October 9, 2005

October 9, 2005

This morning we drove to the local Li River and boarded a boat for a cruise down this scenic river. Our boat is one in a line of a dozen tours going downriver at the same time. The cruise is several hours long and goes thru stunning terrain. On both sides of this small river are a multitude of very steep green conical mountains jutting out of the flat landscape. This World Heritage view is the scenery of classical Chinese paintings and the backside of the 20 Yuan note. Every bend of the river is more picturesque than the one before. The geologist in me wonders how erosion could have made this strange Karst limestone topography. I take lots of photos but my camera doesn’t do the beauty justice so I buy a guidebook from a street vendor afterwards. The persistent pollution haze across China kills the beauty.

The Li River is fairly shallow and we see quite a few water buffalo with their heads under the water grazing on river grass. Several long, skinny bamboo rafts chase our cruise boat and try to sell us trinkets. During the voyage we eat lunch in a private dining room on the deck. Along with us on the boat are a bunch of older American tourists on a day trip from their Ocean cruise liner.

The boat disembarks at the small town of Yangshuo where we do a little shopping. On the drive back to Guilin we stop and see a rice paddy close-up. Back in the city of Guilin we walk up one of the many steep hills that jut out of the cityscape. We climb the 450-foot Peak of Solitary Beauty. It has stairs carved into the almost sheer sides. On top we get a good vista of the city.

After dinner we sign up for a short cruise to watch cormorant fishing. Cormorants are black goose-like birds that dive into the river to catch fish. Locals use the birds to gather fish. They tie the necks of the bird so it can’t swallow the fish. After catching a fish, the fishermen haul the bird back on the boat and retrieve the fish from the cormorant’s mouth. It is fascinating. We watch a live demonstration. I get suspicious though as the successful birds always swim to the front of the boat. I tell Aimee I think a guy is sitting up front releasing fish into the water.

After our cruise, we go to a local theatre to watch a song and dance show celebrating the many ethnic groups within China. Although Han Chinese make up more than 90% of the population, there are 55 minority ethnic groups.