Day 11

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Today was a relax and travel day. Jason got up early this morning and came into our room to see if anyone wanted to go with him to go for a walk along the river and watch people do Tai Chi. My mom got up and went with him and they went over to the trunk of Elephant Trunk Hill.

This is them at the trunk. 

They also were able to see some people doing Tai Chi and Jason took some video of them.

After the rest of us got up we went to breakfast and then all just relaxed until we had to go to the airport to go to Xi'an. I wasn't feeling very well and felt like I was coming down with a cold. We had no cold medicine and had no clue what to buy in mainland China because everything was in Chinese. We finally managed to communicate through coughing and sniffing and miming what it was we were looking for and bought some medicine at the airport having no idea what it really was or what was in it.  

We hadn't eaten lunch so we looked around for some food in the airport. There wasn't much to find and after bringing back some snickers and Ho Ho's for all of us, Jason and Jacob reported that they were able to find some cup of noodle things and asked if we wanted some. So we started eating these huge cup of noodles and then they started boarding the plane. Normally we would have just finished our food and boarded last, but we had tons of carry on luggage and if we didn't board at the beginning, we might have run the risk of it not all fitting. So my parents boarded, because they had shared theirs and were finished, while the rest of us tried to down the rest of ours. The problem was that it was SO hot, I ended up throwing most of the broth of mine away.

We arrived in Xi'an in the late afternoon. We were all kind of dragging, I think we were all still really tired. Lee was the name of our tour guide and she was really cool. Her English was excellent and she told us a bit about Xi'an and it's history. I was a little tired and didn't pay too much attention. 

We finally made it to our hotel and checked in. It was a little bit of a fiasco because my parents asked for a different room and they did but it was on a smoking floor and my mom is allergic to smoke. So we went back down to ask to change the room again and found out that the original room had also been on a smoking floor and that all of us kids were on a smoking floor. They told us that all the non-smoking rooms were taken but my dad said that it was a health issue and that they needed a non-smoking room, so they found one of them. 

The hotel was nice. It was pretty big. 

This was the pool in the back. It had this really cool wall that looked over the water of the pool. We didn't go swimming but it was kind of fun to look at. 

After we got everything with rooms figured out and we settled in, we went for dinner in the hotel at their Chinese restaurant. Then we went back to our rooms and hung out a bit before we went to bed. 

Day 10

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Today we got up and had another fabulous breakfast and got ready for a boat ride down the Lei River. It was absolutely amazing. The mountains just shoot up out of the ground. I have never seen anything like it before. Here are some pictures. 

This is our guide Mark. He was so cool and the best guide we had while in mainland China.

There were tons of boats that went down the river with us. These boats look like the one we were on. 

We ate lunch on the boat and the kitchens were on the back of the boat. This is the kitchen of the boat in front of us. It was really cool to watch and the food was great!

This is the beauty and wonder that we saw along the river. 

Not only were the mountains beautiful but the river as well. 

It was so beautiful!

I wish the sky was a little clearer. Although they got rid of all the polluting factories in Guilin, the air is still pretty hazy. 

This was a natural waterfall that we saw along the side of the river. The beauty just never ceased!

There were these little villages all along the river. They were pretty neat.

These are the boats that the locals use. They are just pieces of bamboo tied together. It's amazing they can stay on them!

So they would come and attach themselves to our boats with a big metal hook. Then they would take out souvenirs from their bags and try to sell them to all us foreigners. It was pretty cool to watch, but we didn't buy anything. 

This is a picture of all of us on the boat. It really was a fun boat ride and it's amazing the beauty that the Lord has created!

When we finally got to the end of the boat ride there were these Chinese men with their fishing birds on these polls. The birds necks are tied so they can't swallow big fish, then they let the birds go out and fish and bring back the fish that they catch to the fishermen. The birds get fed though, don't worry. Anyway, so they have these birds and they let you take pictures with them if you pay them. So I took a picture from the boat, but as I was getting off, a different fisherman saw me taking pictures so  he asked me for money, I didn't have any on me so I deleted the picture that I took of that fisherman and showed him so he would leave me alone. It was pretty funny. 

This is the name of the little town that we ended our boat cruise. 

Of coarse we had to walk through shops that were catered to tourists but it was fun. I love looking at everything. I got some sun glasses, and a scroll with a beautiful paining on it, and my mom got a bunch of Chinese lanterns. It was fun. Then we went back to Guilin and went to dinner. After dinner we went to an acrobatics show. It was amazing! There were so many different acts that were just incredible. I wish I could have video tapped it but they wouldn't let you so I took some pictures afterwards of some of the performers. 

I'm so glad we went, it was so fun and truly amazing. After the show we went back to the hotel. I had to stay up late to video conference a class. The connection was horrible but I got the gist off things. After the class was over, I was talking to some of my friends and my Professor and I was laughing pretty hard at some of the things that were being said, and even though I was trying to be quiet, I woke up my parents. I felt bad about being noisy, so I got off and went to bed. 

Day 9

 Monday, April 6, 2009

Today was a jam packed day. We all woke up early and had a fabulous breakfast buffet with a man making omelets to your liking, to pastries, to Chinese rice noodles. It was great. Then we got ready to go out with Mark, our tour guide for the day. We were a little late getting down there because everyone was trying to get on the internet or do other things before we left but we got down to the lobby and took off.

 First we went to Reed Flute Cave which is about 5 kilometers northwest of downtown Guilin. The cave got it’s name from the verdant reeds growing inside which people use to make flutes. The cave is 240 meters long and there are way cool rock formations all throughout. Of coarse as seems to be tradition here, they colored the formations with very colorful lights and because it was a cave and there is very little light except the colored lights on the rocks, taking pictures can prove to be difficult. I didn’t bring my tripod so my nice big camera was out, but my smaller one proved to work well because I am a genius and changed the settings for it to take these pictures.  

This is a picture of us all in the caves.

Pretty amazing huh?

The rocks were all sorts of different colors.

This was the best part. It kind looks like a little city. It was spectacular!

Inside one of the caves they had thousands of years old turtles. They were so old they could hardly move. They had one in the water and if you threw a coin on his back and it stayed on there, then it was supposed to bring you good luck. My coin hit the shell but didn't stay. They also had lots of baby turtles. If you could get a coin to stay on their back, they would give it to you for free. They were also for sale for 60 RMB which is like 10 dollars. I wanted one!

After the caves we went to a pearl factory. They showed us how they get the pearls and how to tell real pearls from fake ones. Then they had a fashion show with some of their really nice Jewelry. It was kind of neat. Then they had a place where you could shop (of coarse) and I bought a pearl necklace there. It's really pretty. 

Next we went to Elephant Trunk Hill, which is located on the western bank of the Li River, which is the main river that runs through Guilin. It got it's name because the shape of the hill looks like a huge elephant drinking from the river through it's trunk. The hole in the middle is called Shui Yue Cave, which means Water Moon Cave. The name was given because of the space between the trunk and the body of the "elephant" makes a round cave which resembles a full moon drifting on the water. You can also climb to the top where there is a pagoda and a beautiful view but we decided to skip that part because we were climbing another hill later. 

These boats take you over to the cave in the mountain.  

 I thought these elephants in the water were cool.

So of coarse Jason had to climb on them and we all had to take another family picture. 

Instead of hiking we walked through Lovers Park which is on the other side of the river from Elephant Trunk Hill. It was a pleasant park with stone carvings throughout. Of coarse we had to take some totally tourist pictures of our family.

There were little flowers all over in the grass in the park. 

 After Elephant Trunk Hill and Lovers Park, we went to lunch. It was a set lunch at a Hotel, which means that you don’t order, they just bring you food. It was traditional Chinese food and everything tasted very good.

After lunch we went to Fubo Hill which means Wave Subduing Hill. It's just 2 kilometers away from Elephant Trunk Hill, right in the middle of the city and on the Li River. It is almost 700 feet high and emerges a little over 200 feet above the water. Half of it is on land and half of it goes out into the river. The name comes from the fact that the water is blocked where the hill goes out into the water and so the people believe that is has the power to subdue waves. We climbed 325 steps to get to the top! We were a little worn out when we got there but coming down wasn't as bad. 

This is the a picture from the top of Fubo Hill

And another one

These are the steps we climbed.

After we climbed down Fubo Hill, we saw a zip line that went out over the Li River and we decided we would try it out. 

As you went out over the river, there was a big drum that they would hit all dramatically. Afterward my mom played it. She was pretty good, she used to play in high school and hasn't lost her touch. 

After all of that we went back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. We walked around looking for a local place to eat and we found a hot pots place. It was really fun and really good food. 

This is how the flat wear came. I have never seen this before but I guess hopefully it being shrinkwrapped means that it is sanitary. 

After dinner we walked around the night market. It was a pretty crazy shindig. They close one side of the street so people can set up their canopies to sell their stuff. It was really busy and fun to walk around and see all the stuff. We walked to the main square because there was a hotel that our tour guide told us about that was called the Waterfall hotel where every night they would have a waterfall. We didn't know what that meant but when we saw it, it was amazing. 

Here is a picture of the hotel with the water cascading down. 

This is a video of the show.

While we were waiting, Jason and I decided to take some pictures. We tried many, many times to be able to see both of our teeth in the funny pictures we were taking and we were, I'm sure, very entertaining to all the Chinese people around us. 

I know you are totally jealous!

After all of that we all went back to the hotel and crashed because we were way worn out. 

Day 8

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Today we got up early to finish packing and getting ready for our trip to mainland China. We took a taxi, all 5 of us which is a feat because the taxis are little 5 person cars so counting the driver there are six of us squished in, to the MTR which is the subway,

then we wandered around trying to find the train station. It was kind of like the blind leading the blind but we made it with time to spare.

We took the train to Guangzhou where we were met by a tour guide to take us to the airport. He told us a little about Guangzhou which is a huge city with 10 million people in it. We didn’t have time to look around the city because we had to catch a flight but on the way back we will have time to look around the city a bit. 

We got to the airport and tried to get exit row seats because they have more leg room but they were all taken. When we got on the airplane we were in the row in front of the exit row seats. Jacob noticed that no one was sitting in them so he and Jason moved and we all got our own rows.

When we got to Guilin there was another tour guide to meet us to take us to our hotel. His name is Mark and he was really nice and talked most of the way from the airport to the hotel telling us things about Guilin. Guilin is a small town and only has 560,000 people living here. There are 2 rivers, the Li river and the Peach Blossom river. He told us that there aren’t many polluting factors here because they got rid of all the industrial plants along the river. It was a closed city, which means foreigners were not allowed to visit, until the 1970’s.  

The hotel we are staying in is really nice. 

It is right on the bank of a beautiful lake and Jacob and Jason got a lake side view. Mom, dad, and I couldn’t get one because we needed a bigger room to fit the three of us. I tried to convince my mom that the girls should have a room and the boys should have a room so we could get the view but she didn’t go for that. 

This is the view from the boy's room at sunrise.

This is the view at night. They like to light everything in the city up with cool colors.

After we checked in we laid down for a bit and then decided to take a walk around the lake. It was absolutely beautiful. These are some pictures that I took.

These flowers are on all along the paths that go around the lake. They are beautiful.

This is a picture that we asked someone to take of us while we were walking around the lake. He kept repositioning himself but we're glad he did, look at how beautiful it turned out. 

Bridges like these are all over the lake. They are so cool.

It is so green here and absolutely BEAUTIFUL!

This is a stone boat on the lake. I'm not sure the significance of it, but it's cool looking. 

I loved this little fountain thing. It was very unusual looking and had water running out from the fountain on both sides with these glass plates above the water. 

I was trying to take an "artistic" picture of my parents. Jason couldn't resist. We'll see how long it takes him to realize that I have posted this, but hey, he did it and let me take a picture, so I will post it! Don't worry, I did get a good one of my parents.

But then of coarse, we had to take a similar picture of the kids. My dad did a pretty good job.

We then went to dinner at the hotel. We had real Chinese food and couldn’t finish it all and it was only 220 RMB which is like 31 dollars for 5 people! It was a super nice restaurant in a 4 star hotel too. I took some pictures of the food. They put decorative things on the plates of food as well.

This one is butterflies made out of carrots. Way cool.

This is a picture of, I'm a little ashamed to say, my spot at the table after we were done eating. They use tiny plates and it's hard to keep everything on the plates and off the table. 

After dinner we came back to our rooms and listened to conference until everyone was falling asleep and then we all went to bed.