life, by Linley: Guilin and Yangshuo County

This past weekend my friends and I went on our best trip thus far: Guilin. The city is pretty small—it only has a population of 1.3 million—and it is known for three specialties: chili sauce, Guilin local rice wine and pickled tofu. Guilin is also known for their rice noodles, silk and pomelos—none of which I got to try! wah. I really wanted to get a silk scarf and try a pomelo, but I didn't really have time, so it will have to wait until I go back to Guilin this June with my family.

Anyway, on the first day, we rode mountain bikes from the main road in Yangshuo County (about an hour and a half away from Guilin) to the Yulong River, where we went on a bamboo raft ride. The Yulong river is the smaller of the two rivers in Yangshuo, and does not allow motor boats, so the water is 'cleaner' and calmer. The Yulong river is also where you can see the famous view of the mountain range that is on the back of the 20rmb note. Sadly, my boat person did not point this out to us and I had no idea until later in the day. Then, we rode to Moon Hill, where we climbed to the top! It was rather tiring, but the views were breathtaking and totally worth it.

The next day, we went on a boat cruise through the Li River to Pudi, where we had lunch at a farmer's home. The food was so fresh! Everything was grown on his farm—including the rice!! Also in the village, I made a new little friend! I was asking her questions in Chinese, but she was too shy to respond and kind of just giggled. Her grandma said that she's four. Side note: I noticed that all of the babies/little kids in Guilin/Yangshuo are really, really cute. All of them. In Shanghai, most of the babies are cute....but not all of them are. Finally, we went to a water cave. The majority of the mountains have caves on the inside, but most have not been explored.

I tried to keep the mountain pictures to a minimum, but I know these pictures just can't do Guilin and Yangshuo justice.