Li river cruise and Sanjie light show

Yesterday was not quite as auspicious as our first day here -- for one, in began with some rain, although it did subside and leave us with a hazy humid day for exploring the river. We thought we had booked tickets for a 2:00 cruise on a small boat from Xingping, town about 30 minutes away by bus, up the river through the most famous section and then back. When we arrived we were told -- no 2:00 boat, "we'll leave at 3:00", at 3:00 "in 5 minutes" and at 3:35 finally we were taken to the boats. I did have my first argument in Chinese, although futile.

Once on the boat it was very nice, but we had such fun fishing the night before that the kids were a little bored until we started counting water buffalo..had stop around 30 or something...


The purpose of the cruise is to appreciate these unusual mountains all along-- of course there are names for the oddly shaped ones in Chinese...it was hazy, in no small part from the motors from all the boat engines.

We stopped for some forced shopping opportunities with the locals, but Helen managed to get herself on top of a water buffalo for a small price. When I saw her up there it occurred to me that Helen's alternate life, had the story been different, might have been to grow up on a farm near here..it made me see everything in a new light.


Almost right at the end the sun broke through the clouds for a dramatic moment..

And we saw a lone chicken near the banks of the river we named Daisy (see previous day's post).

We had a ride back to Yangshuo on an overcrowded bus, and at night we went to the Sanjie light show...it is a blend of theatrical staging and the music of the local minority group. The designer of the show is doing the opening ceremony of the Olympics. It was on a grand scale with the river as the stage and the mountains as backdrop and a cast of hundreds of dancers in and singers in ethnic costume. The girls really liked it and we all thought it was worthwhile.
This morning we leave for our trip to Yongzhou by bus. I hope it goes smoothly. We are meeting our guide in Yongzhou, which is the way I wanted it, but I am a little nervous about making the connection and all with my primary school Chinese! We do have the guide's cell phone number if we need it. It will be a long day I think --and little chance of posting until we return to Xiamen on Tuesday night...