We were met at the airport by Jessica, our local guide. Our stop for the day was the Yao Mountain. We rode the chairlift up, and had our first view of the karst limestone hills for which Guilin is famous, although it was a little hazy, so we did not have the best views. On the way back down, Jessica got off near the bottom and took the sled route down, the third photo is her flying by us.
In discussing dinner, Jessica identified a good restaurant near our hotel, but she was concerned about the food ordering since no one spoke English. So we stopped on the way into town and she helped us decide what to have and to write it out on the ordering menu that they use. We then walked back later and just handed them the paper and ate away, with chopsticks of course.
The next morning after breakfast at our hotel we drove a short distance to catch our four hour boat trip down the Li river. There was an armada of boats making the trip. The country side is just amazing with these Karst Limestone hills. The boats cruise along and then near the end of the trip a tasty buffet lunch is served. It was prepared in the kitchen at the back of the boat, last picture in this series.
At one spot you are in a location that is on the 20 Yuan bill. So we of course had our picture taken at that spot.
We saw a boat with two comorant birds. They tie the birds to the boat with a line and the birds fish for the boaters.
The next morning we went into Guilin on our own and visited a local park with this mountain, called Solitary Beauty Peak. We walked up to the top, if you enlarge the first photo you can just make out the route up the mountain.
Emma then picked us up and took us on a boat tour of the city, which has a series of four lakes and the Li river. It was very scenic.
Emma then took us to the airport for our flight to Hong Kong. We stayed overnight in Hong Kong at a hotel connected to the airport and then caught our 15 hour flight to New York. We left Hong Kong at 9:25am and arrived in New York 15 hours later at ten minutes after noon on the same day. We picked up the car and had a good quick drive home.
We hope you enjoy our blog as much as we enjoyed the trip.
