Day 4

Today we came to Guilin.  This was my favorite city.  It was small, unbearably hot and full of beautiful landscapes.  Most of Guilin has thousands of limestone mountains all across it.  Due to it raining so much here, the limestone mountains begin to change shape, many look like animals and almost all of the mountains are named.  The Chinese have a very good imagination.

The first thing on our list was the Reed Flute Cave.  With all the limestone rock here, there are thousands of  caves.  This particular cave has been pretty civilized.  There are special lights everywhere and a cement path and stuff like that.  But it makes for some really cool effects.

This is the Christmas tree.  You can't see him, but Santa was there too.

The city skyline

The red curtain of the stage

Lunch time!

Theres a stuffed duck smothered in delicious spices baked inside bread.  Best. meal. in. so. long. 

I don't know why these kinds of recipes haven't caught on.  

 After our oh so tasty meal, we walked around Seven Star Park.  There are seven mountains in the park, and when you see them from above they look like the big dipper.  

This is Mr. Camel.  Mrs and baby are a little behind in another part of the city.  There is a plaque here because President gave a speech here one time.  So random.

Typical and traditional river boat in China.  

This place we are in is a cave that has 1,000 Buddahs.  Some are new and some are old.  And this part is special because if you can fit your hand in between the rocks you are supposed to get a scholarship or something.  Like your hand fits, fate will shower you with money.  I dunno, the Chinese are a little crazy sometimes.  

Close to the 1000 Buddha cave there is Fubo Hill.  Fubo Hill is named after a famous general.  We climbed the hill and it was probably about 100+ degrees outside.  Ive never sweat so much since i played AYSO soccer in the middle of the day in late summer.  So thats probably why i dont look terribly happy, but you can get a good idea of the landscape.  

This is inside our hotel.  It was totally groovy and decked out in 70's funk.  Like nasty pink colors, fuzzy chairs and nasty curtains.  Oh man, we both cracked up when we opened our hotel room door.

The woman in the middle is Monica.  She put together our tour and really wanted to meet us.  She is very kind and was wonderful.  She gave us all postcards and on mine she wrote "I hope we can be best friends forever."  Right on.  The next time i'm in China i might just call her up.

We all went to a ballet/acrobatic show.  It was awesome.  More acrobat than ballet.  They did a good job, the costumes were a little tacky, but that's Asia for you.  They totally made up for it with the way the people can contort their bodies.  Wow.  There were also some really young kids in it.  I was surprised to see such young kids, maybe like 8 years old.  If you ever go to China, go to an acrobatic show.  You'll be happy you did.