So you can cross Linfen off of your China “must see” list, but what does that leave you with? Even Shanghai can sometimes be covered in pollution:
Instead, choose Guilin, a beautiful, lush, green city located in China’s Southern Guangxi Province. Guilin is on the list as one of China’s least polluted and most eco-friendly cities. Guilin is located on the Li river, which is breathtakingly beautiful. A cruise on the river is a very highly recommended alternative to a cruise on the polluted Yangtze river.
Rice fields – taken inside a moving car
Be warned, however, when in Guilin, your “faucet will be on” the whole time. (For those of you out of the loop of current savvy street talk, “having your faucet on” means you are sweating, like a pig.) While we were there, it was hot and humid. I’d say about 99.99% humidity. It rained most of the time. In fact, I spent much of my stay in Guilin looking like this.
Thank god I was able to see all of the sights. We had an adorable tour guide there. He even serenaded us in Chinese. He was very eager for us to like Guilin, but how could we not?
We took a 3 hour cruise on the Li River to the city of Yangshuo. (An absolute must if you are traveling to China. I recommend it over the Yangtze.) On the cruise boat, we were approached by two older Japanese men who wanted to take pictures with us. Here we are with our Chinese Gramps:
Me, My Sister, Gramps #1, My Sister-in-Law, Gramps #2, and Mom
We visited Reed Flute Caves, several geographic hotspots in the city and attended a minority people song and dance show that was way less cheesy than it sounds. (Actually it was a huge hit among our group!)
The gardens outside the Reed Flute Caves
One of my favorite things about Guilin:
The water buffalo!
The city sights:
Elephant Trunk Hill
There are only a few inches between the rocks, something that seemed absolutely thrilling to the throngs of tourists trying to take pictures!
Us in front of Guilin’s Copper Pagodas.
Here they are at night:
The view of the city atop one of the many hills. To get to the top we climbed like 3000 steps. (Probably more like 200.) Thus, making our faucets work overtime.
My Mom with one of the minority people dancers from the show.
These photos were taken during my “Tour of China” in June of 2006. I toured China with my Mom, Sister and Sister-in-Law. Yes, I am just now getting around to posting photos and stories. I plan to post more of these mini-travel updates from time to time. Perhaps I should call these postings: Reminiscences, A China Retrospective. Or is that too haughty?
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Guilin seems like a beautiful city. These are great pictures. I’m researching contamination in the Lijiang River, which flows through Guilin…and so far we’re finding relatively low pollution values.