Today was a long day. Up t 7:00 to grab the free breakfast in the Sheraton before catching our 8:30 tour up the Li River. After a 30 minute ride up to the dock with our tour guide for the day David, we unloaded and waited to board the bus. David is a younger Chinese fellow who had some of the worst plaque on his teeth I have ever seen. He was very friendly telling us his name is Happy David because his Chinese name means sunshine and the sun is always shining on his smiling face... or something that makes at little sense as that. Later in the day he would sing You Are My Sunshine to Justin and I when I asked him more about his Chinese name. An odd guy but overall pretty nice and since he was born and raised in Guilin, and had done this cruise countless times, he knew all the good spots to take pictures from and had plenty of background on all the sites on the water.
The cruise ship was not quite up to par with the VIP treatment we have been receiving. It was a 3 level ship, with the top level open air for taking pictures and viewing. We sat on the top for most of the ride, enjoying the breeze and getting sunburned. It was a 3.5 hour trip down the river to Yangshou. The river and scenery is pretty amazing. The limestone mountains, hills and spires remind me of places in Arizona and Utah, except everything here is green versus the desert. The river does get a bit crowded. When we undocked and headed off on the trip we were in a convoy of probably 30 other large ships. It sort of kills the mood a little bit but after a while you forget the other ships are there and just watch the scenery and the people that actually live on the river. Lots of fishermen would go by with either their bamboo raft boats or some diesel exhaust spewing longboat. People selling useless souvenirs would row up to the ship on their bamboo rafts and shout "hello hello" over and over to the people on the top of the boat, holding up the same junk stuff you pass at every stall. We did pass some of the corosant(?) birds who have a ring tied around their neck to keep them from swallowing fish. The fishermen use them as pets and have them do the fishing for them. I even got my picture with a crazy looking old man and 2 of his birds. Highlight of the trip for sure.
Overall the cruise was pretty nice. With the river and the river life being the big draw for this area it has been a little over commericalized, but it is still great scenery. At the end of the cruise we docked in Yangshou and had a little time to walk around. I was told this used to be a really small fishing village but at some point it blew up. It is now tourist trap hell with people hounding you as soon as you get off the boat. It does have some more outdoor activities like rock climbing and river rafting. But with all the stuff geared towards tourist it feels like one of those "extreme" backpacker towns. I was kind of glad we only had 40 minutes to walk around because I was ready to go after 10.
After the 1.5 hour drive back to town it was off to the travel agent to book tickets to Hong Kong. For anyone tracking us, we are flying back to Shanghai on 7/6, staying the night, then flying to Hong Kong on 7/7. A few days in Hong Kong and maybe a continuation of our DisneyLand experience before we leave China for Thailand.
