Yesterday we left the City of Guilin by boat on the Li River for Yangshuo, a resort town a few hours away. The cruise passes through the most remarkable countryside imaginable. While the fog hampered
our vision, what we saw was still quite impressive. In the evening we went to Impression Sanjie Liua, a local production in a 3,000 seat outdoor theatre built on the shore of the Li River. A well-known Chinese film maker who directed the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic games produced the show. There were more than 600 performers. It was, without a doubt, spectacular. It rained hard overnight and we woke to a bit of a drizzle which was fine as we were off to school for the morning – cooking school that is. Our classmates were from all over the world –the UK, Sweden, USA, Spain and even another Canadian. We started out in the local market and saw not only the vegetable and fish areas but had an opportunity to see a section that a few of the students, including Char, chose not to visit. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that ‘man’s best friend’ was there, both dead and alive. It was one thing to see butchered dogs hung up on a meat hook but to see them alive in a cage knowing what was next tugged at my heart strings. In any event, the class was lots of fun and the best part was being able to enjoy great food (no dogs were harmed in the making of our meal) without having to do any dishes! In the afternoon our guide, Helen, took us out into the countryside where we saw some of the local attractions. We ventured on to some back roads, passed through some little villages and stopped and visited with a local farmer (with the able translation skills of our guide) who showed us through her home and shared some locally grown oranges, peanuts and chestnuts with us. Tomorrow we fly to Xi’an (think terracotta soldiers) where we hope to make contact with some friends we know from Regina. Be sure to check out the new pictures we have posted on the China page. Corrigendum - In the previous blog I indicated that our room at the rice terraces had no heat. It turns out that the air conditioners, which are mounted on the wall, are also heaters. If we only had known . . . . Comments are closed.
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AuthorIn January, 2012, Curt and Char left their jobs in Canada to spend four months travelling around the world. Archives
May 2012
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