Yangshuo Market Carnival

(Lindsay Li)

West Street in Yangshuo is a cross between a carnival and a market. Most likely it is a market on days other than the New Year celebration, but we were there during the festivities, and we were swept into the undertow of pedestrian traffic as soon as we entered from the main drag. The only way to visit a shop was to plan well in advance and begin to edge through the constant current of humans towards the bank, hoping for an eddy right in front of the target boutique or cart. Thousands of pen and ink prints, silk scarves, toys, fried tofu, steamed cakes, carved knickknacks, tea, candy, knockoffs galore, ocarinas, minority handicrafts, sandalwood combs, combs made of horn, combs made of bone and more toys. Noises from all directions: people singing along with boomboxes, toy jets with blinking LED lights screaming high into the air overhead and swooping back to almost slam into second-story windows only to shoot straight up into the air once again and soar away, the pounding of men with large wooden mallets making something like peanut butter, children laughing and squealing and the people in the shops calling out after us lower and lower prices trying to hit on the one that would bring us back to buy. Arlen and I did buy every now and then, but Abby, Ola and Nick? They single-handedly balanced the Chinese budget.

Last Day in Yangshuo

(Ola)

On our last day in Yangshuo, we woke up early and went to go see the Reed Flute Cave. The enormous cave is spectacularly lit up to showcase different formations. Our tour guide, Summer, explained what the different stalagmites and stalactites represented. For example, one part of the cave looked like a sun rising up over a lion. We were all in awe of the caves vastness and natural beauty. After visiting the cave, we went to Fubo Hill, named for General Fubo. As we walked through, we saw hundreds of Buddhas engraved in the side of the hill. There were many different renditions which depicted how the image of the Buddha changed over time. Then, we climbed up to the top of the hill to get a nice view of the whole city.

Star Ferry and Hong Kong Island

(Nik Dombrowski)

After a restless night (I awoke twice, the first time due to an unknown Jamaican number calling my cell phone) and with breakfast shoveled down, Ola, Abby, and I walked down from the hotel to the Star Ferry pier, which is the most famous and convenient method of transportation from Kowloon, where we are staying, to the actual island of Hong Kong and our destination that morning, Man Mo Temple. Despite Mrs. Viz’s reports of how romantic the ferry is supposed to be, the many couples on board seemed unaffected. 

Guilin and Yangshuo (or ... Risk of Death by Moped!)

(Abby O'Reilly)

Ola, Nik, Mr. and Mrs. Li and I arrived to Mainland China in the rural city of Guilin. Getting off the plane, I noticed all the beautiful mountains China’s landscape is typically associated with. We learned later from our tour guide, Summer, that these mountains are made of limestone, which thousands of years of rain have melted away, giving them their characteristically steep and rounded shape. The city also didn’t have any very tall buildings and was very dark at night.