly politely, I might add) to take pictures of us.  And they kept coming - for about 20 minutes. The kids have become used to the attention in other cities, but this was way beyond what any of us expected. They even wanted pictures with Brian and me (not surprisingly, this is rare). They were so excited to touch the kids' hair and faces, practice English, ask questions, etc that we just went along with it. Luke finally decided his mouth hurt from taking so many pictures and ran off, but Jacob and Maggie held out a bit longer.  Honestly, if you didn't know better, you would have thought The Jonas Brothers (wait, I think they broke up) were there. 

Last picture: Jacob is somewhere in there.  He went back to get Maggie so we could leave, and they swarmed him. I can't see his face, but I'm sure he is smiling.