Guilin, China

Greetings from a very scenic part of China. We left Hong Kong last night at 5 p.m. for a bus ride to an airport, a wait for a flight, and a short one-hour's flight to Guilin, a VERY beautiful, lush area with towering limestone outcroppings everywhere. We arrived in our hotel at 11 p.m. and were "treated" to a very nice dinner, and I can't believe that our fellow travelers could eat at that hour.

I was cross and cranky, thirsty, hot and sweaty, and no food tasted good to me at that hour. After a short night of sleep, we were hustled off this morning for an all-day boat ride on the Lijang River. I stood outside most of the day, on the upper deck of this rusty can of nails, and took almost 150 photos.

Since I don't want anyone to faint or breathe too quickly, I will say that I am going to edit them tonight and put them up on my AOL site later.

Tom and I are enjoying the translations from Chinese to English. The brochure for today says: "Between Guilin and Yangshuo, Lijang River travels 83 kilometers (almost 50 miles) exactly like a jade ribbon winding among thousands of grotesque peaks."

Here is a FAMOUS poem from the Tang Dynasty about this area:

The river winds like a blue silk robbon,
While the hills erect like green jade hairpins

I will leave you with this wonderful poem, go edit my pictures, and tell you that it is hot and humid here like I never thought I would experience.

Also, I hope you all got to see the Opening Ceremony on NBC - we watched from our hotel in Hong Kong and it was spectacular. More on that later.

Carol