It is really hard to believe but it is time to go.

It has been a really amazing art and cultural experience.

Painting in beautiful parks and gardens in China.

Being inspired by all sorts of light

beautiful colours

interesting architecture

fascinating villages

and exciting streets.

Relishing  new  experiences for all of the senses, like taste

 vision and smell.

Time to contemplate over a tea

meditate in a park.

Paddle on a lake.

Walk in a neighbourhood.

Hang out in a courtyard while savouring the light.

Be dazzled by all of the light, these along the shores of the Yangtze in Chongching.

Lights..

Lights..

lights

lights

And more beautiful lights.

Don't forget to keep in touch! Post a note to this blog or visit my website at www.WorldArtTours.net. 

Love and Peace,
Angie

Final night in China, in Shanghai  so here is one last night view of the financial district and famous pearl tower.  Other skyscrapers are lost in the mist.  What an amazing modern site.

A last view of  the historic bund, a warm evening walk in the drizzle and mist.

Kelsey and Kieran are wowed by the view.

Delighted with the view but sad to be saying good-bye to China and beautiful end to an amazing experience.  Now time to get home and to paint the many marvelous scenes!

Final walk down crowded Nanjing Road in Shanghai.

Our last amazing dinner in a vegetarian restaurant.

People's Square  Shanghai

A little rest

and a visit to the beautiful People's Museum in Shanghai.  Admission is free.

Inside.

Scary!

Kelsey in the rain.

The Bund walkway with the old foreign consession buildings in the light rain.  This definitely has the makings of a night painting.

Renowned Shanghai Circus.

What more can I say.  Spectacular!

The lighting is inspirational!

And they are sure good!

One day these will be painted!

Now these guys really are crazy!

Visit to my favourite watertown--well it used to be but now it is too crowded.  I have done many paintings of the village over the years, some right of this spot and the double bridge with the tiger on the wall behind the umbrellas.

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After a short surprise wait in the first class lounge we flew off to Shanghai.  Nice having connectionis like that.  It turns out that our dear friend Victor Shu, whom I met many years ago when I returned to China in 2000, is the head of CITS-Guilin and China's largest web presence, CHINA HIGHLIGHTS.com and this ensured that we had deluxe treatment during our journey. 

We met our tour co-ordinator Candy in the Guilin office and then had a very special dinner with Victor!  Thank you Victor and Candy.  You made our trip wonderful!  I would recommend that everyone book all of their Chinese travel with www.Chinahighlights.com and tell them that Angie sent you!  They arrange everything so well at a fantastic price!  They are flexible and helpful and made our journey through China a trip of a lifetime. 

We visited these waterfalls just a little bit towards Guilin from the Crown Cave Village.  You can see people in the background walking up the waterfalls with their reed shoes and they hang on to chains for extra support.  We came here because we were a few minutes late yesterday and missed the roller coaster ride down from the mouth at the top of the Crown Cave as we were late and had the whole cave to ourselves but the guys had gone home.  The kids were terribly disappointed as they had waited 11 years to do this ever since I first told them about the mountain that was like Disney land except it was real, only in China.  That would be at the Crown Caves. However, here we hiked up to the top of the mountain and took a rollercoaster down.  Unfortunately it was very very scary.  We were all in a row but not attached and told to hang on and not touch the individual break as our Chinese convey leader would do that.  Well, I guess he saw the kids and decided he would show them what for.  He never put on the brakes, the whole way down the mountain.  I was screaming all of the way down.  Our cars were lifting from the tracks and I figured we were going to crash and die!

Every so often our leader would look back and laugh with an evil snicker as we barrelled down.  I thought that Kelsey and Kieran would be teasing me at the bottom but as we jumped off, brave Kieran was repeating over and over, oh my goodness (well in words I can't use here) I thought the guy was going to kill us.  None of the corners were banked and the cars were jumping.  I looked behind and Rob wasn't there--no cars behind me.  Wow, Rob must have left the track! He is gone!  Anyways a few minutes later the next train arrived and Rob hopped off and said, boy was that ever tame.  His guy had used the brake.  I guess they put him on the old folks train!

It was with much anticipation that we left Yangshou to head over the mountains by van to the beautiful Crown Cave and Misty Village.  We arrived at our hotel, the Misty Village resort and the kids and Rob and our tour guide had races in the pool.  Hard to believe this place is set in the middle of the countryside.    We visited the crown cave and had the place pretty much to ourselves.  It was looking a bit run down, and under construction I guess it is being used far less now that they have opened the beautiful Silver Cave closer to Yangshou.  However, this enormous cave is still fantastic and probably gets mostly boat traffic earlier in the day.    It is the cave which has the train, the river with the boat ride in the dark with flashlights, and the waterfall.  It really is like a Disney theme park, except it is real.  Apparently their are almost 30 km of caves and 12 of them are open.  Amazingly we had the place to ourselves for our own private tour!

Train Ride.  Too dark to show the boat ride with the flashlights.

Waterfall.

More parts of the river.

Some fancy rock formations.

Beautiful abstract colours and designs here.

Nice walking along the paths in the village.

Walking along the irrigation canal to the Misty Village Resort.

After lunch by the dragon bridge on the rafting river outside of Yangshou, my village tour guide friend Melody took us to visit her old home village just a short drive down the Dragon River.

Lots of green painting inspiration.  You can check out my previous paintings of China at www.WorldArtTours.net/china.html

We visited some very old dwellings.  Mainly only old people and a few children here.  Most of the young people have moved to the city.

More boats, lagoons, and caves at Shangrila, which the locals seem to call Shangrilila.

Inside the cave in the boat.

Kind of classic isn't it?  Set up like a painting already!

My friend Melody who lives in Yangshou is a local tour guide.  I met her on my trip out in 2000 when she took me to a wonderful Chinese rice farmers home in Moon Cave Village.  Today Melody will be taking us to the Silver Caves.  These are said to be the most beautiful caves in China.  They were dazzlingly beautiful.  You go through endless tunnes and into amphitheatres and weave your way around the cave until you get around and up a very large cavern.  The coloured lights were very pretty on the rocks.  This cave has been open to the public for a very short while and so the rocks on some walls still really sparkle.

Girls were standing around the entrance in ethnic costumes.

Inside the caves.  Many shapes and formations on the staligmites and staligtites.

Great Lights.